One of the most successful marketing tactics I’ve used at networking events is telling people that I’m too busy to take on new clients. What happens? People come up to me and ask me to help them with their marketing!

In the February issue of Scribbles (which you can read again here), I introduced you to a book I’ve been reading called Content Fortress. It’s about eight different ‘pillars’ of content that you can use to promote your business. My favourite is Repelling Content. It’s about pushing away the clients you don’t really want to work with – the non-ideal ones. It’s about repelling potential clients who will never be totally happy with the work you do for them. The ones who won’t pay you on time. The ones who will never be grateful or happy, no matter how hard you work for them.

Stand Out

Why am I telling you to push away your non-ideal clients? Because it will make you stand out from the coaches who spend all their time trying to pull in anyone and everyone to work with.

How can you use repelling content to repel the wrong prospects and attract the right ones?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• What words and phrases do people say to you that you hate? For example, do people often ask “What’s the point of coaching?” If so, and it bugs you, you could write an honest article about how only people who want to be coached can be coached. This will put off anyone who doesn’t actually want to be coached. It will save you a lot of time – no more trying to persuade a non-coachable person to try coaching.
• Is there anything that clients do regularly that irritates you? Do they not turn up on time for their coaching sessions, or not pay on time, or cancel at the last minute? If this happens a lot, you could write an article about how you only work with people who turn up on time, pay on time and give you at least 36 hours’ notice if they can’t make a session. This will attract clients who treat you as you deserve to be treated.
• Who are the clients who won’t benefit from working with you? For example, if you specialise in coaching business owners who need more confidence, then you don’t need to offer life coaching to mums who are stressed by their badly behaved children. If your services are really expensive, you don’t need to be offering discounts just to bring in new clients. This means that you can write articles that explain exactly how you work, and who with. Write an article about why you charge what you charge – based on your expertise and experience. Be specific and give as much detail as you can and you will attract the people who want to pay what you want to charge.

Writing articles like this will really help you to stand out.

Stamp it Out

Stop trying to persuade everyone to work with you! Instead, write articles that push away the people you don’t want to work with. By doing this, your phone might ring less and you might get fewer enquiries, but the potential clients who do get in touch with you will be ideal ones. They will be the ones who you really want to work with, who will allow you to do your best work.