Branding For Coaches: Ultimate Checklist To Maximize Your Impact
What’s the most important thing to you as a coach? Above anything else, I’m sure your #1 goal is to create an impact with your work. Nothing can beat the satisfaction you get at the end of the day when you know in your heart that you have transformed lives! Whether you are a life coach, health coach, career coach, healing coach, spiritual coach, or any other amazing coach - serving your clients with your skills and impacting their lives is what you love to do day in and day out.
How can you maximize this impact?
By creating a strong personal brand that has the power to reach more people who really need your coaching services. Branding for coaches does not mean getting a fancy logo, exquisite colors, and elaborate visual pieces. Instead, it means taking intentional steps to make people feel in their gut that you’re the coach they want to invest with. That’s branding in its truest form.
To help you nail down your branding, I’ve put together this ultimate checklist for coaches so you can take action and maximize your impact in the world. Keep reading!
1. Choose a niche
A rule of thumb when branding as a coach is to choose a niche to offer your coaching services. The more specific your niche, your expertise will be more valuable.
“Life coaching for all” does not sound as convincing as “Life coaching for solopreneur moms” does.
“Career coaching” sounds bland and unpromising but “Coaching for professionals looking to pivot their careers” has more depth to it.
Messaging is an integral part of branding - it enables you to attract the right audience. Operating within a specific niche allows your messaging to be very specific. This clear focus leads to a better connection with your audience which ultimately leads to you creating a bigger impact.
2. Find your superpower
As a coach, begin your branding journey by identifying your superpower/s. This is the number one way you will be able to set your coaching business apart from all others in this highly competitive industry. It does not have to be fancy. It could be just one simple thing that you know to be your biggest strength or it could be a combination of things that work together to differentiate you. Your superpower is your friend that will help you create a massive impact.
To help you identify and put your superpower into action mode, I’ve put together a free training. Go watch it right now and check off one thing from this checklist!
3. Develop a consistent voice
“A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service or organization.” - Marty Neumeier
To become a brand that people undoubtedly choose above all else, you need a voice that is consistent. To build a voice for your coaching business, consider the following brand pillars and use them as a north star to guide your marketing efforts.
Your audience’s journey and problem areas
Your expert solutions to solve these problems
Your values as a service provider
Your story
The transformational results you deliver
With consistency in the way you communicate, your audience will relate to you better as a coach. Relatability leads to reliability over time which further leads to increased impact.
4. Use your photos
This is a big one when it comes to branding for coaches: never shy away from using your own photos wherever you can. With a service-based business like coaching, nothing can manage to create as much impact as your own face. People feel more connected to a human - someone that they can relate to and get comfortable with.
5. Use relatable language
To be able to create an impact with your audience, it is important to use the language that they use and speak. Using jargon and complicated terminology will only drive people away from initiating conversations with you.
One of my clients who is a healing coach was facing the same issue. I identified this problem when we were working together on her branding and website. She was using way too complex words and industry jargon to explain what she does and what her offerings were. That’s when I strategically simplified it all and wrote custom copy for her website that common people could easily understand.
So the takeaway here is to make relatable language a part of your everyday communication for a greater level of impact.
6. Get testimonials
Social proof really helps build your brand image. Getting testimonials from your clients helps build trust and provides credibility so more people get motivated to work with you. The math is really simple here - the more people you get to work with, the more chances of creating an impact!
So what are the best types of testimonials?
Video testimonials if you can get them.
Written testimonials with your client’s headshot also give a genuine feel.
At the very least, screenshots of the texts/emails/DM’s where they talk about the results they have experienced working with you - can be a raw and authentic form of testimonials.
7. Credibility Validators
Last but not least, piggybacking on the last point of social proof - another major part of your branding as a coach is credibility validation from others. Especially if this comes from renowned publications you’ve been featured in or keynote addresses you’ve delivered to an audience through big-name organizations, podcast interviews, etc.
Gaining credibility serves a dual purpose if you focus your efforts on it:
It helps to build that instant level of trust for you and your coaching services among cold leads.
It helps your coaching business get wider visibility which opens up opportunities to serve more people and create more impact.
CONCLUSION
Your skills as a coach are an incredible gift to the world and that deserves to be celebrated! If you’ve been looking to level up your existing coaching brand to reach a more aligned audience and create a bigger impact with your work, I’d love to support you! Book a zero-pressure discovery call and let’s chat.
Building brands with strategy + love,
Ridha
