How to Get Clients In 30 Minutes A Day

If you want to get coaching clients consistently, you must be consistent with your marketing efforts.

You don't need to search for the newest or most effective tactics out there and you don't need to spend hours and hours each day. As long as you're consistently doing things that have been proven to work, you'll eventually make a great living as a coach.

The key is to avoid distraction, stay organized, and actually make forward progress.

So, what works when it comes to getting clients? And how can you create a list of daily goals that can be checked off in just 30 minutes?

That's exactly what we're going to cover in this article. Let's dive in.

The 3 Pillars Of A Successful Coaching Businesses

There are lots of different tactics you can use to get clients, but they all fall into one of three main areas (I call this my 3C Marketing System):

1. Captivate. These are the things you do to attract and hold the attention of your ideal clients. For example: speaking at networking events or answering questions in Facebook groups made up of your ideal clients can help you capture their attention.

2. Convert. Once you have someone's attention, how are you going to turn that potential client into a paying one? While we like to think that someone will learn about what we do and immediately want to pay us, this is rarely the case.

3. Coach. You may think the marketing is over once you get a new client. On the contrary, you need to make sure that the client is successful and then you need to turn that success into more clients by obtaining case studies and referrals.

It's important to balance your efforts across all three areas. For example, if you're great at captivating and coaching but don't have a strategy for conversion, you'll end up a "broke celebrity." Lots of fans and not enough clients.

What about if you're consistently converting and coaching clients, but you aren't able to capture and hold the attention of enough people? This is how you end up the "best kept secret" in your industry. Could be worse, but your impact is limited.

And if you're able to captivate and convert effectively but fall short when it comes to the coaching experience? Worst case, you'll develop the reputation of "scam artist." Best case, your marketing will never get easier because every client that comes in will go right back out.

How To Create Your Daily Marketing Checklist

Let's all accept right off the bat that there's no magic formula for building a coaching business.

There are principles to follow and proven tactics to choose from.

Pick the tactics you like and can stick with. Consistency is the key to marketing and it's easier to stay consistent when you keep things simple.

Now that you've learned my 3C Marketing System, it's time to choose some tactics that you can be consistent with.

Since there are basically unlimited tactics for getting clients, I've narrowed it down to ones that work best for the majority of coaches. I've also included a long-term asset for each category. Assets are not daily habits but pieces of marketing collateral that you can create once and keep using forever.

Tactics for Captivating

The first thing I want you to do is get super clear on who you want to coach and what problems they're facing right now. If you're not willing to do this, you're not going to be able to market yourself. You can try to just coach everyone you meet for free but that gets old real quick.

Instead, I want you to choose one type of person and one painful problem they have.

If you haven't worked with many people yet and don't know who your ideal client is, just use a former version of yourself and base your marketing on that. The key is figuring out where these people are hanging out, so you can go find them in person or online.

Then create things that solve your ideal client's problem in small ways for free. This could mean blogging, podcasting, video, webinars, in-person workshops, or networking groups live or on Facebook. Don't just create content that interests you. Create things that move your potential clients closer to their goals.

You may be thinking to yourself, "I don't want to create content, I just want to coach." And you wouldn't be alone. Most coaches want to get something for nothing. They aren't willing to create value for potential clients in advance, so no one ever sees them as an expert who can solve their problems.

Do yourself a favor and choose one type of content to start putting out weekly. Write, podcast, or make videos - it doesn't matter what you choose just play to your strengths. Once you get good at producing one type of content you can add in another format if you want to.

Most people suck at writing, they hate it, and they should just stick to video. The nice thing about video is that you can get it transcribed or your can just summarize the main points with bullets. That way it won't take you three weeks to create one article.

These pieces of content need to be really good. If you can't produce something really valuable every week then switch to every other week. If you can't do that, switch to once a month.

Once you've created a solid piece of content, you're going to share it on one social network to start. I recommend using your personal Facebook profile, but go wherever your people are. If you don't promote your content it's just going to sit there and not do anything for you.

Next we're going to focus on building your email list. We're going to do this by offering a short PDF, 2 pages max, that will give your potential clients a quick win in exchange for their email address.

This is going to be a list of some sort - checklist, list of tools, list of tactics. My free offer is called "21 Ways To Find Potential Clients.” You need to give people the opportunity to opt in for this free offer at the end of every piece of content as well as in the main navigation and homepage of your site.

Later you can run ads to your content or directly to your free download. But don't worry about that right now if you're just getting started. Right now just focus on creating great content, sharing it with your social network, and letting your list grow organically.

So here are the tactics for Captivate:

Networking in-person or online. Search for groups serving your niche on  Meetup.com, Eventbrite and Facebook. Then find a way to add value and answer questions, whether as an official speaker or a normal participant. Also consider creating your own Facebook group or Meetup so that you can be the leader.

Building your audience through epic content. Choose a medium that you enjoy (Facebook Live, YouTube, Blogging, Podcasting) and put out an epic piece of content once a week - or put out smaller pieces of content daily on social media. If your audience is still small, focus on leveraging other people's platforms through guest posting and podcasting.

[Long-term asset] Creating your irresistible freebie. In order to make the most of the attention that you're getting through your content and connections, make sure you have a free PDF or other "lead magnet" that you can give away in exchange for people's email addresses. This allows you to build credibility and continue following up. The best freebies are usually short cheat sheets or checklists that give your potential clients a quick win (here's one of my freebies as an example).

Tactics for Converting

Okay, so now you've got this person on your list. Why is that important? Because now you have the opportunity to build a relationship with them.

This is equivalent to asking for someone's phone number when you make a good connection so that you can ask them out on a date later. If someone sees one great piece of content from you but doesn't reach out for coaching, you don't want to lose them.

So now that you have their email, what do you do?

Since you're going to be producing content every week, the first place I want you to share it is with your email list. You're going to send this email out on the same day each week. It doesn't really matter which day, just do what works best for your schedule.

Then, once a month, I want you to mix in an email that invites them directly to a strategy session with you. You can either have them fill out an application or have them schedule a call with you using an app like Calendly. What you choose depends on how much you want to qualify those leads, which is based on how much available time you have in your business. If you need clients just send them to your calendar.

Later you can actually put these emails into an automatic sequence for new subscribers, but you don't have to worry about that right now. Just focus on emailing your list and helping them understand the value of an outside perspective.

Okay, so what do you do once you get these potential clients on the phone?

This call is equivalent to a date. They're trying out for you, you're trying out for them. The goal is to stay cool and see if there's potential for a long-term, committed coaching relationship.

There's actually a very specific framework you can use for these conversations, but for the purposes of simplicity I want you to focus on asking them questions about what their situation is now, where they want to be, and what challenges they're facing.

Then I want you to explain how working with you would help address those specific challenges. Position your coaching as the fastest way for them to get results.

Then propose one coaching package that would be the best fit for them, with an option to pay upfront and an option to pay monthly. Not seven different packages. One package, two payment options.

If they're in, take their payment and schedule your first session. If they say no, thank them and ask if they know anyone else who might be interested. If they say maybe, then talk through their concerns and give them confidence that they can get results with your help.

Here are your specific marketing tactics for Convert:

Offering strategy sessions. This is hands down the fastest and easiest way to convert potential clients into paid ones. If you know someone who would benefit from what you offer, invite them directly into a Strategy Session with you. You can also create an offer that you send out to your social media network or email list as a whole (here's an example of one such offer).

Running webinars and live workshops. At some point in your coaching journey you may decide to create webinars or live workshops in order to get clients. This can be incredibly effective, but they do take a lot of work to develop and promote. Start by offering strategy session to your warm network first. When you're ready, here's an example of one of my webinars.

[Long-term asset] Creating your application page. When you're just getting started, you won't have as much demand for these Strategy Sessions. But overtime, you'll start to get clearer on who you can best help and you'll want to screen people. Not only does this help you weed out the wrong people, it also shows the right people that you are picky and gives them an opportunity to go deeper with you (here's my application page as an example).

Tactics for Coaching

Most people think that the marketing ends once they get a client.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you over-deliver on the coaching experience, you'll get repeat business and referrals. And then your business will start to grow organically.

Hopefully you're a good coach. If you're not, do whatever it takes to get better.

When it comes to measuring the effectiveness of your coaching, there's only one thing that really matters: results.

If your client takes action and achieves the results that they want, they will become your most valuable form of marketing.

But only if you capture their results in a compelling way.

You can't just cross your fingers and hope that people will talk about you to all their friends. You have to proactively create case studies that you can share later in your marketing.

Don't ask for testimonials either. Instead, ask for feedback. Send them a form with a bunch of questions about their experience. Then copy and paste the responses together into one compelling case study. You can also do this using video.

Once you capture these case studies, the cycle starts all over again.

Share your case studies with your email list and include it in your content.

Use your individual coaching sessions to get ideas for new pieces content to create.

Look at what all your best success stories have in common and use that to narrow in on who you can best serve. And watch as your business and your impact grows.

Here are your tactics for Coach:

Generating testimonials and referrals. Obviously the best way to do this is to focus on providing as much value as possible to each client. The best type of testimonial is the one you get right when your client has achieved a big milestone. For example, if they text you with a win you can ask their permission to share it on social media. This is also a great time to ask for referrals. Simply ask if they know anyone else who you could help.

Reach out personally to current and past clients. Check in on their progress, send them a resource, and see if there's anything you can do to help. This type of personal touch not only provides a better client experience, it also can lead to new business.

[Long-term asset] Creating your signature system. Once you've worked with a few clients, you'll start to notice common themes. Certain people will be coming to you wanting to accomplish certain things, and you may find that there is a set of steps that they all go through. If you can start to document your approach, it will make it easier to sell your service and also to create group programs and courses.

Now It's Your Turn

We've covered the 3C Marketing System and I've given you a couple of tactics and a long-term asset for each.

If you're not creating, converting, or coaching, you're creatively avoiding. The things you're spending time on aren't moving you closer to getting clients. Stay focused on the 20% of activities that give you 80% of your clients. Keep experimenting and doubling down on what works for you.

To recap:

• Create valuable content that solves problems for the specific type of person you want to work with and offer a free gift to get them onto your email list

• Convert these people into clients by inviting them to a free strategy session with you and seeing whether they are a fit for your coaching services

• Coach them towards the results that they want, create case studies from your biggest success stories, and use them to create even more valuable content

What I suggest you do now is focus on accomplishing one thing in each area of your marketing every day.

Alternatively, you can batch your days and focus on doing multiple things in one area on different days of the week.

Whatever you decide, make sure that you're setting the bar low in terms of how much marketing you hope to accomplish each day. 30 minutes of focused work is a great place to start. That way you can stay consistent over the long term.

To make this easy for you, I've put together a one page PDF that has everything we talked about today in checklist form.

The beauty of this checklist is that you'll know how much is "enough." It's easy to feel constantly behind or lazy even if you're actually doing well with your marketing. Checking off the boxes everyday gives you a sense of momentum and structure.

Click the button below and enter your email to download the checklist: