Email Coaching 101
How to set up an Email Coaching Business
Welcome to this Email Coaching 101 guide for both established and aspiring coaches looking to get started with this fabulously flexible format.
It’s designed to help you in getting clear on where to start, what actions to take, and in what order, so that you can begin to enjoy the freedom and benefits of this increasingly popular coaching option.
Email Coaching Expertise
In early 2014, I set up a simple email coaching service to help other creatives, writers and artists.
After a lot of trial and error, I found a way to work that suits my strengths, my lifestyle and my Ideal Clients.
Working exclusively via email, I launched a Creativity Coaching business that was a joy to run and a powerful support service for my clients.
Over the last few years, I’ve been learning and experimenting with the best ways to set up and run – and enjoy – a simple, powerful and effective email coaching business.
The tools and technologies available today make it ever easier to begin this wonderful work, and if you feel called to offer this service, I would love to share all I’ve learned with you.
My two mentorship programmes are designed to save you the months of learning, the confusion and the dead-ends that I went through.
Hi! I’m Danielle
Shortcut your learning curve with expert support and behind-the-scenes access to an established email coaching business.
Here’s what I can help you with…
• Basic online presence essentials – all you need to have in place to begin offering your first email coaching service.
• The tricky business of identifying your Ideal Client! Ie, knowing who you most love to work with – and how to find them.
• Creating a lead magnet that your Ideal Clients will eagerly sign up for, and an optin form ready to collect their contact details, so that you can nurture these new relationships.
• Pricing guidelines and the technical aspects of setting up payment systems to allow you to get paid ASAP.
• Mindset and coaching to help you feel confident about your unique skill-set and the value of your expertise.
Step-by-step Support
for your new Email Coaching business
YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE
Setting up the online business basics.
WHO? WHAT? WHY?
Identifying your Dream Clients and how best to serve them.
REACHING POTENTIAL CLIENTS
Marketing and relationship-building practices that you feel good about.
EMAIL COACHING PACKAGES
Crafting a service you love to offer and deliver.
NEXT STEPS & ACTION PLAN
Putting it all together and being clear on what’s next.
A whistle-stop guide to the wonderful world of email coaching
You’ll discover how email coaching works, who it’s perfect for, its unique advantages, and how it could be your new Dream Career.
I’ll also be sharing my all-time favourite Secret to Success in your new email coaching business.
(This particular lesson was hard-won – I wish someone would have shared this gem with me a decade ago!)
“Danielle is knowledgeable, kind, caring, and she absolutely delivers on her promise of helping build the framework and foundation for your creative email coaching business.
I would highly recommend her support!”
Alea Marie, Coach & Healer
YOU ALSO RECEIVE ACCESS TO:
Insights and tips from my 27-year career in digital marketing, including:
• Core marketing principles
• Copywriting
• Graphic Design
• Social Media marketinga
• Email marketing
• Content marketing & blogging
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Website design
• Online course creation
• • •
Tips and tools from my 7 years of coaching experience:
• Developing packages you love to offer
• Coaching with confidence
• Email coaching best practices
• • •
Plus two decades of private studies into:
• The Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Holistic health, energy & wellbeing
• Psychology & spirituality
(Three aspects that can turbo-charge your business and career success.)
& of course…
Regular doses of that all-important encouragement, support & guidance that every business owner needs.
If you feel called to share your unique wisdom and valuable expertise…
Offering an Email Coaching service can be a fantastic way to support your fellow humans and connect with like-minded souls.
It can also be a liberating and joyful way to make a living.
Email Coaching FAQs
New to email coaching? Here are some Frequently Asked Questions about this fast-growing coaching modality:
What types of coaches offer email coaching?
I’ve seen Email Coaching offered across the whole spectrum of the coaching industry; life coaching, business coaching, health coaching, and of course creativity coaches like me.
The Email Coaching format is so flexible that it can accommodate most kinds of coaching niches, as long as there is no requirement for in-person connections or spoken interactions.
Even in these cases, however, it’s possible to supplement some of the coaching process or sessions with email support that can reduce the need for in-person calls and appointments.
How does email coaching work?
How the Email Coaching process actually works is really simple – it’s just doing what you likely do every day, or at least are very familiar with, and that’s communicating via email.
What elevates the process in to coaching, however, is the skill, experience, compassion and expertise of the coach.
For example, ways that I use email to coach are;
• Ask clients questions to clarify their goals and challenges
• Offer encouragement
• Celebrate client achievements, however small
• Reflect back to clients themes or patterns they may not be noticing, identify their blindspots
• Cheer them on if they’re feeling challenged or fed up
• Gently can them back on track if they’re getting side-tracked or distracted
• Recommend resources – both my own, eg blog posts, books, courses etc, and other people’s books and blogs
• Share stories and examples from my own life and journey that help to reassure or inspire the client, and help them to feel they can relate
These are some of the common core coaching tools, but what’s interesting about email coaching is that you have the whole process in front of you, in black and white.
It’s there for both you and the client to refer back to – which can be really helpful, both in clarifying, refreshing and also tracking progress.
That’s basically the format for email coaching – it can be as simple or as complex as you like, and you get to decide what’s included and what level of communication you enjoy.
What are the pros and cons of email coaching?
For the many benefits of email coaching, I wrote this blog post that explores the advantages of this format from a client’s perspective, such as fitting in with busy schedules and being more introvert-friendly.
And I share more about the advantages of offering email coaching on the info page for my starter guide.
But like all coaching modalities, email coaching does have certain disadvantages.
For example, much as I love being an email coach, I appreciate that this format does miss out on some of the features of in-person coaching.
Things like body language, eye contact, energy shifts, tone of voice, as well as the rapid back and forth with Q&A.
If you’re considering offering an email coaching service, it might help you to identify which aspects of your tools and practices require those aspects.
Where this unique process does come into its own is in areas where your client may need to journal or think deeply about questions, ie not feel under pressure to answer straightaway, or keep you waiting for a response.
Email can be perfect for asking powerful, thought-provoking questions, especially if you’d like to work with more introverted coaching clients.
And the attention and listening that good coaches offer can be made evident in your email coaching responses.
Plus, the email format also allows the coach to take some time and give deeper thought to the client’s questions and challenges.
I often have some great ideas for my clients when I’m out walking. (Or in the bath!)
These are some of the general pros and cons, but I’d suggest that you experiment with the aspects of your skillset that do and don’t translate to email.
How do you structure an Email Coaching Package?
This one can be a little tricky, as Email Coaching is a little harder to quantify in terms of phone calls or appointments, particularly if you choose to offer unlimited email support, as I often do.
However, it can certainly be done – I know because I’ve been doing it since 2014 and since that time I’ve witnessed more and more coaches offering some version of Email Coaching, and each has their own way of structuring packages.
It’s also a modality that blends beautifully with the Hybrid Coaching format, which opens up a whole world of options when it comes to creating, offering and selling coaching packages.
If you’d like the behind-the-scenes of how I create my Email Coaching Packages, I have a bonus section of my Email Coaching Beginner’s Guide devoted to this aspect.
Where do I find Email Coaching clients?
The million-dollar question! For many coaches, finding clients can be one of the biggest pieces of the business success puzzle, I know it was certainly a challenge for me in the beginning.
The best way for you to find your ideal coaching clients depends on a whole range of factors, things like your strengths, your personality, your skill set, your target audience, as well as things like your lifestyle goals and family commitments.
If you’d like personal support with this aspect, I offer an Email Coaching Mentoring Service – run by email, naturally! – where I can help you to fast-track your success in connecting with your dream Email Coaching clients.
As a starting point, however, I’d suggest you start to think about the types of clients who would be drawn to the email coaching format. For example, I’ve written here about the suitability of Email Coaching for Writers and Introverts.
And of course, like so much of the world these days, there’s a very good chance that your Ideal Clients are online. (One reason I also offer a Digital Marketing Mentorship that shares my marketing and design background, ie almost three decades working in online marketing.)
Can anyone become a good Email Coach?
One idea that I wished I’d known as a new coach, whenever I wondered about my credentials, experience, expertise etc… was this;
Simply being a second opinion or sounding board can be hugely beneficial for lots of people.
Even as a new coach, just listening to another’s challenges and being there as a fellow human has real value.
Your skill as a coach can be cultivated over time, and there are many certifications that can grant you formal credentials, but perfection or qualifications are not essential to begin.
I highly recommend working with a range of free clients to help you discover what you love and are good at, as well as the types of coaching clients that will most value your unique blend of experience, expertise and passion.
Beyond that, I’d suggest the best email coaches are the ones who are working in the Zone of Genius and who thrive in the Email Coaching format.
This has been my vision for my own business – and I’ve been loving the journey so far. 🙂
I’m in! How can I get started with my new Email Coaching business?
Welcome to the wonderful world of Email Coaching!
I’m such a passionate advocate for this powerful coaching modality that I’ve bundled everything I’ve learned over the last decade into A Beginner’s Guide designed to give your new business and head start. (And avoid the pitfalls, dead-ends and heartaches that I went through.)
You can find more details on this 5-day online course here.
Ready to begin your new email coaching business?
There are two ways I can help you…
1:1 Coaching via email
“Huge thank you for designing this course and for such great prompts and questions.
For me it’s gone bigger than just email coaching. 🙂
It has allowed me to feel free and unconstrained in my thinking and boosted my confidence.”
“I can’t thank you enough, Danielle.
I’m stunned by how transformative just one month has been working with you.”