If you’re thinking about starting an online coaching business, we’re here to tell you that you’re on a path to glory! The fact is that online coaching is simply an awesome experience. Why? Well, the answer to that is quite plain – because it’s a fulfilling job. You’re spending your time helping others achieve their goals – either career or personal development ones.
And this can all be done using premium online group coaching platforms. You may have heard of these online coaching tools before, and maybe you’re wondering if they’re truly needed to launch your online coaching business. And the fact is that you could probably launch an online coaching company using email, Zoom, and text messages. But with online coaching platforms, you can spend your time on the most important tasks in your day rather than being bogged down with mundane tasks such as following up on payments or making coaching class bookings with students.
Online coaching platforms also allow you to host 1:1 and group coaching sessions. This is convenient because you may want to focus on both or just one of these coaching styles. No matter who you choose to coach and what type of coaching methodologies you want to use, remember that your online mentoring business can really take off if you use some of the best platforms for online coaching out there today.
But before you select a video monetization platform, let’s look at what that platform should offer you to ensure your business is set up for success from the get-go.
Fundamental Features Every Online Group Coaching Platform Should Have
Seamless Class Scheduling and Booking
This is one of the most time-consuming tasks for any online tutor or coach. It’s important to remember that each student will need their own sessions, probably weekly, and you’ll need to juggle your calendar to cater to each client. Luckily, with some of the best membership website software, you get to schedule bookings automatically and have an integrated calendar within the platform that shows you exactly where your appointments are. Group coaching sessions work well here because you get to schedule five or ten students within the same timeframe.
Steady Live Streams
The second component of any great online course creation tool is live streaming. As a coach, you’ll be live streaming most of the time. You will need to ensure that your coaching classes run smoothly to focus on the actual art of coaching instead of having technical difficulties amidst a session with a client. You want to be as professional as possible, and your online coaching tools, free or paid, should help you do that. Most advanced tools for online coaching have Zoom integration. This allows you to run live streams seamlessly and use all the Zoom features within your platform. It’s a great way to show clients that you are set up for a successful coaching program with them.
Secure Payment Processing
We all know that running an online business means dealing with online payments. These can be tricky and highly time-consuming. This is why your video monetization platform should be taking care of payment gateways and processing. Some online coaching platforms also provide an “auto-payment” feature. This is where you are paid each month automatically, as each member is charged. Auto payments are great because you don’t have to worry about chasing payments; the money is in your bank account before you know it. It’s important to check that your online teaching platform integrates with entities like PayPal, Stripe, and RazorPay to ensure that payment processing is secure and smooth.
Video & Text Chat
The online coaching platform you choose should support advanced chat tools which enable you, the coach, to chat with clients through either video or text chat sessions. These sessions can be used for customer support, to answer any questions your students may have, or just to check in with them now and again. In coaching, keeping engagement levels high is a significant part of retaining students – and chat features within your coaching platform can help with achieving this. You should also be able to chat via text during a coaching session; this often comes in handy during group coaching sessions where there are many voices to hear in a single space of time.
Teacher’s Workspace
Every premium online course creation tool should allow your teachers or coaches to have their own profile types and workspace within the software. This helps coaches manage their time, schedules, and customer data effectively. Teachers should also be able to upload notes or other files related to the coaching course, which students can access and download as needed. This level of fluidity is crucial when dealing with multiple students each week. Content should always be able to be uploaded, accessed, and downloaded as required. Your online coaching tools must help you run your business from within, increasing productivity and time efficiency.
Multilingual Capabilities
Because the online space is not limited, you should consider catering to students from across the globe. But international business comes with its challenges – one of these being language. Video monetization platforms often provide a multilingual feature where your coaching content can be viewed in multiple languages. This empowers clients to achieve their coaching goals quickly and, most importantly, avoids confusion or frustration for clients expecting to access your course in another language. It also boosts your brand and makes your coaching business seem adaptive and welcoming.
Things to Consider Before Launching Your Online Group Coaching Platform
Now that you know what to look for in an online coaching platform, it’s time to get your courses up and running. But before you do so, there are a few things you should review and ensure that they’re all ready and in place for launch. Some of these include:
1. A Platform’s QRA
We believe that the success of each online coaching platform should be measured with criteria in mind:
Quality: How well does the platform host your content, schedule your classes, and report on your revenue and content performance? The day-to-day quality level should be high. Your platform should always be stable, and elements like accessing your coaching school via mobile should work with no hiccups.
Reliability: How good is the learning experience for your clients? Can they log into live coaching classes easily or download coaching guides in minutes? All of these actions should happen seamlessly – a greater user experience means a higher chance of client satisfaction.
Agility: How agile is the platform? Do the online teaching platform providers talk about agility? Are they willing to adapt the platform in accordance with what their clients need, as well as with the ever-changing external environmental factors you’ll have to deal with? Do they offer excellent customer support? Are they willing to hear your thoughts and feedback?
2. Gathering Students’ Feedback
Now that you can see what your platform should provide to you – it’s time to look at how else you can make your student’s experience as pleasant as possible. Some ideas include impressing prospective clients by allowing them to share their thoughts, pain points, and desires with you. You can use this feedback to help mold personal coaching experiences for these prospects. This gives people a sense of personalization before joining your coaching classes. It’s definitely a step that shouldn’t be missed.
3. Advanced Capabilities for Coaches
Before you launch your online group coaching platform, try to look at other features your monthly membership software has that can help you in the long run. Some of these include things like a reporting feature. This allows you to view results and adjust your coaching and content strategies based on this data. Your platform should also help you easily manage your calendar availability, profile updates, and marketing efforts. These tasks are easy to manage on your own when you have five clients, but when you have fifty – you need automation. You should be looking to strive for excellence month after month. And these advanced automated capabilities can lead you on that path.
5 Tactics to Help Scale Your Coaching Business
As you watch your online coaching business grow, there are specific patterns you’ll start to see. Certain tasks you feel will also be mundane, and you’ll probably want to streamline them. This is where scalability comes in. You need to be able to set up your coaching business for scaling from day one. How do you do it? Here are five tactics to implement:
1. Start to Introduce Online Group Coaching Sessions
Once you have sufficient members in individual coaching classes, you may want to change things up a bit. Sure, 1:1 coaching is extremely valuable – you get to build relationships, be more personal with clients, and enjoy seeing them open up to you with little to no distraction. But here’s the kicker – other coaching techniques can help you scale your business faster with less time consumed. One of these is online group coaching classes. With group coaching, you can charge not one but ten clients at the same price for the same amount of time. Having a group of like-minded people engaging with one another also means that they start building a community of their own. But we’ll get to communities a bit later.
2. Introduce Additional Revenue Streams
By now, you’re probably running live and on-demand coaching classes via your video experience platform. And that’s a great place to begin. But when looking at scalability, it’s a good idea to introduce revenue streams. These can be anything, from mini-courses to merchandise. But, from our experience, we’ve found many coaching clients using supporting resources and coaching guides as complementary products. And they’ve been quite successful with this. Clients already enrolled in your coaching program are more eager to purchase supporting materials and guides to help them achieve their coaching goals. These resources add value and keep the revenue rolling in.
3. Start Building a Community for Members
Back to communities. It’s quite a buzzword in recent years. But it does make sense; if you can get your members to engage with you and with one another, that is an absolute treasure. You want members to bounce ideas off one another, not hold back on opinions, and share past experiences. Coaching is achieved with you being the primary coach, but peer learning is really appreciated. The more engagement you host on your online coaching platform, the higher your chances of clients staying with you. They will probably be more than happy to refer friends and family to you. Referral programs – yet another revenue stream to add to your list!
4. Create Varied VOD Coaching Programs
We’ve mentioned that you’ll probably have more live coaching lessons. But that doesn’t mean all your classes have to be over Zoom. Instead, you can create video on demand coaching courses for clients. These will be housed on your video monetization platform and can be accessed for a single fee. These courses could be a series of courses to make one coaching program or individual courses. Another course type we’ve found quite useful today is mini-courses, also known as microlearning. This new learning method in bite-sized chunks is great for people who want to upskill in a specific area. These video on demand programs can be beneficial to your business and heavily bulks out your coaching content.
5. Host Online Coaching Webinars and Exclusive Events
The last scaling tactic on this list is all about events and webinars. Some coaches prefer not to do this, and that’s fine. But if you’re a coach who enjoys public speaking, this is a good way to broaden the reach of your business’s name. You can invite clients, prospects, and fellow coaches to these exclusive events. Talk about your business, background, and inspiration for starting this company. It’s also a good idea to give people a sneak peek into what your coaching courses look like. You can even offer an exclusive discount on courses to them on the night of the event. Hosting webinars or events helps you do three things; 1. Engage with your clients in another environment, 2. Attract and convert prospects, and 3. Network with more people.
Set Up Your Mentorship Business with the Best Platform for Online Coaching Today
The online coaching industry is rising and rising fast. It’s time to jump on the bandwagon and start making revenue from doing what you love. We understand that these features and scaling tactics have a lot to take in. But if there were a few key takeaways we could pull out, they would be:
- Use multiple revenue streams
- Ensure your online coaching business is set up for scalability from day one
- Build a community with your members
- Engage with fellow coaches
- Don’t be afraid to sell various content types
- Get started now!
At Mastera, we offer our clients a video monetization platform that empowers them to own their content, customers, and pricing, while allowing them to teach what they love. Our platform has a modern and user-friendly interface, which you can view for free today. We are here to help you start your coaching business the right way. Simply schedule a demo with our team whenever you feel ready.
We’re always happy to engage and help people monetize their passion. Let us help you get there.
Co-Founder, Gleantap & Mastera