Make Your Profile Shine and Attract Clients to You!
Posted on January 28, 2010 at 2:11 pm by: Stephan
It’s our job to get potential customers to the Noomii coach directory. It’s up to you to create the best impression so your ideal clients will be motivated to contact you.
In order of priority, here are the seven things you need to focus on to make your profile shine. The top 5 steps are essential. Steps 6 and 7 are bonus.
1. Upload a great profile picture
Our analysis shows that coaches with profile photos get way more clicks. So you need a photo. But not just any photo. A good one like the example above from Nekisha-Michelle Bakre. Here are a few quick tips for choosing a great photo.
- Use a picture of you – People don’t want to hire a brand or a logo. They want to hire you. Especially in this day and age of extensive use of social media. Consumers are increasingly expecting personal interactions. They don’t want to talk to “the widget coach”. They want to talk to Bill Smith, the widget coach.
- Get a photo that is appropriate for your audience. If you are primarily a business coach, then you probably want a more professional look. If you lean more toward the life coaching side of things, then find an attractive photo of you on the beach or some other appropriate setting.
- Consider a professional photographer. Depending on your ideal client, you may want to get a professional profile photo taken. It makes a big difference and the cost is not that much.
If you want to see some more examples, Michelle Dunn (life coach casual), Lisa Sansom (business casual), and Hadley Earabino (life coach professional) have all gotten clients from Noomii. They all have great profile images.
2. Enter your location information
In order to increase your exposure on the Noomii directory, it is critical that you enter your location information in full – country, state, and city. Please note that if you live in the US or Canada, all you need to enter is your country and zip code and we use Google Maps to locate you in your city.
Many coaches have objected to entering their local information because they want clients from all over the country or world. While that is a valid concern, entering your local information does not preclude you from gaining exposure from international clients on the Noomii directory.
We’ve done extensive search engine research and what we’ve discovered is that when clients search for coaches, they typically start by searching for a coach in their area. In the minds of clients, the process for hiring a coach is no different than hiring a dentist, doctor, lawyer, or any other professional. They start by searching for a professional in their area.
The benefit of the Noomii directory is that once people arrive on the directory, we inform them that coaches typically work on the phone and that it’s more important to find the right coach than it is to find a coach that lives in their area.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that you will be listed in all the cities within 70 miles of your location. So if you live in the suburds, you’ll be listed in the nearest metropolitan area.
3. Choose up to 3 specializations
This seems like a no-brainer. You can specify and get listed in up to three specializations and you might as well do it because it increases your exposure. It also helps clients determine the kind of coach you are. By default, if you select nothing, it will list you as a life coach and that’s it.
4. Write a catchy profile summary
Just below your name and credentials is what we call the summary statement. This is a short bio that communicates to your ideal clients. If your ideal clients are business people, focus on tangible business results. If you want to work with spiritual healers, focus on the spritial connection. The idea is that you meet your clients where they are.
5. Enter contact information
Once people find you, make it easy for them to get in touch with you in a variety of ways. The Noomii system allows potential clients to send you message or request a free consultation. In addition to those, include your phone number and a web address, if you have one.
6. Submit articles
Adding articles to your profile does two things. First, it communicates to your potential clients a little bit more about you. It give them a better idea what kind of coaching you do, your expertise, and your personality. Secondly, articles are another entry point to your profile. Noomii takes advantage of the fact that it has hundreds of articles submitted by a wide variety of coaches. As the aggregator of this content, Noomii can attract more traffic to all of the articles than you could individually. It’s a win-win situation that will drive more clients your way.
7. Enter “Coach Details” and “Personal Information”
All the content that is above the fold is the most important because it is what people see first. Below the fold is all the extra content. There is virtually no limit to the amount of text that you can enter in the “Coach Details” box or in the “Personal Information” box but the average coach tends to write 4 or 5 paragraphs.
Similar to the articles, the content that appears below the fold should be used to help communicate to your ideal clients everything they need to know about you.
Bonus: Link your profile from other websites
In a previous post, I provided 3 tips for getting noticed on the Noomii directory and one of the tips is to link to your Noomii profile from other websites. If you are like many other coaches, you may have a great website but nobody finds it. By linking to Noomii from your site, you help increase Noomii’s search engine optimization and as a result, together we can generate more traffic than you could by yourself. It’s a win-win proposition.
