In today’s world, more and more people are moving away from traditional education systems and seeking more experience-oriented knowledge.
If you have practical and expert-level knowledge in a field, starting an online coaching business is a great idea.
If you’re someone that wants to be the best at what you do, then what better way to do this than create your own following of people that want to learn from you.
Coaching business also a low-cost business idea where you don’t have to put in much investment upfront.
Coaching is not only about the right things to say and do but also about the system behind your business. Let’s look at what you need to do to start a successful coaching business online along with real examples.
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What is the scope of online coaching business?
The demand for online coaches will increase in the coming years, according to numerous reports. People who build a community online and have built solid trust will be more in-demand.
There are many benefits of starting a coaching business online:
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Efficiently deliver sessions remotely and manage students with minimal effort
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Expanding online will be easier to fill up your schedule and have a regular income.
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Online coaching is more scalable than offline
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You get clients from around the world
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Coaching is a great way to generate passive income and have multiple streams of income.
List of niches you can choose from:
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Fitness and health
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Diet
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Parenting
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Pre-natal coaching
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Wellness
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Relationship
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Beauty
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Motivation
How to start an online coaching business: a step-by-step guide
Decide niche and research target audience
The first step is to decide what your coaching program is all about. Decide on a niche and get to know your audience to get clarity on what you offer.
Start by understanding what you specialize in and what others would be interested in learning from you. This can either be based on your profession, personal life, or both. For example, if you want to be a fitness coach, you’ll need to be professionally qualified to offer that service. On the other hand, if you want to offer parenting advice as a service, personal experience would be enough.
Once you decide on your niche, improve your coaching skills and make yourself more worth others attention. You can do this by gathering experience and/or getting certified.
As a coach, it’s important you have the experience before getting into business. Your customers would want to know the practical results of what your coaching offers. For example, if you’re a business owner an have run successful businesses in the past, aspiring entrepreneurs would be more likely to attend your coaching sessions.
Plan your coaching program
You’ll need to create a framework for your coaching program. This has to be an outline of what you teach. Here’s what you offer in your coaching business plan:
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What kind of sessions you offer: group coaching and one-on-one exclusive coaching
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Number of sessions
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Duration of each coachings session
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Rates per hour/session
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Topics/points you will cover
Instead of doing one session with all your knowledge, it’s best to split it into different sessions.
Pro tip: Start a trial coaching session for a limited number of attendees with a discounted rate. Collect testimonials and feedback from them. Use it to build trust online and get more customers for your next coaching session
Set up your coaching service
Once you have a business plan in place, it’s time to bring your online coaching business to life.
Create a landing page to sell your coaching services
To showcase your coaching services, collect payment, and attract customers, you’ll need a landing page. A landing page is basically a one-page website. This will make you look more professional. Here’s an example of a landing page from a fitness coach conducting pre-natal fitness programs:
Notice how they put up details of the coaching service with the help of both text and visuals. There’s also a section for FAQs and testimonials from past clients.
Instamojo Smart Page helps you create a customized landing page within minutes. Get started for free and launch your coaching business online.
Establish a social media presence
To promote your coaching business online, you’ll need to establish a social media presence. This doesn’t mean acquiring thousands of followers. All that matters is you post relevant content and engage whatever followers you have.
You don’t have to be active on all the social media platforms available. Firstly, know where your target audience is handing out the most. Then, learn about that particular platform and start creating content. Your aim should be to build a community of followers who are interested in what you offer.
Here’s a great example of an online coach using social media to grow. Nielouphar is a marketing coach who is also a business owner. She coaches small business owners on how to build a successful business online. On her Instagram account, she posts relevant content about business and motivation derived from her experiences.
Social media is also a great way to understand your audience’s pain points, You can use this to modify and polish your coaching programs and get more people interested.
Communication channels
Once you start getting customers for your coaching program, you’ll need a different platform other than social media to communicate with exclusive members, Remember, coaching is all about communication. Your program members should feel connected. And for that you need to constantly keep in touch with them.
Platforms like Slack and Discord can help communicate with your exclusive members. You can also make use of free platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.
Market your coaching business online
As mentioned before, social media is the best way to get started. Here are some other ideas to market your coaching business online:
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Email marketing: Creating an email list using social media. Send them valuable content via email consistently. There are high chances that a majority of your email list will convert.
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YouTube: Post long-form videos around your niche. You can repurpose clips of your session recordings into youtube videos.
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Write online: Write articles and publish them online on your own blog or platforms like Medium. You can also hire a ghostwriter to do the same.
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Paid ads: Run targeted ads to your landing page.
Here’s an email newsletter promoting a 4-day boot camp:
Tools for online coaches
Here are a list of tools you can use for different aspects of your coaching business and make the most of your time:
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Landing page builder: Instamojo Smart Page
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Taking appointments: Calendly
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Creating a sales funnel: Kajabi
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Email marketing tools: Convertkit, MailChimp
Start and grow your coaching business
A coaching business may seem easy to start but there are a lot of things to do before you can make it successful.
Having a dedicated page to showcase your coaching business and build trust will go a long way. Your landing page can be the centre of all your efforts. Direct your social media followers to the page, run and track ads, plug it into your newsletter.. The scopes are endless.
With Instamojo, you can create an attractive landing page within minutes. It’s the easiest way to showcase your portfolio and collect payments.
