This is a guest blog post written by Sean Mize. Want to contribute? Check out the 2016 publishing calendar.

One of the biggest struggles coaches have when building their coaching business is not what to coach or how to coach it, but how to get clients. And the fact is, no matter how good you may be at impacting and affecting change in someone's life, if you can’t convert those visiting your web page into clients, you aren’t going to be able to change their lives.

Building trust is key

One of the keys to turning visitors into clients is the building of trust. Of course we see that in the offline world. Before you make a big purchase or invest with your time or money, you want to meet the sales person, manufacturer or others involved in providing the service or product to you.

It’s the same way with coaching clients - they need to trust that not only you CAN do what you have promised you can do, but also that you WILL do what you have promised. What’s more, they want to feel as though there is good chemistry between you and them.

In short, trust has to be built.

Organize an email campaign

In the “real world,” the offline world, we build trust through conversations and time spent together. The online world is no different. But how do you build trust through conversation and time together online?

One viable solution is to use a well-organized email campaign to communicate with each potential client on a regular basis through a series of timed and appropriate emails. The emails give your prospects an opportunity to communicate with you, and as a result, build their trust in you.

Get viewers to opt-in

So how do you do it? The first basic step is asking someone to join your list. To do that, you can offer a free guide or training in exchange for their joining your list and being able to learn from you in a timed email campaign. You can see an example of this at the end of this article, where I’ll ask you if you want additional training and to be a part of my own timed email campaign; you’ll see a real live example of how it works!

Once someone joins your list, you want an email to automatically go out to them that gives the training or guide you’ve promised on the offer page (or squeeze page, in marketing lingo). That email begins to immediately build trust, as it fulfills what you promised to deliver.

Ask a question

Don't just think of email as your opportunity to tell your subscribers about your services. Make it a two-way form of communication by asking questions. In one of your timed emails, consider asking something like, “Have you thought about making a change in your life, but you aren’t sure where to start?”

Of course that question is tied to the area of life in which you coach.

It’s also good to encourage your subscribers to respond to each of your emails, which allows you to further deepen the relationship and the trust that is being built by the email campaign itself. You see, the emails shouldn’t be some one-way fire hose barrage of information sent to your subscribers, instead they should proxy for the type of real communication you would have with your own client in the offline world if they were to spend some time with you each day.

The email is simply another way in which you spend time with them everyday.

Teach them something/Give them an assignment

Another way to engage your subscribers is to teach something relevant to your practice and their lives. You can send a homework assignment that is designed to reveal something about themselves that leads them closer to the results they would get if they worked with you.

Each of these emails develops trust, and as they participate in the emails, they see that your methods work and will likely begin to wonder, what would happen if I were to hire you as a coach.

By now I hope you are beginning to see how powerful an email campaign can be in building the trust that is necessary before folks will pull the trigger and say, “Yes, I’ll hire you.”

And when that trust goes up, you’ll find that not only are more prospects hiring you as a coach but they trust you more during your coaching.

You see, the trust you build that leads clients to hire you is the same trust that lets clients relax in your presence, listen to what you say, and believe that what you recommend will work.

And when that belief is higher, they’ll implement more, get better results, and want to work with you longer . . . which is a powerful circle. When they get better results, they recommend you, they stay with you, they hire you in the future, and most importantly, you are changing more lives!

By the way, do you want to learn more about growing your coaching practice? If so, I recommend you download my free guide: How to Design and Deliver Your Coaching Program

About Sean Mize

Sean Mize is an entrepreneur and internet marketing coach who teaches coaches how to market their coaching businesses online, how to create highly optimized email campaigns and targeted selling. You can connect with Sean through his website or YouTube channel.

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