Do you know WHO you are talking to in your marketing?
If you want to fill your coaching business with clients not just ready to sign up but the ones who can get exceptional results that you can then brag about (and get so many more clients- just as a side effect, of course) – here are the two areas you must focus on.
Today I am focusing on the first one:
DECIDE ON THE WHO
This is the part where most coaches who fail to attract clients with their posts make consistently. They don’t focus on WHO precisely they are speaking to. And yes, I know, it can be a VERY overwhelming decision to make when you haven’t yet worked with enough clients to really see it. It can feel scary to cut the whole bunch of potential clients off.
Or so you may think.
In fact, the truth is that when we do not speak to a particular person in our content, we tend to talk in such generic terms and what is worse, sometimes make really crucial mistakes in the way we describe their frustrations and struggles that not only they won’t relate to you as a trusted expert, they will actually feel that you are a bit of an amateur… now that is a scary truth, but I personally see this happening all the time.
Great coaches who are not sure who they are talking to using the language and examples that are pretty off-putting, not because they do not describe me, but because they try and describe me but getting it wrong.
OUCH.
How to avoid this?
Don’t make your targeting decisions based on pure logic or who you want to attract ONLY because they may be in a better position to afford you. This is thinking from the lack mentality.
Focus on the segment that you personally understand the most. You know their lifestyle. You know what they feel and what they think about when they lie awake at night worrying or being frustrated with themselves.
When you understand them, it is so easy to write your content for them… You almost cannot go wrong! (I mean, you can only get better).
Inside my Content To Leads 1:1 intensive, I work to help you come up with a multitude of specific scenarios/thoughts/statements that are unique to your ideal client, but you have to come to me with at least some sort of decision and understanding in the WHO part.
Without the WHO, there will be no client attraction results. By making everything you say or write about a specific kind of person, at a specific stage in their life or business, with specific prior experiences, knowledge, expertise, you can create content that simply jumps off the page when the RIGHT person in your audience is reading it.
Speaking about the audience… The defined WHO will help you determine where to look for them, what FB groups they are likely to join, what visual attributes their profile may have, what are they likely to comment on and what words and attitudes are a complete red flag for you.
Basically, things that you can SEE on Facebook – indicating that these people could potentially be candidates for a friend request.
The more people fitting the criteria you add- the higher number of RIGHT people are likely to be in your audience.
But again, to get those RIGHT people emotionally involved with your content, you must use the right (for them) words and examples.
See how it is all connected?
And there is NO other way if you want to attract clients on social media.
Know your WHO, and you will know what to say to them to trigger the positive response in the following sequence:
-feeling the connection with you
-checking out more content from you
–following you closely for an amount of time (differs individually)
-considering how your offer can help them
-ready and intending to hire you.
(Notice that I did not say “engage with you” because engagement has no correlation to client attraction).
Now, rate your knowledge of that WHO you are speaking to in your marketing? Be honest with yourself, EVEN if it is scary. One would be – “I am really vague”, and five- “I am super clear in every little detail”.
How to discover who you should target effectively
Let me give you some practical suggestions on how to approach narrowing down your targeting.
If you rated yourself on 1-2, ask yourself if you are afraid that you may cut off some potential earnings if you focus on one group only? Just because you worked with a bunch of people who were from different backgrounds does not mean that your offer is suited for all sorts of people. I bet not every one of them was an ideal client who god superb results?
Have a think why not? What were they missing? Where did you have communication issues? Where were the dark areas or gaps that felt difficult to overcome but necessary in order for them to TRULY get that transformation? Maybe they were too early in their journey to address the things you help shift? Maybe they are not clear enough on what their problem really is? Maybe you took them as clients because you were just really eager to get some paying clients already? (That last one is a dangerous one!)
Now only focus on those who achieved the most results. What advantages did they have?
My best case study was with a lady who never used Facebook for marketing, and she was a technophobe who worked with pen and paper all her life, but what she did not lack is the ability to reach out to people and ASK them. For whatever she needed, even if that was offering her services.
I myself may not follow the exact same assertive outreach strategy, but it worked for her under my mentorship, and within a couple of months, she has built a huge FB group that filled her coaching practice with 1:1 sessions to the brim, moved most of her (previously strictly local) operations online and allowed her to scale into group sessions and offers that did really well.
Plus, in another couple of months, we launched a small event at just $65 that turned into a 5 figure launch. Not bad for someone who is afraid of technology or being visible on Facebook, right?
The point I am making here is about the beauty of knowing the personality trait or the right mindset required to successfully implement my coaching, which in this case was going for whatever needed to be done without holding back IN SPITE of personal fear.
I just had another client in my group program, recently certified in an established coaching program. From the word “go”, she implemented everything I taught inside the program and participated in every system I have for creating consistency and keeping my members accountable, and from someone who started her visibility from pretty much nothing, she had been noticed by the head office of the program creators and offered great opportunities to lead clients as a representative of the main coaching team – this is a start of some serious elevation of her status and authority within the program’s circle.
In fact, in 2018, I worked with another coach from the same community who has never used Facebook for marketing AT ALL, and with my mentorship, she started the journey that got her noticed, AND now she is mentoring other coaches in the program.
What connects these three cases is one massive desire to succeed and the ability to get stuck in and try whatever requires consistently, patiently and diligently. And the results follow.
When I write, I write for a person who may not be THAT experienced in marketing but ready to master whatever it takes to get results. A person who TRUSTS their journey and allows the time for everything to align as they are taking an inspired action EVERY DAY…
My topics respond to their needs, enquiries, occasional frustrations (because this is part of being an entrepreneur, no matter how well things are going), questions, experiences – everything they encounter on the way THERE.
The right people in my audience (which is highly targeted, obviously) respond to my content. I generate at least 3-5 enquiries every week. Not all leads are perfect for my offer, so I do say NO to more people than I say YES to, I will be honest, but I have also been a bit distracted with my new puppy, so I only have the capacity for a smaller amount of people right now.
This is why the WHO is so vital in client attraction.
If you found this valuable, or if you just had an a-ha moment, what was it? Click here to enter the discussion on Facebook and send me a friend request with a message just mentioning that you read this article.
Juliette Stapleton
Splenic Projector 1/3
YOUR VISIBILITY GUIDE
Juliette Stapleton is a Visibility Strategist for coaches and experts. She teaches how to attract clients online, creating your OWN marketing experience that feels good, easy and aligned with who you are and brings results.
Juliette has been featured in Forbes and several major business and marketing podcasts, like SocialChatter, 365Driven, Rising Tide, iHeart Radio, and Confident Live. She is an active contributor to world-leading online publications, such as Entrepreneur.com Influencive, Addicted2Success, Thrive Global, Good Men Project and many more.
She lives in Tallinn, Estonia.
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