Paid Ads vs Content vs Outreach for Coaches: Which Wins?

If you keep asking yourself how to get your first or next coaching client, it comes down to two steps. Get leads, then sell them. And there are only three ways to get leads: paid ads, content, and outreach. In this post I'm going to break down paid ads vs content vs outreach for coaches, the real trade-off behind each one, and which one I'd start with, so you can stop guessing and go get clients.

I'm going to assume your offer and your ideal client are already set. If they aren't, start there.

The simple version: get leads, then sell them

In theory it sounds almost too simple. Get leads and sell them. Great. But obviously there's nuance behind it, and most of that nuance lives in the first step. How are you actually going to get leads? There are splinters underneath each option, but they all fall into one of three buckets.

• Content. You post something of value and the platforms show it to people for free.
• Outreach. You go find your ideal client and start the conversation yourself.
• Paid ads. You pay a platform to put your message in front of your ideal client.

Want to go even deeper? Watch the full video.

Way 1: Content

Content is simple enough. You have all these different platforms. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, so on and so forth. You go ahead and make something of value for your ideal client. You speak to their pain points and the things they want to solve.

The biggest problem with content is that it's very inconsistent. Most people don't even have a big following to start, but let's say you do have a thousand followers. When you post, a thousand people don't see it. A small slice sees it first, let's call it 3 to 5% of people. Only if that slice likes it does it go to the next batch, and then the next batch after that.

And so to make content work, the content needs to be really dialed in, and you need to make a lot of it. It's up and down. You can't post something and say "this one is going to get millions of views." It doesn't work like that.

The plus side is obviously that it's free. If you're tight on cash, it's really just a matter of your time.

Way 2: Outreach

Outreach is literally just going on the different platforms, finding your ideal client, and starting a conversation. When I show this to people they sometimes say, "Wait, really? That's all?" Yeah, that's it.

A few places to start:

• LinkedIn. Look for the jobs or titles your ideal client has and start reaching out.
• Instagram. Go to your competitors' posts, see who is commenting, and send them a message with a real question.
• Facebook groups. There are groups full of people trying to solve the exact problem you solve. Join them and start talking to people.

If you're thinking "I don't know what to say," keep it very simple. Say you're a weight loss coach. "Hey, I saw we're both in this group. How long have you been in it?" Then let it go from there. How much weight are they looking to lose? What have they tried? You're just having a conversation.

Don't skip the list already in your phone

Another part of outreach is the list you already have. Pull out your phone. There are probably a couple hundred or a couple thousand people inside of it. You can do this without being salesy.

Make one short video. Say you're finally chasing your dream of coaching and helping people with a specific problem. Share your experience in a sentence or two. Then make one simple ask: if they are your ideal client, or they know someone who is, you'd love to get connected. Whether you end up working together or not, you'd really appreciate the support. Then go ahead and send that video out.

The bottom line is that outreach is much simpler than most people think. You just start talking to people.

Way 3: Paid ads

Paid ads is the one I recommend the most, because it's the fastest way and the easiest way to get in front of people. The only downside is obviously that it costs money.

A lot of coaches think paid ads is this mysterious, difficult thing. It's not. It's content and outreach merged together. You take a message, a video, a graphic, whatever it may be, and you pay Facebook or another platform to put it in front of your ideal client.

So you can literally say to Facebook, "I'm going to give you 500 bucks, and in return you put me in front of 10,000 people." Now there's a clear trade. You know you're going to get the eyeballs, which is the biggest thing so many coaches struggle with.

The downside is that if your video isn't good, if you don't use the words your ideal client uses, or you're in front of the wrong person, you can spend money and not get a return. That's part of the learning curve. But on speed, nothing else is close. Once things are set up right, your ideal client can start booking calls on your calendar very quickly.

If you want to go deeper here, I broke down how much a coach should spend on Facebook ads to start and how to add paid ads without wasting money.

Which one should you start with?

It really comes down to one question. What matters more to you right now, time or money?

• If you have a ton of time and not much money, start with content or outreach.
• If you have some money and you want to speed up getting your first or next client, paid ads is probably the way.

Either way, know this going in. Whichever one you pick, you're not going to be great at it in the beginning. When you first started walking, you fell and got back up. There's going to be a period where it sucks. You might make 20 videos that aren't good before you make one that is. The question is whether you let that period stop you, or you go through it as fast as you can so you get to the good part.

The most common mistake: doing all three at once

One of the most common mistakes I see is coaches splitting themselves across all three at the same time. A little content, a little outreach, a few ads. But if you split your attention a third, a third, a third, you only get a fraction of the results, because you only have a fraction of your focus on dialing each one in.

My recommendation is to pick one and be crazy in the amount of action you take with it. Figure out what works and what doesn't. Truthfully, all three of these work, and all three have made a lot of coaches a lot of money. You just have to figure out which one fits your situation, then go all in on it. Once that's running, here's how to get consistent coaching leads without relying on referrals.

FAQ

What is the fastest way for a coach to get leads?

Paid ads. You pay a platform to put your message in front of your ideal client, so you skip the wait of growing a following. The trade-off is that it costs money, and you may lose some while you learn if your offer and message aren't dialed in yet.

Can I get coaching clients without paying for ads?

Yes. Content and outreach are both free and both work. They just cost you time. Outreach is usually the quicker of the two, because you can start a conversation today instead of waiting for a post to get seen.

Should I do content, outreach and ads at the same time?

Not at first. Pick one and put all your attention on it until you know what works. Splitting your focus three ways usually means you get a third of the results from each.

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