How to Market Your Coaching Offer Without Feeling Salesy
A simple marketing approach for coaches who want more clients without being self-promotional or posting constantly.
Most entrepreneurs don’t realize that you don’t have to market your coaching offer and business in a salesy way in order to sign clients. (In fact, being salesy more often than not backfires!).
So instead of doing it the hard way where it also doesn’t feel aligned, here’s a simpler way to think about marketing:
The purpose of marketing is to help the right people find you, understand you and know how to work with you.
That’s it :).
With a marketing background and having built a multi-6 figure coaching business through organic marketing, I've learned how to strip marketing back to the these three fundamental principles and make it much simpler without needing to be salesy.
So let’s break down each one so you can market your coaching offer and sign clients in this way!
The 3 Principles of Marketing Without Needing to Be Salesy
Help the Right People Find You
Being visible to your clients doesn’t mean that you have to be everywhere - it’s just about being where your ideal people are.
So the best platform to promote on is one that your clients are already on (instead of what’s trending or the most popular right now).
If you’re more introverted like me, you may find that you naturally gravitate toward - and attract clients through more intimate, long-form channels like writing, LinkedIn, podcasts or email, instead of more short attention span ones like IG or TikTok.
When you go where your people already are, marketing naturally becomes less salesy.
You’re speaking to people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, instead of trying to convince a room full of random, unaligned strangers to care about what you do.
2. Help People Understand What You Do
This is the part where you start talking about your work - and where it can feel draining when you think of marketing as you being a content machine.
But more content isn’t necessarily better.
Often you don’t need to pump out more content or post everyday - you just need to have more specificity & relevancy in your posts.
One way to make this easier is to think of your content as a love letter to your ideal client.
Instead of trying to impress, get engagement or prove your expertise, express this:
I see what you’re struggling with.
Here’s what may help you.
I can support you through it .
When your content comes from a place of genuinely wanting to help your people, it naturally feels less salesy.
And because you are focused on them instead of yourself (or your ego), it takes the pressure off so you can be fully in service.
3. Give People a Clear Invitation to Work with You
No matter how long you’ve been in business, this might be the hardest part of marketing: actually telling people they can work with you.
Especially if you’ve been taught to be humble or not brag, this can feel too self-promotional.
And here’s what I want you to know: If someone is struggling with a problem you know how to solve, and you’ve created a service specifically to help them solve it, letting them know that service exists isn’t spam or self-promotion.
You are making an invitation that is in service FOR THEM.
You are saying: I created something for you that you may want, would you like to check it out?
They want to get out of the current challenges they are in, and you have the solution to this. Think about how you felt when you first found a coach who could help you with something you were struggling with…that sense of “this is exactly what I need and I’m so thankful that you exist & I found you!”
You are the medicine that your future clients are looking for too.
FAQs about pricing your coaching offer:
✦ What if I’m promoting all the time and people get tired of it or think I’m always selling?
First of all, focus on the person that needs to hear from you - these are the people that will become your clients. Repetition is what creates trust. And second, you might feel like you are selling a lot, but remember that people only see a fraction of what you share! Keep focused on showing up for YOUR people.
✦ What if I have a small audience? How do I market without being louder or selling harder?
You don’t need a massive audience, and volume isn’t what creates sales. For most coaches, a six-figure year comes from just 25-100 of the right people, not thousands. And remember, some of your best clients are already in your orbit and quietly watching (I also have a lot of lurkers :)
✦ How do I handle other people’s opinions, especially family, as I become more visible?
It’s so normal for others’ opinions to sting, and the power of being a coach is that you’re more than capable of feeling the feeling AND bring your focus back on the people you’re serving. Those outside the arena will always have opinions, but your people are whom you’re doing this for - don’t forget how much you’re changing their lives too.
The Non-Salesy Marketing Approach for Coaches:
Marketing your coaching business doesn’t have to be loud, constant, or pushy. It comes down to three things:
You’re helping the right people find you.
You’re helping them understand what you do.
And you’re letting them know there’s a way to work with you when they’re ready.
There’s no performing, chasing, or convincing needed ;)
This is also the foundation of how I I filled up my coaching practice without ads, solely via organic marketing. One person at a time - by helping them find me, understand my services and inviting them to work with me.
After you do this, and you have someone who raises their hand and say “I’m interested”, this is where the sales conversation comes in 🙌
Check out the next post here on how to lead a sales conversation that positions your coaching offer as the obvious yes (coming soon).
And if you want more of this - the strategies, reframes, and permission slips that help your income finally catch up to your impact, make sure you sign up for the newsletter below ~
