43: How to Brand Your Coaching Business

This episode is part of the Client Winning Coaching Website series.  In the last episode, I detailed exactly what your website needs going for it to be a client-winning website — the type of site that helps you attract and enroll new clients.Branding is the first thing people will see on your website and you want to leverage it by having it be on every page, plus anything else you create — a blog, a podcast, a business card, social profiles, letterhead. You get the picture.What is a Coaching Business Brand?It's best known as your company name. You'll have a logotype made for your brand. But branding goes deeper than that. It's about the personality of your business.Words are powerful!When I first launched my coaching business, the brand I chose was Bubbling Well. That's still my dba and what I use for the legal entity, copyright and other official things.But, while the word is lovely, it only meant something to me. And it didn't help my clients — who are coaches — to find me or understand how I can help them.So in 2006, I changed my brand to Prosperous Coach, because helping coaches reach financial prosperity is my mission.Branding a critical phase in your coaching business. It's an opportunity to design a lasting brand that artfully describes your target audience and your coaching niche.It's best not to create your brand until you've chosen your target audience and designed your niche. Every step leverages the next.Here's the secret ... the narrower and more focused your brand, the easier it is to remember. Which of these brand grabs your attention most? And which do you think is most memorable?Rhonda Hess CoachingBubbling WellProsperous CoachYou can tell that I felt the last one was most memorable. And indeed, it was somewhat magical when I made the shift how much easier it was to attract prospects who were ready to work with me.3 Guidelines to Choose Your Brand1.    It’s meaningful to your target audience.2.    You love it!3.    No one else has a similar brand / domain name.The last point is more important than you might think because it's better for everyone if your ideal clients don't confuse your business with someone else's. I know coaches who have received a “cease and desist” letter from someone who had the brand name first.Brainstorm your brand while you're online. Use a Google search first to see if your company name idea comes up that way. And if not, then use GoDaddy to see if the domain that matches your idea is available. If not, you'll want to get more creative and unusual.Let’s say you want the domain successfulmompreneurs.com and realize that someone has already registered it, DON'T simply choose a different suffix such as successfulmompreneurs.net. Similarly, if someone else has smartstartbiz.com, don’t opt for jumpstartbiz.com. In both cases your brand won’t stand out and you may lose clients to that other business.Once you’ve landed on a good brand/domain, consider reserving not just the .com but also the .net, .biz, and .org.Reserve the Domain For Your Own Name TooInternet consultants recommend that you reserve your own name as well, even if it is not your company name. Your web designer can point the DNS servers of that domain to your brand domain. That way if someone can’t remember your brand name but they remember your name they can look it up and they will still arrive on your website.... Learn the 3 approaches to brand your coaching business here.