One of the biggest complaints I hear from coaches is that they’re not working with enough clients and, in turn, not making enough money.

And I get it; every coach has to get paid. But focusing on getting paid won’t get you very far. Lead generation and filling your pipeline/funnel must come first!

Leads are, simply put, opportunities. The more leads you can bring into your coaching business, the more opportunities you have to work with clients. It’s beneficial to be knowledgeable about the difference between inbound vs outbound lead generation. The day I really understood the importance of having multiple lead generation systems in place within my own coaching business was the day everything ‘clicked’ (and the money came as a result). 

Think of a lead as someone who’s shown interest in some way, shape, or form in your coaching services/products. An example of a lead could be someone who just downloaded your free course, someone who has filled in a two-page application to work with you, or someone who just booked a call with you for tomorrow.

Here are four ways to generate more leads and bring in more opportunities into your coaching business.

Remember that the byproduct of more leads is always more sales!

Rule #1: Create Freebies Your Clients Actually Want

Some call it a lead magnet, others may call it an ethical bribe, but I like to call it a freebie. I’m not talking about giving away free coaching calls; please don’t do that! When giving something away for free, you want to make sure you’re following three simple rules:

1. Give your audience a reason to download it in the first place! No matter how amazing you think your lead magnet might be, if you can’t communicate its benefits to those who find it, few people will actually download it!

2. PACK your freebie with value and deliver an actual result for those who download and use it. Whether that’s an eBook, a video series, or a free course, you want to make sure that those who download it are blown away with the upfront value you’ve given away. Do that, and your relationship with your leads will be off to a good start!

3. Consistently create specific freebies for your top-performing blog posts, video content, articles, podcast, etc. If you have a few top-performing posts that drive a ton of traffic, create a new lead magnet and link it to your article. If you’ve been invited as a guest on a podcast or are speaking on stage, create a lead magnet specifically designed for your topic. Once you create a few, you’ll have templates archived that will help you design and launch a new lead magnet within a few hours.

Rule #2: Leads are People too

In the age of online marketing it’s very easy to forget that every click, every view, and every lead is a real-life human being who’s seeking you out for help. These are people who are suffering, defeated, and can’t sleep at night because of the problems they are facing.

They have joined your email list because they are looking to you for professional help. So whenever you sit down to create a lead magnet, send an email, run an ad, or create a piece of content, you are speaking to one single human being every single time.

The more specific you can get on who that is, the easier your lead generation efforts will be!

Here are a few strategies we use (as well as hundreds of our clients) to personalize every piece of content:

1. Know the deepest secrets your ideal client is afraid to say out loud. It is one thing to know the answers to the surface level avatar work you may have done in the past. However, if you can go even deeper and present a message that taps into what your client really wants, even if they have never thought about it themselves, then you will hands-down be the top of mind expert in their eyes.

2. Write to yourself. For a lot of coaches, we are or were in the same shoes as our ideal client. What would you have loved to learn from a coach when you were facing the same problems that they are experiencing right now?

3. Place a photo of someone you know, yourself, or even a stock image you feel represents your ideal client on your desk. Every time you create a new piece of content, write to the person in this picture.

Remember: When your perfect client consumes your content, they will be alone. A group of other people will not surround them. They will be reading your message as if it was specifically intended for their eyes only. The more you can let this sink in, the more you will be able to connect with each person online.

Rule #3: Quality over Quantity

All leads are not created equal. I’d happily spend $100 (or more) on a high-quality lead over a $1 lead any day. If the leads you’re attracting are simply not converting, it may be time to audit the message/offer you’re putting out there.

Here are a few different angles you can look into to make sure each subscriber that joins your list is premium-quality:

1. How are you positioning yourself? Can you rework your message to attract the kind of leads who are looking for a coach like you?

2. Is your big promise (the ultimate result you help your clients achieve) apparent? Will anyone who sees your landing page know what they can expect? Or do they have to do a little digging to put the pieces of the puzzle together?

3. Have you pre-qualified your leads by asking them questions before they join your Facebook group or completing an application form before the sales call?

The more you can educate your leads on your offer, position your offer as a premium service, and yourself as an industry-leading coach, the higher quality your leads will be.

Rule #4: Pay to Play (when you’re ready)

I’m huge on driving paid traffic to the top of my funnel. We recently just surpassed the ‘Million People Reached’ through our Facebook Ads account. There is simply no way I could have reached over a million people if it wasn’t for paid ads.

Please note that paying for traffic can eat dollars if you fail to watch the data like a hawk and tweak your funnels daily!

Bonus Tip: Optimize for Mobile!

I can spend hours sitting in a coffee shop people-watching (I know, some people think it’s weird… but it’s true). What truly fascinates me is people’s addiction to their phones. Even as I write this from a cozy little coffee shop here in Vancouver, there are maybe three people in this entire place NOT on their cell phones right now.

To my right is a couple who have been having a conversation while browsing the internet on their phones. That’s talent. It doesn’t matter if you are in a coffee shop, in line at the grocery store, or in the bathroom, we love to be on our phones.

My point is this: Make sure that everything you put out is fully optimized for mobile.

When you execute two to three of these strategies, you’ll start generating leads right away. Just promise me you will devote enough time daily to keep your pipeline filled up.

I can guarantee you that, with consistent effort, you’ll never have a problem enrolling new clients into your coaching business ever again.