5 things to know from this article
- An email list is people who put their hand up. A social media following is people who might see you if the app decides to show you.
- One email should do one job: give the reader one useful thing they can use this week.
- Weekly or fortnightly is plenty. Turning up on the same day every time beats sending lots and then vanishing for months.
- In the UK you generally need someone's permission before you send them marketing emails, and in the US every marketing email needs a working way to unsubscribe.
- A welcome sequence of four or five emails does more for a new subscriber than a year of newsletters they never open.
Email marketing for coaches means sending useful emails to people who asked to hear from you, so they remember you when they're ready to pay. Send one useful thing per email, write it to one person, send it on the same day every week or fortnight, and start with a short welcome sequence. Only ever email people who signed up.
That last bit isn't me being fussy. Adding people from LinkedIn, buying a list or emailing strangers isn't email marketing, it's cold emailing, and in the UK it can break the law. More on that below.
Why is an email list better than posting?
I'll be honest, I think coaches have been sold social media as the whole of marketing. Post every day, show up, be visible, and the clients will come. And you've done it. You've posted, you've done the reels, you've written the carousels, and what you've got is a handful of likes from other coaches.
It's not your fault. That advice gets repeated by people who make their money teaching it. But it misses something obvious.
Think about it like a busy pub. Posting on social media is standing in the middle of the pub and saying something interesting. Some people hear you, some don't, and the ones who do might have forgotten you by the time they've got their next drink. An email list is the people who came over afterwards and said "give me your number, I want to hear more about that". You'd treat those two groups very differently, wouldn't you?
The people on your list chose you. And when someone's ready to buy coaching, it's very rarely the same day they first heard of you. Email is how you're still there on the day they are ready.
There's a number behind this too. We scored 10,954 live coaching websites, and 82% of them don't show a price. So a lot of people visit a coach's site, can't work out if they can afford it, aren't ready to book a call, and leave. If there's nothing on the page to keep them in touch, they're gone for good. An email sign-up gives the not-ready-yet people somewhere to go.
I'm not saying stop posting. Social media marketing for coaches still has its place, and posting is one of the ways people find your sign-up. But posting is how they meet you. Email is how they get to know you.
Who are you allowed to email?
Only people who signed up to hear from you. That means they typed their email into a form on your site, or said yes to joining your list on a call, and they knew they'd be getting emails from you.
It doesn't mean your LinkedIn connections, people from a networking group, a list someone sold you, or email addresses you found on websites. In the UK, the ICO says you generally need someone's permission before you send them marketing emails, with a narrow exception for your own existing customers, and every email must say who it's from and give an easy way to unsubscribe. In the US, the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide says every marketing email needs a valid postal address and a clear way to opt out, and opt-outs have to be honoured within 10 business days. Other countries have their own rules. This isn't legal advice, so check where you and your subscribers live.
How do you get people on your list?
Give them a reason to sign up that's about them, not about you. "Join my newsletter" gets very few takers. "The five-minute wind-down nurses use after a night shift" is something a specific person wants.
If you run ads, send people to the sign-up rather than straight to a sales page. I've run ads, and they don't reach the right people straight away, so you need a long-term view. Where I can, I use a self-liquidating offer, which is a small paid thing that covers the cost of the ads, and I run mine through Facebook because that's where my buyers ask their questions. Either way, the people who come in go on to the list and get to know you.
Put the sign-up where people are deciding. On your homepage, at the end of your blog posts, and in your social media profile. If you write articles for search, every one of them is a way in, and SEO for coaches covers how to get those found. If you don't have a website at all, you can still run a list with a simple sign-up page, and getting coaching clients without a website goes through that.
What should you send?
One useful thing per email. Not five tips, not a round-up of your week, one thing. Something the reader can use or think about before your next email arrives.
And write it to one person. Picture one actual client, or a made-up one if you're just starting, and write it as if you're emailing just them. Not "Hi everyone", not "Dear subscribers". Just talk to them.
That doesn't mean faking it, though. You'll have had those LinkedIn messages where someone drops in your name, your town and your job title, all scraped from your profile, so it looks personal. I hate them. It's ugly, and everybody can tell. Writing to one person means writing about one person's actual problem, in their words, so the reader thinks "that's me". If you're not sure who that person is, what an ideal coaching client actually is will help you pin them down.
Every so often, and it doesn't need to be every email, tell them how to work with you. One line at the bottom is enough. People can't buy something they don't know you sell.
How often should a coach send emails?
Weekly if you can keep it up, fortnightly if you can't. Pick a day and stick to it.
What I see go wrong is somebody sends three emails in a week when they're excited, then nothing for four months, then an email that starts "Sorry I haven't been in touch". People forget who you are in four months, and some of them will mark you as spam because they don't remember signing up.
Nobody tracks the perfect email frequency for coaches properly, and anyone who gives you an exact number is selling something. Turning up on the same day, every week or every fortnight, is the bit that counts.
A welcome sequence, written out for Sarah (she's made up)
Sarah is a made-up sleep coach. She helps nurses who work night shifts get proper sleep on their days off and between shifts. Her sign-up gift is a one-page wind-down routine for the morning after a night shift.
When someone signs up, they get five emails over about two weeks. They go out automatically, and here's what's in each.
Email 1, straight away. Subject: Your wind-down routine is attached
Hi Jo,
Here's the routine. It's one page, and you don't need to do all of it. Try just the first two steps after your next night shift and see what happens.
I'm Sarah, by the way. I was a ward nurse for eleven years before I started coaching, so I know what 8am feels like after twelve hours on your feet.
Over the next couple of weeks I'll send you a few short emails with the things that have helped nurses I've worked with. If they're no use, the unsubscribe link is at the bottom.
Sarah
Email 2, two days later. Subject: Why blackout blinds aren't enough
Hi Jo,
Everyone tells night-shift nurses to buy blackout blinds, and they help. But by the time you're in bed, the drive home in bright daylight has already told your body it's morning.
So try this after your next shift. Wear sunglasses on the way home, even if it's cloudy, and keep the lights low in the kitchen. Just that one thing for today.
Sarah
Email 3, four days later. Subject: What do you say when your family wants you up at 2pm?
Hi Jo,
I worked with a nurse (I'll call her Kate) whose kids kept waking her after lunch. Not on purpose, they just wanted their mum. She'd been putting up with it for two years.
What changed things was one conversation at the weekend, not in the moment. She told them what time she'd be up and what they'd do together when she was. They stopped knocking within a week.
Who wakes you up, and have you ever actually told them what you need?
Sarah
Email 4, a week after sign-up. Subject: Is it you, or is it the rota?
Hi Jo,
I'll be straight with you. Some rotas make good sleep almost impossible. Three nights, one day off, then an early shift? That's not you doing it wrong.
What you can change is how you get through the switch from nights back to days. Keep your first day off short: sleep for four hours after the last night, then get up and get outside. You'll sleep properly that night instead of lying awake at 3am.
Sarah
Email 5, two weeks after sign-up. Subject: If you want help with this
Hi Jo,
I've sent you a few things over the last fortnight. If they've helped, brilliant, and you'll keep getting one email from me every Tuesday.
If you'd like help working this out for your own shifts, I run a six-week programme for night-shift nurses. It's £450 and you can see what's in it here [link].
Either way, thanks for reading.
Sarah
The price is made up, like Sarah. Notice what she does. Each email is short and talks to one nurse, Jo. The first four each give one useful thing and ask for nothing. Only the fifth asks, and even then it's plain and easy to say no to. After that, Jo goes on to the Tuesday newsletter.
Coaching newsletter ideas that aren't "my week"
"Here's what I've been up to this week" is the email coaches send when they've run out of ideas. Unless your reader is your mum, they don't care. Here's what to send instead, still one thing per email:
- A question a client asked you, with the client's details changed, and your answer.
- A mistake you see over and over, and what to do instead.
- Something you disagree with. A bit of popular advice in your area that you think is wrong, and why.
- A short story about a made-up client, start to finish, so the reader can see what changes.
- One thing to try this week, with exactly how.
- A myth your clients believe and where they picked it up.
- A question for the reader that they can answer by hitting reply. The replies are where you find out what people actually want.
If you're still stuck for things to write about, content marketing for coaches has more on choosing subjects, and the same ideas work for emails.
What do you do now?
Write your sign-up gift first, then the five welcome emails, then set them up to go out automatically. Only after that, start your weekly or fortnightly newsletter. Email is one part of your marketing, not all of it, so if you want to see where it fits with everything else, marketing for coaches puts it in order.
Questions coaches ask about this
How often should a coach send a newsletter?
Weekly if you can keep it up, fortnightly if you can't. Sending on the same day every time is more useful than sending lots and then disappearing for months.
Can I add my LinkedIn connections to my email list?
No. Only email people who signed up to hear from you. In the UK you generally need someone's permission before sending them marketing emails, and adding people who didn't ask is how you end up in spam folders.
What should a coach's welcome email say?
Give them whatever they signed up for straight away, say in one or two lines who you are, and tell them what emails they'll get from you and how often. Keep it short and don't try to sell in the first one.
The figures here come from our own corpus of 10,954 scored coaching websites and 918 mapped coaching markets. How we built and scored it.