Tell your clients what coaching is
Getting clients for your coaching business is easier if you tell them what it is!
Define your coaching services
When I first began offering coaching to writer clients, I had copy on my website that said something like, “I offer coaching services for all aspects of writing and publishing.” If a potential client got in touch to ask me what kind of coaching I did, I would say something like, “Anything that is outside of a typical edit on a manuscript.”
Hardly anyone ever hired me to coach them.
I thought that “I can help you solve most writing- and publishing-related problems!” was a great marketing strategy. It wasn’t. It didn’t help potential clients visualize why they would ever need coaching.
How to market yourself when coaching writers
Then I started listing specific things I could do:
- I can provide feedback on query letters based on my experience as a literary agent and as an acquisitions editor
- I can show you how to solve plot or characterization problems in the novel you’re writing now
- I can help you get unstuck when you can’t seem to figure out what happens next
- I can interpret rejection letters so that you can understand where your ms is not hitting the mark with agents
- I can review your revision chapter-by-chapter to make sure you’re staying on the right track
Once I started doing this, people hired me! They could see themselves needing the services I was offering. They also began to ask specific questions like, “I can’t figure out how to write a good synopsis. Can you help?” It wasn’t on my list but, yes, I could help. (And then I’d add it to the list.)
Defining exactly what you can do for a potential client should be the first step in your marketing plan.
Other Helpful Content
-
Your Real Skills Are Never Outdated
Once upon a time, ten key by touch was one of the most sought-after skills I possessed. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s basically being able to quickly enter numerical data into a computer. I’m sure there are still jobs where it’s a helpful skill to have, but…
-
Helping authors create strong character arcs
Readers like to see character change, even if the change is small, and even if the change is negative. Often a character will be just the same at the start of the story as at the finish, and generally this is less satisfying to the reader than when a character is confronted with the need…
-
How Character Motivations Create Meaning
In my teaching, I focus a lot on helping editors understand how character, plot, and setting work together. These are the tools with which authors build stories. But there’s another we shouldn’t overlook: theme. Readers read stories not merely to find out what happens but to understand what it means. Causes Create Meaning I often…
