The chart below shows the number of client leads per month over the last 6 months. Keep in mind the chart shows ONLY the client leads who have asked to be matched with their coach; this does not include coaches who are directly contacted through our directory. As you can see, we’ve made steady improvements this year since we launched our new coach-client matching system. We’re currently on pace to have our best month ever – over 100 client leads, or just over 3 per day on average. Our goal for 2011 is to increase this by a factor of ten: 500 client leads per month, or more than 15 per day.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/noomii-blog-files2.s3.amazonaws.com\/2011\/01\/client-leads2-300x180.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nHow are we going to do this? Glad you asked! We’ve begun a number of initiatives designed to help improve our client lead numbers. The first thing we’ll be doing is re-launching our blog with a major focus on the kinds of stories that would interest prospective clients. Our goal is to become the number one online resource for people looking for a coach, and our blog is going to help us achieve that goal by focusing on the types of issues that prospective clients want to know about. Second, we’re constantly increasing our marketing initiatives, through optimizing our content for better Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid advertising through Google Pay Per Click (PPC), as well as a number of partnerships with other websites whose readership matches the demographic profile of coaching clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In short, we’re working hard to make sure that we keep improving our traffic, and we’re doing this by making the site better and more relevant to the kinds of people who are looking for a professional coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2011 Goal Number Two: Improve our coach-client matching system<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The other question I often hear from coaches is how we can improve the system for matching coaches and clients. You’ve told us that you want a better way of being notified when we receive client leads whose goals match your particular training, background, and expertise. You’ve also told us that it needs to be easier for prospective clients to contact you once you’ve been recommended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On this front, there are a number of things we’ll be doing. First off, it’s important to understand that clients vary enormously in their motivation to find a coach. While some clients are highly motivated and want to start coaching right away, others are much less so, and sometimes are merely “feeling the waters” when looking for a coach. Recently, we’ve noticed several clients mentioning they initially found us through promotions on Sweeps Cash Casinos<\/a>, highlighting an unexpected but interesting crossover between gaming enthusiasts and people seeking personal coaching. Because of this, we’re doing a number of things to ensure that prospective clients are given the best possible service from us to answer their questions, help them with choosing a coach, etc. We’ve recently hired a dedicated customer support manager (Dana – some of you have already spoken with her), who calls each and every client lead we receive, and makes sure they’re clear about the process of finding a coach, what to expect from coaching, how to choose a coach, etc. Dana will also be collecting feedback from these clients and we’ll be making sure we make changes to our process over the year to better reflect what they want to see in our system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second thing we’ll be doing is giving you, our coaches, more tools to “pre-filter” the kinds of clients you’d like to see. The system will include a sophisticated pre-selection tool to allow you to select, for example, only clients who are willing to coach on the phone, or only clients who want an ADD\/ADHD coach, etc. When the system is in place, you’ll only receive emails when we receive clients who highly match your criteria – rather than a daily email containing all the latest leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A final 2011 goal: Better communication with our coaches<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, I’d like to commit to better communications between us and you, our valued customers. The past year has been one of many changes on the site, and sometimes we’ve taken it for granted that our changes are going to be self-evident to you. What we’ve learned is that we need to do a better job of communicating our changes as we make them. More importantly, we also need to give you more opportunities to provide feedback on the many changes we make, and make sure we do our best to implement those changes in a timely manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On that note, I’ll conclude with a reminder that we LOVE to get feedback, so please leave your comments below. Alternately, you can always talk to one of us directly. We’re just a free phone call away: 1-800-278-1057. Give us a call any time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n With best wishes for you and your coaching practice in 2011,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kurt Shuster
CEO and co-founder,
Noomii.com<\/p>\n