For a lot of people, while you might have passion for the work that you do in marketing, you might feel like your ability to keep working and growing in a traditional marketing team, or even as a freelancer, has its limitations. Moving from part of the team to the top of the team might not sound like the right move for you. Instead, you might decide that you would rather help people get a better understanding of the marketing world and the process to shape their own campaigns. Marketing coaches do just that, and it can be a very worthwhile, not to mention well-paid, path. But how do you decide it’s for you?
Make Sure You Have The Experience
First of all, it’s important ot understand what people are looking for from coaching. Having great ideas and an organised approach is all well and good, but if you don’t have the track record to back it up, then you have to ask yourself why people are going to listen to you in the first place. First, you need to establish a successful career in marketing, with a portfolio that you’re able to draw from and be able to show to clients so that they know they’re working with someone from an actual position of some authority in the field.
Find A Niche To Specialise In
While you’re working in the marketing industry, hopefully, you should find yourself naturally gravitating towards certain techniques, marketing methods, or platforms that you’re able to become a specialist in. Having a general, broad sense of marketing strategy is great and recommended, but being able to focus on a niche, or even multiple niches, can help you draw those clients with very specific needs. This could be social media marketing, email campaigns, content strategy, brand positioning, paid advertising, or another focused area. A niche helps you tailor your messaging, pricing, and coaching process to those clients that you’re trying to reach, making it easy to position yourself as the correct choice for them, in particular.
Get Certified As A Coach
Having the marketing expertise and experience is one half of the coin that makes a successful skillset, but if you want to be able to coach people, then you should on the skills that coaching involves, as well. Certification isn’t necessarily always required, but by going through programs and earning qualifications like an ILM Coaching and Mentoring certificate, it does demonstrate to your clients that you’re not just there to vaguely give advice, but that you have a structured and professional means of guiding them through the coaching process that can result in real change as a result. A lot of clients are going to feel a lot more comfortable hiring a coach with recognised credentials, especially in a market that’s as competitive as marketing.
Beef Up Your Communication Skills
You’re going to learn a lot of the skills that you need in the process of earning your certification, but it’s always worth thinking about those you should be focusing on at all times, and, perhaps out of all of those, good communication is the key to successful coaching. You need to be able to explain complex ideas clearly, ask insightful questions, and listen carefully to what clients are really saying. Coaching isn’t just about talking; it’s about leading conversations, listening to needs, and being able to create actionable points and effective feedback based on what you’re hearing, as well. Written communication matters too, especially for emails, worksheets, and online content. The better you communicate, the more trust you build with clients.
Decide The Types Of Clients You Want To Focus On
Your approach to coaching and to building a coaching business can largely be dictated by what kind of client you want to attract. It’s easy to say that you want all of them, but going wide rather than deep can mean you end up catching nothing. Thinking about who your ideal client would be, and whether you want to work primarily with small businesses, startups, solopreneurs, or larger organisations. Small businesses often need hands-on guidance and practical advice, while larger companies may focus more on strategy, leadership alignment, and scalability. All of those clients are going to come with their own expectations and decision-making processes that you may need to shape your whole approach around, so choose with care.
Establish Your Process
Good coaching isn’t just about what you teach, but also how you teach it. To that end, putting together a defined coaching process can give a lot more structure to your work and show your clients that they are in capable and well-prepared hands. Of course, your process can be affected by the individual needs of the client, but that can be incorporated into the process itself. Yours might include discovery sessions, goal setting, regular coaching calls, action plans, progress reviews, and accountability check-ins. Having a repeatable framework makes your coaching more efficient and consistent, while still allowing flexibility for individual needs.
Building Your Brand
When you have your work methodology, your certification, and what kind of work you want to do with which clients in place, then you can start building the brand and online presence that helps you get out there. A professional website, active social media profiles, and a content marketing strategy that shows your expertise and how you can help should be kicking into gear as soon as possible to start drawing clients towards you. At the same time, you should be putting yourself out there, networking with other marketers, business owners, and industry groups; finding the opportunities to showcase what you know and what you can do. A good network is able to open a lot of doors, so don’t skip out on it.
Coaching can unlock a whole new direction to take your marketing skills and experience, but building those up should come first. If you need a little more time and training to get ready for that transition, follow the tips above to pave your path.