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How to Find Out What Your Ideal Clients Want

by Kathleen LeGrys | Feb 13, 2023

How to Find Out What Your Ideal Clients Want

One of the most important elements of good marketing is connecting the dots between what your customers and clients want and the solution you offer. Sometimes we think we may know what our ideal clients want, but often times, we’re really guessing and that can mean there is a disconnect between your audience and your offers. This is the most common reason for people not signing up for your free resources and enrolling in your paid programs.

Today, we’re sharing 3 easy ways to find out what your ideal clients truly want, so you can – A. Attract more of your ideal clients and B. Have more paying clients.

You’ll use the information you gather in places such as your website, sales pages, landing pages for your free offers. You can also use it for some of your free content such as blog posts, podcast episodes, and social media content, including videos.

The good news is that this is actually really easy to do, and we’ll kick things off with #1:

1. Your Facebook group.

If you have a Facebook group or any other online community, you can find out a ton of information about your ideal clients there. The first way to utilize your group to find out what your ideal clients want is to use the membership questions feature to screen people before you approve them to join. When you go to your admin tools section of your Facebook group, you’ll see the option for ‘membership questions’. You can ask up to 3 questions, and one of them should give prospective members the opportunity to share their top struggles and challenges with you.

A simple question to ask would be “What is your biggest struggle with ______________.”

So, if your niche is helping women balance menopausal symptoms naturally, it could read something like this: “What is your biggest struggle with your menopausal symptoms.” This should be a one very short, concise question, so people know how to answer it. You want to keep track of the answers and look for common words and phrases they’re using to describe the problem. One way to keep track of these answers is to use Google sheets, and you can just copy and paste the answers. When you use the same words that your audience is using, they are going to feel like you really understand them, and that helps them see you as a possible solution.

Another way to use your Facebook group to find out what your ideal clients want is to use occasional polls, direct question posts and paying close attention to questions that are posted and conversations that are going on. Polls aren’t the best because they aren’t open-ended questions, but if you’re narrowing down some options, it can be helpful to get some input. For example, if your niche is related to gluten-free living, a poll question could be: What would you say is your biggest frustration when it comes to eating a gluten-free diet? Poll answer #1. Finding affordable food options. 2. Preparing meals. 3. Eating out. Then allow people to add their own answer if there is something else that is a top struggle for them that’s different than the choices you list.

A direct question post would be where you ask a question which can give you more information than a poll. You can ask the same question I just mentioned about “What is your biggest frustration when it comes to eating a gluten-free diet?” but leave it as a regular post and people can add their answer in the comments.

Facebook groups are great because most of the members already have a level of trust with you, so they will feel comfortable being open to sharing their answers.

2. Discovery Calls.

Yes, these calls are designed to enroll clients, but they are also meant to find out what your clients really want and see if you are a good fit to help them. Discovery calls are going to give you the most detailed an in-depth information. This is why really listening during these calls and taking notes is critical. When you ask the right questions, you are going to get invaluable market research about where they are struggling the most, how they are feeling about it, what they actually want and why they want it. Most people will open up to you during this call and you’ll get a lot more detailed information, you’ll hear their tone of voice and emotions, and you’ll have the chance to ask follow-up questions if you need clarification.

Asking questions such as: What is your biggest struggle with this right now? What has been the biggest roadblock for you? How would it feel if you reached your goal or had this problem solved? can give you a ton of great insights into what they really want and why.

If you want a complete step-by-step discovery call script, so you have more great questions to ask, you can download my FREE Ultimate Health Coach Toolkit which also includes a Food Diary, Meal Planning Worksheet, Exercise Log, Coaching Session Template and more.

3. Surveys to your email list.

Surveys are another great option for gathering information about your target audience. You’ll get a lot more responses when you offer an incentive. We’ve done this several times with great success and we like to offer Amazon gift cards because everyone likes them. You can offer two $25 gift cards and let people know you will be choosing two winners at random – include the deadline of when they need to complete the survey and pick a date then you’ll announce the winners.

You can use surveymonkey.com or Google Forms for this if you want, and make sure one of the questions you ask is for their email address, so you can notify them and send the eGift card.

You don’t have to limit this to just your email subscribers since you can also share the survey link on social media and in your Facebook group.

Your survey doesn’t have to be super involved. You can ask 3-5 questions to find out what their biggest struggle is that relates to your niche, what they have already tried, how is it impacting their life and what are their top 1-2 goals.

Start with whichever of the 3 options we shared seems easiest to you right now and you add more later if you want.

Take the information you gather and compare it to your current messaging and see where you can make some changes and/or additions to make it really grab the attention of the people you are trying to reach. Remember, you aren’t trying to attract everyone – you only want to get the attention of your dream clients. This will take a little time to do, but it will be so worth is because you’ll be enrolling more clients.

Resources and Links mentioned on the show:

Kathleen’s Free Ultimate Health Coach Toolkit (including Discovery Call Session Script and more)

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Save 40% on all of Kathleen’s done-for-you health coaching programs and resources through Jan 12^th with code: JAN2023

Subscribe and listen to The Wellness Business Podcast on your favorite platform!

Should You Run a Free or Paid Challenge?

by Kathleen LeGrys | Jan 10, 2023

Should You Run a Free or Paid Challenge?

If you’ve been thinking about running an online challenge but you aren’t sure if you should charge for it or not, you are going to find this conversation very helpful in making your decision. January is a popular time for running challenges, but the great news is that you can run them any time of the year. So, if you’re thinking you’ve missed out on the New Year frenzy because you don’t have a challenge ready, nothing could be further from the truth because people are looking for help 365 days a year.

This was a great question that Sara posted in my Health Coach Biz Support Facebook group, which was: “I want to run an online challenge but I’m not sure if it should be a free challenge or a paid challenge, so I’m not sure how to proceed.”

Sara is right – you can run a free challenge, or you can run a paid challenge, so which one is right for you?

Challenges are great, and the good news is that BOTH options can generate revenue, but let’s look at how to help you decide which one is best for you right now.

If you are starting out with zero email subscribers or a small email list (under 200 people or so) and a small social media following, hosting a free challenge would be the way to go since you’ll be able to GROW your email list AND your following, allow people to get to know you and connect with you, and at the end of the challenge, you invite people to your paid program – whether that’s a 1-on-1 coaching program or an online group program. You’ll have way more people signing up for your free challenge than you will for a paid challenge – even if you only charge $10.

Here’s what’s important to know: In order to get paying customers, you have to have an audience of followers and subscribers to share it with, right? So, if you are just starting out, running free challenges is what we recommend because it will help you spread the word about what you do and give people a chance to see what it would be like to work with you. In your challenge, you’re helping people solve a small PART of a problem they have, and then the next step is to join your paid program to get more support and the rest of the solution they want – which is what your coaching program is all about. That’s one of the reasons why I like challenges so much as a marketing strategy, because you’re having people join who are interested in the topic, so it’s easier to get clients when you invite them to get the full solution.

Let’s talk about PAID challenges and when they can work well.

If you want to run a paid challenge, we recommend calling it something other than a ‘challenge’ because that word has become synonymous with being free. It’s a good idea to call it something like a jump start, kick start, reset or something along those lines, and save the challenges for free offers.

With a paid program of any kind, you are going to include more resources and more support to make it worth the investment, so when people see your sales page and the benefits they will get out of it, they are more likely to be willing to make the investment. Your paid program will give people more of the “how” and a free challenge is more of the ‘what’ with a few micro steps and examples that will leave them wanting more from you. A paid challenge can be as short as 7 days, but a short-term paid program is typically more like 21-30 days. There isn’t a right or wrong here, so do what makes the most sense to you and test it out. You are the only one who knows your business, your niche and your audience, so always do what resonates with you the most and be open to experimenting.

Which option is right for you?

If you have a good size email list (over 200 subscribers and you have been emailing them regularly) and a social media following, you can promote a paid program any time, so it depends on your goals and where you are right now with your business. Since this would be a shorter program, it can be a really good way to introduce your audience to your services and try it out in a low-risk way since the investment will be lower than your 1-on-1 programs.

A free challenge leads to new clients on the back end, which means at the end of your challenge, you invite people to work with you. This option will also help you grow your email list, so that’s a plus.

A free challenge is also a good way to reintroduce people to what you do if you’ve been gone for a while and you want to re-engage your email subscribers. It gets people excited and looking forward to your emails each day of the challenge. We actually have a great episode coming up in a couple of weeks about How to Successfully Reconnect with a Neglected Email List, so if that’s something you’ve been wondering about, you’ll love that episode.

So, while there isn’t a right or wrong way as far as running a free or paid challenge, if you are just starting out, our recommendation would be to run a free one and use it as a way to get exposure, grow your email list, and then invite people to your program at the end.

Whether you want to do a free or paid challenge, we know how well they can work for growing your business and generating revenue. We also know there is a lot that goes into creating one that your audience will be excited to join and then also, at the end, some participants are ready to take the next step in whatever program you are going to offer.

To make this easy for you, I have two different done-for-you challenges you can use that are all ready to go, complete with all the content for each day, the emails and social media posts you need, the posts for your Facebook group, social media posts and emails to fill your challenge, and then emails and posts for the end of your challenge to invite people to your next program. It’s like hitting the easy button for running a successful challenge because you get everything you need including video tutorials that walk you through each step.

The best part is that right now all of my done-for-you programs are on sale – EVERYTHING is 40% off through this Thursday, January 12^th when you use code: JAN2023.

You can choose from a 7-Day Healthy Habits Challenge, a 5-Day Menu Planning Challenge or if you want to run a short-term paid program, I also have the 30-Day Mind-Body Reset and the 30-Day Fit and Healthy Jump Start. Then, I have my most popular program which is a complete 6-month health coaching program that you can customize to fit your niche and that is called Coach with Confidence.

When you have all the resources you need to run your business, you will be able to start helping clients sooner, which means making money sooner and growing your business, which is so exciting. Running online challenges was how I got clients when I was a health coach and they have only become more popular and more effective as a marketing strategy over the years.

Which type of challenge do you plan to run?

Resources and Links mentioned on the show:

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Episode 14: 10 Hacks To Increase Productivity and Skyrocket Results

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BEST OF: 10 Hacks To Increase Productivity and Skyrocket Results

by Kathleen LeGrys | Dec 5, 2022

BEST OF: 10 Hacks To Increase Productivity and Skyrocket Results

It can be tricky to transition from being an employee to a health coach and wellness business owner because you now have total control over what you do and when you do it. While this can be a really good thing, it can also lead to feeling overwhelmed with no clear direction on how to prioritize tasks and projects because it feels like there’s so much to do. We’re here to help!

We’re bringing back a popular episode we did a long time ago, and we’re sharing ten invaluable hacks for doubling your productivity and skyrocketing your results.

Tune in to this episode for a breakdown and examples of each strategy, so you’ll know how to implement what we share.

Start with a 30-day plan and break it up into weekly goals and action steps.
Know the number of hours you can spend on your business each week.
Limit distractions and turn off social media notifications.
Tiny progress each day, week and month results in big wins.
Skip the bells and whistles until you have a solid working model.
Get an accountability partner who will hold you accountable.
Get away from the house to work in two-hour blocks (coffee shop, library or your favorite spot).
Don’t do anything else, until you complete the 1 big thing each day that moves your business forward.
Use Single focus instead of multitasking
10.Set expectations that are obtainable rather than focusing on a big end goal.

Resources and Links mentioned on the show:

Links mentioned in this episode:

FREEBIE: The 5-Step Formula for Setting and Achieving Your Goals in the Next 30 Days

Subscribe and listen to The Wellness Business Podcast on your favorite platform!

How to Decide When it’s Time to Start Investing in Paid Resources for Your Coaching Business

by Kathleen LeGrys | Nov 14, 2022

How to Decide When it’s Time to Start Investing in Paid Resources for Your Coaching Business

We know you want to run your coaching business as smoothly as possible while also limiting expenses, so today we’re going to share some ideas about how to decide when it’s time to start investing in paid resources.

If you have any type of business, you are going to have some expenses but that doesn’t mean you can’t run a lean business with low overhead. It just means there is going to come a time when the limitations of free resources are no longer going to meet your needs, and you’ll have to decide which paid tools are worth it for you.

Here’s what you’ll discover on this episode:

The 3 questions we ask ourselves before investing in a paid business tool or service
Examples of free vs paid options for your business
A mistake some coaches make that actually keeps them stuck in a loop of working too hard and not making enough money

We understand that spending money on your business can feel a little scary sometimes, but at some point, it’s going to be a necessity if you’re serious about building your business. The good news is that you get to decide what makes the most sense and what paid tools will get you the most bang for your buck.

When it comes to free versions of resources for your business, there are plenty including MailerLite for your email management, Canva for creating beautiful graphics, PDF guides and presentations, pexels.com and pixabay.com for stock photos, DIY websites and more. These are all great to get you started since you probably want to operate your business as inexpensively as possible. We understand that spending money on your business can feel a little scary sometimes, but at some point, it’s going to be a necessity if you’re serious about building your business. The good news is that you get to decide what makes the most sense and what paid tools will get you the most bang for your buck.

Here’s how we like to make decisions when it comes to expenses. First of all, it often comes down to a mindset shift about what investing in something will mean for you, your business and your clients.

For example, here are 3 questions to ask yourself:

Will it save me time and make my life easier and/or less stressful?

Will it help me do something quicker and more efficiently?

Will it help me generate more revenue?

The answer doesn’t have to be yes to all 3, and you get to decide what expenses make the most sense right now.

Let’s look at a couple of examples for health coaches who may be trying to decide on free vs paid resources.

Maybe you want to provide meal plans or recipes for your clients, or you want to have recipe guides as free resources to grow your email list, but you don’t have the time or desire to create them from scratch. For $30 a month, you can use something like Meal Garden and that will allow you to provide recipes quickly and easily which will free up your time to do other things in your business. Going back to the 3 questions, will it save you time, help you do something more efficiently, allow you to get started sooner and/or help you generate more revenue, the answer is likely yes. We are affiliates for Meal Garden because we think it’s a great resource, but you can check out other options out there. We have found Meal Garden to be one of the most budget-friendly menu planning sites around for health coaches, so we recommend you check it out.

Perhaps you’re at the point in your coaching business where you want to run an online group program, but you know you’ll need to invest in a platform to host it. The first time you run an online program, you can usually do it with a FB group and emails, but if you want more of an all-in-one solution, you may be considering something like Practice Better or Kajabi. If you compare the two, Practice Better is definitely less expensive and it’s geared for wellness business owners, so that could help you save some money. There are other options out there too, but regardless of what you choose, it will be an investment that can allow you to generate more revenue and leverage your time more because you can help a group of people at one time. We are also affiliates for Practice Better too, and we love their platform because it gives you everything you need to run your practice all in one place, and it’s also very budget friendly. Their free version is good for up to 3 clients, so you can test it out before you decide if it’s what you want. If you absolutely have no money yet for an online platform, bootstrap things until you do and keep it to using a FB group and emails. After you run that first or second round, you will likely know if using a paid platform is in your budget.

As a third example, at some point, you’ll likely have to decide if you should outsource certain tasks in your business. If you’re doing everything yourself, you’re not paying for it per se, but you do have to consider how those tasks could be pulling you away from getting clients, so it could actually be costing you something. Whether it’s posting content to your blogs, entering your email content each week, creating graphics for social media, editing your own podcast episode or creating PDF guides, there is so much that can be delegated or outsourced to free up your time to do the things that only you can do such as getting in front of your audience and coaching clients. We did an entire episode about outsourcing, and we’ll link to it in the show notes – it was episode 29 on the Secrets to Outsourcing on a Budget.

There will come a time when you have to look at your business as an actual business, and part of that is understanding you will have expenses. You can choose the option that is the best option for you right now, knowing you can upgrade or change later.

Here are the 3 questions again to help you decide:

Will it save me time and make my life easier and/or less stressful?

Will it help me do something quicker and more efficiently?

Will it help me generate more revenue?

Is there something you’re considering outsourcing or upgrading to a paid version?

Resources and Links mentioned on the show:

Resources mentioned on this episode:

Meal Garden [affiliate link]

Practice Better [affiliate link]

Episode 29: Secrets to Outsourcing on a Budget

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