Make Money Selling Coaching Online: Your Guide to Success

As a coach, you must have given tons of advice to your clients: how to be happier, healthier, successful entrepreneurs, better parents… you name it. Now it’s your turn to get some advice on how to grow your coaching business, improve your services, and increase your impact.

But first, let’s see where the coaching industry stands at the moment, so you can better understand whether considering expansion makes sense in the first place.

The coaching industry has been growing rapidly over the past few years, and it’s only expected to continue on this upward trajectory. In fact, coaching is both a popular and lucrative occupation. The average rate of a life coach is at $31 per hour, while an executive coach charges a whopping $250 per hour.

And guess what – online coaching isn’t doing too bad itself either. Therefore, whether you are a seasoned coach with a solid client base or a new professional, here’s a thought: start selling coaching online! Because the business opportunity is real – and big.

In this comprehensive guide, we’re sharing actionable tips on how to sell coaching online. We discuss how to build an online coaching business by creating your own online academy. A place where you’ll offer real-time coaching, self-paced online courses, and useful resources for your coaching clients.

You’ll also find out how to set the price for your online coaching packages, tips to promote your academy, and common mistakes to avoid. And finally, you’ll get a brief overview of our powerful LearnWorlds features that will elevate your coaching programs to a true learning hub.

We hope we got you excited – let’s get started!

1. The Benefits of Selling Coaching Online

Perhaps you still don’t see the point in selling coaching programs online. Especially if you have a successful business with your existing clients. But here are some arguments that will make you reconsider and get onboard. (Hint: it’s not all about the money!)

A Smart Way to Enter the Coaching Business

Have you just finished your coach training and are wondering how to sell yourself as a coach? Then building an online coaching course could help in that direction. Think of it as a portfolio you can use to attract both online and offline clients. In your online coaching course, you showcase your skills and knowledge when you don’t have much experience to speak of. Selling coaching online is also low cost compared to renting a space to receive clients and buying office equipment.

Wider Reach

There’s only so much you can do offline to grow your coaching business, even if you have been around for some time. Selling coaching online is a surefire way to reach a considerably wider audience, spread the word about your coaching services, and increase your clientele.

On top of that, while people today are eager to grow, they often lack time to invest in their personal or professional development. Perhaps they’re too busy, or they can’t find a coach they like in their area. This makes them think twice before committing to in-person coaching, which comes with the usual inconvenience of commuting. Online coaching removes this barrier, allowing more people to receive top-notch coaching from the comfort of their homes.

It’s also a great opportunity to create a scaling business. If you want to expand your coaching services and start an LLC in your state, with an online course you’ll be on the right track to do so.

Affordable Coaching Services

People seeking coaching services want to make a change in their lives. Changes, however, don’t happen overnight. It will be long before your clients start to form new habits, embrace a new way of thinking, and start seeing tangible results. Coaching is a long process, leading to forbidding costs for some people.

By selling coaching online, you can combine self-paced courses with real-time coaching sessions. You will also have lower operating costs, which is another reason you’ll be able to set lower prices. At the same time, the cost of commuting for the client is eliminated, thereby making your services more affordable overall.

Recurring Passive Income

Selling coaching online is a brilliant way to increase your income now and create a source of recurring passive income. By creating your online academy, you will keep generating revenue from coaching courses you have only built once. Nonetheless, you should frequently update your courses with videos of your latest events and other learning material so that they remain valuable, relevant, and fresh.

Greater Impact

Let’s not forget that all types of coaching aim to bring positive change in the client’s personal or professional life. If money isn’t your only motive, and if you care about leaving a positive mark, then this is the way to do it. Online coaching, being more affordable and accessible, enables you to touch and improve more people’s lives than you could ever do working offline.

Establish Yourself as an Authority

Selling coaching online is a powerful marketing strategy to establish yourself as an authority. Creating an online coaching academy shows an extraordinary commitment to your profession and passion for serving your clients right. It’s an effective way to demonstrate your knowledge with a power move that will immediately put you a cut above the competition.

Large Events Will be Easier to Manage

Imagine if people from every corner of the earth attended your events. And now imagine putting together an event like that. If you’re already an established figure in the coaching business, you must have held large-scale events. So you know that the logistics behind such events are costly and nightmarish.

By creating an online coaching academy, you’ll be able to organize seminars and workshops stress-free. And, you can scale them to the extent that wouldn’t be possible had they taken place on site. By hitting the record button, you are at the same time creating valuable content for your academy.

Enhanced Coaching Services

You don’t need to think of an online coaching academy only as an alternative. Online can very well complement in-person coaching. In other words, you can continue to work full-time with your offline clients. Via your online academy, you can offer them additional material they can access for life, like eBooks and recorded events. This is a very flexible solution if you don’t want to shift your priorities and prefer to work mainly offline.

Higher Client Acquisition

In a field as competitive and crowded as coaching, gaining new clients is a challenge. There are a lot of competent coaches out there, with competitive prices, making attractive promises. How can you top that?

You know how. Offering an online academy with resources and tools your clients will have access to for life is a proposition that a) doesn’t come every day, b) will differentiate you from competition in a big way, and c) is hard to say no to!

2. Types of Coaching, Business Models, and Modalities

There are so many types of coaching today that it’s hard to keep up with them all! So let’s see the umbrella categories with some examples.

• Business coaching: Business coaches offer guidance to business owners and professionals. The most common types of business coaching include leadership, executive, career, and small business coaching.
• Life coaching: A very broad category that refers to coaching that fosters personal development. It aims to help people live more fulfilling lives and overcome inner struggles. Life coaching examples include life enhancement, relationship, stress management, and spiritual coaching.
• Health and wellness coaching: This type of coaching focuses on exercise, nutrition, and overall health. Sports, yoga, and healthy eating coaching are just a few examples.
• Hobby coaching: Let your imagination run wild here: anything from cooking to playing poker and creating handcrafts falls under hobby coaching.

Coaching is also divided into two categories depending on who you sell coaching to.

• B2B coaching: If your coaching business assists businesses, then you fall under the B2B category.
• B2C coaching: If you sell to individual customers, then you are a B2C business.

Of course, one doesn’t exclude the other. You can choose to work both with businesses and individual clients if you wish to, no matter your coaching niche.

Regarding modalities, coaching can take place in either one of the three following ways:

• In-person, which requires the physical presence of both parties.
• Hybrid, which combines in-person coaching with online workshops, coaching sessions, and learning material available on a centralized platform.
• Fully remote, which means no in-person coaching takes place. All coaching sessions take place online.

Why are we telling you this? To show you that no matter your coaching niche or business model, you can always sell coaching online. Even if you offer coaching that requires a more hands-on approach, like sports coaching.

Take the example of the successful MethodMOTO Academy built with LearnWorlds, where riders can find tons of tips to improve their techniques!

3. How to Design an Online Coaching Program That Sells

Time to cut to the chase and show you how to create and sell coaching online. Following these 6 steps, you can finally start online coaching and sell your advice.

Step 1: Understand Your Audience

All entrepreneurs, including coaches, must conduct audience research before making any type of change in their business. Audience research is the best way to understand who your target audience is. If you have been in the coaching business for a while, obviously you know your clients’ profiles. But if you haven’t, take note.

Profession, age, family status, and income are all essential demographics you need to consider to create content for your online course and set the right price. Generation Z, for example, prefers social learning. This means that you should emphasize initiating online discussions and group activities.

The best place to search for this information is social media. Join relevant groups to find out what your prospective customers talk about, what their pain points are, and what they want to achieve. You can also create a small questionnaire for each prospective client, so you can gradually collect information and have a clearer picture.

Step 2: Define Your Learning Goals and Objectives

Next, you need to define the learning objectives for your online course (or courses). A learning objective is what the client should be able to do after they complete their program. Essentially, they are your Unique Value Proposition; they give clients a reason to join your online program. Learning objectives need to address the client/learner directly and be brief, specific, and realistic.

Let’s say you’re offering coaching on time management. Your learning objectives should look something like this:

After completing your coaching program, you’ll be able to:

• Work efficiently using the most trusted time management techniques
• Fight distractions and procrastination
• Optimize your schedule and prioritize tasks

Step 3: Pick an all-in-one Course Creation Platform

Chances are that your expertise doesn’t lie in course creation and much less in website development. As such, you might get tempted to sell coaching online through a course marketplace. In reality, that’s just a way to get lost among hundreds of similar courses and lose a good part of your profit too.

Instead, it’s best to start your own online school. By choosing a user-friendly platform, like LearnWorlds, you can easily build your online coaching programs and create a beautiful website. This way, you’ll have full authority over your online coaching business.

Step 4: Populate Your Online Coaching Course With Engaging Content

💡 Disclaimer: no instructional design knowledge required! The following types of content are tried-and-tested and are known to engage learners while maximizing knowledge retention.

• Video: Videos are an essential addition to any online course; they help you explain complicated notions and give examples. Most importantly, they add energy and liveliness to your course. You can either record brief videos from scratch or repurpose existing recorded events you’ve hosted.If you’re repurposing material, make sure to break it into smaller – if possible 3- to 7-minute – videos. Microlearning resources are easy to digest and engaging, making them the best choice for asynchronous learning activities.
• eBooks and slideshows: Another type of content to include in your coaching program is eBooks. eBooks will accommodate visual learners and those who would like to learn while commuting. In the same spirit, you can create slideshows as an easier-to-consume learning resource.
• Live sessions: You can’t miss live sessions in your academy, since this is where most of the work takes place.Live sessions shouldn’t miss from your academy, as this is where most of the work is done. Either one-to-one or in groups, live sessions (via Zoom, for example) enable you to communicate with the client more efficiently and evaluate their progress. Live sessions are also excellent ice breakers and help build a rapport with a remote client.Live sessions can also be a mastermind group, a webinar, or any other event that you will organize as part of your coaching program. You can even allow clients to invite a friend to join for free. That’s an excellent way to create more buzz about your academy and attract more clients!
• Self-assessments. Must Have element for any coaching program. You can gain deeper insights on your clients, define their personal coaching goals and introduce a reflection journal along their transformational track for a higher engagement.
• Discussion groups: We can’t even begin to stress the importance of social learning. Also known as collaborative learning, social learning takes place through knowledge sharing and thought-provoking discussions. Its major benefits include enhanced knowledge retention and learner engagement.For this reason, make sure to build an online learning community in your academy where clients can exchange advice, post questions, and do some virtual socializing that will further boost their engagement with the coaching program.

Step 5: Offer a Certificate

Offering a certificate makes a lot of sense, especially in business or soft skills coaching. A certificate adds value to your offering, as clients can showcase it in their resumes and enhance their employability. As such, a certificate is also an effective marketing tool to attract clients and a legitimate reason to set a higher price for your courses.

Step 6: Create Your Coaching Website

Now that your course is ready, time to build the exterior, i.e., create your academy’s website. If you’re wondering how to build a coaching website, then you’ll be happy to hear what’s coming next.

LearnWorlds Site Builder allows you to create a professional-looking website even if you have no experience in web development and coding at all (we assume that you don’t). Choose among different templates and other customizations, and your website will be ready before you know it.

With the website development problem solved, you just need to make sure you do the following:

• Introduce yourself: Create a video where you’ll briefly introduce yourself, discuss your qualifications, and share your key drivers for joining the coaching business. We suggest video over text as a more personalized approach that will additionally give clients a better idea of your communication style.
• Include a brief preview of the courses: It kind of goes without saying that clients should be able to have a small taste of the courses available before they decide to buy. For this reason, besides the course curriculum, make sure to include a short video or a quick slideshow to allow them a glimpse into the course.
• Add social proof: Reviews from happy clients shouldn’t miss from your coaching website. They are immensely helpful, as they add credibility and create trust. Don’t forget to ask each client to leave a testimonial once they complete their coaching program.
• Give site visitors a small going-away present: You don’t want prospective clients to leave without knowing you better. Because if they do, they are unlikely to come back. To entice them, invite them to download a free resource, like an eBook, or offer a free consultation session.

4. How to Set the Right Price for Your Online Coaching Services

You’re here because you wanted to learn how to make money through online coaching, so let’s talk money now. We have already discussed that you can make a lot of money selling coaching online. Before setting a price for your online coaching services, consider the following:

• See how much other coaches are charging. Offer your courses at a reasonable, but not low, price that matches the overall prices of your coaching niche. Search for relevant online courses to see what other coaches are charging, and stay in this range.
• Your price should reflect your worth. Worth and experience are not synonymous. If you are new to the business, you might be thinking it’s best to charge a really low price to be more competitive. And although it makes sense that an established professional will charge more than a novice, this doesn’t mean you should sell yourself short.In addition, when your competitors are charging hefty rates, low prices might raise suspicion. They’ll get your prospects thinking that you may not really know what you’re talking about. Therefore, think twice before you go about offering business coaching packages for $10 just to get the ball rolling.
• Different types of coaching attract people of different incomes. In B2B coaching, the profit margin is high, as you are selling to companies that are looking for top-tier coaching and are willing to pay for it.
  In B2C coaching, the prices are usually lower. Relationship or fitness coaching, for example, attract people from all walks of life and varying incomes. Again, it’s best to set your price according to the average market price.

The common tiers of online course pricing are the following:

• Free. If you have built an online academy, it doesn’t hurt to offer a mini-course for free. A free course allows potential clients to “test the waters” and get a better sense of whether your coaching style resonates with them. Follow this approach if you are new to the business and are trying to get some reviews for your website.
• Paid/per course. You should, of course, charge for the majority of your courses. A fairly priced course reflects the quality of your work, attracts clients, and, of course, brings bread to the table.
• Paid/per bundle. Offering courses in bundles is like creating a learning roadmap for your client. You group together courses enhancing similar skills that work well together, thereby offering a more rounded solution to the client.See how LearnWorlds’ client Institute of Health Sciences offers different bundles for healthy eating, well-being, and more.
  
• Paid subscription/membership. Subscription-based models are very popular, as they help engage customers, nurture long-term relationships, and increase retention. Paying a recurring amount of money also motivates clients to be more diligent with their coaching as it pushes them to reflect on their progress against the time that has passed.
• Premium pricing. Premium pricing is when you offer one of your products or services at a significantly higher price than the rest. One way to go about premium pricing is to offer a coaching package that provides clients access to standardized courses and in-person, one-to-one coaching instead of online group coaching.

5. How to Promote Your Online Coaching Program

To get your online course business off the ground, a lot of work must take place, both online and offline. We have tons of advice about how to launch an online coaching business, so let’s dive in. Without further ado, here’s how to promote and sell a coaching program online:

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is very effective when done consistently. Start with the following small, careful steps, and soon you’ll start to see results and sell online coaching:

• Be active on social media and post in groups relevant to your niche. Share posts, short videos, and infographics with quick tips. Remember who your target audience is so that you focus your energy on the right platforms. If you are targeting solopreneurs and small businesses, for example, your ideal clients are probably on LinkedIn rather than TikTok.
• Use paid ads. Paid advertising can help kickstart your coaching business faster than organic traffic and other content marketing tactics. With Facebook being the most popular social media platform, it’s safe to say you should start your ad campaigns here.

SEO Optimization

Optimizing your academy’s website for search engines will help increase online visibility and reach a wider audience. A few SEO elements to pay attention to are the following:

• Name and URL: Pick a name for your academy that reflects your offerings and is easy to remember. Your course URL and other landing pages should always be brief and descriptive without filler words.
• SEO title and meta description: You must have noticed that every page that appears in the Google search engine results includes a title and a brief description. Based on what you read, you’ll choose to click on the title and visit that page or skip to another more relevant. LearnWorlds allows you to customize how your course appears in search results by creating an SEO title and meta description for your website.
• Images: Choose a small image (or compress one), and add a brief description and alt-text to help Google’s crawl engine discover your page and facilitate visually impaired individuals using screen readers.
• Keywords, keywords, keywords: Try to incorporate relevant keywords throughout your website on all your landing pages, especially in your headlines ad subtitles. Don’t overdo it though; you still want to sound human so that you can make a connection with your audience.

If you’re curious to learn more, we have created the ultimate guide on SEO optimization for online courses!

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing works by offering a commission to third parties that promote your business or product and bring you referrals. In this case, your affiliates could be your existing clients or even coaches specialized in a similar niche that refer their clients to you for further coaching.

Email marketing

Email marketing remains a very effective communication strategy that enables you to engage current clients. You can use email to inform clients about upcoming courses and events, communicate current offers, and share interesting news. Email marketing is also very effective in reaching out to prospects.

Social media once again plays a crucial role in building and expanding your email list, whether you try to target new clients through paid ads or organically. Networking and word-of-mouth marketing can also help you build your mailing list if you are a new professional.

Once you have built your mail list, use an email marketing tool to set up automated email sequences that reach your audience at the right moment in every step of their buyer’s journey. Most email marketing platforms feature email templates and editing tools, so that’s one thing less to worry about.

For more information, check out our detailed guide on using email marketing to promote your online courses.

Networking

Networking is essential to increase your client base and stay up to date with news and developments in your coaching niche. Some ideas to expand your network are:

• joining relevant groups and communities on social media
• attending or organizing virtual conferences and other events
• becoming a member of an official coaching organization (by getting certified).

6. Top Mistakes Coaches Make and how to Avoid Them

Yes, even experienced coaches can make mistakes when they take their business online. But they help the rest of us learn, so here’s what to watch out for:

They Don’t Market Their Services Enough

It is one thing to be confident in your abilities, and it is another to assume that clients will come running to you because “your expertise stands out.” Coaching is a competitive field populated with skilled professionals. Attracting, retaining, and expanding your client base should be an ongoing effort.

Promoting your business with every chance will pay off, though, and help you outgrow the competition. And once you’ve caught their eye, don’t let clients go without a fight. Apart from offering a free resource, you can additionally offer discounts and create limited-time offers to add a sense of urgency. This is actually a common marketing tactic that works every time.

Our client Colaborar MX very wisely follows this practice:

They Make too Many Promises

Another mistake coaches make is that they promise life-changing results. This can go either way. It either makes the coach sound untrustworthy and drives clients away (which is bad for business), or it makes clients believe that coaching will magically transform their lives. Creating high expectations that are never met is also bad for business; because you end up with disgruntled clients who communicate their disappointment to their circle and online.

You need to find the balance between reassuring clients they’re in good hands and expecting miracles. Create a FAQ session on your website to answer the most common questions about coaching. Be honest about what clients can achieve through coaching and its limitations, stressing the fact that there are no quick wins and that they need to consistently put in work to see results.

They Don’t go the Extra Mile

People often view their coaches as mentors. They trust them with their thoughts and feelings. This level of connection is hard to achieve in online coaching. All the more so with online courses offering advice that generally works, with no real-time coaching included in the program. Throwing in a couple of videos isn’t the best version of coaching, though. You should aim for much more than an asynchronous program to serve your clients right.

An integrated coaching program must include live sessions, whether online or in person. Wherever possible, offer the clients an evaluation before they sign up to direct them to the most suitable coaching package. If you are short on time and can’t arrange individual coaching calls, you can perform evaluations using an online questionnaire the client fills in. Another option to add more personalization is to check in with the client a few months after they’ve completed their program.

7. Why Choose LearnWorlds to Build Your Coaching Business Online

In a few words? Because LearnWorlds allows you to build something more than a business. With LearnWorlds, you can build a learning hub where your clients will find all the tools to improve their lives in any way they need to. Some features you’ll love:

• User-friendly user interface (UI): With LearnWorlds, you can easily create high-quality courses and a website, with many options for customization. The platform is also very intuitive and easy for learners to navigate.
• Engaging content: Everything you need to keep boredom at bay: interactive videos with auto-generated subtitles, eBooks, badges, quizzes, and more! Activate the Daily News Live Newspaper to offer new tips and advice to your clients from reliable sources of your choosing.
• Certificates: Offer clients an extra incentive to finish coaching and earn a valuable credential. Make it optional if you want to use it as a tool to upsell and give clients two pricing options.
• Social learning tools: LearnWorlds features a built-in community where you can start discussions and polls or create groups. This feature is essential to engagement and enhances the sheer quality of your coaching service!
• Personalized learning experiences:Duplicate content or entire courses with the click of a button. Add or remove resources to tweak your offerings for a more personalized experience for your clients.
• Drip-feed: Set the pace for your clients to ensure they are taking in all the information and valuable advice you’re sharing. A must-have option for asynchronous courses.
• Mobile app: A feature exclusive to LearnWorlds among similar tools, a native mobile app will boost engagement with the course. Use push notifications to remind clients to join live sessions or when they haven’t logged in in a while.
• SCORM compliant: LearnWorlds supports SCORM files, so you can easily transfer your learning activities on the platform.
• Live training sessions: With our Zoom and Webex integrations, you can host live one-to-one or group coaching.
• White labeling: LearnWorlds allows you to design your academy using exclusively your brand colors and logo.
• Copyright protection: Add watermarks to your videos to prevent competitors from using your content.
• Flexible payment options and coaching packages: Allow your clients to pay with their credit cards one-off or in installments, safely, using one of our payment gateways. Sell coaching per course or bundle, create subscriptions, and offer refunds.
• Integration with marketing tools: Email marketing, paid Facebook Ads…the world of digital marketing is in your hands to promote your academy and make a profit. LearnWorlds supports integrations with the tools you’re already using.
• Affiliate marketing: LearnWorlds allows you to create an affiliate marketing program to bring more clients your way via third parties.
• SEO optimization: Essentially another marketing tool, SEO enables search engines to spot your academy more easily. You can optimize your academy’s website for search engines in a few quick steps.
• Advanced analytics: Generate detailed reports to understand how your clients interact with your courses, monitor retention rates, and more.
• Built-in survey tool: Using LearnWorlds Multi-Purpose Form Builder, you can create eye-opening surveys to understand your clients better and enhance your offerings.
• 24/7 customer support: All our online schools enjoy 24/7 stellar customer support. Apart from that, we offer an extensive library of support resources that answers every question.
• Continuous learning: Last but not least, with LearnWorlds, your clients can keep on learning even after their coaching program is over. All you need to do is occasionally add new content to your courses.

Ready for the Next Step?

Take your coaching business to the next level by taking it online. It’s a risk-free move, with low investment and high return! From better client retention to strengthening your presence in your coaching niche, the benefits are hard to ignore. Besides, LearnWorlds is here to make this very easy for you. All you need to bring in is your expertise and passion for learning. What are you waiting for?

Further reading you might find interesting:

• How to Teach Online & Earn Money in 2023: Definitive Guide
• How Much Money Can You Make Selling Online Courses?
• How to Create and Sell Profitable Online Courses: Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Teach Online & Earn Money in 2023: Definitive Guide
• How to Start an Online School in 2023 + Infographic
• Starting an Online Course Business from Scratch
• How to Sell Online Courses: The Ultimate Guide for 2023

Androniki Koumadoraki

Androniki is a Content Writer at LearnWorlds sharing Instructional Design and marketing tips. With solid experience in B2B writing and technical translation, she is passionate about learning and spreading knowledge. She is also an aspiring yogi, a book nerd, and a talented transponster.