As a coach or consultant, you most likely create programs designed to draw in new and returning clients.

Whether designed for groups or individuals, you provided needed advice and other offers for your audience.

However, as anyone knows, the biggest hurdle is getting people to register. Afterall, teaching requires students, right?

While you can make social media posts or advertise it on your website, sometimes that’s not enough. 

So, what do you do if the ‘traditional’ ways to get butts in seats aren’t working?

When you’re struggling to boost attendance you’re going to have to reach out to people in different ways.

Here’s five fantastic (and super effective) ways to help you to share the value your programs offer and attract more people to register for your coaching or consulting programs.

Make Calls

Ok, stay with us here. We know that picking up the phone and calling people may be a little uncomfortable for some.

We’ve become accustomed to reaching out via emails and text messages.

While it’s true that written communication allows you to plan out what you will say, making calls provides other benefits we simply can’t ignore.

Making a phone call allows for a two-way conversation.

You have the opportunity to personally interact with people. You get to build or deepen relationships and find out what is happening in their lives. 

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Valuable Conversations

Understanding where your clients are at will help you 

• Design better programs around your client's needs
• Gain insight as to why they may not be signing up (time, fear, money)
• Increase your odds for registrations and referrals

Moreover, those personal interactions will help your clients more fully understand how the program can benefit them, on a personal level. 

All that said, don’t just pick up the phone and start dialing. 

• Make a plan. 
• Be strategic. 
• Draft a loose script but stay open to letting the conversation flow.

Start by reaching out to those that you already formed a relationship with. Previous clients, prospective customers, and anyone else that you know who would be interested in your program.

If Not You, Then Who?

Even if the person says no, don’t be afraid to ask if they can think of anyone that could benefit from the program you’re offering. 

When you get a referral, always ask the person the best way to reach out to their colleague, friend, or family member. 

Referrals can mean more butts in seats but even more valuable is they grow your audience and allow you to reach people you would not have been able to otherwise. 

If you’re still saying, “Umm, yeah. This introvert will never be comfortable with making calls.” That’s ok.

Even though calling is about relationship building, this is something you can delegate.

Believe it or not, there are people out there that love this stuff; it’s their zone of genius!

If you don't feel comfortable making these phone calls, you might want to enlist some help from a super outgoing virtual assistant skilled at relationship marketing to handle them for you.

Send Personal Emails

Automation is a huge time-saver. We are strong supporters of automating everything you possibly can. However, every blessing can also be a curse. 

Spam folders coupled with everyone’s overwhelm with coupon after coupon means it’s a bit tougher to stand out in your client’s inbox. 

This means that you take the time to write the personal emails to your key contacts. From you, to them.

Relate Appropriately

For example, if you have a strictly professional relationship, then you can use a professional tone and style.

However, if you are acquaintances, then use a more friendly and approachable tone. This further communicates to the receiver that this is indeed a personal email especially for them. 

In short, strive to relate to the individual recipient.

Keeping the receiver in mind and communicating that you took time to reach out and that you care can deliver a great return on your time investment. 

Again, be strategic with these.

Make a list of people in your direct circle of influence that would be interested in your program, offer you valuable feedback, or would be strong supporters with qualified referral leads.

Create an Online Presence

Phone calls and writing personal emails are effective but you’re going to need a way to reach people with a wider sweep. 

Videos and live social media posts are a great way to get your message out in an interactive way. 

Show Personality!

• Create a video that explains the program and how it can benefit potential users.
• Go ‘live’ at the start of your promotion and right before registration ends (a few times in between won’t hurt either) to allow people to ask personal questions and to build excitement and value for your program. 
• Create a video showing any handouts or materials they will be getting with the program; their take-aways. 
• Use personal pictures, not just stock images. Show people what your program will offer them. 

These visual, interactive, and connection-based posts help your potential clients process information more easily and helps them relate better to the content and messages that you share with them.

Don’t stop there. Make sure you’re commenting and responding to people on your social channels. This will help your customers develop more trust and interest in your offers and programs.

In short, use images and videos to easily invite people to register for your programs in a creative way.

Appear on Podcasts

Join in on podcasts in your niche to spread brand awareness.

This is a great way to grow your audience, help people find out about you, and connect with more potential clients. If you’re really loving this idea, check out this article on being a podcast guest.

Being a guest on a podcast is the perfect opportunity to share your program while you discuss interesting topics with like-minded people.

If you land a podcast guest spot, focus on sharing interesting points of view or content during the podcast to catch the attention of listeners.

It’s not only about plugging your program it’s about building credibility, allowing people to get to know you, and feel comfortable with you. 

Contribute to Attract

Join high-quality podcasts that fit your audience. This way, you can attract the right people to join your coaching programs while contributing valuable content to the podcast itself. The result? 

• Gain more traction, attention and interactions for your program.
• Draw in high-quality customers potential clients.
• Build your know-like-trust factor with a wide reach

Showing up as a guest on a podcast allows you to draw in more customers, make them feel comfortable and spread your program to potential clients.

Pay for Ads

Sometimes you need a little dough to get a rise in attendance. 

Puns aside, paying for ads remains an excellent way to get more people to register for your programs.

Even with a small budget, paid ads allow you to share your programs with people that may have an interest in them.

This is where metrics and algorithms become your friend.

For example, if you offer life coaching, then the algorithm will aim for people that would be most open to your services.

Target the Right People

Whether you pay to...

• Boost a post.
• Run a social media ad campaign,
• or opt for the pay-per-click model (you pay a website for every person that clicks on your ads)

you’re drawing the attention of specific people who would be most interested in your brand. 

Paying for ads can help put butts in seats while growing your list.

Bonus benefits are building brand awareness, driving more traffic to your website, and helping people find you when they are asking the search engines questions that you can answer. 

We sound like a broken record but if you’re going to put your hard-earned money on the line make sure to spend some serious time designing and implementing ads for your programs.

Mirror Your Model

In conclusion, if the traditional ways of program promotion are not filling your virtual classroom seats give one (or all) of these ideas a try to help you stand out.

Track your data so you can determine which method or combination of methods works the best to attract your ideal client. 

Always be expanding your overall reach.

Don’t stop if the traditional methods aren’t producing the results you’re looking for.

At the end of the day, coaching and consulting is a deeply personal business model, let your marketing strategies mirror that. 

As you do, you’re likely to see more butts in seats and more dough on your bottom line.  

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.

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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. 

LinkedIn? Is that still a thing?

Oh, wait, that’s the “social media network” for finding a job, right? Can that even be considered “social media”?

LinkedIn has often been considered a black sheep of the social media networks because it doesn’t really feel, well, social.

But, it does, in fact, check all the boxes on what Wikipedia considers social media. (You can check those out here).

What makes us think less of LinkedIn is that it tends to have a singular purpose and not a place we would regularly “hang out” like we do on Facebook or Instagram or even Twitter.

That being said, LinkedIn is like it’s very own business networking event. It’s not just for job seekers anymore.

LinkedIn has grown up a little and now offers a valuable place to find and connect with new leads.

Is Networking on LinkedIn right for me?

Before deciding if LinkedIn is the right place for you to network, you should know the demographics of who’s there.

According to Omnicoreagency.com:

• There are currently 154 million LinkedIn users in the US.
• 61 million users are senior level or above.
• 40 million users are students or recent college graduates.
• There are 87 million Millenials on the platform.
• 44% of LinkedIn users earn more than $75,000 per year.

What does that mean for you? If you have a product or service that targets professionals of any age or are in a B2B industry, then LinkedIn may be a great place to get new leads!

How to Network on LinkedIn

First, let me say this is not another post telling you how to optimize your profile page. Yes, that’s important, but there are plenty of articles out there that will teach you how to do that. Here’s one of my favorite by the awesome John Nemo.

I find a lot of LinkedIn trainings only focus on how to set up your profile. But what then?

It’s important to have a strategy around what you will do once your profile is created. Unfortunately, “If you build it, they will come” only works in Kevin Costner movies.

This article isn’t focused on what to post in articles or the news feed. Our primary plan to network on Linkedin is to reach out and connect via messages.

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But First: Know your Audience

Working with coaches and speakers for almost 15 years, I’d guess this is probably the number one reason they don’t use LinkedIn more often.

LinkedIn works best when you know who you want to connect with. Need help with this? Check out our article on finding your target audience.

I don’t mean that you have to personally know the head of HR at Zappos. And it doesn’t even mean you would have to know their name.

What it means is knowing the title, interests, and other demographics of the person you want to connect with.

You see, LinkedIn has this really amazing people search.

You can search by name, title, company, college, location, industries and more.

Some of this detail is searchable within the actual search feature and some of it is just a magical thing that happens when people customize their profile headline to contain certain information.

For example, my headline used to read:

I help coaches, consultants, & speakers grow their businesses & have more time by providing virtual assistant services.

Because of this, I would get connection requests on a regular basis from people looking to connect with coaches.

Your first step, then, is to make a list of the types of people you’d like to reach out to.

Then do a search for those types of people!

I recommend targeting your first level connections as a starting point. This is a warmer audience and LinkedIn allows you to message them for free.

Break the Ice

The best Linkedin networking scripts I’ve found are created by John Nemo. If you haven’t heard this guy, you should really check out his podcast, he’s quite entertaining!

The next step is to make that first contact. Here’s where a lot of people go wrong. Their first message is all about them. They want to reach out and instantly share all the details about what they are selling. When someone does this to me, it’s an instant “unfriend”.

Instead, break the ice. Take a little time to check out their profile. Find something in common. It’s Linkedin NETWORKING after all, not Linkedin cold calling!

For example:

• Did you attend the same school?
• Are you from the same town?
• Do their group interests align with yours?

Yes, it takes a little more time to read through each profile to find something you might be able to connect on but it’s well worth your time.

Once you’ve found something, message them and start a conversation around that topic.

Gently Lead In

Your next message will be a soft offer. Perhaps you have a free optin or webinar the prospect may be interested in. Nemo suggests not just sending them a link but inviting them to raise their hand. If they say they are interested, THEN send them a link. It will come across far less spammy that way. It also helps you to track who is actually engaging with your messages.

What’s Next

Nemo has an entire process for Linkedin Networking that he’s outlined in his book, Linkedin Riches. I highly recommend you get the Kindle or paperback version so you can best use the scripts he shares.

Of course, if you’d rather have someone else set up the details and work your initial leads, that’s a great area to outsource when you have the right team in place.

Virtual A Team is actively using the Nemo approach to Linkedin Networking with a few of our clients and our own business. If you’d like some help implementing this approach into your business contact us for a free consultation.

Networking on Social Media

If you aren’t ready or Linkedin isn’t the right fit for your business, check out our other Networking Articles:

How To Network on Facebook

How To Network on Instagram

I work with a lot of coaches and many of them struggle to identify their target audience. When I ask them, in our initial interview, who they work with it is often vague at best.

Let’s talk about dating apps. Bear with me, it’s totally relevant and I’ll get to the point.

Dating apps help daters find “the one” in an enormously large dating pool. If you’ve been dating recently (I have many friends on this journey right now), you know there are a LOT of stinkers and few good eggs in the pool. Dating apps help a user narrow their search to people who have the qualities they desire.  And they cut anyone who doesn’t fit what they are searching for.

George is a handsome 24 year old…

Too young.

Michael is a world class traveler…

I hate to fly.

Stephen loves to cook, hike, and spend quiet evenings in front of a fire…

Oh, this guy has potential.

Prospects for your coaching business need something like a dating app to help them determine if your business is the right fit for them.

Susan is a coach who focuses on women in menopause who…

Not quite menopausal, yet...

Todd is a coach who works with men struggling in their relationships…

I’m a woman.

Margaret is a coach who helps solopreneurs create systems in their business and life…

Now, this might be a good fit.

And this is just the surface. Knowing exactly what you do and who you work with will help your ideal prospect instantly see themselves working with you above all others.

The Target Audience Myth

Some coaches are afraid that if they have a niche or target audience, they may lose out on working with other people. Let me just play Mythbusters for a moment.

My target audience, at a very high level, is working with coaches and speakers. That doesn’t mean I don’t work with financial advisors, professional organizers, or real estate professionals. It simply means my marketing is directed to those individuals who are my bread and butter clients.

It’s called IDEAL or TARGET for a reason. It means it isn’t the ONLY people you work with, just the ones you MOST want to work with. My marketing is all about women. I include tons of pictures of shoes and “girly” stuff and yet I have male clients as well.

Don’t assume that creating an ideal target audience is limiting who you can do business with.

Benefits of Finding Your Ideal Target Audience

So what are some of the benefits to having a target audience?

• Eliminate the prospects you just aren’t interested in working with. I don’t work with retail businesses and I don’t work with e-commerce related businesses. They just don’t make me happy. By knowing this, I can invest my time on finding “the one”.
• Save money on marketing. Marketing isn’t cheap these days. It’s harder and harder to get the same results that were once free. By honing in on who you want to target, you increase your results while decreasing your costs.
• Save time. It’s time-consuming to create content for “everyone”. And often “everyone” content is boring and just doesn’t speak to anyone so no one ends up listening. Creating content for your target audience takes the same amount of time but doesn’t land on deaf ears.

Do you remember the ads with Colin Kaepernick for Nike? Those ads were very polarizing. You either went out and bought a pair of Nike shoes or burned the ones you currently own. For Nike, they knew exactly who their target audience was and didn’t care if they offended a large section of the population. Nike was able to speak to their niche in a way that got many of them raising their hands and opening their wallets.

Sure, Nike lost some buyers but they more than made up for it in a boost to their sales.

This is where knowing who your target audience is can be very valuable.

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How to Choose your Target Audience

There are a few steps you can take to help you narrow down and find your target audience.

Step 1 - It's About You

If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.

What do you love? Let’s be honest, if you can work with people that have something in common with you, you’ll both have a more pleasant and productive experience.

Make a list of everything you are interested in or passionate about.

Step 2 - Don't Sell Snake Oil

This is where a lot of coaches get hung up. They want to solve every problem for every person. It’s like listening to the old snake oil salesmen hawking their wares. It cures everything from arthritis to zygomycosis!

Think of it this way, when you have brain cancer, you want to go to a doctor who specializes in brain cancer, not a generalist who does a little of this and a little of that.

Focus in on the problems you really love to solve.

Once you have some ideas of problems you solve, do a little research. Use forums like Reddit and Quora to see how many people are asking about that problem. Look up books on the topic and see what’s out there. Use this information to fine-tune your specialty. You can also use it to discover how in demand a solution for this problem may be.

Step 3 - SHOW ME THE MONEY!

You may be absolutely in love with the idea of working with homeless women in need of life skills and there is definitely a demand for this. But, can your desired audience pay, and are they willing to?

Finding your niche target audience means identifying that sweet spot where there’s a need, a desire, and a willingness to pay for the solution. Missing one or more can make finding ideal clients that much harder.

One note: Competition for your target audience isn’t a bad thing. It means there is already money being made in your target niche. No competition? Odds are, you haven’t stumbled on a new idea, you’ve stumbled on an idea that is hard to monetize.

Is Your Multipassion Getting in Your Way?

Many coaches are multipassionate. They love to do a LOT of things and this makes it hard to land on a specific niche. When they start to think about this, it almost feels claustrophobic, like they are being boxed in.

Here’s the thing, you can work outside the box even when you have a small group you work with. It’s about changing the way you define your audience.

Focus more on interests than on demographics.

Is your audience artsy? Do they love to be outdoors? It may not matter if they are male or female, young or old, if they have something in common, laser in on that.

Where do they spend their time?

It could be a club, group, or parenting organization. They may choose to volunteer or go to professional networking meetings. Figure out where they hang out and that will help you know what they have in common.

What are they passionate about?

Sometimes taking a stand can be smart marketing, just like it was for Nike. Knowing what your audience is passionate about can help you filter out who they are. Animal rights? Anti-bullying?

Often this comes from your own passions. If you are at odds with the beliefs of your target audience, they will sense that.

Is there something special or unique about them?

I once had a client who preferred to work with autistic entrepreneurs. She had an autistic child who always wanted to start a business and found that to be her unique niche. She did well with it as there aren’t a lot of people on the “dating app” that are attracted to autistic entrepreneurs.

Think about the problems you solve, what about that problem ties this group together?

I have one client who is a communications coach. She works with professional women to help them find their voice in the workplace. Now, she could focus on entrepreneurial women or women in relationships and what she does applies to all of them but her messaging is geared towards her IDEAL target audience.

How to Create a Winning Buyer Persona

Now that you have identified your target niche, it’s time to create the buyer persona. Think of this as the “job description” for your ideal target audience. Who are they, where do they hang out, what do they like to do?

Creating a buyer persona can be an entertaining process. It’s like building a cartoon character for an animated film where your business is the star. Using an image to represent the persona helps support the description you create.

Let’s say that you own a career coaching business that helps millennials find the right career that matches their personalities and skills. You will have about 3 to 4 buyer personas that depict your intended audience. Three examples are given below.

Buyer Persona #1: Jane, the Late 20 Something Year Old Trying to Change Careers

    Name: Jane

    Age: 26

    Average Salary: US$56,000 per annum

    Location: Chicago, Illinois

    Interests: Writing, reading, charity work

Description: Jane has been working in corporate America for the past 6 years and is tired of the monotony. She wants a career where she can use her writing skills to create meaningful impact. She is looking for advice about becoming a solopreneur and how to build a successful small business that will enable her to leave her 9 to 5.

Buyer Persona #2: Patrick, Early 30-Year-Old Looking for a New Position in the Same Industry   

 Name: Patrick

  Age: 31

  Average Salary: US$75,000

  Location: Chicago, Illinois

  Interests: Finance, investment banking, business development

Description: Patrick has been working as a financial analyst for the past 5 years. He enjoys working in the finance sector but wants to transition to an investment banking career. He is looking for advice about the best way to use his existing skills to find the right job in that area.

Buyer Persona #3: Lisa, 30-Year-Old with a New Postgraduate Degree

    Name: Lisa

     Age: 30

     Average Salary: US$65,000 per annum

     Location: Chicago, Illinois

     Interests: Entrepreneurship, business development

Description: Lisa recently completed an MBA and wants to stand out as a great business management candidate. She wants help finding the right job,  creating a strong resumé and excelling in the intense interviews she will face at this level.

What Can You Learn From These Buyer Personas?

• Be as specific as possible. You’ll be more equipped to reach your target audience if you’re very specific about who you’re trying to reach.

• Name your personas. It makes it easier to reference them when planning your campaigns.

• Images speak volumes. Notice that the images used in these buyer personas featured people of color. The needs of this target audience are quite different from those of a Caucasian audience. Do you want to create an avatar for your buyer persona? You can create one easily by clicking here.

• The buyer personas represent 3 different types of people with completely different needs. Yes, they all need career advice but the type of advice they need differs. You must create highly personalized campaigns that meet the needs of each persona. If you try to say the same message to all 3 individuals, none of them will feel like you are speaking to them and all 3 are likely to pass.

Need help creating your buyer persona? We love this handy tool from Hubspot. Make My Persona

The Proof is in the Dating

When you finally find your ideal target audience, it’s like finding “the one”. There’s less effort involved in attracting and keeping them around. The whole process just feels... GOOD, for both people.

Once you’ve identified your audience and crafted your buyer persona, you can use that information to focus your marketing so that you save time and money.

Want more help fine-tuning your ideal target audience? Join the Business Building for Coaches and Speakers group on Facebook and post your questions there.