Do the words “email” and “marketing” delight you?
Unless you’re a lover of all things marketing (like me!) my guess is…probably not.
But I’m here to help change your perception of this versatile business tool.
Because here’s the deal: email marketing isn’t just one “thing.”
Sure, you can use your email list to generate new leads for your coaching business. And that’s how most people use it.
But there’s so much more you can accomplish.
When you use it correctly, that is.
Curious?
Here are my 11 simple strategies to harness the power of email marketing so you can grow your coaching business.
- The Monthly Email Newsletter
- The Brand Awareness Email
- The Lead Magnet + Sales Sequence
- The Launch Email
- The Free Mini Email Course
- The Email Survey
- The Optimized CTA
- The Case Study
- The Alluring Subject Line
- The One Goal
- Value Above All Else
Ready to start?
Let’s dive in.
Why You Should Prioritize Email Marketing for Your Coaching Business
I know what you’re thinking.
Why should I focus on email marketing, April? Aren’t business emails just spam with better subject lines? What’s the point of growing your email list if people don’t even read emails anymore?
Surprisingly, the answer is YES.
People definitely still read emails.
In fact, according to marketing giant HubSpot, global email use is increasing every year. By 2025, marketers expect global email use to increase from 4 billion to 4.6 billion daily users.
So while email might feel old school, the truth is that in 2023 there are more readers than ever.
So what makes email marketing a particularly good strategy for coaches?
- It’s personal. Coaching is intimate by nature. Clients must be willing to be vulnerable if they want to understand their problems and make progress toward their goals. This can feel scary, especially in sensitive areas like weight loss and financial coaching. Great email marketing allows you to build trust slowly, increasing the likelihood that your reader will feel comfortable hiring you to help solve their problems.
- It’s a direct line of communication. Not only can you send emails to your subscribers, but you can end emails with a question that your readers can reply back to, potentially initiating a two-way conversation. We often use this strategy in marketing to learn more about what our audience is looking for. The better you understand your audience, the better you can serve and coach them.
- It’s low maintenance. One of my clients came to me with a problem – she was drowning in emails and couldn’t keep up. A bit of research revealed she was attempting to maintain all of her client communications manually. As in – she typed up each and every client email by hand any time she needed to communicate with a client. She had no idea emails could be built into workflows and automated! Once I set up her email sales sequence to run on autopilot, she realized there was actually enough time in the day to finish her other tasks. Marketing automation for the win!
- It’s easy to optimize. Email analytics are more robust than social media marketing. Email marketing software like Flodesk, Convertkit, or Active Campaign works together with Google Analytics to allow you to clearly see what’s working and what isn’t. You can use this information to make small changes to things like your subject lines and calls-to-action that will improve your success rates.
- It has an impressive ROI. On average, email marketing generates around $36 for every business dollar spent. This is higher than any other marketing channel, including social media!
Ready to see your customer engagement skyrocket?
Here are 11 Email Marketing Strategies for Coaches.
11 Email Marketing Strategies for Coaches + Examples
1. The Monthly Email Newsletter
The Goal: Build trust with your reader.
Your monthly newsletter is an opportunity to touch base with your subscribers on a regular basis.
The idea is to pop in, say hi, and offer some useful information to your readers. For free.
You aren’t pushing for a sale. You’re giving your readers an opportunity to get to know you while building their trust in you as an expert.
Monthly Newsletter Example:
Amanda Nighbert: Registered Dietitian | View Website
I love Amanda’s bullet-point highlights that make scanning the newsletter easy for her reader. Each item offers a taste of the content inside, but doesn’t give away the farm.
I also love the fact that each section of her newsletter offers something actionable for the reader to accomplish. Creating small wins through reasonable challenges helps Amanda’s ideal clients trust her as both an expert and a coach.
2. The Brand Awareness Email
The Goal: Keep your brand in your reader’s mind.
A brand awareness email helps keep your brand at the top of your reader’s mind. It’s a quick way to remind your reader who you are, what you offer, and how to get in touch.
No matter how impactful your coaching services are, your reader might not be ready to commit…yet. Maybe they don’t have the time or extra room in their budget. Or maybe they’re still not convinced they want to work with you.
Either way, gently reminding them of your mission and services will help keep your business at the forefront of their mind, so when they are ready to buy, they’ll think of you.
Brand Awareness Email Example:
Lexi’s Wine List | View Website
Lexi Stephens’ fun personality and welcoming vibe makes the world of wine feel accessible to all. Her welcome email introduces her brand and mission, closing with a list of free blog content for the reader to dive into.
I love the storytelling approach she uses to explain how she found her love for wine and what inspired her to launch her company in 2022.
3. The Lead Magnet + Sales Sequence
The Goal: Generate leads while empowering your reader with a quick win.
A lead magnet is a freebie offered to website visitors in exchange for their contact information. It’s usually a short, easy-to-digest resource that offers a quick “win” for the reader.
A sales sequence is a series of follow-up emails launched following the lead magnet. The idea is to build trust with your reader as you lead up to introducing your offer.
This strategy can be an excellent way to build your subscriber list, but there’s a catch. Your lead magnet and nurture sequence have to provide actual value to the reader. And let me tell you, there are a lot of bad lead magnets out there that fail so hard at this.
A bad lead magnet hurts your business in two ways:
One, it fails to perform its job (getting you leads).
And two, it makes you look unprofessional. Visitors to your website will wonder why they should trust you to solve their problems when your free offer isn’t even in the ballpark of what they’re looking for.
So how do you create a lead magnet + nurture sequence that captures fresh leads and proves your professionalism and value to a potential client?
Above all, make sure your lead magnet is relevant to your reader, offers a key insight or solution to their #1 problem, and provides interesting and actionable knowledge.
The actionable part is key. When readers experience the thrill of a quick win by applying your lead magnet to their lives, they will instantly think of you as an expert in your field.
Lead Magnet + Sales Sequence Example:
Bloom Culture Flowers | View Website
DIY online wedding flower shop, Bloom Culture Flowers, offers a short quiz that helps the reader estimate a DIY flower budget. At the end of the quiz, the reader is asked for their email address to receive their results.
The quiz is followed by a nurture sequence.
4. The Launch Email
The Goal: Generate interest in a service or product.
I can’t tell you how many coaching businesses I’ve seen put in the work to design, build, and launch a new service…only to be met with crickets after their email launch.
The fatal flaw? Either failing to generate and nurture interest before the big day or failing to write an engaging launch email that excites customers.
Trying to build your client list is a lot like dating. Your leads like you. They’re interested. They might even commit someday. But they don’t want an engagement ring on the first date. They want to be wooed. They want to be persuaded to make the purchase that will finally complete them.
This is where the launch email comes in.
Introduce your new service to your readers. Or if you’re pushing an existing service, remind them of your service’s value. Help them understand your offer: what it is, what problem it solves, why they need it, and how they can get it.
Launch Email Example:
Eighty Nutrition | View Website
Ali Kucich of Eighty Nutrition uses a launch email to announce enrollment for her Eighty Mastermind group.
She explains who the program is for (“high-impact women” who want to stay in shape and feel great without sacrificing the foods they love), its features, and how to access the deal.
I love how she clearly explains the benefits of her program in bullet-point form and ends the email with a clear call to action.
5. The Free Mini Email Course
The Goal: Offer your reader a taste of your services + expertise.
A short email course is a great way to get your services in front of potential clients.
The idea is to offer a “light” version of your core content for free. A well-designed mini course will include valuable information that your coaching clients can start using right away.
They’ll get the satisfaction of feeling empowered, and, even better, they’ll associate that feeling of empowerment with your business, increasing the likelihood of investing in your coaching services.
Free Mini Email Course Example:
Atomic Habits | View Website
30 Days to Better Habits is James Clear’s free e-course designed to teach the framework of building habits.
I love this page for a few reasons:
Clear uses check marks to highlight wins the reader can expect by taking the course.
The opt-in box and call to action on the right give the reader instant gratification since they’ll receive the first lesson today.
Clear gives a course outline and even highlights examples from the actual course.
All of this has a cumulative effect of creating a sense of excellent value in the reader’s mind.
Personally, I’m a huge fan of James Clears work and would happily pay for a course like this.
But the fact that it’s free – all you need to do is give him your email address – makes it that much more inviting.
6. The Email Survey
The Goal: Understand what your audience wants from you. Then offer it.
Market research doesn’t have to be complicated – it can be as simple as asking your subscribers what they want at the end of an email.
Think about the information that would help your business the most.
If you’re a fitness coach, ask your reader what his #1 fitness goal is. If you’re a public speaking coach, ask your reader to tell you more about their fears. Use the answers to refine your marketing strategy.
The Email Survey Example:
Atomic Habits | View Website
Yes, I’m referencing James Clear of Atomic Habits again. But you have to admit, the guy is really on point when it comes to email marketing.
His minimalist 3-2-1 Thursday weekly newsletter closes with a section titled “1 Question for You.” He asks, “What is getting too much of my time right now? What is getting too little?”
Any responses he gets can easily be used for future marketing in Clear’s areas of expertise, productivity, habit-building, and time-management.
7. The Optimized CTA
The Goal: Make your readers take action.
Your CTA, or Call To Action, has one job: to make your reader take the one specific action needed to move forward in their sales journey.
But if you really want to accomplish this, you need to optimize your CTA’s for your target audience.
In fact, CTA’s customized to your audience convert 42% more visitors than more generic ones.
Think about it.
How inspired do you feel when you read vague CTA’s like “Sign Up” and “See More”?
You might think, “What am I getting if I sign up? What am I going to ‘see more’ of?”
Instead, use engaging language that resonates with your target audience.
The Optimized CTA Example:
Workflows for Tax Pros | View Website
As a brand that caters to tax professionals who want a better work/life balance, Workflows for Tax Pros hits the nail on the head with this email + CTA. They know their leads are interested in streamlining their tax business but that they’re wary of committing to yet another CRM.
The bottom CTA invites them to “Try TaxDome Now.” It’s direct, unique to the brand, and written with the target audience clearly in mind.
8. The Case Study
The Goal: Make your readers imagine a better version of themselves.
The case study is a short, easily digestible narrative explaining how your coaching services have helped the client achieve his or her goals
By taking a storytelling approach, the lead is taken along for the happy client’s transformative journey, allowing them to envision their own journey succeeding in the same way.
To create a simple case study, ask one of your satisfied clients if they’d like to be featured as a success story for your business. Once they accept, send them a short survey, collect a few photos, and craft a simple narrative explaining how your services helped the client succeed.
The Case Study Example:
Life Coaching Professionally | View Website
Here we see a professional life coach highlight how her practices improved Annie’s life.
The title of the study, “Annie Was Afraid to Say No” pinpoints the client’s primary problem. The coach then further elaborates on Annie’s struggles, noting that “Annie’s friends and son would call her at all hours to share their stories and ask for help with their problems,” and describes how Annie felt she had no time for herself.
Next, the coach explains how her method helped Annie overcome her struggle by helping her to understand her people-pleasing tendencies.
To wrap it up, the “Coaching Breakthrough” section explains how coaching objectively improved Annie’s life.
Using a case study to highlight how your coaching methods work in real-life situations will go a long way in helping leads imagine themselves as better people–with you as their guide.
9. The Alluring Subject Line
The Goal: Make your email irresistible to open.
Your subject line is one of the most valuable pieces of digital real estate in email marketing.
Why?
Because if your subject line stinks, nobody is going to care enough to open the email for the content inside. And there goes your opportunity to get eyes on your content!
To craft an irresistible subject line for your next marketing email, keep the following principles in mind:
• Tell your reader what they’ll get when they click “OPEN.”
• Keep it short (50 characters or fewer is ideal).
• Keep it relevant to your audience.
The Alluring Subject Line Example:
Tax Savvy Jessica | View Website
Should I Charge Sales Tax on My Digital Products?
Tax guru Jessica Smith, founder of tax strategy firm Tax Savvy Jessica, sends out a monthly blog post with one of our done for your email marketing packages that addresses common client questions. Although her subject lines are more direct than a lot of the subject lines I’ve seen, she knows her target audience, 6-figure coaches and consultants, well.
10. The One Goal
The Goal: Keep your reader engaged with a clear message.
Have you ever been guilty of sending your subscriber list too much “fluff”?
Sometimes I think the content-saturated culture we’re living in has made business owners feel like they have to blast their readers with information 24/7. Anything less shows a lack of dedication to their audience.
But with so many daily emails sent around the world, the average reader has a finely tuned “fluff radar” that will immediately sense filler content leading to a decline in trust.
To ensure you’re sending quality, fluff-free emails to your audience, limit each email to a single goal. Do you want to send a brand reminder email? Push a specific product? Inform your audience about a promo?
Whatever it is, staying focused on that singular goal will prevent your reader from getting distracted as they journey toward your CTA.
(The one caveat to this tip is newsletters, which usually touch on a few varied topics. However, staying concise and fluff-free is always important, even when writing a newsletter, so make sure your content is engaging and valuable to your reader.)
The One Goal
Eighty Nutrition | View Website
This is the first email you’ll receive after downloading Ali’s fabulous “Summer Survival Guide.” Although it could be very tempting to showcase her services, Ali stays laser focused on her one goal: delivering a high quality freebie that will build trust with her leads.
11. Value Above All Else
The Goal: Always provide your reader with something they want. For free.
Uninteresting emails that provide zero value to your reader will cause them to disengage or unsubscribe. Not so great for building a thriving business.
Before sending anything to a lead or client, think about the content from their perspective.
Are you sending content that puts their interests first? Are you delivering value that encourages them to trust you as an expert in your field? (And remember, value doesn’t have to be financial. It can be a bit of joy, a helpful tip, a laugh, or even an “aha” moment.”)
The first thought in anyone’s mind when considering building a relationship with a business is “what’s in it for me?”
Successfully answer that question, then provide elements of that desire via your content and you’ll build a thriving client base before you know it.
Were these tips helpful for your marketing strategy as a coach? Let me know what you think by emailing info@aprilraycreative.com.
And if you’re looking for a done for your email marketing service, I would love to connect!
