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Whether you’re launching a podcast from your basement, recording an audiobook, or building an online coaching business, you need a home recording studio. But it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune or involve extensive renovation.

It’s actually really easy to do. And to take the guesswork out of it, I’ve put together a comprehensive guide of the equipment you need to buy to produce quality audio and video content that your tribe of raving fans can’t get enough of.

But before we look at the essential gear you’ll need, let’s discuss the benefits of building a home studio.

Is a home studio worth it?

Absolutely. Billie Eilish recorded her Grammy-winning debut album from a self-built, home recording studio and look at her today. She wrote the latest James Bond theme track and was featured on the cover of Vogue. That would never have been possible 15 or 20 years ago.

So technology has dramatically changed the way we do business. It’s allowed coaches, consultants, and creatives to build recording studios and 7-figure businesses from the comfort of their homes.

Booking a professional recording studio can cost you upwards of $200 an hour. Now imagine if you’re recording an online course or an audiobook. It could easily take you 40-80 hours to produce. Think about how many copies you’d need to sell before you break even.

Plus, having that studio in-house means when inspiration strikes, you can hit the record button and work your magic, night or day.

So the long-term benefits of creating a recording studio are cost-savings, convenience, and business growth. Now, what would you expect to pay?

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How much does a home recording studio cost?

Price really is a matter of budget. What are you willing to spend? I spent a little over $4,000 on my home recording studio and that wasn’t including my Macbook Pro which I already had.

You can build a recording studio for a lot less ($500) or a lot more ($30,000) depending on your goals. I want to launch a Top 100 marketing podcast. To do that, I need top-quality home recording studio equipment.

If you’re in the beginning stages of building a virtual consultancy, or a small niche podcast, start small. You don’t need to invest in fancy lighting equipment, or the best podcast microphone, or video podcast equipment. You can purchase entry-level equipment without sounding like an amateur.

Just don’t do things on the cheap. Every time I’ve done something the cheapest way, I’ve usually regretted it and ended up paying a lot more further down the line.

If you’re serious about turning your home studio into a lifestyle business, then be prepared to pay once, cry once. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, it hurts. But with the right recording studio setup, you’re going to recoup your investment much faster.

So here are the podcast tools you’ll need for your home recording studio.

8 recording studio essentials for beginners

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1. Computer
2. Lighting
3. Camera
4. Microphone
5. Light and mic stands
6. Tripod
7. Teleprompter
8. Accessories

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1. Computer

Your computer is arguably your biggest expense when setting up your home recording studio. This is the tool you’ll be working on every day so you need to be sure you’ve got a computer with enough memory and disk space. You’ll be installing production software and working with large video and audio files, so you need a computer that can cope.

You also need to think long-term. Do you want to be working off a small laptop screen or a desktop computer with a much larger monitor?

I have a Macbook Pro, but if you’re cash strapped, stick with your existing computer and upgrade once you can afford it.

Here’s the computer I’d get: (Amazon)

Now let’s talk about lighting.

2. Lighting

Good lighting is vital if you’ll be filming videos for social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

If you’re a business coach or consultant launching an online course with video content, you want it to be slick. And it won’t be if your face is partially hidden in shadow or you’re sweating profusely because you’ve got a flashlight aimed at you.

I also appreciate a well-lit room when I’m jumping on calls with clients or presenting a talk to a virtual audience. So you want to recreate an in-person experience as much as possible.

You can hire an electrician to rewire your designated studio space, but that’s really expensive and unnecessary. Instead, invest in good lighting equipment for a fraction of the cost.

Here is all the lighting equipment you’d need:

• Godox FL150S 150W Flexible LED Video Lighting. This is a bi-colored, foldable light.
• Heavy-duty Light Stand Tripod
• Godox Softbox with Grid for Flexible LED Light
• Neewer Ring Light Kit

3. Camera

Get it on camera. Visual quality is everything, especially if you want to capture video content that you can repackage for social media, online courses, and your blog. Your time is money, and wasting it filming multiple reiterations of the same theme just doesn’t make business or financial sense.

And a poor quality video image will negatively impact your tribe's experience of your brand. People won’t watch it if the image is grainy.

By investing in a good camera, you can film high-quality video content that your editor can tweak and repurpose as needed. I’m a fan of Sony. So I purchased the Sony Alpha a6400 mirrorless camera. Its real-time tracking and excellent light sensitivity are great for shooting moving images.

For example, as a coach, I’ll sometimes share thought-starters while driving or out walking my dog, and I need it to feel like my viewers are there with me. So I want to create that in-person experience, and this camera helps me do just that.

For content creators, I’d advise you check out the Logitech StreamCam. It auto-adjusts the focus as you move, so it’s great for live streaming and creating engaging high-definition videos.

Next, you want to think about sound.

4. Microphone

Audio is by far one of the most important elements of your home studio.

If you’re just starting out, you probably won’t be able to build a sound-treated studio. Let’s be honest; it’s expensive. And unless you’re the only inhabitant of a private island or located in the middle of a forest, finding a noise-free zone won’t be easy.

What you need is a podcast microphone with voice isolation technology.

I love the Shure Motiv because it has built-in headphone monitoring and voice control, meaning it automatically adjusts your vocal tone. So it won’t matter if you move away from the speaker, the microphone will adjust your voice tone in real-time. Just set it to auto-level mode and the microphone does the hard work for you.

If you’re not a techie like me, it really is the best podcast microphone. You won’t have to spend a ton of time in post-production editing the recording. It stops unwanted background noises from creeping in— so blaring car horns or kids running rampant down your hallway won’t be a problem.

Best of all, it connects via Bluetooth, so you don’t need a USB plug-in. And it is compatible with all professional interfaces.

I’d also advise that you purchase a windscreen for your microphone. This is a foam-like cover that you place over your microphone to reduce wind noise and cut out unwanted breath which can quickly become distracting and detract from the experience.

I bought the Shure A7WS Windscreen but you’ll want to buy one that fits your brand of microphone.

You’re also going to need to purchase a stand for your microphone. If you’d like a microphone that comes standard with a stand, check out the Blue Yeti USB Mic for Recording and Streaming. It’s ideal for podcasts and YouTube video creators.

5. Lighting and Microphone stands

Imagine you’re giving an hour-long presentation. The last thing you want to be doing is holding your microphone for the duration of the talk.

You also don’t want to be adjusting and readjusting your microphone or video recorder while hosting a podcast or filming a course. So investing in a modular rigging system is essential. You can also use it for freestanding cameras and lights.

A multi-mount and flex arm lets you position and lock your equipment so you can focus on inspiring your audience. You’ll also need to purchase a multi-mount weighted base.

Your camera and lighting equipment is expensive. It’s not something you want to worry about falling over. Using a heavy-duty weighted base gives you confidence in knowing that your equipment won’t get damaged.

To recap, these are the light stands and tripods I’d recommend:

• Manfrotto light stands
• Elgato multi-mount
• Elgato flex arm
• Elgato multi-mount weighted base

Remember, you can buy all of this equipment from Amazon or B&H. Now, let’s talk about tripods.

6. Tripod

You need a tripod to mount your video camera or teleprompter (I’ll get to this in a bit). I use the Manfrotto 290 XTRA Kit with video head. It’s made from solid aluminum and has adjustable legs to position your camera at a height that works for you.

Unlike a weighted base, it’s easily movable. So if you want to change up the scenery and shoot a thought piece at the beach, just grab your tripod and off you go. And at $350 it won’t break the bank.

Back to that teleprompter I mentioned.

7. Teleprompter

Why do you need a teleprompter? If you’re anything like me, you speak off the cuff. You’ve got notes jotted down which you use as thought starters, but for the most part, you’re freestyling.

This is where a teleprompter comes in handy. Use it to maintain eye contact with your audience without having to glance down at a piece of paper to remind you what comes next. It’s all there, in your line of vision, and your audience would never know because it looks like you’re locked on them.

So whether you’re hosting a video podcast or filming course material, you want to invest in a teleprompter. It takes the pressure out of presenting educational material.

Lastly, accessorize.

8. Accessories

If you’re working with dual monitors, a camera, teleprompter, microphone, and laptop you’re going to need something to plug everything into. I’d recommend the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 and USB Docking Station.

Not only is it compatible with Mac and Windows, but it also has 11 ports of connectivity.

I’d also look at investing in the Elgato Cam Link 4K. It enhances your video image, delivering far more compelling and captivating visual content. All you need to do is connect it to your camera and computer then hit the record button.

It’ll ensure that you never have to worry about maxing out your memory card in the middle of your recording session.

And that’s all the equipment you need. Next, I want to talk about choosing your designated recording room.

Choosing your recording Room

This is probably one of the most important decisions you’ll make when it comes to setting up your home recording studio. You need a space that can house all of your recording equipment, provide excellent acoustics, and be insulated from outside noises.

Some people will tell you to invest in soundproofing (foam rubber insulation on the walls and ceiling) but that can be costly when you’re starting out.

My top tip: choose a room with a carpet, and preferably no windows. This acts as a buffer against outside noise. If you’re like me, and you need a view, make sure the window frames seal tight or add heavy curtains to reduce the echo.

And those are my top tips.

Plan your studio, purchase, put into action

Now that you know the recording equipment you need, start planning your next steps. If you’re on a tight budget, decide what gear you need to buy first, and what you can live without for a little while. Then get it done.

Only invest in a new computer if it fits into your budget. Otherwise, start filming and launch your podcast, coaching business, or course and see how things go. Test it on the market, and get feedback from your audience.

Is the visual and sound quality good enough? What could be improved? Then take action. Good luck, and have fun.

Why cornerstone content? Imagine your ideal prospect has a problem they desperately need to solve. They're looking for a cure, but they don't know who to turn to.

So they open up a browser and type their question into Google or Bing if you'd prefer. The search engine then presents your target audience with a list of sites they believe are best positioned to handle your potential customer's request. And it could be your site if you had a great piece of content.

Now, this lead doesn't need to know who you are. By ranking in the top three positions in search engines, you're immediately positioned as a trusted authority—the ideal choice. No amount of advertising is as valuable or powerful.

That's why I’m going to show you how to research, write, and optimize great cornerstone content that drives high-value traffic to your website and helps you convert leads to customers more often. But first, let's tackle the definition of cornerstone content.

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What is cornerstone content?

Cornerstone content is a free piece of content that you're famous for. For me, it's my book and 1-Page Marketing Plan framework. For you, it could be a report, how-to guide, software, eBook, landing page, blog posts, whatever.

Your content cornerstone is the process, framework or compelling piece of content that gets a high-value lead (your ideal customer) to raise their hand and say, hey, I'm vaguely interested in what your business has to offer. And to get their hands on it, they're willing to barter their email address or phone number.

Remember that a great cornerstone informs, educates, and delivers a result in advance. It's not about selling. It's about establishing a great first impression.

Why is cornerstone content important?

Well, think about this. Your prospects have two questions on their mind when shopping for a solution to their problem.

1. Can this person or product help me?
2. Can I trust this brand?

Everyone wants to buy from an expert and a trusted authority. Nobody wants to buy from a stranger. Unless you're a well-known brand like Apple or Garmin, you have minimal credibility. You're realistically starting in negative territory.

What you need is something essential, indispensable, and life-changing for your customer to take note, and that's great cornerstone content.

Remember, a content cornerstone positions you as an educator and an expert authority, giving you instant credibility. It's the next best thing to a word-of-mouth referral. It also demonstrates that you can help your prospect by creating value or giving them a result in advance.

It sets the tone for a lifelong customer relationship.

6 ways cornerstone content benefits your business?

I've mentioned some of the benefits of writing a cornerstone piece, but to recap, here are six ways it impacts your business.

1. Builds your brand authority
2. Drives high-value leads (traffic) to your website
3. Builds your email list (top of your sales funnel)
4. Positions you as an expert in your chosen field
5. Establishes trust (super powerful)
6. Create natural backlinking opportunities from mainstream publications and niche bloggers (necessary fuel for your SEO strategy)

If you're reading this, you're probably an entrepreneur, coach, or consultant looking to scale your business. Adding a cornerstone article or process to your content strategy will help you achieve just that.

But how do you identify cornerstone ideas?

Creating cornerstone content: How to come up with content ideas?

There are several ways I like to generate ideas for cornerstone content. Remember, this is a pivotal part of your content strategy, so you want to ensure that any content you create covers topics your target audience is interested in.

These are my five go-to channels for generating cornerstone ideas.

1. Speaker Events

Often when I'm speaking at an event, I'll allow time for a Q&A session. Better yet, I always try to mingle with event-goers.

I get a lot of content ideas from these events. And the same applies to virtual events. I'll always leave 10 or 15 minutes for Q&As. I'll note down thought-starters in Key Notes and then feed these content ideas into my content strategy. It's a great way to devise cornerstone content.

2. Engaging with customers

What are your customers’ frequently asked questions? Do you know? A lot of entrepreneurs and business owners assume they know their customers. You might be guilty of this. I know I have been. We think because we built it, we are our audience, we know what makes them buy, and often that's simply not true.

It's why I encourage my clients to spend a day manning their Helpdesk or engaging with customers on the floor to gain insight into their questions. They're telling you what cornerstone content they need, so pay attention to the questions your customers are raising and craft relevant content pieces.

3. Google searches

What keyword or keywords are your customers typing into Google? Take a look at your web analytics. What are your top-performing blog posts? These are the content articles that receive the most traffic on your site? Which keywords do you rank for?

Each keyword is an indication of customer interest and intent. That's the cornerstone you should be writing. Note it down. Then brainstorm possible related content pieces.

For example, suppose I wrote a blog post on How to Start a Coaching Business from Scratch. In that case, sub-topics could include

• Scaling your Coaching Business
• ‍5 Ways To Generate $50K a month in Coaching Revenue‍‍
• Group Coaching vs. 1:1 Coaching: What is the Difference?

You get the idea.

This is known as cornerstone cluster content. You’ll add internal links from each article to the pillar topic because each link shows Google, which is your high-priority content piece. It also helps website visitors to get the answers they need. And it becomes a lot easier to rank on search engines.

Now, if you're stuck on what to write and can't afford search engine optimization (SEO) software like AHREFS or SEMRush, Google is a wealth of information. You can use the People Also Ask section to see related content ideas or, if you scroll down to the end of the page, you'll find the See more section. It'll offer a host of other long-tail keywords and content ideas that your readers are searching for.

So it makes sense to use this information to build out your content marketing strategy.

4. Reviewing blog posts and social media comments

Again, check out your blog and social pages to see what comments your website visitors and social media communities raise? You'll find that your readers are opinionated.

They may agree with certain statements, but they may also challenge you or ask you what you think about something else. Look out for recurring themes, and don't be afraid to start creating cornerstone content blog posts and social media posts that use your readers’ exact words.

5. Customer surveys

Survey your readers via email or online. Market research is vital in understanding your target audience and search intent. It's the foundation for all your marketing activities, every blog article written, every campaign launched, every product's landing pages built, the keywords you target, and the cornerstone content you create.

Ask structured and unstructured questions. I like to ask open-ended questions because it gives you the chance to capture your customer's feedback. Mine this data and make sure you use their thoughts and words in your marketing and when writing an article or blog page landing page, email sequence, whatever.

For example, your audience doesn't necessarily use your terminology. I recently bought an electric bike. That's what I googled. But the correct terminology is pedal electric bike. Google can match search intent with keywords, but those SEO articles also allow customer terminology. That's why you need to be using their words.

So I encourage you to explore using these strategies to generate cornerstone ideas. The next phase of your content marketing strategy is to create cornerstone content. I'm going to show you how.

How to create cornerstone content that makes you famous?

To create cornerstones people actually want to read, follow these eight steps.

1. Start with research

The first step in creating a cornerstone article is to start with research.

Ideally, you want to use a combination of keyword research and market research.

I use my social pages, Google analytics, webinars, and client surveys to drive cornerstone ideas.

• What questions do they frequently ask you?
• What are their barriers to success?
• How can you provide clarity?

As long as you've spent time engaging with your readers, you'll know which content topics to tackle. Note these ideas down in an excel spreadsheet.

Then use a tool like AHREFS to do competitive research and determine keyword difficulty. You want to know:

• What are your chances of ranking for your chosen keyword?
• What is the monthly search volume that keyword receives?
• Is it worth going after?

For example, there's a ton of advice online about building a marketing plan, and finding a unique spin on it might not be possible. You’re also going to be competing against brands with high domain authority. That’s not easy.

Instead, create cornerstone content focused on long-tail keywords because they're easier to rank for. Or try to win a featured snippet.

This is a brief description that Google extracts and shows to users to answer their questions quickly. It’s a great way to get eyes on your content.

2. Build your cornerstone strategy

Think of your cornerstone content strategy like a travel plan. There is a destination or intended purpose and then the journey to reaching that goal. Your content strategy is the journey you take your readers on. The goal is the outcome you’d like to achieve.

To start, decide what is needed to make the reader's journey worthwhile? The reader's goal is to get answers. To find out more information about a topic of interest. Your strategy needs to include their questions and anything else relevant.

Review your content plan and identify the related articles you'll link to. Remember, your goal is to keep website visitors on your site for as long as possible.

Will your cornerstone article include a content upgrade?

This is a worksheet or template that they can download for free and use in their business to build out their social media strategy, or craft a well-written blog, hire a marketing coach, whatever.

It needs to deliver value.

Will you push them to a sales page or webinar?

The goal isn't just to get eyes on your content, to educate and inform. Ultimately you want your prospects to take action. Whether that's opting into your newsletter, filling in a form, downloading a free guide, arranging a call, or purchasing a product depends entirely on you.  

Who will write the post?

Do you have time to research, write, edit, design images and publish your article? If not, you need to hire a content marketer. This is someone who knows how to write a compelling piece of content, optimize it for search engines, and upload it.

Put together a standard operating procedure for this person to follow. It makes automating content creation easier.

3. Choose your content type

Now that you've identified the cornerstone topic you want to write about and the information you need to cover, you need to decide how you’ll present it.

You could do an:

• In-depth how-to guide (this could be a blog or sales landing page)
• video series
• Data report or infographic
• A free tool like a content plan, product trial, framework, or template
• Podcast
• Evergreen webinar

Much of what you produce will be dictated by your target audience. What media do they prefer to engage with? Is there merit in mixing media, adding video to a long-form article. Or giving users the choice of watching a webinar instead of reading the article?

Don’t be afraid to shake things up. You may be surprised by the results you get.

4. Write your cornerstone masterpiece

It’s time to build out your cornerstone content. I like to use an SEO tool like PageOptimizer Pro as a guide. I know roughly how many words I need to write, the questions I need to cover, how many images, keywords to include, and where.

But if you don’t have this tool, you can do research using Google. Check out the People Also Ask and People Also Search For section.

Look at the top four ranking articles and note down the questions they cover, the words they frequently use, the average number of images on all, their title tags, and meta descriptions.

Use this information as a guide, but be sure to bring something new to your article. Search engines won’t rank your post if it just regurgitates the same kind of information.

• Your article needs to be helpful, well-written, value-packed, and match the users’ intent.
• Use high-resolution images. Poor quality visuals diminish the credibility of your post, so use good design, and make sure your visuals are optimized for the web. They should be no bigger than 100kb otherwise, it will slow the load speed of your page, affecting your ability to rank.
• Use original ideas and share anecdotes from your experiences.  

5. Optimize your content for search engines

The entire point of your cornerstone content is to attract new leads to your site. These are potential customers that might, otherwise, as a result of reading your blog, opt in to your newsletter, or purchase a product.

For example, 8 out of 10 of my most trafficked web pages are blog articles (non-branded keywords). That’s users typing a question into Google.

But they won’t find you if your content isn’t optimized for organic search.

• It needs to be shareable on social media channels like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I include social media chicklets that scroll with the document so a user can share the post at any point. This way, they don’t have to look for the sharing button.
• Your images should have alt text. This is a brief description explaining what the image is so the user can make sense of what they’re looking at. So image optimization is crucial.
• Have you segmented your blog post into H1, H2, H3, H4 tags? Have you used bullet and numbered points, bold, italics? Have you included a content list that users can skim or jump ahead? The layout of your content is super important. It can mean the difference between a user browsing or bouncing.
• Don’t keyword stuff. Some bloggers make the mistake of placing keywords in their content like confetti, especially if they’re short. Remember, you still need to write a readable piece of content. So if it sounds clunky, edit, edit, edit.
• Optimize the Title Text and meta description. I've built my website in WordPress, and I use Yoast SEO to determine whether the title and meta-description of my cornerstone article are optimized for success. You must use your keyword in both.
• And ensure your blog is mobile-friendly. If it doesn’t display correctly on mobile devices, you have a problem.
• Include an option for users to comment or opt-in to your email list. Your goal should always be to capture your readers' details.
• To optimize the body of the article, I use PageOptimizer Pro. It gives me a score rating out of 100 and tips on improving keyword usage. It’s helped me to take articles that didn’t rank to appearing in the top 10, so give it a shot.

6. Promote your cornerstone content

You’ve spent all this time and energy writing a world-class article. Now you need to promote it.

• Start with your email list. I’ve taken to sharing blogs with my email list, and it’s resulted in over 300 readers coming to that page in one day. This increases my chances of businesses linking to content or sharing it with their colleagues and business circle.
• Share your content on social sites. You want to promote your blog on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Write a LinkedIn article (a condensed version of the original content piece) and link to the full blog post. Choose an engaging image for Twitter and Facebook and craft an intriguing caption that drives the reader to act.
• Mention it on podcast appearances. Most podcasters will promote your episode and biography on their site. You want to ensure you’ve included a link to the article in the synopsis.
• Approach bloggers in your industry to see if they’d be interested in a contributor piece that references the main cornerstone content. You can link back to your article. This method improves your page and domain authority.

7. Add internal linking

When you create cornerstone content, you need to pay attention to the internal linking structure of your website. Internal linking means adding a hyperlink from related content to your cornerstone article. You can link a particular keyword or phrase.

Internal linking is vital to your SEO strategy. It can keep readers on your site longer, but it also says to Google which are the most important pieces of content on your website.

So add at least ten internal links to your cornerstone article.

8. Monitor and manage your content

Finally, the thing about content marketing, it's never done. It's an ongoing journey. You want to give your article a month or so to see how it’s performing. After that, you may need to add new ideas or tweak the headers.

I’ve had blog posts which with time, have slipped from the top three spots to eighth or ninth, and it’s because they are valuable keywords that other brands want to rank for. So competition creeps in, and it’s up to you to ensure your content is up-to-date.

Be willing to refresh your content, and when you do make changes, update the published date. Many web visitors won’t read a blog written three years ago.

So track your content’s performance and enhance where necessary.

Now that you know how to write great cornerstone content let’s look at a few examples.

Examples of cornerstone content

1. Cornerstone articles (SEO)

Crafting search engine optimized cornerstone articles is vital in this day and age. Every day your ideal prospects are looking for advice or guidance on how to do something better, what it is, where to find more information. You want to create pillar content, basically in-depth blog posts that answer your readers’ questions.

Think of these cornerstone pieces of content as mini-guides and, or long-form articles on a particular keyword topic.

For example, I rank for the keywords and long-tail phrases business systems, direct response marketing, lead nurturing email sequences, marketing coach, reactivation campaign, etc.

Sometimes this content pushes a lead to a landing or product page. Other times I offer a free download or content upgrade. This is a template, worksheet, infographic, or guide that they can use in their business.

The goal is it attracts organic traffic. High-value leads. Business systems alone bring in over 700 leads a month. Social media posts don’t get nearly the same traction as cornerstone blogs, so make sure it forms part of your strategy.

2. Cornerstone Data

Data is such a powerful piece of cornerstone content. Data works well in most industries because numbers are compelling. Journalists want to be the first to publish it. People like to use it as a guide for making decisions. So if you can put out a report or some form of data, do it.  

Use data to attract your niche target audience.

For example, if I'm buying or selling a house, I want to know what the area is like, what I am going to pay, and what I will get for that amount?

Having some report or price range or guide that will help me understand what my house is going to be worth is very powerful.

This example is from Mornington, my local suburb. There are some things they did well, but they could have taken it a step further.

They should have segmented the guide into the beach, forest, inner-city, and countryside areas. Looking at it, I know what sale price I can expect to get in my area and what I can expect to pay for an inner-city property and what you get for that. Because you pay for a view, you pay for convenience, which often comes at a price: smaller properties, less land but easy access to bars, shops, offices.

So anywhere where you have some kind of cornerstone data that can be updated regularly, maybe monthly or quarterly, is very powerful.

3. Cornerstone Research Reports

Industry research reports are great for B2B as your target audience wants to know what’s happening in their industry and how that affects their business.

Every quarter Akamai releases a report called The State of the Internet Report. Inside the technology industry, Akamai is a powerhouse. Their data and research are used a lot in news publications.

For example, whenever you see a report ranking broadband speeds across the world that's based on the research by Akamai. They're tracking different threats, emerging trends, and the business implications for those trends are. It also contains commentary from the editor and leaders in the industry, so it’s massively powerful.

It gets released every quarter and generates press and relevant traffic to their site. It enhances their credibility and authority in the industry. So, their cornerstone content has helped position them as a thought leader.

A great report contains lots of data, stats, graphs, diagrams, and content.

4. Cornerstone Product Reviews

As a consumer, anytime I purchase a product, particularly something of value, I look for product reviews. I like to use a mix of professional reviews and customer sentiment.

I also like to watch YouTube reviews because you get a sense of how it works and what you’re getting into.

The best example of product reviews on Youtube is Gary Vaynerchuck. He started with a channel called Wine Library TV. All he did was review different wines, the flavor, texture, taste, and what might pair well with them.

Wine lovers would have subscribed to his channel, and they’d buy from him and his family's business. So it’s a smart way to grow your business. You can embed those videos on your website and push them to product landing pages.

So product reviews are fantastic cornerstone content for eCommerce.

5. Cornerstone Guides

How-to guides are great for identifying your niche audience. For example, Qualaroo sells software that helps you survey your customers. They've created a guide called The Marketers Guide to Surveying Users. This cornerstone content tells you exactly who it's for and what it will help you do.

It's what I like to call a tripwire. If someone downloads it, you can assume it will be a marketer, and there is a high probability that they're looking for a tool or software to help them survey their clients.

This piece of cornerstone content allows you to enter the conversation taking place in your prospects’ minds. You can capture their email address and keep in touch with them. You can provide nurturing content, deliver value, and perhaps give them a result in advance.

How-to guides work especially well for companies selling software, so start building yours.

6. Cornerstone eBooks, Frameworks, Templates

Can you write a book, template, or framework that changes your and your customers’ lives? I did, and I know of many other business coaches who’ve done the same.

My book  is the cornerstone content I am most famous for. Sure, if you Google my name, you'll come up with blog articles, and I get a lot of traffic through my blog. The 1-Page Marketing Plan is the cornerstone content I am most famous for. Sure, if you Google my name, you'll come up with blog articles, and I get a lot of traffic through my blog.

But my book is my key piece of cornerstone content. Anyone who purchases it can find a link to my 1PMP framework. They have to opt-in to my sales funnel to acquire it.

I’ve built a 50,000 strong email list through this book. Many of whom have gone on to purchase my course, group consulting, 1:1 consulting, and my consulting toolbox.

So think about what piece of cornerstone content you can create that solves a problem.

7. Cornerstone Video Content

85% of all internet users watch videos. So you must consider creating video content.

For me, River Pools and Spas nailed video cornerstones. In 2008 they were hit hard by the recession and were on the verge of closing shop. They had to get creative fast. So, Marcus, the CEO, started blogging. He wrote content and filmed videos answering their customers’ questions.

Things like:

• what kind of heat pump do I need?
• how much does it cost to build a fiberglass ground pool?
• how much electricity will it take to run the pool pump?
• do I need to have the pool cover open or closed?

These were then loaded onto his retail website. They went from almost going out of business to being one of the top fiberglass pool manufacturers in North America, which is incredible.

People from all over the world contact them even though they're only based in the US because their cornerstone content is world-class. It generates a ton of traffic.

It's an incredibly powerful strategy because you're working with Google. You're creating search engine optimized content that answers what they want, and you're catering to your customers' questions.

Google wants your audience to find the most relevant content. So think about how you can use videos as part of your cornerstone strategy.

Start writing your cornerstone marketing piece

Now that you know what a cornerstone article is and how to create it, you need to create your own lead-generating masterpiece. Something that's going to bring high-value leads straight to your inbox.

If you don’t have the time, hire a writer who can interview you and get as much information as they need to write it. Then get a designer to craft something eye-catching. Or a videographer to film it.

Once you’re satisfied with the end result, publish it, and monitor its performance.  Good luck.

Every year marketers gaze into their crystal ball to determine which marketing trends will dominate the coming year. While I don't have a magic mirror to tell you definitively which strategies and tactics will win the marketing game, I know where I'll be investing my time, money, and resources.

Why would my opinion be worth anything? I doubled the number of people I employ in 2021 and significantly increased ROI. These are the marketing strategies that served me well.

So if you have the goal of accelerating your marketing and leveling up your business, these are my top 5 marketing strategies to jump on in 2022.

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1. Double down on email marketing

Unsurprisingly, email marketing is top of my go-to marketing strategy for 2022.

For years we've been told email is dead. But I believe it's more relevant than ever. And a recent HubSpot report validates my thinking. It noted that email delivers an impressive 4,200% return on investment. So I thought I'd put it to the test.

My team recently hit fast forward on our email strategy, and the results were staggering—triple the open and click-through rates and triple the sales. So what did we do differently?

1. We increased the frequency of emails to our list from one to three or four weekly.
2. We pre-planned our content, choosing to share a mix of free resources—value-led content with clear calls-to-action—and peppered in a few blatant sales emails. After reviewing our numbers, we saw resource-led emails linking to a blog or webinar outperformed sales emails. While the open rate remained stable, on average, sales emails received a click-through rate of 0.6%, with value-add generating 1.5%.
3. We dedicated an entire month to promoting one or two similar products. We did this, so our audience had time to warm up to the idea of purchasing that particular product. Remember, only 3% of your target audience is ever willing and able to buy immediately.
4. We hosted one or two webinars a month. This included a joint venture-led webinar where we invited a trusted consultant to share their knowledge around a specific theme or topic. Added to this, we wrote an email sequence to follow up with all registrants. This sequence included a link to the webinar recording, and it pushed a relevant product. Our average open rate was around 55%, and the click-through rate was a little over 14%.

So if you're going to invest in email marketing, use a mix of educational, entertaining, and sales emails. A good ratio is 3:1 (three educational or entertaining emails to every sales email). Be consistent and track your results. Read this blog to learn more about maximizing your email marketing strategy.

2. Think video-first.

A couple of years ago, every marketer worth their weight in gold told you to think mobile-first. We all have them. If you're honest with yourself, you're probably never without your mobile phone.

But here's why you need to start thinking of yourself as a media company.

Globally, video consumption is on the rise. Just check out Invideo's list of compelling video stats. But one that stood out to me is that 84% of consumers have bought a product or service after watching a brand's video.

And with platforms like TikTok (over 1 billion users generating over $1.9 billion in revenue) and Instagram growing in popularity, you need these networks to connect with your target audience. That means you need to be creating VIDEO content.

Posting pretty pictures and inspiring copy isn't going to cut it if you want to drive high-value leads to your website. You need a video strategy.

So get out from behind your computer and get in front of the camera. Even if you feel shy or embarrassed, just do it. Hit the record button and start talking.

Have fun with it. Play around with filters or hire a videographer to help you produce unmissable content and see how it goes. You might cringe at the first few videos you make, but I promise it gets easier.

3. Focus on in-person experiences.

If you're releasing a new product or book, host a launch. Take the necessary safety precautions like limiting the number of people who can attend, but give them a chance to interact with you.

As a business coach, you could host an in-person training where you book out a venue for a day, provide lunch, and smash through goals.

It's a great way to build brand loyalty and gain first-hand insight into why your customers love your business and what you could do better. PLUS, they'll appreciate you for it.

What kind of in-person experiences would your customers love?

After two years of working from home, isolating, wearing masks, and avoiding all contact with other human beings, the pandemic is hopefully coming to an end. And now is the time to start thinking about hosting in-person experiences again.

Zoom fatigue is real. People want to get dressed up, go out, and interact with brands in person. They don't want another help desk email or video discovery call. They want face-to-face experiences.

Your goal is to figure out how to make this possible.

4. Personalize your marketing.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you want to build a tribe of raving fans, you need to deliver personalized experiences. Your customers don't want to be thought of as just another transaction. They want you to validate their purchase.

So think about how you can use technology to replicate human-to-human experiences. For example, I've added live chat to my website. While we have a list of standard responses, a real person monitors and responds to user questions. Getting real-time answers can be the difference between a sale and a lost lead.

Another option is to support customers through Zoom and FaceTime. Unlike text-based responses, video is surprising and can catapult your marketing to the next level.

Think back to those video stats I mentioned earlier. Imagine if, within an hour of purchasing a product, you received a personalized video message via email thanking you for choosing that brand. You'd be pretty impressed.

Now consider that 92% of customers expect personalized marketing. And yet, too many businesses get it wrong. Your goal is to be the 22% of businesses that don't struggle with it.

So think long and hard about how you can deepen your relationship with prospects and customers.

5. Take a risk on emerging platforms.

While it's good to stay in your comfort zone, if you want to be a change-maker, you need to be prepared to step outside your comfort zone and try new things.

As entrepreneurs, we're used to taking risks. So this year, I'm going to do things a little differently and take a chance on new and emerging platforms like NFTs, augmented realities, and TikTok (I know I'm a little slow on this one).

Experimentation is essential, and yes, I could lose, but I could also win big. So look at having skunkworks in your business and use disruptive innovation to get ahead of the curve.

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Next steps

And those are my top five marketing strategies for scaling your business in 2022. That's where I'm going to focus my time, energy, and money. I already know email is delivering returns. I've launched live chat on my site, and I'm in the process of getting my TikTok account up and running.

But I'd love to know what you've got planned, and if you have any questions.

What marketing strategies have worked well for you in the past?

And where will you be doubling down your efforts?

Join my Lean Marketing Hub and share your business story.

Why does your company need to be building marketing assets? It's a question I often get asked by rookie entrepreneurs. Here's what these startup owners don't get: if you don’t own marketing assets, you are the asset.

But what do I mean by this?

You're an asset if you’ve got to put in the time, money, and effort to generate leads and build your business. Now that's okay in your startup phase when you're fresh and eager to tackle every facet of your business. But it's not sustainable.

What happens when you want to double your revenue? You have to double the hours you work in a day. And if you don’t want to use your time to increase your revenue, you need marketing assets.

So what is a marketing asset, and how can it help your sales team sell your product or service more often?

In this article, I will explain the benefits of assets and the type of marketing assets you need to be building in order to grow your brand and customer base.

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What is a marketing asset?

Marketing assets are the tools and resources you use to attract leads, build relationships, and make sales. Marketing assets include social media accounts, white papers, blog content, case studies, videos, published articles, industry reports, brochures, online ads, data, ebooks, digital campaigns, your CRM, and CMS.

You want to treat your marketing assets like employees, except they never need time off. They work while you sleep, but that doesn't mean you should build them once, and that's it. Each asset needs to be assigned a KPI. Then you need to routinely check in to see how your marketing assets are performing.

What are the main types of marketing assets?

Marketing assets can be divided into internal and external assets.

Internal Marketing Assets

Internal marketing assets are company assets or processes that are strictly for internal use by team members. You'd have your typical marketing collateral like business cards (check out free business card template here), letterheads, sell sheets, interactive brochures, support procedures, etc. It could be a management guide or a client onboarding process. These are the standard operating procedures or gold standards for how you do business.

For example, you could have an asset specifically designed to educate and inform your sales team about the benefits of your products or services so they can better assist potential customers.

External Marketing Assets

These are the marketing assets your brand uses to attract potential customers. For example, your company's marketing asset material could encompass a lead magnet, landing page, ultimate guide, report, blog article, marketing campaign, whatever.

These assets target your customer's pain points. They solve a problem and establish you as a credible source—an authority they can trust to help them get a result. It gets prospects to raise their hands and indicate interest in your company's services or products.

More importantly, assets drive action, and if you've set up your analytics, you can track exactly where that opt-in or sale originated.

Why are assets important?

Apart from the obvious—which is they free up your time—marketing assets build trust. Most potential customers don't trust you. They've been duped by brand after brand looking to make a quick sale, so they're naturally skeptical.

Your assets position you as an authority, someone they can trust to educate, entertain, and put their best interests first. That's powerful. A good asset makes the sales process so much easier because you're not overcoming objections all of the time.

You're giving your prospect free advice you'd normally charge for—helping them get results before using your product or service. Now that's a powerful strategy for scaling your business.

10 examples of marketing assets you should be building

Whether you're managing the marketing for a large corporation or you're a startup, you need to be building assets. Marketers will tell you that marketing assets are no different from financial assets.

If you nurture and monitor these assets closely, making vital changes when necessary, they will deliver massive returns for your company. These are just a few assets you want to think about adding to your marketing mix.

1. Social Media Marketing

Like it or not, social media marketing is here to stay, and your clients are active on it right this very minute. So you need to make a concerted effort to build your social media assets.

But don't just jump on any social media network. Be strategic about it.

Are your customers actively engaging on the networks you're targeting? If you don't know, you need to be speaking with your existing customer base and investing time and energy in market research. It's a great way to identify which social media channels your customers love to hang out on.

For example, as a business-to-business (B2B) brand, I know my customers are active on social sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. So those are three social media channels I need to invest my marketing efforts in.

But it's not just about showing up. You need to create content your potential customers want to engage with, and it needs to be channel appropriate.

• Instagram is big on visual content.
• LinkedIn favors text-based posts.
• Unsurprisingly, YouTube and TikTok audiences love videos.

So whatever social media channel you choose, make sure you're creating valuable and relevant content.

Also, using AI shorts maker can significantly enhance your video content creation, enabling you to produce engaging and high-quality shorts effortlessly for platforms like YouTube and TikTok. This tool is a game-changer for marketers looking to quickly adapt and share trending content.

PLUS, don't forget to focus on building relationships. Your social media audience values relationships.

• They want to be educated and entertained. Can you share hot tips and industry insights?
• They want a personalized service. You need to take an interest in them. If your social media strategy is focused entirely on sales, you'll never gain traction.
• And they want to be spoiled. What free stuff can you give away? How can they be the first to know about new products or services?

Which social media assets should you be building?

2. Digital Marketing (Website, Landing Page, Blog)

Your company's website is one of your greatest digital marketing assets. If anything, it's one of the first marketing assets you need to build because it will drive your inbound strategy. I wrote a blog about that here.

The entire purpose of my company’s website is to capture high-value leads.

Almost every web page includes a call-to-action. It could be a link to opt-in to my email newsletter or download a piece of content like worksheets, how-to guides, or infographics. It could also be a redirect to a sales page or some other related article that my readers would be interested in checking out.

Having my website and using cookies allows me to track where leads originate. Did this customer come from social media, a podcast, Amazon, an affiliate link, or one of my campaign ads?

This gives me invaluable insight into my customers and the management of my assets.

So make sure you include digital marketing in your marketing strategy and invest in a lead-generating website. It's money well spent.

3. Business Systems (Training Manuals)

Every business process needs to be mapped out. Your team needs to know what to do at every stage of a campaign, customer service, sales process, team management, employee onboarding, and much more. These processes make scaling your business and delivering a consistent experience simple.

And consistency is key to customer retention. If they never know what to expect, you'll dramatically reduce your customer lifetime value. Creating your systems doesn't need to be hard. I go into detail on how to build a world-class business system here.

Just know that your system needs to include:

• Helpful images
• Written examples they can follow
• The tools they'll need (check out this blog on tools for startups and small businesses)
• Who will implement (which employees)
• Demonstrative videos

Remember, systems are valuable to you, the owner, your management team and employees, customers, and investors. It's IP they're willing to spend millions of dollars on to own.

4. Videos

Another marketing asset you need to add is video. About a year ago, I hired a fitness trainer to help me get in shape and, more importantly, instill healthy habits. Now my fitness trainer lives on the other side of the world. Right?

Doesn’t matter. We connect via video regularly. He checks my form. We discuss how I’m doing on the nutritional plan, all of that sort of stuff. It's all done online through video.

And as 85% of internet users watch video content monthly, you need to be using it to create content and disseminate your company's messaging.

But you can also use video creatively. It can be used for more than just marketing campaigns. For example, I use video to:

• Respond to prospects over email
• Introduce new products and services on my website
• Share social media tips
• Answer frequently-asked customer questions
• Work with people on a sale or for tech support

But I've also seen companies create video brochures, which I think look super slick.

Best of all, you don’t need a high-tech camera or lighting and sound system. Not initially. You need your phone. So if you want to be seen as an authority in your industry, you need to add video content to your list of marketing materials.

5. Cornerstone Content (Freebie Assets)

Cornerstone content is any piece of content that you use to build your brand authority and get prospects to self-identify. It could be a checklist, how-to guide, template, framework, report, or ebook. It's a free asset that prospects will barter their contact details for to acquire.

White papers, reports, case studies, free trials (software), and ebooks are some of the most popular cornerstone content your company can have.

Mine is a bestselling book, The 1-Page Marketing Plan and my 1PMP framework. Every company needs to include cornerstone content as a major part of its marketing strategy. It's an asset that will bring in leads year after year. It's also a great way to get featured in magazines, on podcasts, blogs, whatever.

Read this blog to learn more about how to create cornerstone content.

6. Content Marketing (SEO Blog Posts)

Every company needs to invest in content marketing and every website needs a blog. It's just one of those marketing assets you need. But writing articles for the sake of creating content is a waste of your time.

Your blog posts need to be search engine optimized (SEO) and human-friendly. So many companies get this wrong. As much as you want to write for search engines, people will be reading your articles at the end of the day. If it's poorly written and keyword-stuffed, your target audience will bounce.

I've written blogs that, almost a decade later, still bring in new leads every month. Sure, I've had to optimize and update them slightly, but apart from that, I've invested very little time and energy into these key posts.

I go into detail about how to craft articles that rank, but here's a quick summary.

Your blog post needs to include:

• New ideas
• Infographics
• Images
• Data
• An opt-in form
• Downloadable materials (e.g., a worksheet, case study, step-by-step guide)

It also needs to be relevant, deliver value, create interest, and help the reader get a result. And again, consistency is key. Your brand needs to be posting new blogs at least once a month.

If you need help optimizing your blog, check out Page Optimizer Pro. I’ve used this tool to optimize many of my blog articles and they rank as a result. You’ll get a report that looks a little something like this.

Now you just need to add in the missing keywords. It’s that easy.

7. Email Lead Nurturing Sequence

You want to think of your email list as an asset that gets more valuable over time. If you do it right, your audience comes to know you, like you, and trust you more over time...and some of them will want to do business with you.

But to build this marketing asset, you need to create trust, provide value, and most importantly, give more than you take. Because as soon as someone feels like all you do is take, they'll opt-out or ignore you.

So let’s put yourself in their shoes.

After a bit of googling, someone arrives on your website and sees something they need. Maybe it's a checklist, framework, how-to guide, free trial, whatever.

They know this could be the solution to their problem, BUT they've been down this road before. In the past, they've signed up for freebies only to be bombarded by endless promotions.

They're hesitant, cautious, and skeptical about opening up their inbox to you.  

So be different.

As they begin to read your email, they're looking for the same red flags as before. But you know better. Instead of hitting them with a hard sell, you offer them value, entertainment, opinion, and education.

Remember, you want to build an asset rather than destroy trust. And, of course, when the time is right for them, you'll be the person they trust to take the relationship further and potentially become your client. If you'd like to learn more about building an email asset, check out this article.

8. Brand Style Guide & Messaging Guide

Consistency.

I've mentioned this before, and I'll mention it again. Every marketing asset you create needs to be consistent in the type of images you use, the tone of voice, messaging style, font, colors, etc. Getting this right requires management, or more importantly, a brand style guide.

A good brand style guide will include your logo and how to use it. For example, how much white space to leave around the logo, when to use a plain white logo and when to use the full-color version.

It'll also detail your company's visual direction—the images that are appropriate for your brand and look/feel you want to convey in your marketing campaigns.

It'll list your brand font, as well as the font size and color for headlines, subheadings, headers, hyperlinks, bold text, body copy.

Here's an example of a brand style guide that you can use when building your own brand.

9. Marketing Plan

Without a marketing strategy, you just have tactics (ads, social media posts, landing pages). Essentially, you have a campaign without any goal or direction. And randomly investing in marketing without a roadmap is a recipe for disaster or a chance to blow a ton of money.

Now, if you don't want to do that, you need a plan.

Think of your marketing strategy as the foundation for everything you do in business. It outlines:

• who your target audience is
• your messaging
• the media you'll use to reach your customers
• the resources you'll need to capture their information and build a relationship
• how you'll deliver a world-class experience
• increase customer lifetime value
• orchestrate referrals.

This plan is crucial to the success of your marketing. If you need a fillable template, get it below:

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10. eBooks

If you're looking to get into coaching or build your personal brand, you need an ebook. Practically every mentor or consultant I deal with has written an ebook.

For me, an ebook is the ultimate business card and introduction to who you are, what you do, and why you're the right choice.

I've sold over 500,000 copies of my ebook. And through it, I've built an engaged email list, been invited to speak at conferences all over the world, been interviewed on podcasts and radio shows, and landed many clients.

Having read my book, they’re already familiar with my methodology and my background. I've established credibility upfront, and I've built trust.

Most clients come to me asking to be coached. I don't have to go out hunting for them, and that's a far better way to do business.  

I share tips on how to write your book here.

Start Building Your Assets!

Remember, it's not just about creating marketing assets. The management of these assets is equally important. Just like your employees, you need to track their performance. Are they doing what you need them to do? And the only way to be sure is to know your data.

For example, there was a time I discovered that I didn't have a lead generation problem. I had a conversion problem. So, I had my management team go through every email, sales page, and our entire sales process to optimize.

I wouldn't have known what to prioritize without a clear view of the data (and an iron-tight infrastructure that would allow for it).

Start building your social presence. Invest in SEO and digital marketing. And good luck as you build your marketing assets.

If you want powerful, effective marketing, you need to stand out. If you don’t, you’re going to lose opportunities. It’s that simple.

Building my first two businesses taught me that the only way to get in front of the people who need you is to master marketing, and that has nothing to do with mastering an actual marketing plan. Your marketing plan is just fiction if you can’t get prospects’ attention in the first place.

Our fear of standing out is the number one reason why we struggle to get noticed. People lose the game of marketing because they play by the rules—rules that don’t even exist.

If you’re looking to nail your marketing strategies, you must be different. Human minds are designed to ignore what’s common and filter out the static. It’s not a new phenomenon.

It dates back to the evolution of man. It's hardwired into our minds. The hunter mind was efficiently designed to filter out all of the common noise in order to notice the thing that stood out that could serve them. While we have certainly evolved since then, we still operate this way.

When your audience sees your marketing, they’re going through these mental calculations within seconds:

• Block out the common noise.
• Does this serve me now?
• Should I take action?

For your marketing to be successful, your prospects need to be guided fast.

According to Time Magazine, the average website holds visitors’ attention for a mere fifteen seconds. Instagram reports people spend less than ten seconds on a post. And what about more tactile marketing? I’ll bet you riffle through your junk mail at warp speed.

If you market just like everyone else, you’re going to blend into that white noise. I should know, I’ve been there.

When my marketing wasn’t delivering the results I wanted, I started to research more of the psychology of marketing and eventually developed The DAD Method. It’s a fast, 3 step process to get noticed and move your prospects to take action immediately. And I'm going to walk you through exactly how to to that.

1. Differentiate - Get different to get noticed

This first step in the framework is to identify a marketing approach that stands out in a sea of sameness. You need it to be clear and somewhat disruptive to get attention. What will make your prospect’s minds stop and look? How can you engage them during those milliseconds of marketing?

One place to begin is whatever idea you have, elevate it. If you are sending something, be it swag or a digital download, call it something clever that stands out and represents you at the same time. For instance, if you were sending a hat, you could call it a thinking cap. Little moves like this make you stand out from the rest.

Getting different starts at the micro-level. You don’t have to come up with a huge, time-consuming marketing plan right off the bat. Make small changes to logos, copy, ads, and videos. Use those as a beta test to see what’s converting for you.

2. Attract - In a way that attracts your ideal prospects

Next, ensure that your approach will appeal to the people you want to serve, not turn them off. How will you establish your marketing as an opportunity they will consider, instead of a threat they will avoid? Make how you are attracting works for who your community is. Remember, you only have a millisecond.

3. Direct - Illustrate a clear message of what action you want your prospects to take

Finally, your strategy must compel your ideal prospects to take a specific action you desire. Now that you have the prospect’s attention and they are engaged, you need to tell them what the heck to do. Marketing guru Jeff Walker says that marketing is every step you take to get the customer to the buying decision, and the sale is the final action on their decision to buy. So your clear, singular directive should get them to the next step.

Does the prospect see the reward of doing what you ask as greater than the risk of taking that action? And will their compliance with your directive help you achieve your marketing goals? Forgetting to include a specific call to action is one of the most common marketing mistakes I’ve seen (and done).

Along with being specific, the Direct step must be reasonable. Maybe my marketing win is to sell you a house, but, once I have your attention, I wouldn’t immediately ask you to plop down a million bucks on the spot. It’s way too much, way too soon, and unreasonable. An excessive ask will cause prospects to walk (or run) away.

Conversely, inadequate asks will slow down (or stop) any progress toward the outcome you want. Once I catch your attention with uniqueness and maintain it with relevance, the Direct step must be specific so you know what to do, and reasonable, so you feel safe doing it and you move efficiently toward your goal.

Recapping DAD

To sum up the DAD: Get different to get noticed in a way that attracts your ideal prospects and directs them to act. That’s it. That’s the framework. It’s simple, yet powerful. When you follow it, you will land new prospects. Every. Single. Time.

Better isn’t better, different is better. So get different.

If I had to do it all over again, and I could choose any business, I’d choose to be a marketing business coach. Coaching is one of the most rewarding careers. You get to spend your days helping people achieve success in their business or life. And your earning potential is limitless.

Did I mention that it doesn’t feel like a job? It feels like a vacation.

But getting to this point has not been without its challenges. I’ve made many mistakes and lost clients as a result. I’ve taken on the wrong clients. I’ve wasted time on coaching programs that didn’t work and didn’t feed my soul.

It’s really only been in the last two years that my team and I have refined our coaching program to the six-figure business it is today. And I’ve decided to share our process with you, because I want you to succeed. I want your coaching clients to get the best out of their sessions with you.

So let’s get into the five ways I bring in over $50K a month in coaching revenue.

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Step 1: How we convert clients

If you want to convert more people to customers, you need to be having more conversations more regularly because conversations lead to conversions.

Through conversation you’re able to identify problems early, answer your prospects' questions, and overcome objections. Then you can use this information to deliver a world-class experience. Here’s what you need to know.

Start with conversations

1. Engage leads through social media

Whether you like it or not you need to be on social media. But make sure you choose a social network that your clients are active on. My team monitors social media chatter. They post a ton of value-add content and they engage with people all the time.

Anyone who expresses interest in my coaching program or who looks like a good fit is loaded into my PipeDrive Coaching Lead Board. But first, my team will check to see if this person is legitimate. Basically, we want to know:

• Do they have a company website?
• How many people do they employ?
• Where are they based?
• What field are they in?

While we’ve coached entrepreneurs from all walks of life, we do have a sweet spot. For example, most of my coaching clients are in eCommerce, tech, medicine or dentistry, and law. These are clients that we know we can get results for, and quickly.

Someone who’s an artist wouldn’t be a good fit. We don’t really know that industry, and it would be a lot more work for me and my team.

So knowing whom you work best with is important. If you need help identifying which media channels your target audience is active on, read this blog on market segmentation and finding your target audience.

2. Write lead-generating blogs

In the past, most of my coaching clients have come through my email list and word-of-mouth. We’ve had a few that had heard me on a podcast or had read about me in the news, but generally these are individuals who had bought my book, read it, joined my mailing list, and eventually asked to be coached.

SEO has changed that. I started writing blogs detailing the benefits of coaching, the difference between group and individual coaching, and how to build your coaching business, and it led to an influx of new coaching leads.

So creating educational content has been super helpful in attracting more high-value leads. But I don’t just write the blog. I added a bonus worksheet which readers can download. In exchange I ask for their email address.

Anyone who opts-in or completes the coaching form is funneled into my PipeDrive Coaching Leads Board, and someone in my team will be in touch to continue the conversation.

• So think about how you can attract high-value leads?
• What do they care about?
• What are their frequently asked questions?

3. Respond to emails

For me, email support is vital. I constantly get emails from people on my list saying I can’t believe you’re actually responding. Email delivers 40x the return of any other advertising media—make sure you’re using it properly.

You might not close a sale the first time you interact with a prospect. Or the second or third, But if they fall within your target audience, and you nurture that relationship, they may eventually commit.

If you don’t have time to monitor your mail, get a virtual assistant to do it. My communications manager monitors my inbox. She’ll identify potential coaching leads and flag these for my sales director, to follow up with. We’ve connected Ontraport to Pipedrive, so by adding a tag, the information and the email chain is automatically captured.

Claire can then see the conversation chain and set up a call.

Are you using email to its maximum potential? Learn all the tricks of the trade by clicking the link.

Follow up with prospects

Following up is key to closing more sales. You need to build a relationship. Demonstrate your abilities and win their trust. Otherwise, it’s unlikely they’ll commit.

So once we’ve identified a coaching lead, their details and all past conversations are loaded into our PipeDrive Leads Board which looks a little something like this screenshot below. Before we created this pipeline, my team had everything on an Excel spreadsheet.

Now, we can see who are new leads, who’s been responded to, if a call is scheduled, if someone has said yes to coaching and has paid.

So, at a glance, she knows whom to reach out to, whom to follow up with, and when to move on. And it’s quick and easy to shift someone from lead in, to response sent, or call scheduled.

Without this board, we wouldn’t know how often we’ve engaged with a lead, and where they are in the buyer’s cycle. We wouldn’t be able to see the entire conversation chain at a glance. In the past, this led to confusion, unhappy prospects, and high churn rates.

Now, everything is clearly mapped out. It’s clear who is responsible for each step. So really, it’s changed the way we shortlist coaching leads, and of course, it’s increased our conversion rate.

It’s something I’d really encourage you to add if you’re thinking about starting or building your coaching business. Having a pipeline of prospects and knowing where they are in the buyer's journey is vital.

Jump on a discovery call

This is the final step before converting a prospect into a customer. By now, we’ve done our due diligence. We’ve gone through our PipeDrive Template for incoming leads and the action items we need to take.  

My team knows who falls into our coaching lane and whether they can afford us. They’ve responded to our emails.

All that’s left to do is to set up a discovery call.

Having that system in place saves you time and money. You’re still going to get a few people who either can’t afford you or aren’t the right fit for your coaching, but it will be far less than if you weren’t using this system.

Step 2: Deliver a strong experience From The First Moment

Your first interaction with a potential coaching client sets the tone for the entire relationship. That’s why it’s so important to deliver a strong experience.

There are two ways we do just that, and this is a process that my coaching team has refined over the years.

Start things out right with an onboarding questionnaire

I used to field all incoming coaching requests. I’d put together an email explaining the benefits of coaching, the time commitment, whatever. Included was a link to my coaching calendar for those who wanted to book a discovery call.

Quickly, I found I was jumping onto hour-long conversations with people who just wanted to pick my brain. They weren’t actually serious about investing in coaching. You may have experienced this too.

To solve this problem, the team and I came up with an onboarding questionnaire. It’s a series of questions that my team uses to gain invaluable insight into a prospective client's business.

You want to do a deep dive into:

• What industry they are in?
• What are the challenges they face?
• What is the structure of their business?
• How do they problem solve?
• Who implements the action points?
• How big is their team?
• Where do they see themselves in a year’s time?

I use this questionnaire to get an understanding of where my clients are now, where they need to be in six months, and what their potential roadblocks are. So what’s going to keep us from getting results?

Knowing this information helps me to gauge whether the prospect would be a good fit for coaching and what measures we’d need to implement to keep moving the needle. So don’t be scared to ask tough questions.

And if they’re not the right fit, point them to a resource that could benefit them now.

Agree on an expectations contract

The next step is to agree on an expectations contract. Now, this isn’t a contract written by lawyers, it’s a document that:

1. Ensures we know the best way to get in touch with the client
2. Helps the client understand how communication works with us

This document covers:

• What we do and don’t do
• How we work with the client and what tools they need
• Our available hours and how long it takes to get back to their queries
• What to expect during a coaching session
• How we hold clients accountable
• What needs to be done to achieve 90-day goals

Each client is assigned a dedicated coach and an Asana board with deliverables. They can also set up weekly coaching calls, and get unlimited access to all our standard operating procedures. It’s how we help them stay committed.

So how can you deliver a great first impression?

Step 3: How we move them along

If you’re not moving your client along, you’re wasting their time and your own.

It used to be that when I’d jump on a coaching call, we’d discuss problem areas, I’d ask what kind of goals my clients wanted to achieve, and we’d agree on a strategy and the next steps to move things forward.  

Then we’d set up a meeting for the same time the next week to see how they were progressing. Sometimes a week, two weeks, even a month would go by with very little to show for it.  

Maybe they’d get stuck, or they’d be spinning too many plates, or they didn’t have the people power to implement, but things just weren’t getting done.

I tried the usual “coaching” tools like accountability buddies, reminders, pushing, but nothing worked. I’d be frustrated and the client would be frustrated. And within six months, they’d cancel coaching services because they weren’t getting a result. Something had to change.

Clients pay you to help them get results. But if they’re not putting in the time or implementing your teachings, you might as well call it quits.

To avoid having to do this, my team and I  devised a coaching roadmap. It’s changed the way we do business. It’s also ensured that the lifetime value of a coaching client has substantially increased.

You can create something similar.

This is my 7-step framework for delivering a world-class coaching service:

1. Detailed Diagnostic

Start with a detailed diagnostic. This is a questionnaire that tackles:

• A quick overview of the client’s business
• Their business model and structure
• Their current marketing and sales strategy
• Whether or not they have a team
• The systems they use
• Cash flow management

The point of this call is to get an understanding of where the coaching client is right now—what are their current roadblocks, goals, and future plans? And what does success look like for them?

Knowing this will influence any decisions you make, as well as the type of results you’re able to achieve.

2. Gap Analysis

The next step in the process is to perform a gap analysis. It leads you through an examination of where the client is now versus where they want to be. This is a very important distinction.

Coaching clients can have very unrealistic ideas of what can be achieved in a month or two. If they’re a one-person show, and you’re asking them to spend time building their LinkedIn following, redo their website, and start an email campaign, you’ll break them.

It’s just not possible. So you need to work together to identify and bridge the gaps between these two states to achieve their business goals.

3. Team

Part of the gap analysis is to identify whether your client needs a team. Business is a team sport. Entrepreneurs can’t do it alone. They can try, but it’ll take them far longer to scale.

At Lean Marketing, we help our clients build their internal marketing capabilities for lasting, sustainable growth. And we do that by consulting, hiring, onboarding, and strategizing with the client and their new team.

So depending on what your coaching business is, you may need to consider if your client can achieve results on their own or if they need help.

4. 90-Day Goals

I’ve found that to keep momentum and motivation high, clients need a mix of short-term and long-term goals. And achieving small wins are a vital part of the coaching process.

So it’s vital that you nail down 90-day goals and keep track of them over the course of your consulting. The best way to track their progress is with a project management tool like Asana. We have a coaching board so my team and I know exactly what to do when and how we’re progressing towards goals.

5. Strategic Plan

Next, you want to build a strategy—and it’s not about stringing together a bunch of random tactics. Strategy is the big-picture planning that will become the foundation of your client's business.

During this stage, we help our clients create a strategic plan using The 1-Page Marketing Plan framework. Yours might be a content plan, a workout program and nutrition plan, whatever.

6. Tactical Plan

Once you’ve agreed on your strategic plan, you’ll need to break it up into a tactical plan. These are the actions they need to take. Here’s what ours looks like:

• Tools: This is where we choose appropriate tools that will help our clients run and scale their businesses more efficiently.
• Assets: We'll work together on building and managing their marketing assets—so their websites, blogs, email lists and so on.
• Processes: We help our clients create processes they need to do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis because persistence beats creative genius every time.

Start jotting down the steps you’d want your clients to take.

7. Measuring Metrics

Lastly, we focus on numbers. Knowing our clients’ numbers is vital to understanding whether our coaching is benefiting them. We measure lead and lag metrics. But if you're a personal trainer, you might measure weight loss, muscle gain, lost inches, BMI.

So that’s the seven-step coaching framework. Use it as inspiration to build out your coaching framework.

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Step 4: How we keep our clients on track

Keeping your clients firmly on the path to success takes systems and a coaching board.

In an ideal world, I’d be handling all the coaching. It can be hard to let go of the reins, but there just aren’t enough hours in a day for me to deal with each and every client. And I suspect the same is true for you.

As a coach, you need to be on your game and be present. If you’re spending eight hours coaching people every day, you’ll quickly burn out. And no matter how hard you try, those three, four, and five o’clock clients won’t get the same level of attention or energy as your early morning clients.

So how do you get around this? Here’s what I do.

Get help. I’ve hired coaches with different strengths and skillsets to take some of my load. It’s allowed me to offer more to my coaching clients, and retention rates have improved.

Where I help with building overall strategy, Claire does wonders with building their team, and Anna is amazing with branding and messaging.

They’re also based in different locations, which has allowed me to take on coaching clients in different timezones.

Before, I was limited to the US and AUS/NZ. I had to turn away many clients. Now I’m bringing on my UK/European clients, and you can too.

But this is where having a system becomes crucial.

I need to know:

• Who is handling what?
• What’s been said and agreed upon in a meeting?
• What are the barriers to success?
• Do I need to jump in and troubleshoot?
• Is the client happy?

And having the Asana board helps massively. At a glance, I can see exactly where the client is in the process. I know what’s coming, what we’re waiting on, and whether or not I’m a bottleneck or the client is.

This information is priceless. It’s helped me to transform my coaching program, and client retention has increased three-fold.

So if you’re aiming to make $50k in coaching revenue, you need to have an airtight system and a way to track progress. And you need to realize that it will take a team.

No, you don’t have to hire more coaches, but you do need to think about hiring a coaching assistant.‍

Do you need help building your coaching business? We've shared our top tips for starting and growing your coaching business in this how-to article. Just click the link.

Step 5: How we surprise and delight

I’m a firm believer in the power of a shock and awe package, particularly for high-value clients. I’m talking about customers willing to spend thousands of dollars each month.

Email can be a little impersonal and, well, meh. Whereas a physical gift—like a personalized shock and awe package—has what I like to call a WOW factor.

It's unexpected. It's something you know they'll love, and chances are it’s going to further your relationship with that prospect.

I like to send a shock and awe package to every new coaching client. Mine includes:

• My metal business card
• One copy of Lean Marketing and The 1-Page Marketing Plan (Lean Marketing is for the client and The 1-Page Marketing Plan is for them to give to a friend or team member. This works for two reasons. It makes your client look good, and it could lead to a new potential client.)
• A branded handwritten note
• A personalized triangle book stand

It doesn’t need to be expensive. Investing $20 or $30 is more than enough. It’s all about creating stand-out moments for your customers—letting them know that you appreciate their business and that you’re going to do a great job.

And it’s a tactic that other people use too.

Take America’s version of The Voice. If you’ve ever watched it, you’ll have seen their coaches often gift new team members with something unique. Kelly Clarkson does branded jackets. John Legend wrote a personalized song for his new singers. And Ariana Grande gave her team members a voice health pack.

It’s a small gift. But it kicks off the coaching relationship on a feel-good note. It reinforces that these singers made the right choice.

So think about what you could do to surprise and delight your customers. What are you willing to spend? What would they appreciate?

‍

Are you ready to Scale Your Coaching Business

Scaling your coaching business doesn’t have to be hard. All you need is a system. A system for generating the right kind of coaching prospect and a template for converting those leads into coaching clients.

Once you have this in place, you need to focus on retaining them. Strong experiences are key. But that alone isn’t enough if you don’t get your clients results. So make sure you’re moving them along. Your job is to give them what they want, but also what they need.

And make your coaching life easier. Invest in project management software, especially if your coaching team is growing. You’re juggling many balls and it’s easy to drop a few.

My final tip, add a wow factor to doing business with you. People love getting an unexpected package in the mail. It creates a standout moment—a point of difference that keeps coaching clients coming back for more.

Get Our Proven Operating Systems

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If I had to start all over, I'd choose coaching as a career. Starting a coaching business is a lot easier than you think. But it's very hard to scale, get traction, and gain credibility―especially if you don’t have a framework or structure.

In this article, I'll walk you through the exact tools and tricks I've used to start and grow my seven-figure online coaching business. It's a life and a business that feeds my soul. I wear what I want, work with whomever I want, when I want, from wherever I want.

If you want that too, keep reading.

Here's how to start a coaching business from scratch.

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The Consulting Toolbox arms you with a plug-and-play collection of the same proven templates, frameworks, and processes we used to scale our consulting business to 7+ figures.

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How to build a successful coaching business

The world of business coaching has changed tremendously in the last few years. It used to be that you had to wear a suit and tie. You had an office. Or you'd meet your client in person to coach or consult.

With the rise of the internet and tools like Zoom, a whole new world has opened up for people wanting to start a coaching business and sell their services. You don't have to travel to your clients anymore. You're no longer limited to working within your city or district.

You can easily coach people on a completely different continent. I do. I'm based in Australia, and I regularly talk to people from the US, UK, India, you name it.

I've built an online coaching business that serves a global target audience. Since massive opportunities have opened up with virtual and remote delivery, you simply need to tap into your coaching niche. Relationship coach? Life coach? Marketing coach?  It really comes down to what your skillset is and what you can bring to the market.

Now let's talk about what you need to do to build a successful coaching business from scratch. Click this link to learn more about scaling your coaching business to $50K coaching revenue a month.

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1. Define your goals.

If you had to imagine what your life looks like in five years, what would it be? For me, that was a house with a beach view, waking up on a Monday morning rearing to start my day, working no more than 25 hours a week, never having to wear a suit and tie for work again, working with clients I genuinely like and want to see successful.

There were a ton more. But these were the stand-out goals.

I also knew I wanted to help more business owners succeed. I struggled for years to scale my IT business. I know what it's like to go without. I've done my time worrying about making payroll or keeping the lights on.

But unlike most startups who struggle, I survived to build a profitable business. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA) 90 percent of small businesses fail within the first five years. My personal goal is to change this statistic. That's why I built my coaching business.

2. Choose your niche.

Whom will you work with? Think about your skills and work experience. Is there a gap in the market that you can fill? The best online coaching businesses solve a problem, and they know that the riches are in the niches.

For example, Neil Patel teaches you how to grow your organic web traffic using SEO. Laura Belgray of Talking Shrimp helps you master email marketing and triple your income. Amy Porterfield coaches you on how to build an online course. David Jenyns helps you systemize your business. They all have one thing in common: They create value for their potential clients.

So, how can you create value? What knowledge, skills, and business experience can you share to connect with like-minded people and grow your online coaching business?

Also, is it a profitable niche? You want a target audience that's willing to pay handsomely for your advice and guidance. If they don't see value in the services you deliver, you'll never build a profitable coaching business.

Examples of coaching fields that earn well include life coaching, business coaching, and team coaching.

3. Figure out how to price and package yourself.

Pricing and packaging are massively important when starting a coaching business because they impact the type of client you attract.

1. Firstly, you need to decide whether you charge by the hour or a retainer. Here's why I'd advise against hourly billing. You earn according to the number of hours you work. If you want to earn more, you have to work more, and there are only so many hours in a day. So I'd advise against per hour billing. Rather look at month-to-month billing.
2. You also don't want to lock your client into a set contract. That's an extra hurdle you're making people jump through. And they might want to get their lawyer involved because they don't agree with some of the terminologies. It's just not worth it.
3. Instead offer a retainer. You could do something like an unlimited package offer. I do this in my coaching business and it's the kind of package that a client who is risk-reverse will like. So unlimited could mean unlimited access to your coaching team, training, mentoring, whatever. A lot of coaches freak out about this. They think, will clients book a call with me every day? The truth is, people often overestimate how much they'll use your service. You need to be clear with your client. Yes, it's unlimited, but you're not just getting on a call to chit-chat and shoot the breeze. You're getting on to assess how they're progressing with action items and answer questions. So when you switch to unlimited calls, your clients will only book to speak with you when they have something to show.

4. Pick your business model.

Group coaching or one-on-one. There are benefits to both models, but you need to decide which you enjoy most. Maybe you'll offer a combination. I do. Group coaching is generally more affordable. But the majority of my revenue comes from 1:1 coaching.

Read up on the unique differences and benefits of group and one-on-one coaching before making your decision.

And as you scale your coaching model, don't be afraid to hire other coaches with unique skills that your clients can tap into. This will also free up your time to focus on developing new ideas.

5. Position yourself for success.

Positioning is the key to being able to charge what you're worth. If "How much is it?" is the first question you get from your prospects, you're positioning yourself poorly.

You could be considered the safe option or the risky option or the premium option or the discount option. The important thing is to be deliberate about how you position your coaching business because your clients and prospects actually want to pay a lot of money, but they need you to give them a good reason. If not, the discussion will default to price.

6. Have a plan.

If you want to successfully start a coaching business from scratch, you need to have a plan. You need to know:

• What's your niche? Before launching your coaching business, you want to know the type of client you'd prefer to work with. What's their age, earning potential, location, whatever? Why would they use your service?
• How do you plan to attract leads? For example, what’s your message to market and what media will you use?
• How will you capture and nurture your prospects? What CRM and CMS will you use? Will you include opt-in forms on your website and blog? How often will you stay in touch? Looking at your intellectual property, what will you give away for free and what will you charge for?
• What's your sales conversion strategy? You need an email lead nurturing sequence, and having an iron-clad customer onboarding process is massively important. (Learn how to build a business process here.)
• How can you increase your customer lifetime value? Will you upsell a higher-tiered product or bundle on certain items? For example, access to guest coaches.
• How will you deliver a world-class experience? What tools will you use to enhance your clients' experiences? What will they get access to? For example, you could create a network of like-minded individuals they could connect with and share experiences. Or you could create a series of gold-standard training manuals for your clients to use in their businesses.

Every successful business coach has a plan. What's yours?

If you need help building your marketing plan for your business, check out our signature 1-Page Marketing Plan template. It's the smartest and quickest way to market your business.

7. Choose your business name and set up a website.

1. Choose a name that you love. It's really hard to rebrand and it costs a ton of money.
2. Choose clarity. You want your business name and domain to spell out exactly what you do. Otherwise, you'll need to spend a small fortune on branding and educating your target audience. Remember, if you confuse them, you lose them.
3. Decide whether you want a .com or something local like a .com.uk or .com.au? It really depends on the target audience you want to attract. So if you're looking to sell your services to a global audience you'll want to purchase a .com. If you'll only be offering coaching services locally, choose a local domain.
4. Check to see if your domain name is available. You can use name.com or Go Daddy to check this out. If it's not available, look for a name that's similar.
5. Trademark your domain and register your name. You really don't want to receive a letter of demand from a legal department telling you to change your name. So if you don't want to kiss your money goodbye, trademark your name. And be prepared to actively defend your trademark.
6. Choose a reputable website host. They need to be reliable and fast. You don't want your website going down because it's been hacked or there was some sort of technical issue. You also don't want your site to be slow. Not only will it impact your user experience, but it will also impact your SEO rankings.

8. Make it easy to do business with you.

So many coaches make their clients jump through all sorts of hoops to book a discovery meeting with them or pay for their services. You want to make it easy for your clients to do business with you and technology is key.

1. Invest in Calendly. My clients can see when I'm available and book a time then and there. They don't need to email me and ask when I have a spot open. It's also great if your clients live in different time zones because it factors that in.
2. Create a shared email. I get emails from people all over the world, and if I were to respond to all of them myself, I'd never get anything done. So my sales team handles sales emails, my communications manager handles personal emails, and I respond to emails earmarked to my attention. This is vital when scaling your coaching business.
3. Consider adding live chat. This isn't something you need to think about when you start your coaching business, but I would consider adding it once you're generating good money consistently. You'll need a template of responses, but it can really smooth out the response time to potential clients.
4. Simplify your payment process. I use ThriveCart which plugs beautifully into Stripe for accepting credit cards and PayPal for accepting PayPal transfers. You won't have to worry about sending and receiving invoices. It does all of that for you, which is a massive time saver. You don't want to be chasing payments. And, as much as possible, avoid wire transfers.

9. Start marketing.

You can rely on word-of-mouth marketing to grow your online coaching business but it can take years to gain traction. Instead, you need to actively market your business.

That's where your marketing plan becomes critical. It breaks down every step of your buyer's journey, the systems you need to deliver a world-class experience, your message, the media you advertise in and much more.

If you need guidance on how to build out your marketing plan, check out this article.

Part of building your authority and credibility as a trusted business coach is delivering a quality audio and visual experience online. You want to recreate that in-person experience, but if your sound crackles and the video is sketchy that's going to impact your audience's experience.

To level up my business coaching game I built a studio space for podcast recording and content creation. If you want to do the same, read it now.

10. Build your authority and establish credibility.

It's one thing to start a coaching business, but if you're an unknown, why would people trust you? This is where a cornerstone piece of content becomes vital. It solves a problem, demonstrates your skills, and starts the conversation.

I wrote a bestselling book, but you could create a framework, start a podcast, share a guide, whatever. Invest in a PR campaign. Reach out to bloggers to contribute content. Say yes to speaking events. Post your customer testimonials on your site. Create a series of how-to videos. Be prolific.

11. Build a team.

As your online business expands, you'll need help. Coaching is time-consuming and without help, you'll stunt your business growth. Consider hiring a marketing coordinator or account manager―someone who can take over day-to-day tasks, freeing you up to focus on revenue-generating projects.

If you're not sure when to hire a team, read this article.

12. Systemize your coaching business.

Systems are the key to expanding, escaping, and exiting your business one day. A good coach has a system for onboarding clients, defining goals, setting up a payment plan, responding to coaching queries, and marketing. Practically everything can and should be systemized.

Learn how to systemize your coaching business here.

13. Present your prices before your discovery call.

There are a lot of time-wasters out there―people who aren't serious about working with you. And jumping on an hour-long zoom session with someone who can't afford your coaching services is just plain frustrating. To avoid this, present pricing before the call. You can do this via email or on your website.

Only set up a discovery call with people who look legitimate, especially if you're targeting six- or seven-figure clients. Here are a few ways to weed out the time-wasters.

1. Do they have a business website?
2. Can you find customer testimonials on their website and social media pages?
3. Do they have a team of five or more people?
4. Send an email asking a few probing questions: Where do you see yourself in 12 months? What's your biggest challenge? If you don't get an answer, they're not that interested.

TOP TIP: Present pricing as an investment. And offer a discount to customers who pay for a year in advance. It increases their commitment.

14. Get to the truth.

Conversations lead to conversions―especially from a sales perspective. Your goal is to get to the truth, to understand their situation. A discovery call is a great way to do this. Use it to determine whether a person is a good fit for your coaching services.

My best advice:

• Have a template of talking points that you run through on the call. These are mostly probing questions that help you determine if you can get the customer a result. For example, on my discovery calls, I'll ask:
• What marketing are you currently doing.
• What's working and what isn't?
• Who's responsible for bringing in most clients?
• Do you have a team?
• Do you have an exit strategy?
• What's your annual revenue?
• Let the prospective client do most of the talking. Your goal is to listen.
• Be prepared to answer questions. Some of the most common questions I get are: How often will we speak? How long will we work together? Will you be implementing it on our behalf?
• Set very clear boundaries and expectations. You need to be open and honest. It can take time to get your coaching clients results. Some clients think after one month of coaching they'll double or triple their income, and if they don't they're being ripped off. That's not how it works, and it's up to you to set that expectation upfront.
• Avoid leading questions. You don't want to coerce the prospect into buying your service. Instead, ask something low-key like, so where do we go from here?
• Get a commitment before going into logistics.

15. Send an awesome shock and awe package.

Follow up your discovery call with a personalized, hand-written note letting the customer know you're looking forward to working with them. It delivers a WOW experience and customers appreciate it.

16. Foolproof your onboarding process.

Having a successful onboarding process is crucial to building a seven-figure coaching business. It guarantees that your customer knows what to expect and how to get the best out of your services. Here's how I foolproof our onboarding process:

• Have a standard operating procedure for working with clients.
• Use a project management tool like Asana or Trello and create a coaching board filled with every procedure, document, and contact detail your client may need. This ensures that their action items are always extremely clear.
• Include short step-by-step Loom videos on how to use the coaching board.
• Ask clients to fill out your onboarding questionnaire. This helps you get a high-level overview of their business and shows you where to ask more probing questions.
• You’ll also want your clients to complete an expectations contract. This ensures that everyone is on the same page in terms of communication styles, goals, deliverables, and accountability.

17. Identify how to get your clients consistent results.

It starts with a coaching roadmap. This is an important part of your service. But before we dive into what mine looks like, you first need to perform a customer journey mapping. This helps you to understand the entire business ecosystem around your clients.

My team uses the 1-Page Marketing Plan.

Now on to the coaching roadmap. This is what it looks like.

• Detailed diagnostic - Deep dive into their business or personal life to really understand what their pain points are.
• Gap analysis - Identify where you can make a difference quickly. What are the key areas you need to focus on now?
• Team - Do they need to build a team to help them achieve their business goals? (Not relevant to life coaching)
• 90-day goals - Agree on short-term and long-term goals. These short bursts are important for achieving quick wins. It also helps coaching clients stay motivated.
• Strategic - What is the plan? Map out each process before implementing.
• Tactical - What do they need to do? Do they need to flesh out systems, invest in market research, hire people?
• Metrics - What gets measured gets managed. If you're not measuring their performance, you won't know if there's any improvement.

18. Adjust your services according to the client's needs.

No coaching client is the same and what you do depends on where you can bring value to their business. Some clients are very sophisticated. They already have all of their systems in place. Others are barely able to open Microsoft Word. So you'll need to be more hands-on with the less knowledgeable clients.

Cookie-cutter training won't work for every client, and it'll do more damage to your business reputation than good.

19. Don't be afraid to say no.

A good coach isn't afraid to tell it like it is. You're not doing your coaching clients any favors by saying YES to everything. Sometimes they need to hear NO. You need to coach them on how to separate the majors from the minors.

Here's what a good coaching program looks like.

• It must give clarity so your clients know exactly what to prioritize.
• It must have a definitive structure, so your clients don't waste time on tasks that won't get results.

It needs to be simple. If they need an MBA or PhD to implement it, they'll give up.

20. Hold them accountable.

If you're going to start a coaching business, you need to be willing to hold people accountable. If they don't put the work in, they won't get the results they want. When this happens, people feel shortchanged like they've been duped into a service that didn't work. This can affect your reputation.

Implementation is key. If you want to build your coaching practice, you need to hold your customers accountable.

Do you need a license to do coaching?

Nope, you don't need a license or certificate to become a business coach. All you need is a coaching niche, a framework, and the ability to get your clients results.

Without a framework, it's a lot harder to start your coaching business and attract paying clients.

Instead, what many coaches do is they enroll in a coaching program or certification course that trains them on how to use and implement another business coach’s framework. I do this in my Certification Program.

My certification students graduate as 1-Page Marketing Plan Certified Coaches. They can use my business model, methodology, and coaching framework to create wealth for their clients and their business. They also get a dedicated page on my website, an embeddable certification badge to use on social media, and lifetime access to all my training webinars.

That's a massive leg up in the coaching world. It takes all the guesswork out of starting a coaching business and my students have a mentor to turn to for advice or to bounce an idea off when scaling their coaching businesses.

So while you don't need a license to become a business coach, enrolling in a certification program can help hone your coaching skills, build your network, and scale your online coaching business faster.

How to get coaching clients

So now you've decided to start a coaching business, you need to figure out how to get clients.

1. Be prepared to give away ideas for free.

There needs to be some form of IP that you give away for free. It could be an eBook, checklist, framework, how-to video series, report, whatever. Think about what will get your ideal target market to raise their hand and self-identify.

If you can get them a result before they do business with you, that's an excellent way to increase your clientele.

2. Be prolific.

Social media, online publications, podcasts, webinars, or speaker events. Your goal as a business coach is to be prolific. You want to create content that's fresh, informative, and helpful. And there are a few ways you can do that:

• Write guest contributions for blogs and publications that your audience engages in.
• Reach out to niche podcasts. Ask if they'd be interested in interviewing you. You'll want to give them a reason why you'd be a great fit for their show. And don't be afraid to offer something of value for their listeners.
• Open social media accounts on the sites your audience is active on―Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, whatever. This is your chance to share your knowledge and experiences, and start building personal relationships.
• Say yes to speaker events, whether in person or virtual. This is also a great way to gain valuable insight into the problems of your ideal customers.

3. Leverage your network.

Use your business network to attract clients. Think about which businesses have your customers before you. How can you get access to their network?

For example, say you're a nutritional coach. Why not start a joint venture with a personal trainer. Together, you'll increase your client's chance of getting results. As a marketing coach, you know your clients need a team to get results. So it might be worthwhile partnering with a company that places remote workers.

Essentially, you've got someone who's saying to their email list, I trust this person. I trust them to get you results, so you can too. That's massively powerful.

4. Focus on building relationships.

You'll never make money if you view every relationship as a transaction. The best coaches care about their client's success. So if you want to start a sought-after coaching business, invest time building strong relationships.

Take the next step and start your coaching business

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If you want to start a coaching business, this is the only toolbox you'll ever need. Take the guesswork out of building an online coaching business, and start your coaching career now.

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Upselling is a clever little sales technique that every eCommerce or online store uses to get existing customers to upgrade or purchase a premium product or service.

And before you think it's all about making more money (although it’s a happy byproduct), the practice of upselling is to elevate your customer's experience and improve relationships.

It focuses on delivering more value to your customer and getting them faster results. For example:

• Would a little extra 1:1 coaching help them implement your product better?
• Would a nutritional plan and your training program help them achieve a stronger and healthier body faster?

Upselling helps you increase your customer lifetime value and your profitability.

So take a look at your price strategy, and instead of offering a discount, can you upsell a related service as a limited offer?

And remember, when your customer is in the buying mode, they’re more open to spending on things they wouldn't normally consider purchasing. This is the time to upsell to your customers—to get them to upgrade to a higher-tiered product.

But how is it different from cross-selling?

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What is upselling? Plus the difference between upselling and cross-selling

Upselling is a sales technique that entices customers to buy a premium or higher-end product or service than what they originally intended to purchase.

Most companies implementing upselling as a strategy will include a comparison chart, showing the different features and benefits of each product and service. I've included an example below.

Airlines are a great example of companies that are always upselling. While booking your next vacation, you might be encouraged to upgrade your economy-class ticket to a business-class ticket.

The business-class fare is 110 pounds more expensive, but then again, it comes with certain perks such as more legroom, a guaranteed window seat, extra baggage, access to business-class lounges prior to takeoff, AND the privilege of being a business-class flyer.

Cross-selling encourages a customer to buy a complementary, but non-competitive or related product.

For example, let's say you're browsing Amazon, and suddenly you see a product you like. Maybe it's that new Canon camera you've been lusting over. You read the reviews, check out the product specs, and add it to your checkout cart.

But then you notice that most shoppers who bought the exact product you've just added to your checkout cart also purchased the tripod you're currently eyeballing. After mulling it over for a bit, click. You add it to your cart.

Congratulations, you've just spent $500 more than you had originally intended, and it feels good.

That, my friend, is the power of upselling and cross-selling.

Why is upselling important to sales?

Upselling is crucial because it enhances your customer's experience. It's not something that entrepreneurs and businesses do selfishly. It's not about encouraging customers to purchase more to increase revenue. (Although it's a nice benefit…)

It's about making the original product BETTER.

For example, imagine you purchase a shiny new VR headset online. When it gets delivered, you slash open the seal and carefully remove it from its box. Only, hang on, where are the batteries? Surely, there must be batteries?

What do you mean by batteries not included? Now you're stuck with a brand new toy that you can't use. Maybe the shops are closing soon, AND it's rush hour traffic.

You'll have to wait until tomorrow to get batteries and finally use that headset you've been waiting for.

And that good feeling you had, well, it's rapidly deflating. Consider it gone, crushed under a weight of disappointment and frustration.

If only they'd asked if you wanted to add batteries to your purchase.

That's why you should be upselling. It increases your customer lifetime value and adds dollars to your bottom line, making your venture more profitable.

What are the benefits of upselling products or services?

1. Both increase customer retention because you're selling value, not features and benefits.
2. Cross-selling and upselling increase the transactional value, which generates more revenue for your business.
3. You attract a more premium customer, one that doesn't buy on price.
4. You deliver a more personalized service, which ultimately improves customer relationships.

So let's look at ways you can use upselling to get your customers to buy more, more often.

Three ways to use upselling or cross-selling in your business

1. Consider bundling add-on items to your primary product or service.

McDonald's is a great example of bundling add-on items. Asking customers, "Would you like fries with that?" has made them hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

So take a closer look at your products or services and determine where you can deliver extra value. Where can you offer an item that will enhance their overall experience?

2. Utilize the contrast principle.

Say you need to buy a new suit. If you've ever bought a suit, you know it may cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. So you find one that fits. BUT then the salesperson asks if you'd like to buy a new tie. It's $100.

Usually, you'd balk at that amount of money, but because you're paying $1,000 for the suit, the $100 tie seems reasonable. Then you're asked to look at shirts and socks, and by the end of the transaction, you've doubled what you intended to pay.

So how did you get here?

Well, the contrast principle made you feel like these items were reasonably priced, whereas if you were shopping for them separately, you'd think they were expensive.

Remember, when someone is in the buying mode, that's when you want to get them to buy more.

3. Create social pressure by selling a complementary but non-competitive product.

And really, Amazon has mastered this process. So, while you're browsing their eCommerce store, you'll notice that most customers who bought X also bought Y.

The intent is to create social pressure and convince you that you won't get the same experience without product Y. The thing about people, we're a lot less price-sensitive to add-ons when it enhances our overall experience.

3 Examples of Upselling

1. Limited-time offer

Specify the urgency of an offer. Adding a time limit to an offer can increase sales, but timing is everything. Again, you want to think through your customer's journey.

Let's analyze the process after a potential customer has opted into a lead magnet. You've just given something for free that's going to help them level up. So they're feeling good about your company and upselling a related product that delivers added value could actually save them dollars in the long run.

You're also creating pressure because if the customer doesn't act now, it could cost them in the future when they would have to pay full price for your package. So don't be afraid to upsell to a new email subscriber.

2. Upgrade to a higher-tier option

Technology companies do this really well. For example, do you have multi-tiered products—an entry-level, an advanced, and a pro version?

You want to specify the difference between each version and the benefits of each. Most eCommerce and online businesses use a comparison table.

And think about personalizing your offer. For example, would your current customer be better served if you upgraded them to a higher-tier account? Or would it be a good idea to reward existing customers by upgrading them without charging them a higher fee?

So spend time reviewing your company model. Are there opportunities to double, even triple, revenue? Where can you deliver more value for your customers?

3. Bundling Add-On

As good practice, you should always bundle add-on items to your online offer. And specify the added value you deliver. For example, in the offer below, you can see that Rachel Pedersen lists the current value of the package you're purchasing.

So your current purchase costs $28.50, but the real value is closer to $200. And now she's upselling 50 content ideas which could be super helpful in your marketing strategy. It's only $13, so you grab it now. The point is to over-deliver and make the value seem more than the current sale price.

It makes the decision to spend a little more a lot easier. So strike while the time is right. Upsell, upsell, upsell.

Can you use upselling in your business?

So instead of investing all your energy, money, and resources into attracting new leads, is there the potential to upsell or cross-sell to existing customers?

Take a moment to think through your customer's journey. How can you deliver more value and enhance their experience?

Because if you're not implementing ways to increase your customer lifetime value, you're leaving money on the table.

A lot like the guy who sold his farm to search all over the world for diamonds, but as it turned out, he actually had a massive diamond field in his backyard. There are acres of diamonds in your backyard (existing customers).

You just need to mine them.

If you enjoyed this, then you might be interested in learning how to reactivate past customers. Check out the link to discover our top tips.

It used to be that you paid a PR team a ton of money to get you featured in the press.

Now, with sites like HARO and SourceBottle, you can pitch the media directly and get published in Forbes, Huffington Post, the New York Times, Business Insider, and even Oprah and it'll only cost you time.

I'm going to show you how.

I've spent years building my media pitching strategy. I've heard “no” many times, but I've also received that all-important “yes” email. And with over 100 press mentions, I know what it takes to become the news.

Here's the kicker, once you're known, journalists start approaching you to write contributor pieces. Free press is a great way to build your authority, scale your customer base, and get more media coverage. So let's get started.

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What is a media pitch?

A media pitch is a concise, personalized message to an editor or journalist at a magazine, newspaper, blog, podcast, radio, or television station. It's designed to entice the reporter or editor to contact you and learn more about your small business or brand.

It can be sent via email; or through direct messages on social media networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; or you can call the journalist. You can also respond directly to a media pitch on sites like HARO, JustReachOut, and SourceBottle, to name a few.

Are media pitches the same as press releases?

No. A media pitch differs from a press release in its format and objective.

Think of your pitch as a snippet. The purpose of a media pitch is to spark interest in a reporter, enough that they want to know more and are prepared to contact you to get the full story.

So your pitch needs to deliver value and be relevant. An example of a great media pitch is to lead with data. Journalists are always on the lookout for compelling data trends.

You can also lead with personal stories and insights you gained. A few years ago a couple got a ton of media coverage by opening multiple credit cards and using them to get enough air miles to travel around the world for free.

Press releases, on the other hand, tell the whole story. They don't necessarily require a follow-up interview and can be published as-is. For example, your press release will include who, what, where, when, why, and how. It's the full message.

5 reasons to get on the media train and pitch your story

If you're wondering why pitch the media, I have five excellent reasons.

1. Social proof

Imagine being able to say, I got featured in Forbes Magazine, Marie Claire, The Wall Street Journal, or Oprah. That would be huge.

Press mentions instantly elevate your credibility to a potential lead. Because if Forbes trusts you as an authority, a potential customer is more likely to trust you.

It also shortcuts the time it takes them to decide to buy.

‍70% of customers read up to 6 reviews before buying the product. They might speak to a salesperson, or sign up for your newsletter. The considering phase can take weeks. But not when you have some of the most influential publications vouching for you. Then it can take minutes.

Plus, you can then the media you've been interviewed by on the homepage of your website just like Susie Moore.

If you struggle with confidence, you're going to trust Susie to help you, because Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and the Today show all do. So media is crucial for elevating your social status.

2. Increase traffic to your website

Every published article typically includes a shirttail (this is your author bio) at the end of the article.

If the journalist just featured a quote from you, they'll include a backlink.

Curious readers can follow that link to your website to learn more about you which can lead to email sign-ups and product purchases. Money in your account.

These publications will also share your article on their social channels, and they might even syndicate the article to other publications.

You're getting in front of a whole new audience and it's cost you absolutely nothing. So you could spend thousands of dollars on paid advertising, or you could take a few hours to write a really great article that brings in consistent traffic every month.

I'll give you an example. I wrote an article a couple of years ago for Forbes on the importance of business systems. It's the #1 article for the keyword business systems. I also hold the #4 position. So I'm getting traffic from two sources.

So press mentions can lead to long-term traffic gains.

3. Backlinks

This is a term SEO experts love to throw around. A backlink is a hyperlink from one site to another.

However, not all backlinks are created equally. A backlink from a site with a high domain authority (your well-known media publications) is worth far more than a link from a low domain authority (a blogger).

Links from credible media sources boost your authority and domain ranking. This means Google and other search engines are more likely to rank new content you publish faster.

My article on What is direct response marketing has over 20,000 inbound links (backlinks). That's 20,000 chances of being found by leads looking to grow with marketing.

4. Scale your business

I started my media journey back in July of 2018. For the next year, I did at least four podcasts a month, and wrote contributor pieces in Business. com, Thrive Global, Lifehack, Forbes Magazine. I spoke at industry events, shared my book with Facebook Groups, and you know what, I doubled traffic to my website.

When I started my PR journey, I had one full-time team member and two part-time employees. By 2020 my team had grown to five full-time members.

More media coverage gets you in front of new audiences. High-value leads that might never have heard of you. Suddenly, my email list was getting 900 new leads every month.

Today, I typically get 1800 new email subscribers each month. I have a team of 12 employees, over 30 coaching clients, a course, a certification program, and great JV partners.

I fully credit my press mentions for building my authority and helping to scale my business to an 8-figure coaching consultancy. So if you want to grow your brand, invest in media opportunities.

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5. More press opportunities & event invitations

Getting featured in the press can lead to more media opportunities and invitations to present at events like a Ted Talk.

As an unknown CNN won't invite you to share your opinion on a matter, even if you're an expert. But, if you've been featured in multiple well-known and respected publications, that call is certainly possible.

You can also charge to give a talk at an industry event. Imagine making $5,000 for talking to an audience, and your travel expenses were covered by the event. It doesn't have to be a dream.

I've spoken at SuperFastBusiness Live twice, and FORO-Go 3 in Mexico. I've also been featured in over 100 podcasts and media publications.

So it's much easier to be invited as a guest contributor or speaker once you've built a name for yourself in the media.

P. S. can you spot me? I'm giving a talk to over 2000 business owners in Mexico. That could be you.

Responding to press opportunities vs Cold pitching

What I love most about responding to media requests is you don't have to build a relationship with the journalist.

‍All you need is a pitch with a great hook.

‍The journalist already has an angle for their article. They're looking for a source to provide a new idea, data, or story to bolster their news piece.

Here are a few sites you can use to respond to media requests:

Free resources:

1. HARO - https://www.helpareporter.com (strong US focus)
2. SourceBottle - https://www.sourcebottle.com (strong Australian focus)
3. JournoRequests - https://www.journorequests.com (#JournoRequests on Twitter, strong UK focus)

Paid-for resources:

• JustReachOut - https://justreachout.io (strong US focus)
• Packages are tiered to cater to your needs - choose between Simple Outreach, Advanced Outreach, or Guided Outreach.
• Includes one-on-one guidance from former journalists on how to respond, which publications to target, reviewing content, and much more.
• ResponseSource - https://www.responsesource.com (strong UK focus)
• Cost - varies depending on which category you’d like to monitor.
• Includes direct contact details of the journalist, the size of the publication, and the value of the article.

For cold pitching, it’s your job to come up with a newsworthy idea or angle for a story. It needs to be relevant to the publication’s audience, and you have to sell it to the news team.

It's a lot more time-intensive than media pitching because you need to...

• research the journalist’s written work
• build a relationship
• write a compelling pitch
• have your news article ready to send if the editor agrees to review it.

Pro tip: Ask an existing contributor or someone who has a relationship with that news outlet to introduce you. This gives you the best chance of getting your email opened, read, and your story published.

How to write a media pitch in 7 steps

A successful media pitch includes 7 key elements. These are vital if you want to get your story featured.

1. Make your subject line count.

Just like in email marketing, subject lines are the heartbeat of your media pitch. Get it wrong and the journalist won't open your email. Journalists are masters at crafting eye-catching headlines, so make your subject line stand out.

Sites like Sharethrough Headline Optimizer help you to fine-tune your subject line.

2. Establish Credibility.

To become a media source, you need to establish credibility. Explain what makes you qualified to speak on the story you're pitching. For example, what relevant information can you share that would make a journalist give your story a second look?

• Are you famous?
• Have you written a best-selling book or pioneered some social movement?
• Have you built a multimillion-dollar company in a year?
• Are you a contributor to other media outlets (for example, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Financial Times)?

For example, to establish credibility you could write something like:

‍Hi (insert name),

I handle PR for Allan Dib, a successful entrepreneur and the bestselling author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan, named by Huffington Post as one of the top ten marketing books for small businesses.

‍Your previous work is vital to establishing you as an authority, so mention it early in your media pitch.

3. State your lead.

A lead is the story or idea. It's the juicy bit of information that gets journalists interested.  It can be a news peg or a time peg. So a news peg focuses on a trending topic, whereas a time peg focuses on an upcoming event or date.

Was your brand picked up by a celebrity and featured on their Instagram account? Has your company created a viral moment?

4. Include a call to action.

What do you want the journalist to do next?

• Arrange an interview (for example, on their podcast)
• Write a product review
• Mention your brand or company
• Use your quote in a story they're writing

Be clear about the next steps. If you’ve enticed the editor with a few stats from a survey, offer to send the full report. They’ll know to contact you.

5. Add a soundbite quote.

Take a stance. Include a contrary opinion. Even if the reporter doesn't feature your story, they may use your quote in a relevant article. Particularly when responding to HARO requests, you want to include a quote the publication can copy and paste into the articles they're writing.

6. Keep it brief.

Media pitching requires precision. It's not a time to waffle or show your talent for description. My tip is to be clear and concise but also demonstrate your value proposition. The best pitches create impact quickly. Using data is a great way to do this. Also consider taking a stand, sharing an opposing view, or whatever.

Here’s an example of a brief pitch.

7. Sign off by recapping important details.

Before signing off, you want to recap who the pitch is for, their title, and company URL, and include a headshot if possible.

• Name
• Founder of
• Website URL
• Headshot - Link to a shared Google Drive
• Social media links (bonus)

And don't forget to thank the journalist for their time.

Steal my 8-step process to effectively pitch the media

To stand out, you need to create interest and deliver value. Follow these top tips for pitching success.

1. Research the media outlet.

When pitching media outlets, you want to follow their pitching guidelines. Most online publications will tell you if you must submit your media pitch to the editorial team or if you can email pitches directly to a journalist.

So in the research phase, you want to search for the following.

• Who are the media giants in your industry?
• Who are the journalists that cover your industry? Which reporters are most likely to pick up your story and run with it?
• What topics interest them and their audience? Do they like feel-good stories or hard-hitting ones?
• Can you email your pitch directly to the journalist, or do you need to send it to a generic email address? For example, you can search for the media's contact details on sites like Hunter. You also want to show you've done your research. For example, if you're pitching to be on a podcast, make sure you've listened to a few of the episodes.

You also want to show you've done your research. For example, if you're pitching to be on a podcast, make sure you've listened to a few of the episodes.

2. Include the journalist's name in your subject line.

HubSpot's Not Another State of Marketing Report found that emails with the reader's first name in the subject line had a higher clickthrough rate than those that didn't.

Remember, editors and journalists may receive hundreds of pitches each day, so personalizing the subject line gives you a leg up.

3. Be clear on your intentions.

Do you want to pitch a news story, or is your goal to become a regular contributor? Your media pitch needs to convey your point clearly. So be direct but professional. Here's an example,

‍I'd like to write for Entrepreneur magazine as a contributor. What is the best way to apply?

or

I am looking to apply to write for Entrepreneur as a contributor. Are you the correct person to chat with?

4. Build a relationship.

Journalists who know you and like you are more open to running your story. Think about your inbox. You're more likely to open an email from someone you know, so it's vital to stay in touch with a journalist long after they've accepted your pitch.

Whether this means following their social account and liking or commenting on their posts, or emailing them to say you enjoyed an article they wrote, keep in touch.

5. Be first to respond to press opportunities.

Most journalist requests are time-sensitive. For the best chance of success, respond within 15 to 30 minutes of a HARO post going live. If you're cold pitching and the journalist likes your idea, you need to send through a completed article within 48 hours. Take too long, and they'll have forgotten about your story and will have moved on.

6. Give them a compelling reason to choose you.

Do you have a substantial email database? Maybe you have a podcast that gets a ton of views or a social media page with tens of thousands of engaged followers?

Offering to share the published article or interview with your connections can give your media pitch the edge over someone who maybe doesn’t have a large target audience to promote it. So don’t be afraid to persuade. I would like to include this as a P.S., but you can add it above your contact details.

For example,

‍P. S. My email list comprises 45,000 owners/entrepreneurs of small businesses whom I’d share your article with. I’m also happy to promote the post on my social networks.

7. Format your pitch.

How you lay out your pitch can influence whether the journalist reads it or closes the email before looking at it.

Make the email as easy to read as possible. Approach it like you would a blog article (learn how to write a blog post for beginners here). Format your response to include:

• all caps
• bold text
• unweighted fonts
• bullet points
• quotes
• italics

8. Follow up.

Journalists are incredibly busy, and they receive thousands of pitches each week.  You want to follow up on your pitch two or three days after emailing it. But don't make your subject line Re: (Original pitch subject line).

Avoid these 6 common mistakes when pitching the media via HARO or independently

1. Responding to media pitches where you don't meet the basic requirements

Read the requirements before doing anything. What is the journalist looking for? In the below example, they specifically say don't pitch if you're not a certified career coach or career expert.

You're just wasting your time and the journalists if you don’t meet those requirements.

Also, if they ask for 150 words on the benefits of email marketing, don’t overshoot and send them a mini-essay totaling 400 words. They won’t even read it.

Plus, you'll get a black mark in their book. So any future pitches will just go into their trash folder.

2. Not checking the pitch deadline

When is the pitch due? If you're using HARO they'll always state when the pitch is needed by.

If that's 11 PM EST on the 16th of March, emailing at 11 PM PST is too late.

I've done this before, where I haven't checked the deadline and spent time crafting a really great response. After hitting send, HARO quickly let me know submissions are closed.

Now it's not all doom and gloom. You can keep that pitch for future press opportunities, although there's no guarantee when a similar request will become available.

Lastly, can you make yourself available for an interview? If you’re not in the right time zone or prepared to get up in the wee hours of the morning, don’t pitch.

3. Pitching the wrong person or publication

Media outlets have an editorial inquiries or editorial guidelines section. Sometimes, this can be a brief sentence in the tertiary menu of the site or an entire page.

Here they’ll list whom to pitch your ideas to.

Do your homework before emailing your pitch or reaching out to a journalist on Twitter. If you send it to the wrong person, it’ll get ignored. Send it to too many, and you’ll get blacklisted.

For example, in Forbes's editorial inquiries section, they lists exactly how to get in touch with their journalists.

4. Having nothing new to share

Journalists are looking for sources with fresh ideas or a new take on a particular subject. They don’t want generic responses they’ve seen a couple hundred times.

They want to break the news. So don't pitch if you don’t have something compelling to share.

Remember, compelling could be a new take on an old idea. For example, the media gives a lot of attention to entrepreneurs who make their first million in their twenties.

But Laura Belgrade wrote an article about how she only made her first million in her 50s and why it's better. It speaks to millions of readers who are in their mid-40s or late 30s trying to start a viable business.

So using your personal story and giving a new spin on an old idea can be newsworthy.

5. Forgetting to proofread your pitch

There is no excuse bottle for spelling and grammar mistakes. With editorial assistant apps like Grammarly or the Hemingway App, you don't need to hire an editor to proofread your writing.

Mistakes make you look unprofessional and lazy. Also, be aware of American spelling vs British English.

As an Aussie, I'm constantly switching between the two. So make sure you spellcheck before hitting send on your pitch.

6. Not formatting your pitch

Make your pitch easy to read. If you send a wall of text, they’re not going to look at it. So use short sentences. Introduce bullet points, italics, numbers, bold, uppercase text, quotes, etc.

Use this framework:

‍Hi Name,

Short, brief introduction. Mention why you'd be a great expert.

Restate the journalist questions example - What unique and inviting ways have you remade your office to make it more appealing to employees?

Suggest three or four ideas as a list or bullet points.

Author bio

contact details - email, business URL, point of contact. S

P.S. Give them a reason to choose you. For example, if you have a large social media following, or an engaged email list, mention you'll share the article with your audience if they choose you.

Media pitch examples for HARO, Podcasts, and Cold Pitching

Media pitching doesn't need to be scary or the job of PR professionals. I've used these templates to get featured in over 60 media publications and about the same number of podcasts.

‍

Cold pitch example template

Hi (journalist’s name),

I know you're one of the editors at Entrepreneur, I'm a good friend of (state the mutual connection) who (contributes to your magazine, was featured on your show, etc). He/she mentioned I should reach out.

(Introduce yourself and establish credibility. If you’ve been mentioned in the press or are a regular contributor to a particular publication, list it).

Every day I help small to medium-sized businesses across the U. S. troubleshoot their marketing. These four mistakes kept cropping up, so I wrote a piece on how to fail at small business marketing, and actionable tips to turn it around.

Check it out here: (include clickable link)

If you like what you see, and you’re interested, here are three other ideas that I want to flesh out for your (name of magazine/show).

• Title of article
• Title of article
• Title of article

Happy to chat if you need more info, I’ve got tons of great insight and data to share with the readers of (publication or podcast name).

All the best,

- (Insert name)

P. S. My mailing list comprises roughly X (state who your target audience is) whom I’d share the article with. I’m also happy to promote the post on my social networks. (If you have a podcast, include it here as well. )

‍

Podcast example template

Hey (insert name),

(Business name or authority) is a fan of (insert podcast name) and loved the recent episode where you talked about (podcast topic).

(Establish credibility and mention why you’re a good fit guest for the podcast. Tailor this part to the podcast as well.)

Here's why (he/she) would be an excellent fit for your show.

• (list only compelling information)

Would you be interested in having (him/her) on as a guest? (Name) has been interviewed on several podcasts, here are just some of them:

1. List and hyperlink to episode
2. ____
3. ____

Here are two ideas we’d love to focus on during the interview:

Topic #1—

(Review the podcast episode titles and write a topic that fits in but still creates buzz. Make sure it’s relevant to their audience.)

Topic #2—

(...And another one here.)

Curious to hear your thoughts.

Thanks so much,

- (Your name)

P. S. We’d be happy to share your podcast with (mention # of email list subscribers), and we’d include a short audio clip on social media, linking to your account and the full podcast.

‍Here’s an example of a podcast pitch that resulted in a response.

Warm pitch (responding to HARO) template

Subject line: Pitch: (Include the journalist’s request)

Hi (insert name),

(Introduce who you are and establish credibility—basically a short bio that highlights your experience and mentions noteworthy info. Tell the journalist why they should choose your pitch.)

(Include a teaser line that relates to the journalist’s request and possibly takes a stand.)

(REPEAT/REPHRASE THE JOURNALIST’S QUESTION.)

(Add your sound bite quote. Keep it short and punchy. Use emotive language. Add personality to your response. Remember the journalist should be able to copy and paste your quote directly into their article.)

• (Back up your argument. Use relevant stats, reasons why, examples of, etc. Bullet points work best.)
• Another stat, etc.
• Another stat, etc.

(Include another great quote. One sentence is best.)

...

(Then sign off your email pitch and let them know if you’re available to chat. Mention you’ve got tons of great advice and data to back up their story, and if you have a large social following or customer database, you’ll want to let the journalist know (as this can influence their decision to use your post or not). Say you’d be happy to share the article with this list.

All the best,

(Your name)

(Business name or your designation)

(Web address)

(Include a link to a cloud-based folder that contains web-ready visuals for the journalist.)

‍Take a look at this example. It highlights the journalist’s questions in bold and includes short, compelling answers.

How to get featured in Forbes?

Getting featured in Forbes isn't easy. I could have waited years and never been approached to write for the publication.

I joined the Forbes Coaches Council, a paid program. It was worth it to be able to say, I'm a Forbes published writer. I've had several publicity pieces published.

But much like HARO, their journalists are always looking for expert opinions. You can pitch one tip and have that published in a story they're running. I've included an example below.

Some of these stories get featured on the home page, so if you're a coach or consultant looking to elevate your brand, I'd definitely consider it.

Make your media pitches count

Writing a media pitch doesn't have to be hard, but it is a numbers game.

Businesses worldwide are trying to get coverage for their brand. Many use PR agencies who've spent years writing media pitches and building relationships with journalists.

Follow the tips listed above, and you'll give your stories a fighting chance.

Remember, media pitches and press releases are not the same, but both should be a part of your PR strategy. If you want to learn how to write a press release, check out the link.