How To Create, Offer and Market a Group Coaching Program: Everything You Need To Know Guide

In this guide, we will explore the steps you can take on How to Build A Group Coaching Program that Establishes Your Expertise and Creates Results for Your Clients and talk about related topics to help you create the most impact and help you grow your coaching business. I’ve been working 1:1 with coaches, consultants and authors since 2008 and I know they can make a difference. So supporting heart centred coaches and experts is something close to heart.

Whether you’re just getting started as a coach or you’ve been coaching one-on-one for years, group coaching is a great way to expand your reach and help more people while you raise awareness about your business and earn more. It may require learning some new skills, and you’ll build on those as you get more experience.

Group coaching offers economic benefits for both you and your members. The price is lower than individual coaching for your members, but the earnings are higher for you. If you’re coaching an individual for $90 per hour, you can instead get three people to pay $50 an hour (or £ which is much juicier).

They’re each paying less and your hour is now worth $150 instead of $90. But better still and imagine this… Say for example a 6 week group coaching program at $1500 (x10 people) = $15,000.  or what about 20 people at  $300 = $6000 say over a 4 week program or even one weekend.

The opportunities are endless based on your skills and the service you provide.

Group coaching offers a whole different experience. Each member can interact with peers and support each other. There will be more ideas generated and shared. By listening to each other’s experiences, the growth is multiplied. 

At the same time, we’re not talking about a huge class of 50 or 100 people. Groups can be small and easy to manage for you. The smaller size will also ensure that each member gets a personalized experience and plenty of participation.

Each person who joins your group can experience your expertise and unique value firsthand and they’ll tell others about you.

Group coaching is a powerful and highly effective way to help people overcome the challenges they face. You can use it to grow your audience, earn money, or simply help others with your unique expertise. 

It takes a bit of work and planning to set up your first group coaching course, but once it’s up and running, it’s relatively easy to do. In this blog post, you’ll learn the basic steps you need to take to get your first course ready.

Finally, group coaching is fun. It creates a sense of camaraderie that your members won’t soon forget. 

What is Group Coaching?

Group Coaching is a type of coaching that encourages action and dialogue between peers. It can be known as Peer Group Coaching. Group coaching is a great way to help people learn from each other. Group coaching is about creating a safe space for people to share and grow. You — the guide — are there to oversee and mediate. Group Coaching is a space where members are encouraged to share their knowledge and learn from each other. Members are encouraged to break down the barriers between them so that they can build relationships and become more productive members of the team.

Coaching helps people make changes in their personal and professional lives. As a coach, you aren’t a teacher instructing clients and then testing them after each session. You’re a facilitator who puts clients in the driver’s seat, providing support and resources to help them get results. 

Group coaching means coaching 2 or more people at one time. It is similar to 1-on-1 coaching, with some key differences. In a group setting, clients not only receive support from the coach, they also benefit from the support of their peers. They are also accountable to each other, not just their coach. This raises the stakes and can help bring about powerful change. 

When you work with a 1-on-1 client, you focus on helping them reach one goal at a time. The clients in a group may have different goals they’re working toward. Although they have different goals, the course is focused around a shared common interest or theme.

Your clients may not know each other, so group coaching requires a bit more planning and management. Part of your role is to make sure the course is meeting each participants’ diverse needs.

Most importantly, the key to group coaching success is connection and communication, not just your coaching. This is one of the main reasons people choose this option rather than 1-on-1.

Why Is Group Coaching So Popular?

Have you ever considered group coaching? Whether you’re a coach working with individuals or someone who wants to get into coaching, a group setting offers unique benefits for you and your group members.

The main benefit of group coaching for you is that you can scale up and earn more for your time. Coaching is trading your time for money and there’s an upper limit to how much you can earn 1-on-1. With groups, you can break through the earning ceiling.

For your clients, there are major benefits as well. They can leverage other participants and learn from each other. Each client can benefit from the collective wisdom of the group. They can hold each other accountable.

Group coaching offers an excellent networking opportunity for all involved. Your clients get to know each other and you get to know everyone. It also helps to solidify your reputation as an expert in your field.

Finally, group coaching gives you the opportunity to help more people achieve their full potential, which is the aim of every coach.

Help More People with Your Expertise

You have knowledge and skills that can help people solve their problems. Group coaching gives you the opportunity to share this with more people. You can make a greater impact in a group than one-on-one.

Group coaching also has indirect benefits, such as building a deeper relationship with your group members, spreading awareness of the unique value you offer, and even earning more money. But for the satisfaction alone of seeing the people you’ve worked with succeed at their endeavors, it’s well worth the effort. 

What are the benefits of group coaching program?

Group Coaching is a Shared Experience.

Working with groups is a whole different experience than working with individuals. For your members, you create a safe learning environment where they can benefit from their interaction with others. The benefits here are:

• Working together creates a sense of camaraderie
• The collective wisdom of the group exerts a powerful force for learning
• Members are exposed to ideas other than their own
• Members must be accountable to each other, not just to you and themselves
• They can form valuable business connections and long-lasting friendships.

In addition, a group environment takes the pressure off each individual member. Some people don’t want to be the sole focus and instead thrive better when they have others to work with. 

A Group Coaching program Is a Financial Win-Win

Group coaching offers a lower-cost option for your members compared to one-on-one coaching. At the same time, it means more earnings for you because it’s a better use of your time.

With a group coaching program, you get more earnings per hour. This is not only more lucrative, but also frees up your time to do other things. Some coaches shift their focus to working with groups in order to create more time in their schedule while still helping as many people as possible. 

Open New Coaching Opportunities

Another reason to consider group coaching is that you can use it to gain new one-on-one coaching clients if this works for you and your business. Your program offers a way for new people to become acquainted with you and experience the unique value you have to offer.

At the end of the group program, you can propose the opportunity to work with you individually and take what they’ve learned even further. This way, they’ll get your undivided attention and focus.

Group coaching presents unique challenges that you won’t find working with clients one-on-one, but with the right skills, planning, and preparation, you can create a program that offers incredible value to your members. 

If you want to know about more ways to create a high-value group coaching program, head over to the 5-day create your own group coaching program challenge below

How to Become a Successful Group Program Coach

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Successful Group Coach?

Are you interested in starting a group coaching program? The first step is to clarify your goals. What results would you like to see in your business? But before you take that first step, you should make sure it’s the right choice for you. Group coaching involves a whole set of skills that are essential for success. Here are some of the skills you need to develop to become a great group coach.

Classroom Management

Group sessions need to have plenty of interaction and activities that put members in the driver’s seat. You have to make sure the quiet ones have a chance to talk and that no one dominates the conversation. Activities must be planned well so that they’re useful and help members get results. 

Time Management

You’ll have to learn how to manage time well. This starts with planning sessions to the minute but also maintaining some flexibility. If an activity is going long but is valuable for members, you may go off-script. On the other hand, you may find yourself finishing a session with time to spare. A good coach prepares an activity or discussion as a backup for when this happens. 

Ask the Right Questions

Good group coaching sessions are highly engaging. Every member is 100% involved. An important skill for the coach is the ability to ask questions that lead to discussion and action.

The best questions for this situation are open-ended questions, not yes/no or multiple choice questions. For the latter, a member can answer quickly by selecting one of the choices you gave them. You have to be able to draw out someone’s answer and get others to join.

Good Listening Skills

A coach isn’t a traditional teacher who lectures their students. Since the environment is interactive, you need to listen well and pay close attention. You’ll need to understand where each member is currently at so you can help them get to the next stage. Whenever a member talks, they’re giving you valuable feedback, not just about your course but about themselves. Understanding this is the key to facilitating good group work. 

Listening attentively also holds true for your interactions outside the live sessions when you’re using a discussion board or a Facebook group.

Focus on Goals

An important skill is to plan and run your whole program with a constant focus on outcomes. What do you want people to be able to do when they leave? Everything needs to be laser-focused on this goal so that it produces the most value for your members. 

Giving Good Feedback

Giving feedback isn’t always easy to do. You need to let each person know how they’re doing, but it needs to be feedback they can use. 

It’s not enough to simply praise. They need to know how to improve. Do this through constructive feedback so it doesn’t come across as negative. There’s a skillful way to provide feedback where you focus on the positive, telling people they’re on the right track, but just need to make a few changes to get where they want to go. 

Up for the 5-day challenge? How to set up a group coaching program – scroll down to the bottom of the page for more information.

How to start a Group Coaching Program?

Here are 5 key steps to planning a great group coaching program

Step 1 Establish Your Why

The first step is to establish your “why.” Define the purpose of your coaching and how it fits into your overall business plan. It needs to have a clear purpose in order to get results. Once you define your purpose, every decision that follows will be easier to make.

You’ll be able to figure out how to best structure your sessions, produce appropriate content, and make improvements.

Some examples of goals are:

• Increase your income directly. You may want to make more from your coaching.
• Grow your client base. Some of your members will become one-on-one clients after getting to know you and seeing your expertise firsthand.
• Exposure. Your goal may be to increase awareness of your brand in your industry. 
• Build relationships. You might offer group coaching as a follow-up to customers who buy your products. You can use it to develop your relationship with them and help them use your products.
• Save time. If you’re already doing one-on-one coaching, you can use this method to save time and open up your schedule without losing income.
• Get feedback. The primary goal might be to learn about your clients and target market. 
• Learn new skills. Group coaching sessions are vastly different from one-on-ones. You can learn new things by doing them.

 Action Steps:

1. What will group coaching help you achieve in your business?
2. Define the specific goal or goals that are most important to you.

Step 2 – Define Your Target Audience and Outcome

You can’t deliver high-value coaching sessions unless you identify your ideal group member and figure out exactly what you can teach them.

You identified your goals already. You know what you want to achieve with your group coaching. Now, you need to figure out what your audience expects to get out of the experience so you can provide it.

What do you already know about your audience? Think about the people who follow you on social media, those who comment on your blog posts, your current coaching clients, and customers you already have. You may be able to spot some patterns that can help you identify your target market.

You can also start with your expertise and knowledge. Who can use the information you have? What do you know how to do that most others don’t, and who can benefit from this?

Define your demographics first. Demographic information includes age, geographic location, income level, family structure, language, and so on.

In addition, consider their psychographics. This includes information that’s not as easy to pin down but is equally important. Consider their values, attitudes, behaviors, struggles, and needs.

Focus especially on their needs because you can use your coaching to help them solve problems and make a huge impact. 

It helps to do some market research. Look at people who follow you or your competitors on social media. Check out some blogs in your niche and see who’s reading them. Try to collect objective data to help you spot trends. 

An example of a target market would be:

A woman in her late 30s just getting started with her own business. She makes about $60,000 a year and lives in the American Midwest. She’s been successful so far but needs to take her business to the next level by learning about online marketing. She’s practical and gets things done. Her main stumbling block is using social media to market her business.

This doesn’t necessarily mean all your members will be female, in their late 30s, or from the American Midwest. Your target market profile gives you one individual to aim for. This individual is the one that can best benefit from what you have to teach. You’ll include others as well, but it helps to be specific.

 Action Steps:

1. Who is your ideal client? Write a detailed profile that includes demographic and psychographic information.
2. What are their biggest challenges? Identify one that you could tackle in a group coaching program.

Step 3 – Outline Your Content and create your Group Coaching Framwork

Now that you know your audience, choose a main theme or topic for your program. You want to work with people to help solve one of their problems. Go over everything you know about your topic and choose the best fit that will get the most results for your members. 

Start with the outcome you want your members to take away from your coaching program. What will they be able to do when you’re done? Then, figure out everything they need to know in order to achieve that goal.

Knowing your target audience, consider where they are right now. In the target market profile in the last section, you saw an example of an ideal member as someone struggling to get used to online marketing.

She starts as a casual user of Facebook with a little experience under her belt using it personally, but not sure how businesses use it. You can help her by teaching her how to manage a successful Facebook group. 

If you know the desired outcome and where your members are starting from, you can figure out the steps to get them there and the information they need to know.

Now, you have to create supporting content for your coaching sessions. This is the material you’ll give your members which can be any mix of manuals, workbooks, templates, visual materials, and videos. 

Put yourself in your members’ shoes. What kind of material would best teach them what you want them to learn? 

Content creation is usually the biggest job in setting up a group coaching program, even though you’ll be running live coaching sessions. Before you get started, go over the content you already have. You might have something you can repurpose. This can save a great deal of time.

Repurposing means taking content and turning it into something else. You can adapt, change formats, update, add information, take out information, or make any other changes to existing content, and you now have something relevant and new. 

For example, you might turn old blog posts into a guide with just a little brushing up. You can take videos you already made and use them to teach parts of the program. This is a handy shortcut for producing high-quality content. 

 Action Steps:

1. Identify what main topic or theme you will cover in your group coaching program.
2. Identify where your members are on their journey to their goal.
3. Identify the steps you need to take them through to get there.
4. Outline the content you’ll need to create to support them through each step along the way. Start by looking over your existing content to see if there’s anything you can use.

Step 4 – Choose Delivery and Engagement Methods

As you start pulling together your supporting content, you should think about how you’re going to deliver the main group coaching sessions to your clients. What’s the best way for them and for you? Choose a method that will be the most effective and also engaging for your members. 

How will the group get together? Will it be live in-person or live online? If online, what platforms will you use? Facebook, Zoom, and other platforms offer ways to hold sessions remotely.

What will the live sessions entail and how much will be given for homework? You might assign tasks to your members to complete on their own, and then share how they solved them during the actual sessions. Sessions could be used for brainstorming. 

Try to make the live sessions themselves as engaging and valuable as possible. For example, if you’re going to ask people to watch a video and discuss, have them watch the video on their own time and then discuss when everyone is together. 

One way to structure a group coaching program is to give content to consume as homework and then hold Q&A sessions based on the content when you meet. You can also assign tasks for your members to carry out on their own and then have them come together and discuss challenges or ask you for help.

Since engagement is what makes coaching really work, plan ways for group members to participate and interact with each other and you. They shouldn’t be passive during sessions but actively engaged. In order to do this, you should plan some engagement strategies, such as:

Roundtable – Go around and have each person ask a question, make a comment, offer a suggestion, etc. 

Show and Tell – Each person brings something to the session to share with the others. It can be an actual physical thing or a story or experience. 

Offline Support – Get members to support each other offline between sessions. Have them check in with each other. This is great for accountability. You can also assign pair work or small group work between classes.

Laser Coaching – Hold short one-on-one sessions as part of group session work to make sure each individual member is on track. This can be a ‘hot seat’ where you discuss in front of the group and everyone can help out. Or you could add 1:1 sessions as an add-on that members pay extra for in an upgrade.

Individual Reflection – Give a writing assignment where group members reflect as individuals on what they’ve learned, what challenges they’ve faced, and any other feedback. 

The best approach is to mix several engagement strategies. This variety will make your sessions more exciting for members and offer different ways to learn. 

Whichever methods you choose, make sure each member has a chance to speak and participate in every session. 

 Action Steps:

1. Decide on a structure for your live sessions, including how much will be done during the sessions and how much outside.
2. How will you encourage interaction and participation? Choose several engagement strategies to use during live group sessions.

Step 5 – Run A Test Group Session

Now that you’ve planned your program, run a test group session to see how it goes. This is a test run to help you practice your group coaching skills and work out any technical issues before you start your actual coaching sessions with paying members. This feedback will help you make improvements. 

First, decide on the format. You may not want to run an entire program for free as a test run. Instead, you could pare it down to a handful of sessions that cover one part of the course. Make sure it’s manageable for you. 

Who can be in your test group? You might choose friends or family members, or members of your team. You can also choose a handful of individual coaching clients or brand advocates as a way of saying thanks.

Another idea is to offer a short, free group coaching session as a lead magnet. Rather than using an information product to nurture leads, offer this free session instead. Participants will get a taste of the value you offer and start following you, maybe even becoming paying clients. 

Even though this is a free test run, prepare it well and take it seriously just as if people were paying. 

 Action Steps:

1. Choose members for a test run and invite them to join.
2. Break down your topic and choose what can be covered over the course of one or a few sessions.
3. After running your session, ask for feedback and decide how you can make it even better for your paying members.

How do you structure a group coaching program?

Here are 7 Steps to Getting Your Group Coaching Program Started Group coaching is a great way to help more people find solutions to their challenges. By working together with you and each other, they can share and grow as they make progress toward their desired outcome. 

As a business owner, group coaching can increase your income, spread awareness of your brand, and build long-lasting relationships with your customers. 

If you’ve never offered a group coaching program before, it might seem daunting, so let’s break down the key steps to getting started. 

Step 1 – Identify Your Target Audience

First, you need to identify exactly who you can help. Who are the people who can benefit most from your expertise and unique value? 

Start by looking at your current audience and your marketing activities: 

• Who follows you on social media?
• Who reads your blog, watches your videos, and engages with your other content?
• Who joins your email list or membership site?
• Who are your current customers? 
• Who are your current one-on-one coaching clients?

This will give you an idea of who your target audience is. You can also conduct some market research by looking at competitors or similar businesses in your niche. Brainstorm to figure out who has a need for your knowledge and experience. What do you know how to do and who could use this information? This will give you a good idea of who to target. 

The first step to launching group coaching is learning about your target market. Identify what they need to learn and discover how you can facilitate change. Pay especially close attention to pain points, or areas where they’re struggling, as this is where you can provide the most help. 

Start by talking to current customers and clients. If you’re coaching now, ask your clients if they’d be interested in group sessions and get their feedback. Put a call out to followers and contacts on social media.

You can also do some market research. See what topics your target market is discussing as these are areas where you could help. It’s also useful to check out the competition. See what other programs are being offered. If you have time, join one to get some ideas.  

Step 2 – Choose Your Group Coching Model

Before you get started creating your program, you should decide what type of program you’re going to offer. How you structure a group coaching program is important.

There are 3 types of group coaching programs:

The Cohort Model

All clients start at the same time and the course is a set length with a definite end date. You guide them through the course together.

This is the simplest model to run, especially if you’re just getting started. It’s relatively easy to set up because everyone is on the same page. 

The Program Model

The program model is similar in that there’s a set course, but the dates are flexible. Participants can join any time they want.

The advantage of the Program Model is that you can scale up. Participants are staggered, so you can allow more to sign up than you would with the Cohort Model. For this model, you might automate some course content, reserving sessions for sharing progress and getting feedback and support. 

The Membership Model

The Membership Model is the most flexible and scalable. A coach might run the program multiple times a year with great flexibility regarding when participants can join. 

This type of program takes the least amount of work for you to run, but you really need to be experienced with group coaching. 

In addition to program type, you should decide how many clients you’ll take on and the format for the sessions. 

Step 3 – Choose the Right Topic /  Identify One Problem and One Solution

Of all the things you know and can teach, choose one topic as the focus of your group coaching program. Identify a problem that your target market faces and offer a solution in your area of expertise. When you can solve people’s problems, this offers the most value.

Think in terms of what your group members will be able to do after they leave your program. Start with this outcome and figure out the steps toward it, keeping in mind where the member is when they start your program. 

Take one of the problems or issues you’ve identified among your target audience and offer a solution. Clearly state the results they will get out of group coaching. Figure out what they will be able to DO once the program is completed.

You need to pick just one because you can’t solve everything. You have to focus on something specific to get results. If the program is all over the place, people might feel like they’ve made some progress, but they won’t feel a sense of accomplishment. 

If you have several issues your target market faces that you’d like to help them solve, focus on one for the first round of group coaching and save the other ideas for future courses. 

Step 4 – Prepare Your Program Content

Start with the outcome you’ve identified and work your way backward, planning what content your participants will need along the way. Also decide how it will be delivered. 

In a group coaching program, sessions offer the most value to participants. Any educational content is solely designed to supplement the sessions and provide information that will help clients achieve the stated goal. 

Examples of content include eBooks, reports, checklists, action guides, worksheets, templates, video tutorials, planners, and calendars. You don’t want to overwhelm your participants with too much content, but offer anything that will help and provide value.

Content creation takes a great deal of time, so start by looking over old content to see if there’s anything you can repurpose. Update and edit as necessary to make it relevant to the course.

You may also want to offer value-add content items. These are not essential to the program and its aims, but offer extra value for participants that they might find useful. Examples of add-on content include additional reports, free access to a membership site, access to software, swipe files, interviews with experts in this topic, and anything else your participants might enjoy.

Step 5 – Set up Your Tech

The technical requirements of your group coaching program should be simple. You don’t need anything complicated. The main thing you need is a platform to host the sessions. Most group coaching is now done online.

You can either use a coaching platform like Teachable, CoachAccountable, or Satori, or you can use any communication platform where people can gather such as Facebook or Zoom. 

Coaching platforms offer more robust features. They’re designed for group coaching. But the advantage of social media and other common platforms is that they’re easy to use. If you choose something like Facebook or Zoom, there’s a good chance your participants are already using them. This makes it easy for them to join and participate.

Choose your platform based on what’s easiest for you and your participants. 

As you plan out your program, you might find that other tools would help. These might include an email autoresponder to communicate with clients, project management software like Basecamp for keeping people on track, or Google Drive for sharing content with your participants. 

Step 6 – Run a Great Group Program

There is a whole skillset involved in running a group coaching program, but everything is learnable. You can get training in coaching skills, but you’ll also learn a great deal through experience. 

The best practice is for a group coaching program to be centered around live meetings. But don’t forget to take advantage of virtual tools that allow you to communicate with your members remotely. 

Here are some of the major points to keep in mind:

• Your program should be aimed at engaging members and getting them involved
• Everything should be focused on the outcome (what you want people to achieve)
• In your live sessions, divide your attention equally so everyone gets a chance to talk
• Plan your live group sessions carefully with plenty of interaction, always leaving time for members to ask questions or get any individual help they need
• Whether live or online, listen well and constantly seek feedback to make sure your members are on track.

Step 7 – Gather Feedback and Improve

Ideally, you’ll gather feedback as you go along through the program so you can correct anything that’s off-course. You need to make sure your program is helping its members achieve their goals. 

At the end of the program, follow up with members and ask them how it helped and how you can make it even better for the future. 

You should also monitor to make sure your program is helping you reach your overall business goals. 

Do you want to learn more about how to run an effective group coaching program? Click here for FREE Guide or Check out my course, How to create and market your own group coaching program, which teaches you the A to Z. 

How Do I run a group coaching session?

Is Everyone Getting What They Need? And how to make sure its Effective Group Coaching. Group coaching offers unique benefits to both you as the coach and to your group members. But how do you know whether your members are on the path to reaching their goals and are enjoying the benefits of your program to their fullest? Similarly, how do you know for certain whether your group coaching program is helping you achieve your own business goals? 

Measuring Success for Your Group Coaching Members

Your group members’ primary goal is to achieve the outcome you’ve promised in your program. They need to walk away from your group coaching program with fresh insights and skills that will help them overcome their problems and see results. 

It’s up to you to start establishing this common ground from the beginning so that all the group members have a clear objective for which they can work. Identifying and Setting Goals Many times, your customers don’t know what their goals are, whether collective or individual. It is your responsibility to sit down with them and assist them in determining their objectives as

To ensure your members are on the path to success, run accountability checks to regularly measure their progress. When someone joins a group coaching program, they’re responsible for taking action to achieve their goals.

They know that they will need to answer both to you and to their peers in the group. This is one of the major success factors of group coaching. 

You can also judge how they’re developing by looking at their progress. For example, during the program, you can give them tasks to complete as homework and see how they get on. When you come back together for the next session, the group can discuss how the homework went and you can offer further assistance.

The only way to find out for sure whether your members are getting the results they need is to ask them. This means gathering feedback. 

Do this after each live session. Ask your members how they’re getting on and what they think about the program thus far. Build in a more formal mid-program review in the form of a questionnaire or, if your group is small enough, call each person up to have a discussion.

At the end of the program, send evaluation sheets to get feedback from members. Follow up with them or offer further one-on-one coaching sessions to make sure they’re staying on track. 

Take careful note of the feedback you receive and make changes as you go along to give group members a better coaching experience.

Measuring Your Results

How do you know if you’re achieving your business goals with group coaching? A good place to start is by clarifying exactly what you hope to achieve through your program. When you know your goal, you can choose the right metric to track your progress towards it.

For example, if your primary aim is to earn more, the metric you would choose to track is your income. You can see how much you’re earning in relation to time spent. 

Your goal might be to gain more one-on-one clients. Through your group program, you can take members who want to achieve greater results and offer them individual coaching. The metric to track here is sign-ups for your individual coaching sessions. How many of your group coaching program’s members are signing up for one-on-one sessions?

One metric that’s important to monitor regardless of your goal is member sign-ups for your group coaching program. Set goals for growing your membership. If you’re not seeing the growth you would like, this might mean you need to change your marketing strategy and target your ideal customer more effectively.

Choose the Right Metric and Monitor It

Monitoring your results is important, so it’s something you should set aside regular time for. Identify your goal and select one metric that will tell you whether you’re achieving it or not. Don’t waste time measuring data for the sake of it. 

For your clients, remember that they have certain expectations when they come to you for coaching. Your job is to clarify these expectations for them beforehand, and then meet those expectations during the program. Offer members regular opportunities to provide feedback and you’ll clearly see what’s working and what isn’t. 

Are you interested in creating a group coaching program? Check out my full course, where I teach you the A-Z of how to create a group coaching program that will provide value to your members and help you reach your business goals.  Check it out here

10 Ways To Market Your Coaching program

The first step in marketing your coaching program is to compile various products that are at different price points all leading up to the most expensive coaching program you can offer which is, naturally, one-on-one coaching with you.

The old way of caching is by the hour, the new way is package and transformation based. So understanding where your target market is on their journey is very important.

Are you able to map out their transformational journey, so you can show them the most economical path from point A to point B?

But getting your message out via your marketing channels will help you with reach.

Here are some examples of products that you can offer are:

• Blogs
• Articles
• Newsletter
• eBooks
• Print Books
• Create and eCourses
• Create a group coaching program
• Group phone calls
• One-on-one coaching
• One-on-one coaching via email
• One-on-one coaching via Zoom/Skype or phone
• Certification Programs

The first thing you should notice about the list above is that the first one, blogs, is your simplest and easiest item to create and the last item, one-on-one coaching via Zoom/Skype or telephone is your most difficult due to the scarcity of time.

In your marketing endeavours consider how you can maximize your offerings at the top of the list, the middle of the list, and at the bottom of the list.

By this, what I mean is that you will want to charge less for the easiest to create, offering it to more people, and charge more for your most time intensive offering creating more value for you and your client. Now that you have some ideas about what type of products you can compile and offer in your coaching program, we can get to the ten ways to market your offerings in a way that will increase your profits.

1 – Blog

Create a blog that is attached to and part of your website. Try to write something useful on the blog daily. Do not overstress about what goes on the blog. It should be in your niche, it should be relevant, and not too aggressive in terms of asking for the sale, although it should have a call to action of some kind.

2 – Article Marketing

Even with the new Google algorithm article marketing is not dead. As normal you need to put out quality, original, relevant, and useful content to your article marketing directories of choice. Use only the most reliable directories that are picky about the content that they accept.

3 – Newsletters

Create a newsletter that everyone who signs up receives something useful at least weekly in their email in box. If you do not send out something regularly they will forget about you and think that you are spamming them when you finally send something. Don’t forget that you can use automation features within your newsletter software to automatically update subscribers to your blog posts, your sales, and events.

4 – eBooks & eReports

Make full use of your eBooks and eReports. Realize that even when you ask people not to, they’re probably going to share them. So, make it worthwhile by including links to your other offerings, affiliate links, and anything that can bring more people to your coaching practice.

5 – Print books

Believe it or not you can easily create a print book by updating and compiling all your other information into one book. Then you can use a self-publishing service such as create space or lulu.com to create a wonderful book available for both print and eBook download on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Having your own book and being a published author can give you tremendous credibility within your niche whether you find a publisher or you self publish. 

Did you notice that the first five tips are also products? They’re products that you can earn revenue from, but they are also marketing for your coaching practice. The rest of the marketing ideas are simple marketing tactics and not products, but they are very valuable and you can use them to market all the items above, as well as your coaching practice.

6 – Press Releases

One often overlooked method of marketing is the tried and true press release. Today you can create a press release and send it to the online places like PR Web, but you should also send it out to a targeted list of offline sources so that you can get your press release in your local, state and national newspapers, magazines and television news spots.

7 – Join Social Networks

Join social networks that your target market is joining. Sure you might want to join a few where coaches hang out, but it will be more effective if you join groups that your target market is joining. Then, here is the golden rule: Give away your advice free by answering their questions with nothing more than the knowledge that they can click on your signature line to find out more of what you have to offer. It feels good, and it works.

8 – Take it offline

Participate in meet-ups where your target market is and again, offer free advice always pointing people toward your products and services without being pushy. After all, you only want highly coachable clients in your lucrative coaching practice and an unwillingness to buy your products means they’re not ready.

This is especially true when you’re offering various entry levels to your coaching program in the form of lower-priced, mid-priced and the ultimate your one-on-one coaching.

9 -Create a fan base

If you have an “inner-circle” club you can create a fan base that will create actual cheerleaders for your business. Allow your inner circle to promote your products and services for a referral fee. This is called an affiliate or referral program and is an excellent way to not only attract new clients but to retain the ones that you have.

10 – Test your efforts

The only way to get really good at marketing your coaching business is to test each of your efforts and pay attention to your return on investment. Testing each effort, changing a small aspect of each effort, and then trying again. When something works, do it again and again.

5 Group Coaching Program Mistakes To Avoid

It’s been great running and participating in the Business Board Room online. Gary Setterfield and Sukhi Wahiwala have been running the business board room better known as BBR in person for several years and due to the recent lockdown of the corona virus we decided to take it online.

Hats off to Gary as he’s become such a great host and equally the structure which is used is designed in such a way by Sukhi that it caters for the needs of the group ensuring participation and feedback from all involved.

The online version was a great alternative to the offline version. It was focused and to point because in person there is room to banter and interact as you would live. But online requires a bit more focus.

There are lots of pros and cons but technology is allowing us to connect and interact online via software such as zoom and skype. It’s highly recommended.

Once you’re fully prepared to get your program off the ground, you’ll learn even more by actually running it. However, there is a learning curve so to help you speed up that curve, here are five pitfalls to avoid. Ready to get started with your group coaching program?

1. Falling Short of Audience Expectations

For your members, your group coaching program starts with a promise. By the time they finish, they will be able to do something they hadn’t been able to before by themselves. They’ll have a new way to solve a problem they face. If they finish the program and it didn’t meet their expectations, then it didn’t achieve their goals.

Start planning your group coaching program by focusing on the result you want for your members. What do you need to teach them or get them to do in order to achieve that result? Work your way backwards and plan the material and activities that will get them there. 

2. Lack of Experience

Some group coaches have experience with one-on-one coaching or teaching individuals. This experience will help, but one pitfall is running group coaching in the same way as one-on-one coaching. You have to learn some classroom management skills in order to avoid this.

Your program must meet every member’s needs. Your job is to get feedback from them to make sure it’s doing this. Some members are less active than others. There might be a tendency for some to be quiet while others dominate. A common piece of negative feedback after sessions is that one person slipped through the cracks and didn’t get their needs met. 

3. Lack of Preparation

It takes a great deal of preparation to run a successful group coaching program. You have to start by planning out the whole program in addition to each individual live session. There also needs to be support material and content, as well as activities for your members to engage in.

Another decision is the format and delivery of your program. You might hold sessions virtually or in person. You may assign homework for members to do outside of live sessions or additional one-on-one sessions to check in. Make sure you spend the appropriate amount of time getting ready. 

4. Poor Communication Skills

In order to work with groups, you need good communication skills. These are skills you can develop, and you should invest the time and energy in doing so. This includes:

• Asking open-ended questions that naturally lead to a conversation
• Listening attentively to your members
• Using technology to enhance communication and not hamper it

Assess your communication skills and take it upon yourself to learn some new things if you find them lacking. 

5. Lack of Feedback

Some coaches run great sessions but miss this essential step. You need to get feedback from your members to see what you did well and where you need to improve. Seeking feedback should be a regular part of your program and not left until the end when it’s too late to make amendments. However, at the end of the program you’ll want to conduct a full evaluation to make sure group members got what they were promised.

Want to learn more? Check out my new course – How To Create and Market Your Own Group Coaching Program. It teaches you everything you need to know to get started with group coaching on the right foot. 

The goal should be something that all of the group members have in common, even if their individual aims are varied. For example, during an executive group coaching session, each executive may express a desire for better leadership, but each will have a unique result toward which they will apply these improved leadership skills.

How much to charge for a group coaching program?

Group coaching programs typically range in price from $97-$497 per month. In some cases, they could be $1000+/month for high-end programs. The price will depend on the length of the program, the number of sessions, and the number and experience of the coaches. Some programs may also charge a one-time registration fee. You could provide private sessions too. If you’re a creative professional, you can use group coaching to build your business. You can focus on areas like marketing, sales, and time management. The key is to offer value and help your clients achieve results.

Create Your Group Coaching Program

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If you like what you read above and found it useful, I’m also offering a full course that teaches you how to plan and run high-value group coaching programs to help you reach your business goals. It includes learning activities to help you get started as you work your way through the course.  

You can start the Group coach 5-day challenge below or start the course today

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Conclusion

Now, you’re ready to get started. The next step is to start marketing your course and run it. You’ll learn a great deal through trial and error, so focus on learning as much as you can from your first program, which you can then use to improve future programs. Be sure to collect feedback from your clients so you can offer even more value.

Throughout the process of planning and running your group coaching program, put yourself in your client’s shoes. Imagine if you were them. What would help you overcome the problems you’re facing and get results? Use this question to guide future decisions when creating and running your program.

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Jatinder Palaha

Digital Business Coach | Web Revenue Strategist | Award-Winning IT Consultant | Author 

Transform Your Skills, Knowledge and Experience Into a Thriving Online Business

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With over 18 years of industry experience in business and personal development, I’ve successfully been working with coaches, consultants and authors set up the right systems and implement strategic content strategies to start, grow and scale their businesses online with automation, digital products and services. (To work with Jatinder – click here)