I’m guessing you never got into coaching or consulting to do marketing (unless you’re a marketing consultant, like me). However, it’s still a critical activity to consistently attract and convert new clients. But like most coaches, you may well be stretched for time. It’s why automation for coaches in 2022 is so important. 

Building systems in a coaching business isn’t something you wait to do when you’ve finally done a successful launch either. You need to start setting them up from the beginning.

In this blog post I want to share with you:

• why automation is so important,
• the types of automations you can set up, and a
• system that will help make it easy (because I know one of the reasons you haven’t done it so far is all that confusing tech).

Why Automate Your Coaching Business?

You may have thought automation was just for businesses with big budgets to spend on software. However, much of the technology required is quite basic for what you’ll need to achieve. Plus, the volume of competition in the app space these days means its far more affordable.

You probably already have systems to run your business too, even if not yet automated. These are often the places to start to help you leverage your time.

By implementing automation, you’ll help your business in two key ways – productivity and profit.

Let’s dive into that a little deeper:

Increase efficiency

Finding ways to save time in your business frees you up to do the things that matter. You don’t need to manually book free strategy and client calls into your diary, or follow up with confirmation notices. The constant back and forth with a potential or current client can zap a lot of your day, resulting in lost time.

You also appear more efficient to your clients, which provides a much better experience for them – and you. You don’t want the first words out of your mouth to a potential client to be “sorry for all the back and forth”. Or worse, for them to give up because booking a call feels all too hard.

Boost conversions

Whether it’s an automation to attract and convert new leads, or it’s the automation that leads a potential client to become a successfully signed and paid up client, the boost in conversions from automation for coaches means increased profits.

Why haven’t coaches automated their systems already?

I can’t tell you how many people have mentioned they’re not ready to automate their business yet. Or that they’re not quite at that stage in their business.

But automation from day one can mean a much smoother transition to higher profits and the ability to cope with that growth as it happens. As mentioned before, you’re increasing the time you have available and the volume of conversions you have.

Here are some common reasons building systems in a coaching business might have felt too hard:

You want a successful launch first

I’ve heard people say they want to have a successful launch under their belt before they turn everything into an automated system. Which kind of feels counterintuitive, because you need the systems to help build an audience to launch to. Otherwise, your launch is going to struggle.

And if your launches continue to struggle, you’ll never reach the point of having systems. And without those systems, well, you’re always going to be chasing your tail looking for extra time in your day.

The tech is too complicated

I get this, as it’s probably the one thing I hear most with set up. Some clients just want to outsource it all because it feels too overwhelming. But it’s about having the right tech that doesn’t require you to tie together 10 systems with a piece of string – which is often what it feels like. Or having to continually pay someone to tweak the smallest of things.

There are so many all-in-one systems now and many that have templates, so you can simply input your information. The tech has come a long way.

Don’t know which parts of the business to automate

You don’t know what you don’t know, right? You might clearly know you want more time in your day and want to stop repeating certain tasks, but you’re not really sure how you can go about automating that task – or if automating it is even possible.

A client recently said: “I wish I could get people to go to my calendar and figure out what time I’m available, rather than all this back and forth”. “What, you mean a booking system?” I asked. “What? That’s a thing? Yes, that!”

Top 4 Types of Automation for Coaches

Let’s get into what those automations might be. The thing is, you could create all sorts of automations within your business (which I’ve done). However, you need to understand your marketing automation goals before diving in. So I want to share with you the automated marketing strategies that will help your business grow AND/OR will give you back more time. 

Burn out and overwhelm are two things that lead us to wanting to give up in the coaching space. It’s especially true if you’re at that stage of business where you’re doing one-to-one coaching, rather than one-to-many. Because there’s only so much time in a day for you to coach clients, it caps your ability to increase profits. And if a large chunk of that time is doing admin and marketing tasks, then it goes down even further.

So let’s find you some more time and profits with four automated business systems for coaches.

1. Lead Magnet to grow an aligned audience

We can’t get clients if we don’t have people to invite to work with us. Some of my clients are fortunate they’re ranking for keywords that share {what they do} + {local area}. And it’s driving consistent sales. But not everyone’s so lucky to get their website ranked at the top of Google for those types of words, especially if they’re in a competitive niche.

Whether you get some traffic from Google, people who have viewed your social media content or you’re paying for traffic, you’ll still want to ensure you have a “next step” on your website. 

Not everyone who arrives on your website is ready to invest, so you need to find a way to share why you’re a good choice, give them a solution that allows them to have a small win or aha moment, and position you as the expert.

That’s where an opt-in offer or lead magnet comes in. Basically, it’s about offering a PDF, audio, video, quiz or even tool that encourages someone to exchange their email address for that free resource.

Once they’re in your email marketing system, you can nurture them and invite them to work with you. Now, they have more trust in you, understand whether you’re a good fit and can make a more informed decision.

Here’s how your lead magnet system might look:

Once you’re getting leads into your marketing system, the next step is discovery call bookings coming through. That’s step two.

2. Discovery Call System for potential clients 

There are so many advantages to setting up a Discovery Call System – sometimes known as a Free Strategy Call System. Here is the workflow and why each step is important:

Step 1: Business coaching forms

You can set up a form inside your email marketing system and can capture all the details that are important for you to know before you get on the call. This might include how much their business turns over per year and “out of 10, how dedicated are you to achieving this goal”.

These questions ensure you’re only getting on a call with people who are genuinely interested or a good fit. My philosophy is lower calls but greater quality, rather than booking lots of calls for the sake of it. We’re about saving time here, not looking busy. The questions you ask on the form will also allow you to get straight to the point in the call, so you’re not spending a lot of time learning about their business.

Step 2: A calendar booking page

You can set up the calendar as the thank you step after they fill in the form. Most forms will allow you to redirect to a specific thank you page. You can have it go to:

• a web page with your calendar embedded on it,
• directly to your booking system or
• to a thank you page they can then click on and redirect to your booking system.

The way you set it up depends on the systems you’re using and what your goals are. For example, if you’re running Facebook ads and want to track how successful the campaign is in generating bookings, you’ll want to know how many people landed on the thank you page (ie successfully filled out the form and booked a call). This will help you work out the cost per conversion.

Set up a booking calendar so it syncs with whatever online calendar you already use. For example, Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar. In my booking software, I can then block out specific days I don’t want to take calls – like Marketing Monday and Self Care Friday (yes, they’re real days in my weekly calendar).

When someone books in my calendar, it will block out the space in Google Calendar too so I can’t double book. And even if I manually add something to my Google Calendar, it will block out the space so someone can’t book it via the booking system.

There are no excuses for double bookings now!

Step 3: Send an email confirmation

An email confirmation allows them to have all the details for the call. Some calendars will do this task for you, but you may also want to do an automated one with greater detail that comes from your email marketing system. Although, often, less is more.

In my case, an email is sent after the form is filled to thank them for filling it out. It then provides a link to my booking system again for those who missed booking in or lost the link.

Step 4: Reminder emails

For me, reminder emails automatically come from your calendar booking system. But if they don’t with your system, you may be able to configure your email marketing system to send the reminders instead.

You’ll want one a day prior to the call happening and another one an hour before the call, which remind them of all the details of how to get on the call, the time in their timezone, and what to expect during the call. In the booking system I use, the reminder emails are a chance for the potential or current client to also click a button to change their day and time if they need to reschedule. Again, this takes out me having to go back and forth with someone to find another day or time that suits.

Here’s what the system might look like:

If they say yes, you can then transition them to your Client Onboarding automation for coaches.

Often, I’m getting on a call with a potential new client not having manually interacted with them once. I do go through their form before getting on a call with them so I’m familiar with what they do and how I might be able to help based on their answers. But otherwise, my only real job is to show up to the call.

3. Client Onboarding

When you finally sign someone up to become a client, the automation doesn’t need to stop there. A new client welcome sequence can assist with taking out a lot of the work in bringing in new clients.

You can’t automate everything, so you may be able to use a virtual assistant or take on some duties yourself. But basically, your client onboarding automation will involve:

Welcome email

A welcome email congratulates them on their decision. This email can include a link for them to book their first session with you and an order form where they can click through to make their first payment.

Personally, I send this email manually, because I like to personalise it based on what we talked about on the call. I also like to include a welcome pack that gives them access to things like my Client Pathway Library with all the marketing tools, training and resources they’ll need if they want to dip into other marketing areas between coaching calls.

For international clients, I use an order form, so this can be part of a templated welcome email. But for Australian clients, I send invoices through my Xero software, which I can’t automate.

Contract email

A contract is another manual email in my business. However, the little tip here is to get an online signing tool. It allows both parties to digitally sign, before the system automatically sends both parties a completed copy.

This is how my Signwell software works, so it avoids the multiple emailing of one document as each party signs it. And if they don’t sign it within a certain period, the system will send a reminder email automatically. Again, this saves a lot of time in back and forth emails.

Expectations email

Some like to include this in with the welcome email, but for others there’s already enough information for clients to consume. A few days before the first session, you can either have an automated (or templated email you can manually send) that shares what the expectations are for your sessions. You can include things like turning up on time, boundaries with emailing or phoning, etc.

Over time you may find clients in your niche tend to do a certain thing that’s outside the boundaries of your coaching. This is where you can address that thing BEFORE it becomes an issue.

Automated invoicing

Coaching generally happens on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. If this is the case, you can either set up automated invoices if your system allows for that or send an automated email with an order form link. so it sends at the same time each month.

4. Gather testimonials and referrals

The final step in your marketing automation plan is to have clients turn into evangelists. This only needs to be a simple system. Depending on your business, you’ll send an email shortly after completing work with a client or part-way through if that makes more sense to you.

This will encourage the client to share a testimonial on Google My Business, Facebook or other platform that makes sense to you. You could also create a survey in SurveyMonkey or, if Groove’s Survey tool (when it becomes available), to capture answers to their questions. Sometimes having them answer questions is easier for those who aren’t sure what to say or get overwhelmed by the process of writing a review.

I’ve created a template I give clients that helps them know what to write to attract quality testimonials and take away the overwhelm for the client.

Depending on your business, you could send the second email a week later. This one is asking for referrals. I have a template my clients use that helps school their clients in knowing who to approach and how to approach them to ensure you’re always attracting just the right people to your business.

These are the four main automations for coaches to set up in your email marketing system. Although, there are certainly a lot more you can be doing. To avoid the overwhelm and ensure you’re focusing on the sequences that will provide the greatest outcome for your business in the short term, then these four are a great place to start.

Of course, if you’re going to create a marketing automation strategy, you’ll need an email marketing system to achieve to implement it.

What is the best CRM for coaches?

It’s the million dollar question – what email marketing system or CRM should you use? Most of the above involves sending automated emails. So you’ll need a CRM (customer relationship management) system or email marketing system.

The problem is, there are so many email marketing systems that often the research to find the right one can pull you into procrastinating and/or overwhelm. There’s just too much choice.

Then, if you decide to add in surveys, payment systems, landing pages and more, you want to find something that’s simple and possibly all-in-one. My suggestion is just to start.

Once upon a time, you could use Mailchimp because it was free and pretty simple to use. However, I now feel it’s more complicated than it needs to be and there are too many limits on the free plan to make some of the above possible.

If you’re OK with investing a little, then a few choices are:

• ActiveCampaign, which will give you email marketing with automated and broadcast emails, basic landing pages and more if you choose to go to a premium account. The downside of this is that you’ll often need to use something like Zapier to connect it to other systems.
• Kartra is a great all-in-one system that’s relatively easy to use. It comes with everything from forms and calendars, to email marketing and landing pages.
• Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is the system I’ve been using for many, many years. It has a complex email marketing and automation system. Its benefit is having ecommerce and payments build into, allowing for really smart automations.
• Groove, which is a relatively new all-in-one system, where you not only get email marketing, but websites and landing pages, sales funnels, webinars, surveys, payment systems, video, membership sites and more… The benefit of this one is that there’s a free plan you can use with no time limits attached.

I’m transitioning from Infusionsoft to Groove this year and will be sharing that process as I go through it. With Groove, you won’t have to piece together a heap of different systems that will occasionally disconnect (the most frustrating part of using lots of different brands when doing automation for coaches). And there’s a free plan to help you set up, test and deliver all of the above (without a time limit. You only upgrade if you reach the free plan contact limit).

The only downside of Groove right now is that the SMTP Driver (the part that physically sends and delivers the email) requires an external source, like Sendgrid or Amazon-SES. However, GrooveMail will have its own SMTP coming soon if you can wait. If you need help with this part, reach out and I’d be happy to help.

Similarly, if you want someone to help you set up each of the four automations, book in to chat about where you’re at and how I might be able to help.

You can get a free Groove account to get you started with automation for coaches right away.