Most local marketing coaches are cheerleaders. They can’t teach you a framework for how to write a new website homepage that gets more people to call you. Others focus on social media or how to set up your Facebook ads but again don’t give you messaging frameworks.
10 Things Your Local Marketing Coach Should Do:
- Assess your current business
- Help create your one-year vision for your life and business
- Develop a custom marketing plan
- Pick 1-3 marketing goals per quarter
- Meet weekly or every two weeks
- Hold you accountable
- Give you frameworks & templates that work
- Look for opportunities for growth
- Keep you focused when you get new ideas
- Help you figure out when it’s time to hire and stop doing all the marketing yourself
Assess your current business
A marketing coach will assess your business by asking some of the following questions.
- How much money does it make now?
- How many hours do you spend working each week?
- What is your revenue goal this year?
- Where do most of your website traffic come from?
- Are there any competitors in your market who have been successful recently?
If you’re not sure what answers to provide here, then maybe you will need to take some time to think through where you want to go with your business. They will help you with this. If you already know what direction you want to head in, then great! You’ve got an advantage over other businesses because you understand exactly what you want to achieve.
Curious about the fitness level of your business? Take our 20-minute Business MRI quiz to find out!
Help create your one-year vision for your life and business
Your marketing coach should help you develop a clear picture of where you want to go as an entrepreneur over the course of 12 months. This includes setting some big goals like “I’m going to launch my first product” or “I’m going to start blogging.” It also means identifying smaller milestones along the way such as “I’m going to publish 10 posts by month-end,” or “I’m going public with my Instagram account.”
It could also be as simple as getting rid of bad customers so you end up only serving ones that are a good fit for you. I bet some of you are thinking of a very specific customer right this second. You know you are! No judgment here, that’s a promise.
Whatever it is, they’ll ask why you want to accomplish this. What makes you believe you can reach these numbers? How long has it taken others to grow their business at this rate? Why did they succeed while you failed? These types of questions will help them determine if you really have a clear picture of where you want to end up.
The key here is to think long-term. You can always change direction later if things aren’t working out but you won’t know until you try something else. So set up a timeline and stick to it!
Your coach will help you develop a custom marketing strategy. Once you’ve got a good sense of where you’d like to go, your marketing coach will put together a customized roadmap for getting there. That might include:
- Creating content around topics related to your niche
- Writing articles
- Building relationships through social media
- Launching products
- Getting press coverage
Yes, we know. That last one can be both exciting and frightening at the same time. Remember, small and achievable steps will get you to your goals.
Develop a custom marketing plan
You can increase your business through marketing with the help of a marketing coach. They can help you understand the marketing world, and work with you to create a plan of attack best suited for your specific business. A marketing coach can help you build a marketing plan, launch it, and maintain it, which will bring in more business and ultimately increase sales.
Your marketing coach should also help you set realistic expectations for success. If you expect to sell 100 units by year-end, but only manage 50, then you might want to reevaluate whether you really need a full-time marketer. On the other hand, if you think you could easily sell 500 units, but you’re struggling to even come close to selling 10, then maybe you need some extra support.
The key thing here is to find someone who has experience working with small businesses like yours. Your marketing coach needs to know exactly where you stand now, as well as where you hope to go over the course of the coming months or years. This way he/she can provide guidance along the way.
When you work with an experienced coach who knows your business and can customize a plan, it makes a significant difference. Nothing is better than custom, am I right?
Pick 1-3 marketing goals per quarter
A great place to begin when looking for a local marketing coach is to ask yourself what kind of results you’re hoping to achieve this year. You may have already thought about these questions on your own, so don’t worry too much about them. But they’ll serve as a starting point for finding a qualified coach that’s right for you.
Here are some examples of some great quarterly goals to think about:
What do I want to accomplish within the next 3 months?
- Launch new website.
- Publish 5 pieces of original content
- Create 2 email campaigns
- Start using Facebook ads
- Get featured on a popular site
- Increase traffic from Google search
- Grow followers on Twitter
- Build mailing list
- Write 4 guest posts
- Reach 1000 people via LinkedIn
- Make $1000 online
- Generate leads
- Sell 20 items
- Have a 25% conversion rate
- Gain 30 clients
If you’re not sure how much time you’ll need to complete each goal, just pick three. It doesn’t matter if you miss a week; just start again after the first month. The important part is to make progress every single week. Set clear objectives & deadlines.
Remember, you don’t need to finish all of your goals before the deadline. In fact, it would probably be best to leave some room for unexpected opportunities. That said, setting specific dates gives you a sense of urgency and helps you stay focused throughout the process.
Meet weekly or every two weeks
Having a marketing coach that meets with you either in-person, or via skype, or zoom, on a weekly basis will keep you on track to achieving your dreams one goal at a time.
While many coaches will be willing to work with you every two weeks, you may want to meet once a week. This will depend on where you currently are and what kind of goals you want to achieve. Additionally, you may feel you need a bit more attention, especially at the beginning. When you choose your coach, make sure you have a clear understanding of how often you’ll be meeting and what will be expected of both of you each time you meet.
Ask plenty of questions when you’re interviewing them.
You’ve got lots of options out there! So take advantage of those resources by asking tons of questions during your interview process. Ask about their background, previous experiences, qualifications, etc. Make sure you understand everything you read about them. If something sounds fishy, then move on. Don’t waste your money hiring anyone unless you’re 100% confident that they’re going to help you reach your goals.
Don’t hire until you get references. Be sure to follow up on those references and prepare some open-ended questions for them.
It’s helpful to have someone you know will be checking in with you on a weekly basis. This brings us to the next thing a marketing coach will help with…
Hold you accountable
We all need someone to hold us accountable. Some of us are great at being self-starters and can seamlessly fly through our daily checklists. Some of us need someone to help us create a daily checklist. Listen, we’re all different.
According to an article by Observer.com, The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) did a study on accountability and found that you have a 65% of completing a goal if you commit to someone. And if you have a specific accountability appointment with a person you’ve committed, you will increase your chance of success by up to 95%.
When is the last time you had a failure margin of only 5%? That’s a rather motivating statistic. Meeting with someone on a regular basis, sharing your ideas and goals, and knowing you’ll be asked about progress regarding said goals will be the difference you need.
Give you frameworks & templates that work
The thing is, we all need step-by-step guides to help us accomplish a larger project. This is true regardless of what kind of project it is. It always helps to break things down into bite-size pieces so we don’t overwhelm ourselves. Once overwhelmed we inevitably find any excuse to avoid said project and it ends up collecting dust.
Frameworks and templates help with this break-down process.
They generally come in two formats – PDFs and HTML files. You choose which format works better for you.
I highly recommend getting them both because they give you more flexibility. For example, if you want to use the framework but aren’t comfortable writing HTML code, then you could simply copy-paste the text into Word and edit out the formatting tags.
They also provide you with examples of how other marketers used their frameworks and templates. This way you see exactly how others did something similar without having to reinvent the wheel yourself.
Here’s another benefit of having a local marketer coach.
When you hire a coach, he/she becomes part of your team. The relationship between client and coach should be professional yet personal. Your coach needs to understand where you are coming from and why you are doing what you do. He/She must respect your vision and not try to change it.
Your coach should never tell you “no”. Instead, he/she should offer suggestions and ideas about ways to improve your business. When you follow his advice, you’ll notice improvements within days. And eventually, you’ll start seeing results.
Look for opportunities for growth
A good coach doesn’t just sit there watching you fail. They take action themselves. They search for new opportunities for you to grow. They make sure you get the right training when necessary. They even go above and beyond making sure everything runs smoothly. In fact, some people call these types of coaches “growth hackers” because they seek out opportunities for growth.
If you’ve hired me as your marketing coach, chances are I’m going to ask questions like the following:
- What has been working well for you lately?
- How might you expand upon that success?
- Have you considered offering X service to clients?
- Can you add Y feature to your website?
- Are you looking for an opportunity to partner with Z company?
These are just some examples of potential areas of expansion. They will help you think through these options so that you can make the best and most strategic decision.
You may decide to pursue each suggestion individually. Or you may decide to focus on only one idea at a time. Either option is fine. But remember, every decision you make now will impact future decisions later.
Keep you focused when you get new ideas
Attention all creatives! I’m talking to you… mostly. I am a creative spirit through and through. I have handfuls of new ideas all the time. It is a consistent flood of possibilities and a constant battle to stay focused. I know it seems as though a fountain of endless ideas would be the most desirable circumstance, but for those of us on the focus struggle bus, it can be a massive challenge.
Help for the creative type comes in the form of a marketing coach. As we’ve mentioned, a coach will be meeting with you regularly and keeping you focused and on track with the goals you already have. Then they will help you begin to incorporate some of those new creative ideas you have. They will help you do this with a focus that will make all the difference for you and your business.
Creativity and new ideas can be unpredictable. So, before you go off the beaten path, it helps to ask yourself the following questions:
- Is this really something you would enjoy pursuing?
- Would it bring value to your life?
- Will it ultimately lead to greater financial freedom?
And finally, here’s a bonus tip.
Don’t let anyone discourage you from following your dream. Just ignore them. Don’t listen to negative comments. Ignore them. Let them talk behind your back. Keep pushing ahead. Eventually, you’ll reach your destination.
Help you figure out when it’s time to hire and stop doing all the marketing yourself
We’re not saying that you should never market or promote yourself. We’re saying that sometimes it makes sense to hand over certain tasks to someone else who knows what they are doing better than you do.
You don’t need to spend hours creating content, writing emails, designing websites, etc. That’s why hiring a professional is important. If you want to write great copy and writing isn’t your forte, then, by all means, find a writer. If you want to create beautiful graphics, then look into graphic design services. And if you feel comfortable enough about social media, then maybe consider outsourcing that task too.
The point is that you shouldn’t try to do everything yourself. There are plenty of other things you could be focusing on instead. Sometimes it’s hard to know when the right time is for something because we’re so wrapped up in the day-to-day task lists and there’s just no time to step back and examine.
In short, a marketing coach will help you determine whether or not you need to start delegating more work to others. This allows you to keep up with the rest of your busy schedule while still getting quality results.
Are you ready for a marketing coach?
As we mentioned in the companion blog to this one What Makes Marketing Coaches Different From Consultants, a marketing coach will be taking the time to listen and ask questions that will help them assess your business. Their goal is not to tell you what to do. A coach will guide you based on your current situation.
A marketing coach will take a much more personal approach than a consultant. They’ll check in with you regularly to see how you’re doing, how your goals are progressing, gauge your energy and focus levels and make recommendations based on the results, and generally keep you on track.
They won’t try to sell you anything. Instead, they’ll use their experience as an entrepreneur to offer guidance and support.
They won’t have an agenda other than helping you succeed at growing your business.
Keep in mind, you’re paying for expertise, you shouldn’t settle for anyone underqualified.
We do both. We believe there is a time and place for both and the cost is very different.
Schedule a call with us today and we’ll talk about which may be right for you.