How do you get coaching clients online?

If you want to get your first paying coaching clients, this is for you.

Today, you’ll learn the 21 best strategies successful coaches use to attract coaching clients.

With results like this..

Want to learn more?

Here’s how to get coaching clients:

1. Get interviewed on more podcasts

2. Use this strategy to get noticed in online groups

3. Land media features (with one simple tool)

4. Set up paid advertising in two steps

5. Get search traffic (and “free” leads)

6. Connect with clients on YouTube

7. Attract your dream clients on LinkedIn

8. Find the best guest post opportunities

9. Use your network to find clients fast

10. Get clients on Instagram

11. Get traffic from Pinterest

12. Build a highly converting email list

13. Get referrals (without being pushy)

14. Use offline strategies

15. Build an audience on Quora 

16. Use Reddit to research your market

17. Create a webinar that sells

18. Find partners for joint ventures 

19. Use “P90X” content on Twitter

20. Find affiliates who want to promote you

21. Get press by reverse-engineering other websites

Bonus: The 15-minute PROFIT method

The 21 best strategies to find coaching clients

You can find your first paying coaching clients much faster than you might think.

But the thing is:

If you try to master 5 strategies at the same time, you won’t get far.

Choose ONE strategy and stick with it until you’ve mastered it. (AKA have paying clients.)

How do you pick your strategy, though?

Ask yourself: Where does my audience hang out?

That’s where you should be.

(If you’re unsure, ask them! Go into a few online forums and ask people what sites they like to use.)

Here are all the strategies:

#1: Get interviewed on more podcasts

Good for beginners: Yes!

There are podcasts that cover nearly every topic or niche out there.

And YOU can tap into an audience someone has already built and nurtured.

After all, podcast hosts want to talk to you.

You have something unique and valuable to offer because you’re an expert in your niche.

Early on in my business, I was interviewed on the podcast “So Money” by Farnoosh Torabi….

And that podcast made a big difference for me.

But, here’s the thing:

You don’t have to get interviewed on big podcasts to attract your first clients.

Instead of pitching big podcasts, focus on smaller, but engaged, audiences.

First, you improve your chances of getting interviewed…

And second, you get in front of people who are really interested in what you have to say.

How do you find those podcasts, though? Use these Google search queries:

• “Podcast” + “[your keyword]”
• “Top podcasts (year)” + “[your keyword]”

Look at podcasts that publish content consistently and have less than 50 reviews.

That’s your sweet spot – they’re small enough to not be overwhelmed with pitches, while they most likely have an existing audience.

Use this template:

“Hello [PODCASTER’S NAME],

I’m [Your Name], and I [share something distinctive about yourself that highlights your suitability as a guest]. I’m eager to explore the possibility of being a guest on [podcast name]. Here are a few subjects I believe would resonate with your listeners:

• [Topic suggestion 1]

• [Topic suggestion 2]

• [Topic suggestion 3]

Would these topics interest [podcast name]’s audience? I look forward to your feedback.

Warm regards,

[Your Name]”

(But tailor this email to your own voice…People can tell if you’re using a template!)

#2: Get noticed in online groups

Good for beginners: Yes!

Online groups are one of the fastest ways to connect and build trust with your potential clients.

These are social media groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and industry-specific forums.

And they’re huge.

For example:

200 million people belong to meaningful Facebook groups.

The best part about online groups is that you talk to people via actual conversations.

As a result, you build relationships in weeks rather than months.

But – you can’t just “spray and pray.”

Instead, start by finding groups.

On Facebook, if you type in your industry term and navigate to the “Groups” tab, you’ll find the same as well. Here’s a screenshot of the results I get when I type in “Career.”

The first group shown alone has almost 9,000 members in the group.

Now, most people will go into groups and promote themselves.

That won’t get you far because people don’t know who you are–and your promotional posts won’t resonate with them.

Flip it around and focus on building relationships instead of getting your next sale.

That’s how I landed my first coaching client – for two weeks, I helped her for free. Until one day, she said, “You’ve helped me so much and I can see how much value I would get from working with you. I’d like to hire you.” 

And I had my first sale – a $5,000 coaching package.

You probably don’t need to help someone for two weeks for free.

The point is, by focusing on giving value first, you’ll get there much faster.

When building relationships in groups, make sure to…

• Choose groups where your ideal clients are active
• Introduce yourself so they know who you are and how you can help them
• Give value to them by engaging in conversations and posting insightful content
• Showcase your expertise by answering people’s questions and giving helpful advice
• Infotain – build trust while being interesting and entertaining
• Engage as a person – be yourself so that people will relate to you as a person

Want my guide on what content you should share on social media? Here you go.

After following the above steps for just a few weeks, your audience will know you and be ready to hear about your offer.

And you what that means?

When you share your offer, you’ll actually make sales instead of getting crickets.

Next:

Get more media opportunities.

#3: Get featured in the media (with this tool)

Good for beginners: Yes!

I’ve been featured in publications from Inc and Entrepreneur and Bloomberg.

And these types of media mentions build a lot of trust.

But how do you get featured in the media as a completely new business owner?

Connectively is a fantastic service – and it only takes 20 minutes a day.

You get 3x newsletters every work day with tons of media opportunities.

Those opportunities are posted by journalists and bloggers who are looking for article sources.

If your pitch gets selected, you get featured in their publication.

The best way to use Connectively is to…

• 5 minutes/day: Quickly scan the media queries
• 15 minutes/day: When a query piques your interest, craft and send your response

Let’s talk about a more scalable strategy – advertising.

#4: Use paid ads in two steps

Good for beginners: No!

Paid advertising is one of the more scalable strategies on this list.

I personally used paid advertising to grow my business to seven figures in my first year.

But while paid ads work, I don’t recommend them before you have at least a few paying clients.

However, if you are at the point where you want to scale, paid ads including Facebook or Google ads can work well.

That said, paid advertising is much more sophisticated today than it was a few years ago.

So you need to know your way around using ads before pouring money into them.

The steps to using them in the right way are:

Step 1: Create targeted ads

These days, you can’t use the same ad over and over.

Instead, you need to tailor your ads to your audience and constantly rethink them.

For this, you need two things – first, enough time to keep on brainstorming new ad creatives (or a budget to hire a good, paid advertising agency to do it for you).

And second, you need to understand your audience well enough.

Step 2: Create converting ads

Great ads come down to two things:

• Writing compelling copy
• Creating attention-grabbing visuals

If you have these elements in place, your ads will work for you.

Want to learn more about paid ads?

Read my guide on Facebook ads for coaches.

#5: Use SEO to get “free” leads

Good for beginners: No!

A few years ago, I noticed something interesting.

Suddenly, I started getting far higher quality leads than before.

Turns out they all came from search traffic.

Before that, I’d recently started investing in SEO. And so I doubled down on this traffic source.

Fast forward to today and my traffic – and rankings – are one of the biggest revenue drivers in my business.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how SEO works:

With SEO, you optimize your coaching website so that it appears in search engines like Google.

When people find your website, they click through, and some of them buy from you.

Contrary to ads, you don’t pay for your traffic.

At the same time, 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from search engines.

But to grow your SEO, you need to blog consistently.

With your blogs, you target keywords…And if your blog ranks for its target keywords, people find them when they search for things on search engines.

That’s how you get traffic.

For example:

If you have a service page where you sell health coaching, you’d optimize that page for a keyword like “health coaching services.”

But…

You also need to build website authority by building backlinks, links from external websites. They help Google trust your website and rank it.

Some of the easiest ways to build backlinks are to use Connectively, pitch podcasts, and write guest posts. (So by following the steps in this post, you’ll get far!)

Want to learn more about using SEO to scale your business?

Watch my tutorial or read my guide on SEO for coaches.

#6: Create a YouTube channel

Good for beginners: No!

Video is one of the most engaging marketing formats.

In fact:

92% of video marketers say they’ve gotten a good ROI from video.

And I love YouTube! I’ve grown my own channel to a six-figure revenue stream.

However, to be successful on the platform, you need to know how to script, record, and edit videos.

These days, YouTube is a highly competitive platform and your videos have to stand out.

Not to mention that it takes time to build your audience on YouTube – and get clients.

So, don’t start here unless you’re somewhat established.

But when you ARE ready?

Take these steps:

And get the right tools.

I recommend:

• Diva Ring Light – this ring light helps you improve lighting when recording your videos
• Rode SmartLav+ – a solid microphone

#7: Attract your dream clients on LinkedIn

Good for beginners: Yes!

141 million US users use Linkedin…every day.

For example, my students Emily and Anna, who are career coaches, found their first clients on LinkedIn.

Emily simply announced her new career coach side business on LinkedIn and quickly got a few paying clients…

Similarly, Anna used LinkedIn to get her first career coaching clients.

A few ways to use LinkedIn include:

Direct messaging

Grow your network by connecting with people directly on LinkedIn.

But:

You need to genuinely want to connect with the people you reach out to – and offer something to them first.

Publishing posts

Publish posts on LInkedIn to get in front of more people.

An easy way to start?

Tell your followers about your new coaching business.

However, your LinkedIn content needs to connect with people.

Always think: What is the purpose of this post?

Next, let’s take a look at our next strategy:

Guest posting.

#8: Find the best guest posting opportunities

Good for beginners: Yes!

Think guest posting is “dead”?

Not so fast! Guest posting is still a good way to grow your business.

However, you DO need to focus on high-quality, niche websites.

Those websites have already built engaged audiences who are interested in your services. With your guest post, you get in front of them.

Take one of my guest posts on Business Insider. It got a lot of traction – and a five-figure sales week.

How do you find the right opportunities, though?

Write a list of 10 sites or podcasts you’d like to be featured on.

You can find them by googling:

“Contribute” + “your coaching niche”

“Submit guest post” + “your niche”

“Guest post” + “your niche”

Then, reach out to the website with this script:

“Hi NAME OF EDITOR,

My name is (your name) and I am (include something relevant about yourself).

I’d love to submit a guest post to (name of publication). I researched topics that would do great on your site:

• Topic suggestion 1

• Topic suggestion 2

• Topic suggestion 3

I’ve previously written guest posts for (include a few sites if you’ve previously written guest posts):

• Link to example 1

• Link to example 2

• Link to example 3

Let me know if these look interesting to (name of publication)?

Best,

YOUR NAME”

#9: Tap into your network to find clients fast

Good for beginners: Yes!

One of the best strategies for new coaches?

This! Use your network.

You see, your network already likes and trusts you.

So they’re much likelier to buy from you.

How?

You can send something like this:

“Hey NAME,

I’m starting a new business that helps people with…. 

If you know someone who would be interested in this, please let me know.

I’m happy to offer them a free coaching call so that they can get to know me and start getting some great results. 

If they’re interested, I’ll share more about how I can help them further, but if not, they’ll still get great value out of the free session.”

Just to clarify – this isn’t about making your friends feel pressured to buy from you.

For example, Emily and Anna, who we talked about above, posted about their services on LinkedIn.

They let their networks know that they were starting a business – and got their first career coaching clients.

In fact:

This is the strategy I used to get my first career coaching clients.

Before I started my current business, I sold career coaching.

I had already helped some of my coworkers by giving them free career advice.

So when I started my business, I reached out to them and let them know about my new services.

A few of them signed up – and I had a business.

#10: Market your business on Instagram

Good for beginners: Yes!

Look:

One in three Instagram users are more interested in buying something after they’ve seen it in an Instagram story.

It can be a highly profitable platform.

Especially if you have visual aspects you can show (such as health coaching before-and-after photos or recipes).

Take Cristina, a health coach, who found her first coaching client on Instagram.

I’ve personally used Instagram to sell courses worth a few hundred to a few thousand dollars and my $18,000+ mastermind coaching package.

To get clients on Instagram, you need to use the different aspects of the platform:

• Posts
• Videos
• Stories
• Lives
• Reels

Each of these content formats serves a purpose.

For example:

Stories show more of the “behind-the-scenes,” while Lives let you engage with your audience in a more direct way.

I talk more about using Instagram in my Instagram guide and here:

#11: Get coaching clients on Pinterest

Good for beginners: No!

Next up:

Pinterest.

If you produce some type of content (blog posts, YouTube videos…), you can promote those on Pinterest.

First, Pinterest has a ton of users – 28% of people in the US use Pinterest.

And people use Pinterest to get inspired, so they’re already using it to consume content.

The way you get traffic from Pinterest is by pinning pins that you link to your content.

When people click through, they land on your website.

Pinterest works, even if you’re not in a “visual” niche.

My business is not in that type of a niche but Pinterest keeps driving thousands of visitors to my website every month.

Pinterest takes time to build, though.

So use this strategy when you’re at a place where you can scale your coaching business.

What’s more, Pinterest can be automated. If you use a tool like Tailwind, you can schedule pins once a month and they are then published throughout the month.

But let’s talk about a powerful strategy you can’t miss…Email marketing.

#12: Build a highly converting email list

Good for beginners: No!

Early on, you’ll get clients by building relationships with them directly.

But as you build your business, it becomes harder to spend time building those one-on-one relationships.

And that’s where email marketing comes in.

You see, if you only rely on building a following on social media, you end up building an audience you don’t really own.

But your email list is yours.

And it helps you scale relationships so that every time you write an email, you send it to all your subscribers. Way faster than individually DM:ing your followers.

However, while you don’t need a massive email list to get clients, it does take time to build one.

That’s why this isn’t the strategy you should start out with.

But once you start building your email list, you can use these strategies to build it:

• Podcast interviews
• Guest posts
• Paid ads
• SEO

I talk more about email marketing here:

#13: Get referrals (without being pushy)

Good for beginners: Yes!

Why do people buy from you?

They need to trust you.

And that’s why referrals work so well. If someone has heard good things about you from someone they know, they are much more likely to sign up for your coaching.

Now, you could get referrals from family and friends.

But once you’ve worked with a few clients, they can refer clients to you – which can help you get a lot more clients for every client you find.

However, you need to be proactive about asking for referrals. People are busy and don’t always think about making those connections.

Send an email that doesn’t sound pushy or needy.

A good idea is to offer a commission to incentivize referrals. (10% is standard for services.)

You can send them a script like this one:

Hi [Name],

I hope you’re doing well!

I’m reaching out because I know you appreciate the quality of my work, and I’m currently bringing on more customers. Space is limited, but if you know someone who needs [specific task], I would be happy to help. I’m offering a 10% commission for every successful referral.

Please feel free to pass on my contact info. They can reach me at [contact info].

Thank you!

Best,

[Your name]

Read more about getting referrals here.

#14: Use offline strategies

Good for beginners: Yes!

The other strategies on this list are online marketing strategies.

But you can use offline strategies, too, even if you offer coaching online.

A few ideas include:

Speak at conferences 

Give talks at conferences. Look for conferences close to where you live and contact the organizers to sign up as a speaker.

One of my students, Ryan, has successfully used this strategy to sell his real estate coaching services.

Organize meetups

Another way to promote your services offline is to organize meetups and promote them in local Facebook groups, event pages, or Meetup.com.

Create your meetup around the goal your clients are trying to reach.

For instance, if you offer health coaching services, you could organize a cooking meetup for people who want to eat healthy, a workout group, or similar.

#15: Build an audience on Quora

Good for beginners: Yes!

Quora is a platform for questions and answers.

People ask questions and people who are experts on those topics answer.

Your answers can get a lot of views on the platform…

And some answers rank very well in Google – leading to even more views to your answer.

The key is to write answers that are engaging (hook people from the start), complete, and give an “aha” to people.

#16: Use Reddit to research your market

Good for beginners: Yes!

Another platform for building relationships?

Reddit.

That’s how my student Ruby, a relationship coach, got her first client.

Now, you shouldn’t go on Reddit to sell your products.

Unless you want angry comments and downvotes…

Instead, help people without the intent to sell.

Take Ruby – she didn’t just go on the platform to share her program.

Instead, she asked if people would be willing to answer some market research questions in exchange for a free coaching call.

She wasn’t looking to sell, but wanted to understand how she could build a great program.

People signed up – and one turned into a client.

To find the right threads, search for your niche on Reddit.

For example, if you search for “reddit” + “career” on Google, you’ll find an entire forum FULL of your ideal clients.

#17: Create a webinar that sells

Good for beginners: No!

Are you at the stage where you’ve already built a sales funnel?

In that case, a webinar can help you increase your sales.

You see, webinars are a fast way to build trust with people without jumping on sales calls with them.

That said, your webinar needs to be structured and delivered in the right way.

So, how do you create a converting webinar?

Here’s what I’ve learned after having sold millions through my own webinars:

#18: Find partners for joint ventures

Good for beginners: Yes!

One of the best strategies to get coaching clients?

Find partners to do joint ventures with.

What this means is that you and a partner do a joint promotion, such as:

• A social media live
• Social media posts
• Webinar
• Email campaign

The person you partner up with should work with the same audience, without being a direct competitor.

In other words:

If you’re a health coach for women, you could partner up with a nutritionist who works with that same audience.

#19: Use “P90X” content on Twitter

Good for beginners: Yes!

I LOVE the P90X program.

It’s the only fitness program I’ve ever completed the whole way through.

And for good reason:

The results that build up over 90 days are out of this world.

In the same way, you can use the “90-day rule” to get clients on Twitter (X).

Essentially, you post every day, for 90 days.

Each post should be helpful to your clients.

Just like mine is here:

You build up your following over those 90 days a – and attract your ideal clients.

Now, Twitter isn’t just for publishing content.

You can DM people, too.

If you see a tweet where you feel you can be helpful, reach out and offer value.

That’s how you build relationships.

#20: Find affiliates to promote you

Good for beginners: Yes!

Next up:

Affiliate marketing.

This type of marketing means that someone promotes your coaching program and gets a commission for every sale.

Typically, a commission for services is 10% – but it depends on the affiliate and your program.

I work with select affiliates who promote my programs. I’ll also occasionally do an affiliate promo if I love the program I’m promoting.

You need to find the right affiliates, though.

Look at other coaches or creators who you trust and who have the right type of audience.

You can do a simple Google search, comb through LinkedIn, or other social media groups to find the right affiliates. (Note: People with huge audiences will probably not be a good fit – look for people with engaged audiences, even if they’re on the smaller side.)

#21: Get press by reverse-engineering other websites

Good for beginners: No!

Early on in my business, I was featured on websites like Forbes and that really helped me build my brand.

My new coaching clients would often refer back to articles where I’d been featured.

How do you find PR opportunities?

Search for journalists who have already written about similar topics that you talk about.

So, if you are a health coach who helps people eat right, you could pitch journalists in the health space who have written about nutrition before.

There are a few ways you can approach this…

Either Google your competitors:

“yourcompetitor.com”

And see what comes up.

Add publications they’ve been featured in to your list of publications to pitch.

Or go to your target publications and look at their most recent articles.

When you see an article that talks about your topic, click through on the journalist’s byline to see what other articles they’ve written.

If they cover your niche extensively, reach out.

Note: When you reach out, always lead with value.

So, pitch an interesting angle that would likely help the journalist write a popular article.

Bonus: The 15-minute method to get your first coaching clients

Now you know how to market your coaching business. 

But what do you do with this information?

The easiest strategy is my PROFIT method, which makes it super easy to implement your marketing strategy.

You see, if you work a busy 9-5, you need to make it incredibly simple to market your business. And that’s what this method teaches you how to do.

Read on!

Step #1: Schedule 3 x 15-minutes of business time every week

The first step is to schedule your marketing to-do’s.

I’m a strong believer in what’s in my schedule, gets done.

By scheduling your tasks, you are SO much more likely to get them done because you’ve already committed to them.

That’s what I did, too, back when I was building my business and working a full-time job.

Every day, I would schedule in 3 x 15-minute blocks throughout the day. (During commute times, lunch breaks, and after I came home from work.)

Over the weekend, I created content and took care of other more time-consuming tasks.

But during the week, I’d use my 15-minute increments to share my content, engage with people, answer their questions, and so on.

And that’s how you make it sustainable to build your coaching business.

But how do you actually get clients?

That’s step 2.

Step #2: Identify potential clients

Let’s talk about one of the EASIEST ways to sell your coaching services, using the trust and relationships you’ve now built.

The Taster Technique. 

By now, you’ve delivered value through one of the strategies we talked about. People know, like and trust you to some degree. That means you should have built up the “social capital” to be able to offer to help members of this audience, for free.

And the easiest way to share your offer and get your first paying clients is by using the power of free assessments.

These are free calls where you spend 15 minutes helping someone with one problem to show just how much you can help them with.

And then, at the end of the call, ask if they’d like to continue getting more results by working with you.

Here are a few examples of free assessments that my clients have been successful with in the past:

• Meal Plan Assessment: “Tell me what you’ve been eating, and I’ll give you 3 easy changes to your diet to lose 5 pounds naturally”
• Brand Assessment: “Tell me about your current brand positioning, and I’ll give you 3 recommendations to stand out in your industry.”
• Baby Sleep Assessment: “Tell me about your baby’s current sleep schedule, and I’ll give you 3 tips to help your child sleep longer through the night.”

Here’s an example of a free Pinterest assessment
one of my clients used to get several calls

Here’s an example of a free Pinterest assessment one of my clients used to get several calls

Key Point: Solve ONE quick problem.

Make sure to solve just ONE quick problem for your free assessment.

You need to solve a big enough problem to show that you can help get results…

BUT you don’t want to solve so much of their problem that they think they don’t need any more help.

Think about these as “quick wins,” not the entire solution.

Want to learn exactly what these quick wins look like? Check out Step 2 in this video I put together for you:

After you’ve gotten people to take you up on these calls, here’s what you’re going to do to get paying coaching clients…

Step #3 Get coaching clients fast after offering the “quick win” for free

At the beginning of the free call, you’ll let them know…

“Hey I’m going to help you do this, and show you what more is possible for you. If you’re interested in getting my help to do more, we’ll talk at the end of this session about how I can help you more, alright?”

That way, you set the expectation from the beginning that if they like the “quick win,” which of course they will, you’ll talk more about how you can help them more when they hire you.

So those are the steps to get coaching clients fast.

My students have used these exact steps to get their first clients in just a few weeks, or even days, and I can’t wait to hear about how you use them to get YOURS too so that you can continue building your online coaching business.

There are two things you can’t skip if you want to get your first paying coaching clients quickly:

#1: You have to take the time to build those relationships before you offer anything. This will make it 10X easier for you to sell your coaching offer… And your clients will be HAPPY to pay.

#2: You have to make sure that your free assessment is something that your audience truly wants.

And that’s how you get your first paying coaching clients.

But getting those first clients is the FIRST step.

The next is to build a sustainable coaching business that helps you replace your 9-5.

How? That’s what you’ll learn in my blueprint for growing a 6-figure coaching business:

Read more: 

Sell Your Coaching Services

Brand Your Coaching Business 

Hold Discovery Sales Calls