The #1 Marketing Mistake Coaches Make

Do this and you’ll have a hard time building your business

Every time I see these statistics, I want to cry.

80% of health & wellness coaches fail within the first few years … and 95% of them fail eventually.

The reason why is that most coaches struggle to market themselves effectively. They don’t know what to say or do to get more clients.

There’s 1 marketing mistake I see all the time. I want to show you what it is so you can avoid it. I’m also going to show you what to do instead.

If you do this with your marketing, you’ll go from being invisible to becoming practically impossible to ignore.

Let’s start with the #1 marketing mistake I see coaches make…

Most Health & Wellness Coaches Market The Wrong Thing

You probably invested loads of time and money learning how to help people solve their health problems.

So it’s natural to think that’s what your marketing should be about –– your ability to solve people’s health problems.

The problem is, messaging that focuses on you or your solution is easy for people to ignore. Here’s why…

Most people’s self-talk focuses on themselves and their problems. It’s not really about solutions. That’s just the way the brain works.

Besides, when it comes to people’s health, they rarely know what kind of solution will give them the results they want. (Which is why they still have the problem.)

The good news is, that gives you a tremendous opportunity. Because if you know how to market yourself well, you can position yourself as THE answer to their problems.

Before we get into that, let me show you some examples of solution-focused marketing.

I did a search for “health coaches near me.” Here are some screenshots of the website homepages that came up.

(To respect the coach’s privacy, I covered up anything that would personally identify them.)

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Homepage #1

This coach is selling her solution: Nutrition Coaching.

A headline like that would attract women who believe poor nutrition is disrupting their quality of life … that their life would be better if only their nutrition was better.

Personally, I don’t know anyone who's losing sleep over “nutrition.”

Sure, some people might argue with me thinking it’s obvious what she means. Or that a person can connect the dots on their own.

But that makes the reader do the work. And it’s up to you to do the work.

Otherwise you’re leaving a lot up to chance.

There’s also another problem with this headline. It says “midlife changes everything – your nutrition should, too.”

So it’s trying to teach and sell at the same time. That’s a marketing no-no. It’s nearly impossible to do.

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Homepage #2:

This coach helps people with their “mindset,” which is a solution. It’s also very abstract.

The coach may believe mindset is the problem (and it may very well be part of the problem). But most people will be focused on the problem their mindset creates.

It also takes a very evolved person to know their mindset is the problem.

Not only that … It's also a little insulting. If their mindset is the problem, it means it’s their fault.

Nothing shuts a person down faster than telling them they’re to blame for their problem (even if it’s true).

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Homepage #3:

This is another example of selling a solution: Holistic nutrition and lifestyle coaching.

She promises to help me reach my goals. What if my goal is to climb Mount Everest? Or organize my home? Or launch a coaching business?

I could be wrong, but I’m not sure how holistic nutrition and lifestyle coaching would help me reach any of those goals!

She then tells her story. That’s another mistake. And it’s a good segue to the last example I want to show you…

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Homepage #4:

Honestly, I have no idea what this coach does.

It seems like she thinks people are tossing and turning in their bed at night, wondering why she became a coach?

Oh wait! Maybe that’s why so many women wake up at 3 in the morning! (And we thought it was perimenopause.)

Okay, now I’m being silly. But the point is, no one cares why a person becomes a coach. The only thing people care about is whether or not the coach can help them solve their problem.

Alright, enough tearing apart people’s homepages. (Just realize none of these will help those coaches get more clients.)

So if you aren’t supposed to market “you” or your solution, what should you be marketing?

The Best Way For A Health Coach To Market Their Business

The most effective marketing focuses on one thing:

It focuses on a problem the person knows they have and are highly motivated to get rid of.

This is the key to marketing success, so let me say it again...

The key to marketing yourself successfully is to:

1. Focus on a problem

2. The problem needs to be a problem the person is aware they have

3. And it needs to be bad enough that they’re highly motivated to get rid of it

I know a lot of health coaches are worried about this approach. They feel focusing on helping people with 1 specific problem will limit them. They think casting a wide net will make it easier to find more clients.

But actually, the opposite is true. You simply can’t create messaging that people will read if you market yourself that way.

Instead, you’ll create messaging that’s easy to ignore.

In our “nutrition coach” website example, I’m sure she can help people lose weight, reverse diabetes, and boost energy. She could focus on any one of those problems. That would give her the opportunity to create messaging that will grab a person’s attention.

Let’s look at an example.

Let's say you’re a truck driver with high blood sugar. You know you have the annual Department of Transportation physical coming up. And you know your big rig license could be suspended if your blood sugar is too high.

Which website headline would grab your attention?

Holistic nutrition and lifestyle coaching to help you reach your goals.

Or…

How Truckers Lower Their Blood Sugar So They Can Pass The DOT Exam
... without exercising, taking time away from their route, or feeling hungry

The second headline sounds like the coach understands the issues a trucker has to deal with. And they have a solution that addresses those issues.

A coach with that kind of offer could corner the market on truckers with high blood sugar. And there are 500,000 of them in the U.S. … plenty for a coach to build a profitable business based on that one offer alone!

Hopefully you can see the power of focusing your marketing on a specific problem people want solved!

In case you’re not sure how to pick a “good problem,” I wrote another post that will help you. It walks through a process to help you find an audience that wants to work with you.

It’s for paid subscribers, but you can use your trial option if you’re not ready to upgrade to paid.

Here’s a link to it:

Why The “Pick a Niche” Advice Backfires

So here’s the bottom line…

If you want to get more coaching clients, you need to start thinking like a marketer. That’s what this Substack, Be A Profitable Health Coach, is all about … helping you become better at marketing yourself so you get more coaching clients.