LinkedIn Marketing Strategy for Coaches 101

Chapter 1 – Why LinkedIn Marketing Matters  

If you found this guide when you looked up “LinkedIn marketing” on the internet, I don’t need to tell you why LinkedIn marketing is important. Nevertheless, let’s address some of its particular benefits for coaches. 

With approximately 810 million members, LinkedIn became a prime business platform in 2022. What’s more, 60% of these LinkedIn members fall in the age group of 25-34 years, the perfect target group for you to coach: a target group of potential leaders and leaders, a demographic that could use guidance in life and career, and a segment of the world’s population that best represents the near future. 

It’s almost been two full years since the first pandemic led lockdown, and we have already experienced the acceleration it gave to the digital transformation of many industries. Coaching too went completely online and, as a result, coaches could coach anyone around the world with the help of right tools and technologies.   

Just 1 month into lockdown, LinkedIn had reported a whopping 2196% increase in their engagement and published articles and a 13% increase in thought leadership articles. This shows a shift in how people work, how often they look for content, and how they use the content.   

When you share your message on LinkedIn, it reaches an audience who is searching for a solution and is ready to make a decision. And that’s why marketing on LinkedIn matters to coaches looking to grow their businesses.   

Chapter 2 – Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile  

So, as a coach how to use LinkedIn for business marketing ? Let’s begin with the first step, that is, your LinkedIn profile optimization. Building a personal brand as a coach starts with tailoring the profile to represent you accurately.  

Profile picture:  

What is the first thing you observe when you encounter a new person on social media? It’s the face. Nothing quite makes an impression like your profile picture. And as a coach who is on LinkedIn to build a personal brand, do not make the mistake of uploading just any half-heartedly edited photo. Dress up in a way that represents you best professionally. Get a clean headshot clicked either by a professional photographer or at least get a decently clicked photo edited by an expert editor. If you are not camera-shy, you can also upload a short video introducing yourself; note that it would be best to say who you are and what you do and end with a call to action to explore your profile further. 

About: 

Speaking of yourself in the third person was quite a fad some time ago, but it’s not anymore. To be honest it does not help your audience connect with you on a deeper level. So, write a very personal bio that resonates with your connections. Include your certifications and previous experiences to increase your credibility as a coach. Instead of mentioning your skills (for which you do have a separate section per employment now), focus on highlighting the problems you can solve or have solved in the past.  

Let it be an essay if required, but don’t let it be boring. Share your story, your wins and how you are helping people. 

Endorsements and recommendations: 

Do not take endorsements and recommendations lightly. Give them in order to gain them in return. It isn’t easy to ask for a recommendation on LinkedIn, but if your client has built a connection with you and loved your coaching approach, they wouldn’t have any qualms in dishing out one for you.  

Chapter 3 – LinkedIn Marketing Strategy and Best Practices for Coaches 

Another important feature on how to market on LinkedIn effectively relates to the content that you post. So, what should you post on LinkedIn as a Coach? 

Not only coaches, but everyone faces this question at first. Share your thoughts related to your profession, keeping in mind whom you are trying to help with your posts. Here are a few things you can do: 

1. Publish original thought leadership posts on LinkedIn  

Being a coach, you have an incredible opportunity to help a wider audience by regularly posting about your knowledge of your niche. For example, your observations about common mistakes that people make or tools that help some of these common challenges. Provide solutions to key problems in creative ways to win hearts and build trust in your audience. 

In a survey, Neal Schaffer, a well-known marketing consultant, author, keynote speaker, and management professor, found that 45% of those who read articles on LinkedIn are management-level employees . Also, the best content publishers see a 120% growth in page followers each year.  

2. Visual posts are a big hit on LinkedIn  

How to use LinkedIn for marketing in order to garner maximum attention? It is abundantly clear by now that visual content is much preferred over other forms of content on all social media platforms. Carousel posts, Infographics and videos that educate garner more engagement on LinkedIn as they capture attention quite easily. 

3. Start a LinkedIn newsletter 

LinkedIn Newsletters are an excellent way to keep your audience engaged on a regular basis. These newsletters are also a great way to increase brand awareness and get qualified leads. How, you may ask. When you publish a newsletter, unlike an article, a notification goes to all of your connections and followers, ensuring that it reaches a wide audience. On top of that, it will also be shared on the feed of your 2^nd and 3^rd degree connections as your connections engage with the newsletter, hence increasing brand awareness. 

Moreover, the LinkedIn Newsletter invitation goes to all of your connections in a notification. Only those who want to consume your content on regular basis will subscribe to it, so your audience here can easily be converted into qualified leads. 

4. Consistently engage with your community 

Engage with like-minded people in comments, and repost their posts that you find valuable with your opinion added to them. Make your comments as meaningful as possible instead of doing it just for the sake of engagement.  Join relevant LinkedIn groups where your audience is active, and share valuable information there on regular basis. Start your own LinkedIn group if you have unique knowledge to share that will attract a significant audience. And, always remember, consistency is key. 

Here’s a separate blog focusing specifically on ‘The What, Why and How of LinkedIn Marketing’ that delves even deeper. Give it a read. Continue further for steps to get clients on LinkedIn. 

Chapter 4 – How to Get Coaching Clients Via LinkedIn   

Creating content to attract the right audience, which could turn into paying clients in the future is the ‘pull’ part of the ‘push and pull’ marketing strategy. Coming to the ‘push’ part, here are 3 things you can do to get coaching clients from LinkedIn.  

We discuss these in more detail in a separate blog post titled ‘How to get clients from LinkedIn’. 

1. Grow your email list 

Send a smartly crafted letter as a personal message to all of your connections. Apologize for the lack of personalization and thank them for being a part of your LinkedIn network. In the end, urge them to sign up for your email list after explaining the value it will offer to them.  

Please note that LinkedIn currently has a limit of 250 actions per day, wherein actions include sending messages and connection requests. If you cross this limit, your account will be flagged and eventually shut down. Remember that it’s all about quality, not quantity. 

2. Run highly targeted LinkedIn ads 

LinkedIn offers highly targeted advertising. You can select a very specific audience in terms of the industry that your audience works in, the number of employees in the organization, the job title of your audience and so on, apart from the regular demographics like age, location and gender. 

Use LinkedIn Ads when you have a workshop or event coming up and you want people to sign up. Use ads also when you want to increase awareness of your new course or coaching package, or special limited-time discounts or offers. 

3. Organize LinkedIn events for a masterclass or workshop 

Whether you want to teach time management to busy executives, productivity hacks to freelancers or corporate communication skills to leadership candidates of an organization, the best way to share your knowledge is to create a masterclass or a workshop on LinkedIn Events. 

But what are LinkedIn Events exactly? 

LinkedIn Events are a free and easy way to organize virtual meetups, seminars, workshops and masterclasses. You can invite all of your connections and publish it via your LinkedIn posts, which can reach a wider audience via your 2^nd and 3^rd degree connections. You can also build hype by doing pre-buzz posts in the days leading up to the event. Leads collected from registrants to the events are bound to be highly qualified leads. A Hubspot study found that LinkedIn generates 277% more leads than Facebook and Twitter. 

Don’t forget to nurture the leads received via these activities to book a consultation call with you. Your profile should be a conversion page that includes a link to book a call with you through whichever tool you use be it Calendaly, Zoho bookings, Acuity or Honeybook. Simply.Coach also facilitates a personal website with calendar integration where potential clients can come book a slot with you. Do check the feature out with a free demo or a 14-day free trial.   

Chapter 5 – Examples of LinkedIn Marketing Strategies for Coaches  

To see the results of all the LinkedIn marketing strategies and best practices that we have covered in this guide, here are 3 examples of coaches who have achieved success by executing these exact strategies. 

1. Executive Coach – Harish Walavalkar 

LinkedIn Followers – 18,000 

His headline says “CEO Maker” and that’s a perfect example of broadcasting your unique niche. It not only helps you stand out from others offering similar services, but it also makes you rank higher in organic LinkedIn searches. Moreover, Harish Walavalkar‘s About section is a full-page essay, detailing his career journey, what he intends to do on LinkedIn, and what are the results he has already achieved for his clients. 

2. Business Coach – Dipanshu Rawal 

LinkedIn Followers – 32,537 

A fun-to-read “About” section, glowing testimonials from clients and consistent content creation helped Dipanshu Rawal amass 33k followers and create a six-figure business.  

He helps coaches grow their businesses and get unstuck from sticky life situations to get a move on to success as a coach. He posts encouraging content, and relatable stories that make an instant connection with the audience, in his case, the audience is other coaches themselves who find it challenging to grow their coaching business. 

3. Career Coach – Dhairya Gangwani 

LinkedIn Followers – 76,032 

Take the example of career coach Dhairya Gangwani who has an audience of 76k followers on LinkedIn. She has a short video in place of the profile picture and her headline is made up of her glorious achievements and transformative results e.g. “Transformed 5000+ careers, 300+ Talks, Tedx Speaker, 3x Josh Talks Speaker” and more. Her about section gives a lowdown of her entire career journey till date, which provides her more credibility as a career coach.  

She gives valuable advice by creating content around current work scenarios like navigating recession, the pandemic and remote work. As a result, her followers love her content and prefer her as a go-to person for all things career. 

Getting certified as a coach is one thing, starting your coaching practice is another, and having a successful full-time coaching business that helps you thrive financially is an altogether different ball game.  

LinkedIn with 810 million active members across 200 countries is practically a gold mine of clients, if only you know the right moves. The cherry on top is the pandemic-led acceleration of digital transformation, which enables coaches to coach anyone around the world, breaking geo barriers. This is a perfect guide for all coaches on how to market on LinkedIn and get your first 5 paid coaching clients from LinkedIn.  

If, at the end of this guide, you are wondering how to find time to create a LinkedIn marketing strategy, as coaching clients and coaching business management take up nearly all of your time, then Simply.Coach is here for you. Simply.Coach is a coaching management platform that will automate, digitise and streamline your entire coaching practice freeing up at least 30% of your time spent on admin tasks. Schedule a demo or sign up for a free 14-day trial and make way for a tremendous transformation in your coaching business.