The ability to get inside the brain of your ideal clients will help you to market your coaching services in a way that makes them an easy yes. One part of this is knowing the journey that your customers go through, from finding you to making a purchase. In marketing, this is called the customer journey. The customer journey helps coaches to be more aware of how warm their clients are likely to be when they see a piece of sales messaging.
What Is a Customer Journey?
A customer journey is the process coaching clients take from discovering you to hiring you for coaching. As the customer progresses through the stages, they have a different mindset and different needs. By meeting these needs, you can tempt them to the next stage of the customer journey.
Every customer is different, so the customer journey is a generalisation. There are many factors that can influence how quickly a customer will progress through the stages and whether they will make it through every stage. While you can’t control all of these factors, you can control how well you keep potential coaching clients moving from one stage to another.
It helps to think of the stages of a customer journey a little like dating. When you are dating someone, it takes a certain level of trust and liking your date to move to the next dating milestone. If there is uncertainty, you’re not going to progress forward until you feel more confident. If you’ve been at a stage too long without getting what you need to feel more confident, then you are likely to end the relationship without progressing.
There are 4 stages to a customer journey in coaching.
Stage 1: Discovery
Most coaching businesses first meet potential clients on social media. They have a piece of content that goes viral or is shared, and a potential coaching client clicks onto the coach’s profile to see more. If they like what they see when they browse your social media platform, they’ll follow you.
When they follow you, they enter the discovery phase, which is a little bit like the “getting to know you” phase of dating. At this stage, they are unsure if they see a future with you; they are consuming your content for entertainment and education. They are seeing if your personality and values align before they even think about taking the next steps.
Wherever you attract coaching clients for the first time, you need to make sure your content regularly provides the following things:
- Practical information – who you serve and how you help them
- Your personality – share insights into who you are and take potential clients behind the scenes of your coaching business
- Actionable advice – tips that your followers can implement to get small wins
These will provide a strong foundation for when you promote additional content
Stage 2: Looking For More Content
Once your followers value what you bring to the table, they will start actively seeking out more free content. They may look for other social media platforms or long-form content like YouTube channels and website blogs. If you promote a lead magnet/free resource or an email list, they are likely to join.
In this stage of the customer journey, your potential coaching clients have seen the value in the actionable advice you provided and are looking for more. Their needs go from “who are you?” to “what can you do for me?” To use the dating analogy, your client is seeing how you fit into their life; you’re meeting the parents and maybe even planning a short trip away in the next few months.
When your client signs up for your email list or a freebie, they are not signing up for more insight into your personal life; they are signing up for more expert advice. Every email your email list receives should contain an actionable tip. Your lead magnet or free resource should be packed with information. Coaching clients will judge the value you offer in paid courses and programs by the value you provide in your free resources.
Yes, it is a free resource, so you don’t want to put yourself out of business. But think of it a little like a trial run. Narrow the scope of the problem the free resource solves so that you can create a comprehensive solution. For example, if you are a social media coach, you could create a free resource that focuses on how to write a bio. It creates an easy win that your clients can implement in an afternoon and start seeing results. A lot of lead magnets and freebies go way too big. Narrow the scope so you can provide an instant solution. Think “5 Healthy Options You Can Eat at Wetherspoons” or “5-Minute Ab Workout You Can Do In Bed.”
Stage 3: Micro-Commitments
Not every coach uses micro-commitments, and not every coaching client will need to make a micro-commitment before purchasing a coaching package. But, micro-commitments are a great way to shorten the time it takes to get clients to take the step from consuming free content to working with you.
Coaching packages are often priced in the thousands, so clients will often take a little bit of time to build enough trust to commit to a purchase of that size. That doesn’t mean they don’t see the value in what you provide, and it certainly doesn’t mean you should lower your prices. Most people are risk averse when it comes to money.
Providing a low-cost product helps your potential coaching clients take a step rather than a leap. They get further insight into your process and can see further proof that you solve their problems. The most common micro-commitments coaches offer are:
- Books (eBooks or printed)
- Workshops that solve a specific problem in their niche (for example, how to create a dating profile that attracts your ideal partner or how to save money for your child’s higher education)
- Membership communities where prospective coaching clients pay to access additional resources and advice
Your coaching clients will be looking closely at your process and what it is like to work with you. They want to see how much support you give them and how you help them overcome any barriers. Basically, they want to see your coaching in action. To go back to our dating analogy, this would be spending two weeks living in one of your places before you make a decision to move in. No-one wants to commit to a 1-year lease only to find out their partner is a slob.
Step 4: Paying Client
This is the dream result, you have turned your follower into a paying coaching client. Depending on the client’s personality and how much pain their problem is causing them, it can take clients a different amount of time to get to this stage. A great way to speed up the process is by offering payment plans and actively promoting the fact that you have payment plans. Handing over a lump sum feels like a very big deal, but handing over a few smaller sums is a lot easier for people. It also cuts down the amount of time that lapses between your coaching clients being ready to work with you and being able to afford to work with you. If it takes them a few months to save up, they might lose interest.
How to Implement Knowledge About the Customer Journey
Before you create content or marketing asset for your business, think about what stage of the customer journey this represents. Your public-facing content like blog posts, social media, and YouTube videos will cater to a range of different stages of the customer journey. You will have people who have just discovered you, your current coaching clients, and everyone in between. It requires a mix of content.
Once you get to content or resources that require a commitment (whether a free download or paid product), then you need to view it as a vote of confidence. This free download tells you that the client sees the value in what you provide and wants to access more of your expertise. If you provide that expertise, then they will be more likely to move to future stages of the customer journey.
Think about what expectations your coaching clients will have based on their customer journey and how you can exceed those expectations.