Would You Hire A Coach Who Didn't Have A Website?

I was recently sitting in an LAX airport departure lounge, waiting to fly to the annual International Coach Federation conference in Montreal. I was passing the time talking to Pamela McLean, head of the Hudson Institute, one of the top U.S. coaching schools. As colleagues in Southern California, Pamela and I knew each other professionally and were catching up.

We were talking about a series of educational sessions I had done for her Hudson Institute graduates about using web marketing for their new coaching practices. The students had been very enthusiastic and eager to learn the basics of websites and Internet marketing.

As Pamela rose to board the plane, an interested bystander who had overheard us - an entrepreneur who runs her own nanny business - stopped me to ask what we had been talking about.

I explained that I educate coaches and other professionals about web marketing and elaborated that she might be surprised how many of them still didn't have websites of their own.

Without pausing, she said, "I would never hire a life coach who didn't have a website."

Completely unprompted she had crystallized my whole message and educational program with that one line.

A coach handles a client's deepest personal, private and career matters. In order to earn that trust, you must present a professional image and show that you take your practice seriously.

If you don't have a website, you are conspicuous by your absence. My random entrepreneur confirmed the client perspective.

Over 77% of Americans are online. If you narrow the universe to affluent, educated individuals who might be prospects for coaching, you could easily assume that 100% of them are online. And they are using the Internet to research high consideration purchases.

That means that even though they may conduct the transaction in another way (like walking into a store or talking to you on the phone)-- they rely on the information they gather online.

Most coaches have come to the professional after a successful career in some other arena. They don't feel tech-savvy and may be overwhelmed by the information and options open to them. It doesn't have to be hard.

Beware of gurus with secret formulas to sell you for web marketing. Stay realistic. While it is essential that a coach have a website, it is unlikely that anyone will hire you or send you money based solely on the website.

The goal for a coach's website (at least in the early stages) is to spur prospective clients to contact you. Your website is a place to showcase yourself, your practice, your services, and your philosophy. Anyone who wants to hire you will pick the phone up and call you. And this is at it should be.

There has to be a substantive conversation between coach and client before the coaching engagement can begin.

So why go overboard on a website?

A coach needs a Good Enough (affordable) Website. And the coach should be able to maintain and update the website without being held hostage to "the web guy." With a new coach, the practice will evolve and your messaging will, too.

Content management systems (like Web Power Tools) enable anyone to build a professional website without knowing anything technical or spending a fortune.

A quick checklist of what A Good Enough Coach Website should have:
1. Straightforward navigation---make it easy to find anything on your site
2. Simple, punchy front page to get visitors' attention right away
3. Phone number on every page
4. Coach's biography and photo
5. Services offered
6. Website statistics so you know what is happening on the site
7. Ability to embed meta-tags and keywords for search optimization

It is perfectly ok to start small. Just a few pages. Then add articles, newsletters, links, newsletters, resources and other content elements later.

Take it one step at a time. Fight the need for perfection. Good enough is just fine. But if you're not there, you're missing out.

My friend at the airport won't hire you if she can't find you on the Internet. So get on with it!

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