Marketing Help For Coaches

All the books, e-books and seminars on how to get coaching clients tell you to go out and network. Meet as many people as you can and someone will either become a client or recommend you to a friend.

That's all well and good if you're able to spend every day working on your coaching business and don't have other commitments such as family or a job.

But the reality for most coaches is that the times when most networking events happen are simply not convenient when you're starting out.

Regular breakfast networking meetings aren't practical if you've got a new baby, need to get the children to school or heck, you're just not a morning person.

Lunchtime meetings aren't practical if you live away from the main town or city centre – you could tie-up 4-5 hours in total once you factor in travel time.

And evening events don't work if you need to be at home to get dinner ready, don't want to pay for childcare, or that's when you're coaching clients around your job.

Is it any wonder that online networking has become so popular for coaches?

The advantage with networking online is that you call the shots – you login at a time that suits you, look for opportunities to chat to people and see whether you can help them, or someone they know, with a challenge they're facing. You can get to know people fairly well and build up a relationship of trust.

But for anyone who's done a lot of networking online, there's nothing quite like meeting someone face to face is there?

I was intrigued when Andy Lopata told me about his new venture – Word of Mouse, when I interviewed him for this website a couple of months ago (go to the Download Library). What intrigued me was that it's a virtual community of business people, grouped by location. What's good about that is that you can get to know people online and then arrange to meet them as they're in your local area.

Like some of the formal breakfast networking groups such as BRX (previously BRE) and BNI, there is only one person representing each type of business in a group. But you don't have the commitment of having to meet regularly.

I've recently joined the London e-circle (as the groups are called) and we're just about to arrange our first get-together. If you're in the UK, you might like to check it out because unlike many groups where you have exclusivity, there are actually vacancies for coaches. I expect that this is because the site has just come out of beta-testing, so most coaches don't know about it yet.

If you're outside of the UK, look on Google for online networks that cater for coaches and other small businesses.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Have you your own experience in this area that you would like to share? We welcome our members contribution. If you have a success story or something to add please feel free to add your comments below.