Branding your coaching business is fundamental to reaching your business growth goals.

Are you wondering how to brand your coaching business in a way that sets you up for whopping success?

Maybe you already have a coaching life, but you're not reaching enough people.

Together we will uncover the importance of branding, how to choose the identity of your coaching life, and break down the steps for your branding plan. 

Why branding your coaching business is important

Marketing and branding are both important, but the difference between the two is what makes branding so important for your coaching life.

"Branding" is who you are; the person. And "marketing" is how you build awareness for that identity; the logo.

Both are important to expanding your reach and maintaining client loyalty.

As a solopreneur, you’ve got to stand out among 7.8 billion people. People buy from people not logos so branding is how you educate your audience about who you are.

How to brand your coaching business

Now that we understand the importance of branding, you might be wondering how you can brand your coaching life?

If you have a solid understanding of who you are, what your story is, and what you stand for, you're already halfway there.

Branding communicates those things in layers, allowing people to get the full sense of what it will be like to do business with you.

Successfully branding your coaching business will leave a mental imprint that immediately comes up when they think of your business.

So, let's come up with an effective branding strategy for your coaching business.

In our experience, there are generally four elements to keep in mind when coming up with a branding strategy.

Let's break these four elements down so you can create an effective branding strategy for your coaching life.

• Brand Value – What do you stand for? What is the reason you do what you do? Your “why”. Your brand values typically guide your actions, your decisions, and how you influence.

• Niche – What are you good at? When you tell someone that you are a life coach, the term is so broad that you will need a niche to communicate specifically who would benefit the most from your skills. An example of a niche for a life coach is a Health and Fitness Coach. You can view more examples of niches in your field by clicking here for inspiration.

• Target Audience – Your target audience is who will you be coaching. Will your audience have an age range or limit? Is your coaching life for an audience of a specific gender? For more information about your target audience matters and how to find one, check out this article

• Brand Identity – Your coaching brand will come to life with your branding identity; the brand identity is basically a physical or visual representation of your brand.

With those questions answered, you can confidently move forward in laying out your brand strategy for your coaching life. 

Awesome! Now, we are going to put all these elements together to create your brand identity. 

You will need a brand name, slogan, mission statement, logo, and color scheme for your brand identity. First thing's first, let's think of a name for your coaching life.

Download our Ultimate Guide to Delegating for More Tips & Tools on How to Delegate as a Solopreneur

What's in a Name

You may already have the perfect name for your coaching life—and maybe you do, but before you make a final decision there are a few things to consider.

For example, should you name your business after yourself?

Should you include your initials or family name in the title of your business?

Let's explore some issues people have when naming their business and how you can avoid them.

• Using your own name: If your professional coaching life fails, it may give a bad reputation to your name. If you try to start another business with a bad reputation to your name, you're already starting off on a bad foot with your audience. What if you decide to merge with another life coach? You will probably have to change your name to James & Janet's to make your partner feel included or change the name altogether. What if you get married or your legal name changes?

• Unexclusive name: If the name isn't unique, someone else most likely already has it. This is a name that can run into legal issues. One way to possibly avoid this is by registering your name properly. Each state is different, but you can learn more about the proper way to register your business name by clicking here.

• Too narrow: If the name of your business is too narrow, it might become irrelevant long term. For example, if in 1998 you named your business "Twentieth Century Fitness" by the year 2001, your business would have  become "irrelevant" because it was outdated. This is the main reason we now know FOX as Fox and not Twentieth Century Fox as it was originally called.

• Domain availability: A domain is the name of your website. Using your business name in the website link makes it easy to find you, but sometimes that domain is already taken. A quick fix to this issue is to check the domain before registering the name. Another way you can prevent this issue is by spelling the name uniquely. For example, you might choose to call your business Appl3 instead of Apple.

Great job on choosing a name for branding your coaching business life, but we need a catchphrase that captures the attention of our audience and makes it stick in their minds.

If I were to ask you what you wanted to eat and you answered, "Something…fresh" I would automatically think of Subway, and you want to know why? It's because they use the slogan "Eat Fresh".

Slogans are typically two to seven words long. Do you have a catchphrase in mind for your coaching life?

We are making so much progress, and I can't wait to see the completion of your ideas in the end!

Along with a slogan, businesses typically have a mission statement. Everything we discussed earlier including your niche, your target audience, and your purpose, will all be included in this statement.

Your mission statement is not something you advertise, but it is needed to explain why your business exists.

Logo and Color Scheme

We got through the boring part of branding, but now it's time for the fun part! Let's talk about the logo for your business.

The logo and the color scheme of your business go hand-in-hand so we can kill two birds with one stone. Haven't you always wanted to design your own logo?

Some people prefer to purchase a logo instead of making their own, but let's explore these options together.

Whether you want to purchase your logo or design it yourself, deciding on a color scheme is still our next step.

Why is a color scheme important? It seems like such a minor detail that it shouldn't matter, right? Well…not quite.

The Importance Behind Colors in Branding

I learned the importance of color scheme from Rebecca Kowalewicz, the Vice President of Clearbridge Branding Agency. She wrote the article, "The Colors of Branding" for Forbes magazine and I would like to share what I have learned with you.

The color scheme is important in business branding because it reveals the value and character of your brand. Since colors are associated with value, they connect with your audiences' emotions.

Kowalewicz also says that most of the time your brand will consist of three colors: the base, the accent, and the neutral color. The base color is normally used for the name or the focus of your logo, and the neutral color is used for the background.

Businesses can choose to alternate the color scheme, but the accent is used to decorate your logo and is not the main focus. Think about Netflix, for example. The word "Netflix" is in bold red and the background is black; but sometimes the word "Netflix" is white, and the background is red.

Your brand colors are probably going to be used on your uniform, business cards, website, flyers, and logo. That's why it's important that you consider them carefully.

Remember that your brand gives people an insight into who you are as a life coach. That's why it's important to review the meaning of the colors together.

Meanings Behind Colors in Branding

When you walk into your local market, have you noticed how it is decorated with red during Valentine's Day? Well, this is not a coincidence.

Business uses certain colors to connect with people's emotions. Since red is typically associated with passion, this is a smart way to increase purchases during Valentines.

Red also represents energy and danger. It's no wonder why brands use red to emphasize urgency.

Have you heard about the little girl who called the fire department when her house caught on fire? The dispatcher on the line asked her how to get to her house, and she answered, "Duh! Big red truck!"

Okay, that's just an old joke—but it does reveal the truth about the color red. Even little kids' memories improve when they associate objects with colors. So, what colors should you use for your logo?

As a life coach, you may want to consider colors like green, orange, and yellow.

Have you heard of Starbucks? Of course, you have. The two colors they use for their brand are green and white. Green typically represents health, growth, and safety. If you want to give your audience a sense of security and safety as a life coach, then this may be one of the colors for your color scheme.

Orange symbolizes positivity, warmth, and optimism. Some businesses use orange with yellow, which relates a message of joy, positive mentality, and inspiration.

Color scheme choices are endless... At the end of the day, it's up to you, but you can find out all the different color scheme combinations and what they mean by clicking here.

Designing Your Logo

You have a name for your coaching life, and you have an idea of the colors you want to use in your logo.

How about we look at some options for designing your logo.

You can create your design from scratch, you can use logo design websites, or you can simply pay someone to do all the work. Which option sounds more pleasing to you?

If you want to create your logo from scratch, one way to do that is to use a software or app like Adobe Illustrator. This gives you full control of your design and you are not limited by what you can do.

If you use software like Adobe or Photoshop, you can create your own text font and style with the tip of your finger—literally. However, designing a logo from scratch isn't for everyone.

If you're not willing to watch countless tutorial videos to figure it out, you may want to use an online logo building service.

Canva is a popular one. The logos are simple to create. Just type in your business name, choose your industry, and the fonts you like. The downside is that you are limited when it comes to the designs and they look stock and unoriginal.