How to go about advertising your coaching website online

Traditional style advertising is something that doesn't tend to work well for coaches and trainers. I've not heard of anyone yet who credits their success to an ad in the Yellow Pages or their local newspaper. Have you?

The reason that potential clients don't respond to traditional style adverts is just the same as the reason why they hardly ever make direct contact with you the first time they visit your website. It's because they don't want to take the risk!

Most people, when considering working with a coach, want to be able to have indirect contact and get to know the coach a little before they pick up the phone and make direct contact. Adverts, by their very nature, don't allow readers to get to know you. If anything, there's an element of suspicion where advertising is concerned. And that's not helpful as the foundation to a potential client/coach relationship.

But there are ways to advertise your website online that do work...

* Adverts combined with articles

Adverts for your services can be more successful if you combine them with an article. In my last newsletter I wrote about article marketing online and how each article always has its resource box (or advert) attached. The better the article and the more relevant the resource box is to the material contained in the article, the more likely you are to get people clicking through to your website.

This is a technique you can use offline in relevant magazines and papers too, of course. But don't forget to make sure that (a) the readership is relevant to your target market, and (b) you give them a strong call to action. Just saying that you're a life coach who works with people at a crossroads in their life, then inviting them to make contact with you won't cut the mustard!

* Ezine advertising

A great way to access potential new clients online is to identify people and organisations who have the same target market as you and who offer advertising space in their ezines. Yes, you have to pay to advertise, but in choosing relevant ezine providers, you can be sure that your advert is being sent to a highly relevant readership. I've used this technique and it really does work! Were you one of my sign-ups from an online advert I wonder?

Most ezine ads only allow you 50 words, including a link. So you need to make your copy compelling and snappy. Now if you don't have an on-the-spot offer on your website, let me tell you now that ezine advertising isn't for you just yet. Because just advertising your coaching services won't do the trick here. What you need to do is advertise your free offer. Nothing more. Get people to your website, get them opting into your mailing list and downloading your free report. It's a fast way to grow your list.

As with offline publications, you must make sure that any ezine you choose has a relevant readership. Check the size of the distribution too. As a personal rule of thumb, I wouldn't choose to advertise unless the ezine went out to at least 10,000 readers.

Best way to find ezines to advertise with? Take a look at what already lands in your inbox. If you subscribe and are interested, then that's a good place to start.