8 Fundamentals You Need to Know Before Hiring a Marketing Coach To Help You Grow Your Business Online

What is a marketing coach?

When I googled the term ‘marketing coach’, I found many other coaches. However, many of them were not quite what I imagined. Some marketing coaches help you manage your social media pages and plan your content. Others are more like business coaches. This is my definition of a marketing coach.

Working with a marketing coach is an incredibly valuable asset. You can gain tons of knowledge from their experience, and they can help you see things from a different perspective. They will be able to help you identify what’s working and what isn’t, give you the insight you need to fix it, and help you spot opportunities you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

One of the most important aspects of marketing is knowing your goals and how to achieve them. If you’re not sure what you want, a good coach will talk you through it to help you figure it out. It’s easy to think that one thing is logical and the best approach, but if you don’t understand your underlying motivations then the answer may be different.

If a customer says they want to increase their email subscriber base, ask yourself what they really want. They might say ‘I want to get 10,000 email subscribers by the end of the year’, but that isn’t what they really need. It might be a quick fix to attract a new, more lucrative clientele. This will not help in the long run, though. A better approach is to look for a more steady stream of income.

Why would you need a marketing coach?

When you work with a marketing coach, they will give you feedback on how to improve your offers. Common issues they can spot are: Your offers could be more compelling Your current ideal customer won’t help you reach your long-term goals How you could make your offers more profitable and bring you more sustainable income Whether now is the right time to launch other services e.g. online courses or memberships It’s SO difficult to work through these things on your own.

It’s so exciting when clients start to get their own marketing instincts. When that happens, it means you’re doing your job well. The best kind of clients are those who learn from you and use what you have taught them to do better marketing for themselves.

You want more money, but you don’t want to do all that extra work. You have systems, but they’re not working exactly as you’d like. You have business decisions to make, but they take time and money to make. You’re trying things, but you don’t know when to stop.

How do I find a good marketing coach?

When you’re searching for a coach, get to know them. Working with someone who is well known as an entrepreneur can be risky. If you’re newer to this world, ask around for recommendations. What is it that you want to get out of a coach?

Don’t just hire a marketer based on their social media following or the number of likes on their latest blog post. Do your due diligence, and check their LinkedIn profile. Look at their previous experience and find out how it translates to your business. Read their blogs and watch some of their videos before you make a decision.

How do marketing coaches work?

I’ve noticed that some coaches work with clients in a variety of ways. Some of them offer one-to-one courses, some offer membership or mastermind programmes, and other coaches offer group programmes. For a thorough run through of the pros and cons of each, read my blog entry, “What’s The Best Investment? Online Course Vs Membership Vs Mastermind Vs Group Programme Vs One To One Programme.”

One-to-one coaching is very popular in marketing. Clients pay coaches to help them improve their marketing skills. Coaches usually meet with clients in person or via video on a regular basis. They also offer in-between support through a messaging app, like Voxer or Whatsapp, or via email.

For coaching to work, you have to commit to working with a coach for three months. Personally, I like working with clients for at least six months. You’d be surprised how quickly six months goes by!

Does a marketing coach need to have qualifications?

The answer depends on your level of expertise. If you are not sure what you need, you can hire a social media expert with no marketing qualifications. If you want to improve your social media results, they might be the best person for the job. However, if you suspect that you need more strategic help, then you definitely need to hire someone with more marketing experience.

Many marketing professionals don’t understand why your marketing isn’t working. They could put the blame on you as a client because they don’t understand small business marketing or your particular niche. Instead, they may ask you to do things that don’t make sense for your business.

On the other hand, a large group of marketers may not be close enough to your business to notice which part of your marketing machine needs attention.

I’ve run a few businesses and I’ve got experience in the corporate sector. Plus, I’ve got a business degree, a marketing diploma, and I’ve been working in marketing for 15 years.

I’ve seen how successful companies operate. I’m a big believer in the basics of running a business, and I want to share them with you. Businesses change, but the fundamentals are always the same. FACT.

How much do marketing coaches cost?

There are so many options for hiring marketing professionals. It’s hard to know what to expect for your money. Some people charge less than £60 per hour, others charge £60k plus for a 12 call coaching package. I personally charge upwards of £600 per month.

It’s not always true that more expensive means better. However, if someone is cheap, it would suggest that they don’t have confidence in their abilities. They might not be able to help you create offers that will earn you the kind of money you’re looking for.

I don’t work with newbies. They’ll take too long to recoup the investment. I don’t work with low-ticket service providers or product-based businesses for the same reason. My ideal client can earn back the investment of working with me with only one or two sales. Or they’d be in a position that I could get to that level within 6 months.

What’s the difference between a marketing coach and a marketing consultant?

Marketing coaches and marketing consultants are often blurred together. Here is how I distinguish between the two: a marketing consultant will base their advice on data, and will generally work with bigger companies. A marketing coach tends to work with individual business owners, and takes their client’s mindset and life goals into consideration. Marketing becomes very personal when selling because it focuses on a customer’s needs and desires.

Which type of marketing coach is right for me?

I like to break down the types of marketing coaches into three categories: a strategic marketing coach, a tactical marketing coach and a holistic marketing coach. A strategic marketing coach is most similar to a business coach. A tactical marketing coach likely focuses on just one or two very specific areas of your marketing communications such as email marketing. A holistic marketing coach works with you to improve several aspects of your business simultaneously.

5 Non-overwelming Ways a Marketing Coach Can Help You Create More Sales

Many business owners and service providers are missing out on a huge income boost by overlooking one of the most rewarding services that they can offer. This service is personal coaching. Whether you’re a life coach, entrepreneur, mentor, graphic designer, web developer, author, or Internet marketer you can offer coaching to others to teach them to be successful doing exactly what you do. Naturally, something like personal contact with you will be the most expensive service that you offer. 

Move away from the hourly rates and instead package your knowledge and skills as a transformational offering.

Think about a 12 week or 90-day program as an example (could be 7 weeks, 6 months etc). Offer to work with your clients over a set amount of time with monthly calls and actions steps which help your client progress with actability then being left to their own devices.

Don’t lose that human connection. One of the reasons my clients love working with me is because they can speak to me directly in a scheduled way so they know help and guidance is at hand should they need it. Sometimes just having that option available to them as part of your offering gives them a confidence boost to progress in their own way.

So it makes sense that you have a digital marketing coach who is experienced and can also help you help others.

Here are 5 ways in which a marketing coach can help you and what you need to do in order to be a successful coach in your own respected niche:

Hone your craft

No matter what you are doing right now, learn all you can about it. Become the best at what you’re doing, take classes, sign up for coaching, read books. To be an expert in your niche you must know all there is to know about your niche including the mistakes other people make toward success in your niche.

A digital marketing coach can help you uncover and extract from you exactly who you can help and serve. Once you have clarity in this alone, you will be surprised how much easier it is to find, attract and work with your ideal clients.

Become known

Before launching your coaching program become someone who is known as an expert in your niche. Have webinars, radio shows, a podcast and a good mix of avenues to promote yourself. In addition, write articles and blog posts that demonstrate your expertise,  also appear on other people’s podcast, blogs, events, shows and webinars as “the” expert for your niche. 

All this could sound overwhelming but a seasoned marketing coach can show you the exact steps you need to take and when you need to take them. Most people will have you believe you have to be doing it all and actually make it too overwhelming. It can feel like you have to climb a never ending mountain. But a coach with experience can show, with economy of motion as Bruce Lee would say, the fastest and most efficient path from point A to Point B.

Write a book

Don’t panic; if you’ve been writing for your blog, and writing articles for article marketing you have already written a book. You simply need to compile it, add some information to make it flow, get a cover designed, hire someone to edit your work,  and then you will have a book. You can upload it to Create Space or Lulu.com and it will be for sale on Amazon before you know it.

Even if you are not an author, inside you there is a book that can be unleashed, should you wish for it to be shared with the world to help others learn from your experience. Over the years I’ve helped coaches create not only their signature system but also books which help clients with transformation. A book is the best business card you can have as it’s instant authority status when shared with others. So marketing coach can help extract and help you structure you next or first book and reduce overwhelm in a guided way.

Take it offline

You can’t overlook off-line activities if you want to earn the big money as a coach in your niche. Send out offline press releases and appear on talk shows to promote your book and services. Have an in-person book signing event. Additionally, write articles for offline magazines and newspapers. (Bonus tip: You can repurpose chapters and subchapters from your book).

Believe it or not, many offline publications are also desperate for content. At first you offer it for free, but as you get better known you can make money from your content too. The offline space is where the magic really happens where that one to one connection with people makes all the difference. True, you can zoom and have amazing results but that one-to-one, eyeball to eye ball connection is special in creating long-lasting and authentic relationships.

Multiple offers

Create multiple types of coaching at various levels of cost. For instance, create an email coaching program, a group coaching program, a membership site, home study online course, an inner circle, as well as a very special one-on-one coaching program. Other than the one-on-one coaching everything else can be automated and will require very little work for you once the initial creation process is completed.

How? If you have guided support it makes everything easier; having a digital marketing coach there to bounce ideas off and ultimately the experience can help you speed up the whole process and get you offer out to market way quicker then you may on your own. Speed with experience can help you shortcut your success.

Once you offer your coaching program don’t give it to just anyone. Create a situation where you have very limited exclusive spaces for your coaching, especially when it comes to one-on-one coaching. Because one-on-one coaching and accountability require your presence 100% of the time, this should be the most sought after, yet hardest to obtain coaching that you offer. Naturally, it should be very expensive to work with you one-on-one. 

Do not be shy about pricing this very high. Some coaches charge literally thousands of pounds or dollars for the privilege of one-on-one coaching with them.

If you have any questions or would like to chat/discuss about your potential friction points and see how you can progress with accountability and guidance then feel free to get in touch. I’m happy to have a conversation with you even if it ends up becoming a lasting friendship.

A marketing coach could work with you and your business on a monthly basis. It’s a great way to get the correct guidance and direction since all you have to do is act on the action points identified strategy that can help you get measurable results.

A good coach will also help you nurture a good business mindset. Once the marketing coach knows your current business situation and where you want to be in the next, say, 12 months time, then s/he can start to create a strategy and plan to help you get there. The marketing coach can help diagnose any problems you may have in your business. Throw in some accountability and it becomes an action-based service. As long as you keep taking action and progress towards your goals you’ll see the results. Business coaching can work well for both new and existing businesses.

Jatinder Palaha

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

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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)