Guidlines for establishing a solid digital presence

If you are thinking about starting your own coaching business, chances are one of your biggest concerns is being able to stand out in a competitive field. Let’s face it, your potential customers are constantly bombarded with information and choices. There are hundreds of coaches online in every field imaginable, some of them quite well established. Why then should people choose your services? How do they know they can trust you? Looks like simply launching a website to offer your services just won't cut it.

You need a well-crafted content marketing strategy to stand out from your competition and become your audience’s first choice. But promoting your coaching services is not an easy task. Where do you even begin? How do you navigate the ins and outs of Google’s search engine algorithm, social media, and the changing preferences of the people you want to turn into customers?

Let us walk you through an easy content marketing strategy to start on the right foot. In this guide, we’ll share some basic tactics tailored specifically for coaches to establish their online presence and attract clients.

Organic content: The Basis of Your Marketing Strategy

Generally speaking, you have two avenues for promoting your services online: Organic content and paid ads. A well-rounded content strategy usually combines both.

Let’s start with organic content—that is, content that users naturally discover and interact with. Picture this: A teacher looking for a career change googles ‘How do I transition from teaching to the tech field?’ and up pops a blog post you wrote explaining the steps to a smooth career transition. They click on it, read it, and decide to explore your website a little further.

If you’re lucky and have a compelling website optimized for conversion, they might contact you to inquire about your services. If they are not quite there yet, at least you’ve built awareness around your services and how you can help this prospect.

That’s the beauty of organic content: customers find and engage with your articles and videos organically. It’s less on-the-face than paid ads, and it comes in many forms, each tailored to resonate with different audiences and platforms: blog posts, social media posts, podcasts, YouTube videos, and more. Essentially, your organic content strategy feeds the paid media strategy.

Read our secrets to creative copywriting for your website in this blog post.

SEO: The Backbone of Organic Content

As we mentioned, there are many types of organic content. But each piece of content has one thing in common: each must be optimized for search engines so your audience can easily find it. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the cornerstone of any successful organic content marketing strategy.

A great first step in your marketing strategy as a coach would be to set up a blog with SEO-optimized articles offering valuable insights to position yourself as an expert. Check out this article where we explain why Squarespace is actually great for blogging. Ideally, you should set up a blog with around 10 initial blog posts and create new content regularly.

Here’s how you can go about it:

Semantics and keyword research. The first step is to do in-depth keyword research - you can start by brainstorming a list of key terms in your field. If you’re a lifestyle coach writing about learning to be more creative, some key terms could be: ‘developing creativity’ or ‘how to be more creative.’ Once you’ve brainstormed key terms, run them through keyword research tools (such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner) to identify high-volume and long-tail keywords.
Identify keyword clusters. Such clusters are basically groups of related keywords that have a common theme. For example, if you offer coaching on how to become a better fisherman, then “fishing tools” can be one of your clusters where things like fishing rods, fishing lines, bait, lure, hooks, fishing weights, etc. are keywords. Another cluster can be “fishing techniques” and yet another - “great fishing locations”, and so on.

After grouping keywords, you need to identify primary and secondary keywords within each cluster to target in your content strategy. Another example - suppose your target audience consists of women in leadership positions. A keyword cluster could be around imposter syndrome (‘what is imposter syndrome,’ ‘how to overcome imposter syndrome as a woman,’ and ‘self-doubt as a leader’) or around unequal pay (‘how to ask for a raise’ and ‘what is the salary gap’).
Competitor analysis. The next step is to see what others are doing in your field. Analyze several competitors within your niche to understand their SEO strategies and traffic sources. What are they talking about? What issues are they addressing and how do they help their audiences overcome them? By doing this research, you can identify keyword gaps and opportunities for expanding on topics to offer more value to potential customers.
Content creation. Once you have your keywords and have analyzed what your competition is doing, create a content calendar outlining topics for SEO-optimized blog posts. Aim to publish 1 or 2 SEO articles per week to maintain consistency and relevance and build a solid content base that your potential customers can turn to. Ensure each article addresses a specific keyword cluster (or several) and provides valuable insights or solutions to your target audience's pain points.
Search ad campaign. You can complement your organic SEO efforts with a targeted search ad campaign to boost your blog's search performance. This essentially means placing paid ads in search engine results. So, for instance, if someone googles ‘how to build confidence,’ the first thing they’ll see on the will be your ad offering your coaching services, rather than organic results. Set up ad campaigns targeting the keywords you researched and then continuously monitor SEO performance to adjust your strategy for optimal results.

To learn even more on optimizing your Squarespace website for SEO, check out this article: “Complete SEO Strategy for your Squarespace Website“.

How Does Organic Content Work on Social Media?

The key across all social media platforms is consistency. So, a good approach would be to pick two platforms and publish short content often. For instance, say you pick YouTube shorts and Instagram reels. In that case, your best bet is to create several reals and, say, 3 static posts per week which would all follow a certain structure. Here’s one example of such a structure:

Hook: A 1-2 second catchphrase to grab your viewers’ attention.
Main content: The core ideas you want to share with your audience.
Call to action: Invite viewers to subscribe and download a free gift (your lead magnet).
Cliffhanger: Promise what you will talk about in the next video.

Now, remember the content calendar we were talking about before? It also applies here. Creating this much content consistently requires a strategic posting schedule based on keywords and core topics.

Suppose you are a financial coach and want to establish a solid Instagram funnel to complement your website and blog. An effective Instagram funnel begins with creating compelling content that aligns with your style and messaging. This includes creating posts, sharing stories, and posting reels sharing your financial expertise. For instance, you can create a post on the top 3 ways to build and maintain an emergency fund or a reel answering FAQs about 401k.

Regular reels and posts help keep a consistent presence and engage followers—emphasis on ‘engage’: you should answer comments and messages to connect with potential customers. Also, remember that your content should adhere to the AIDA principle we discuss below, guiding users from initial attention to eventual action, such as visiting your website and/or signing up for a newsletter.

Align Your Content with the AIDA Principle

Whether you’re writing a blog post or creating a reel for Instagram, it’s important to remember that effective content marketing adheres to the AIDA principle: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Attention: Attracting your audience’s attention requires content that is visually captivating, emotionally resonant, or intellectually stimulating, depending on the audience and platform. For example, on Instagram, this means creating posts that are in line with your style and make users stop scrolling. Whereas on your blog this entails creating SEO-optimized titles and meta descriptions that lead users to click through.
Interest: Once you have captured your audience’s attention, your content needs to sustain interest by providing value, solving a problem, or offering entertainment. It’s not enough to get their attention with a nice design or a catchy title - the content you produce needs to be valuable and deliver on its promise to keep them engaged all the way through.
Desire: Transitioning from interest to desire involves positioning your coaching services as the solution to your audience's needs or desires. This can be achieved through compelling storytelling, testimonials, or demonstrations highlighting your offering’s benefits or unique selling points. This is where you tell them what makes you different from other coaches.
Action: Finally, prompting action requires clear and compelling calls to action (CTAs) that guide your audience toward the desired outcome, whether hiring your coaching services, subscribing to your newsletter, or downloading a resource.

The AIDA principle is a great framework for coaches who are creating content for the first time, as it structures the task into actionable steps that can help you engage your audience and guide them toward conversion.

Website Funnel and Email Strategy

Through organic content on social media and on your blog, you can nudge visitors to your website funnel and email strategy. Ours looks something like this:

Lead magnets

Create 1-3 lead magnets, each covering different topics relevant to your audience. With lead magnets, you basically offer value (eBooks, checklists, webinars, or templates) in exchange for your visitor’s contact information.
Each lead magnet should address a specific pain point or interest area of your target audience to make them more appealing and effective.
Most high-level course creators plan their year in terms of “campaigns,” a 1-3 month promotional period where you pitch your free or low-cost product, which flows into a promotional event, leading to cart open – cart close. If you have several offers, you do a launch every other month.

2. Welcome sequence

Develop a welcome sequence of 7 emails to nurture new subscribers. This sequence should introduce them to your brand, provide valuable content, and build trust.
Structure these emails to gradually introduce your products or services while offering helpful tips, insights, and resources that align with their interests and needs.

3. Sales email sequence

Follow up with a series of 7-10 sales emails designed to convert nurtured leads into customers. These emails should highlight the benefits of your offer, address potential objections, and include compelling calls-to-action (CTAs).
Tailor the content to showcase testimonials, case studies, and any special promotions or incentives to encourage purchases.

4. Extended sequences

Your email sequences can be as extensive as needed to maintain engagement and build relationships. For instance, our sequences are about 25 emails sent over a span of 2+ months, but there are longer-term engagement strategies.
A weekly or bi-weekly newsletter is also a good choice to keep your existing audience engaged, so people remember you when you start selling to them.

5. Content upgrades

Add more lead magnets (content upgrades) to your best-performing blog posts. Content upgrades are bonus materials related to a specific blog post that encourage readers to exchange their email for additional valuable content.
These upgrades can include detailed guides, templates, or exclusive insights that enhance the original blog post and provide added value to your readers.

6. Organic platforms

Gradually add more organic platforms into your strategy to expand your reach and engagement. Start with one platform and expand as you establish a presence and audience.
For example, you may consider launching a podcast to share in-depth discussions, interviews, and expert insights about your industry. This can help you connect with a broader audience and establish your authority in your niche.
Other platforms include YouTube for video content, social media channels like Instagram and LinkedIn for regular updates and engagement, and guest blogging or collaborations to tap into new audiences.
You can also boost your organic content efforts by pitching your business on other people’s platforms. Look for partnerships with people from similar niches to exchange favors (for example, they send your lead magnet and promote you to their list).

For more on building your sales funnel and automating email strategies for online courses, check out our detailed guide on selling online courses with Squarespace.

Paid Content

While organic content lays the foundation for a successful marketing strategy, paid media can amplify reach, accelerate growth, and drive targeted traffic to key conversion points. On most platforms where you can post content to create organic reach, you can also access paid ad options to boost your efforts.

For paid media, you should focus on two types of campaigns. Top-of-funnel campaigns generate awareness and attract new prospects by targeting cold audiences with compelling ad creative and messaging. These campaigns typically leverage broader targeting parameters and focus on maximizing reach and engagement.

In contrast, bottom-of-funnel campaigns target warm audiences who have already shown interest in the brand or product. Retargeting ads, in particular, allows you to re-engage users who have visited the website or interacted with previous ads but have yet to convert.

Here’s a cheat sheet to setting up successful top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel campaigns:

Top of funnel:

Start with lead generation ads to capture the interest of potential customers. These ads should lead users into a welcome sequence, introducing them to your brand and its value.
As part of this welcome sequence, pitch a tripwire offer—a low-cost, “irresistible” offer designed to convert prospects into customers. The goal here is to start building trust and a relationship with your audience.
Another option is to run a cold campaign specifically designed to sell your tripwire offer. This campaign can include upsells—additional, higher-value offers that complement the tripwire offer.
Follow up with an email sequence aimed at nurturing these new customers and selling them your core offer, which is typically your main product or service.

Bottom of funnel:

Implement a retargeting campaign to reach those who visited your sales page but didn’t make a purchase. This is a key step because these individuals have shown interest but need an extra nudge to convert.
Tailor these ads to address common objections and highlight the unique benefits of your offer to encourage individuals to complete their purchases.

For instance, suppose you’re a wellness coach who wants to attract new prospects and generate awareness. You could launch a top-of-funnel campaign featuring an engaging ad on social media showcasing a vibrant image of you leading a group session, with a title that reads, ‘Transform your life with personalized wellness coaching!’ The description could invite users to join a free webinar to learn how personalized coaching can help them achieve their health goals, encouraging sign-ups with a clear call to action.

Now, if you want to drive conversions from warm audiences with a bottom-of-the-funnel campaign, you could implement a campaign using retargeting ads featuring a testimonial from a satisfied client, accompanied by text like, ‘Ready to make a change? Get personalized wellness coaching today!’ This reminds users that they've already shown interest and now is the time to take the next step. It should also include a CTA (‘Book your free consultation’) to encourage immediate action from users who have previously engaged with you.

Evaluating Success and Iterating

So, you’ve done the research, created the content, and put it out into the world. You’ve also set up a paid ads campaign across your channels, and leads are coming in. Now, it’s time to crunch the numbers to see if there’s room for improvement.

Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaign requires a holistic approach encompassing various key performance indicators (KPIs) and analytics tools. These are a few of the metrics that can provide valuable insights into your strategy’s performance:

Website traffic. It refers to the number of web users who visit your website. It’s measured in visits, sometimes called "sessions," and is a common way to measure how effective your business is at attracting an audience.
Engagement metrics. These help you track metrics like page views, session duration, and user feedback. They provide information regarding how engaged audiences are with your digital content.
Conversion rates. It measures the percentage of users who have completed a desired action. Conversion rates are calculated by taking the total number of users who 'convert,' dividing it by the overall size of the audience, and converting that figure into a percentage.
Return on investment (ROI). It measures the profitability of an investment by comparing the gain or loss to its cost. It measures how much you’ve earned compared to how much you invested in your marketing strategy.

How do we know our funnel is working? When will you see the results? We need a statistically sound number of people to go through the funnel to see if it’s working (2-3k people). The goal is to get 3,000 unique monthly website visitors and 5,000 combined followers on all social media channels to start seeing traction. Still, it's essential to look beyond surface-level metrics and analyze the entire customer journey to identify areas for improvement and optimization.

As a coach, you have a diverse range of tactics and channels to create a solid online presence through your marketing efforts. Combining SEO, social media, and paid media, you can create a cohesive and impactful strategy that drives sustainable growth and fosters long-term relationships with your audience.