Episode 16
Why Your Marketing Isn’t Converting (And How to Fix It with the 85-12-3 Rule)
Are you showing up, posting, emailing, and still not getting a steady flow of clients? It's Ok, just listen in.
In this episode of The Solo Coach Podcast, we’re diving into the real reason your audience isn’t buying (and why it’s not your offer). If you’ve ever felt like giving up on your content or launching to silence, this one’s for you.
We’ll explore:
● Why only 1-3% of your audience is actually ready to buy
● How to speak to the 85% who are quietly watching
● What to say to move them into action
As a solo coach, this episode will empower you to align your message with where your audience actually is, so you create consistent momentum and client flow.
What You’ll Learn:
● How to use the 85-12-3 Rule to understand buyer readiness
● The three types of content that move people closer to buying
● Tiny marketing shifts that make a massive difference
Resources Mentioned:
● Advanced Manifesting ($9/month)
● Find Coaching Clients – the newsletter that shows you where to focus your energy, so you have plenty of clients.
● Visit my Website for more resources
Support the Show:
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review! Your feedback helps other solo coaches discover the show and grow their businesses with more ease.
Transcript
So let me ask you, are you posting content and showing up on social media and
Speaker:emailing your list and you're still not getting clients?
Speaker:You're not alone.
Speaker:We all experience this, especially in the beginning.
Speaker:And many coaches are doing all the right things, but they're still not
Speaker:getting any steady flow of clients.
Speaker:And you know, when they make an offer, let's say for an example, email, like when
Speaker:they're emailing their list and they make an offer to their list, it's
Speaker:really frustrating and discouraging and downright confusing when you're never
Speaker:getting any buyers and you think then you have to scrap the whole thing, right?
Speaker:This offer that you've created, that nobody wants it.
Speaker:And that's just not.
Speaker:That's rarely the case. Rarely.
Speaker:So here's what I know.
Speaker:As a coaching business growth specialist, I've been behind the scenes and helped to
Speaker:build multiple seven figure coaching brands, companies.
Speaker:And it's probably not your offer.
Speaker:I can tell you that from experience.
Speaker:It rarely is the offer itself.
Speaker:It's not your content and it's definitely not you.
Speaker:The real issue though is that most coaches are speaking to the wrong
Speaker:group of people all the time.
Speaker:This is what most coaches don't know about buyer readiness.
Speaker:And, you know, it takes a while.
Speaker:Like once you know this, what I'm going to share with you today, it takes a
Speaker:little while to get it all in place.
Speaker:Like, I still don't have each of these areas dialed in completely,
Speaker:although I am working on it.
Speaker:And I have seen a difference for sure.
Speaker:You know, as I have been putting these in place, the thing about your audience, it's
Speaker:this, you know, we talk about like niche and we talk about ideal
Speaker:client Persona and audience.
Speaker:And yes, this is a general group of people that, you know, fall into a specific
Speaker:category, at least to some degree.
Speaker:But even within that, that group of people are broken up between three more groups.
Speaker:And let me explain, only about 1 to 3% of your audience
Speaker:is actually ready to buy right now.
Speaker:So that means that 97% of your people, your audience, they aren't ready yet.
Speaker:Doesn't mean that they're not going to ever be ready.
Speaker:It's just that they're not ready yet.
Speaker:And here's how this breaks down.
Speaker:So you have 85% roughly, right, that are window shoppers.
Speaker:These are people that are browsing.
Speaker:They may not even know that they have a problem yet.
Speaker:They're quietly observing and they're not engaging.
Speaker:They're just looking, right.
Speaker:12% roughly are option weighers.
Speaker:These are the folks that know that they have a problem and they are
Speaker:looking for a possible solution.
Speaker:They're not sure yet, though.
Speaker:They're kind of on the fence.
Speaker:They're uncertain, they're deciding and they're looking for who to trust and who
Speaker:they believe, keyword believe will be the right person to help them.
Speaker:Then you have that top 1 to 3%.
Speaker:That's the action takers.
Speaker:These are the people who already, yes, they know they have a problem, they are
Speaker:ready for a solution, they want to fix it now, they want to invest the money.
Speaker:Just show them where to click the button and go buy.
Speaker:Okay, they're ready.
Speaker:They just need a clear offer and an easy way to say yes.
Speaker:And most coaches are speaking to this group of people all the time.
Speaker:But here's the thing.
Speaker:If you are just starting out or maybe you've been at it a little while,
Speaker:but you have a very small community.
Speaker:One percent of that is very small.
Speaker:And that's not enough to sustain you. Right.
Speaker:It's not enough to have that steady client flow month after month.
Speaker:So you're going to have to begin to move people from that 85% group from the window
Speaker:shoppers into the option weighers and then moving the option weighers
Speaker:into the action takers.
Speaker:If you're only creating content that speaks to the top 1 to 3%, then you're
Speaker:leaving a massive opportunity on the table.
Speaker:To grow your coaching business consistently, you must intentionally move
Speaker:people through the buyer readiness stages.
Speaker:So what do you need like, or why do you need to move people between the stages?
Speaker:And, and what does that look like?
Speaker:Like, how do we do that?
Speaker:I'm going to talk about that in just a minute here.
Speaker:So when you're moving people from window shoppers to option weighers, so 85% to the
Speaker:roughly 12%, your goal here is awareness and relevance.
Speaker:So what you're talking about must be relevant to these people
Speaker:and it must bring awareness, bring them to an awareness level or bring awareness to
Speaker:them of the problem that they need to solve.
Speaker:So they need to see themselves in your content, right?
Speaker:That's that relevance.
Speaker:They need to be able to identify with it.
Speaker:They need to recognize their own struggle and they need to understand
Speaker:that you can help them.
Speaker:So the kind of content to use here is blog posts, relatable storytelling, free
Speaker:guides, value driven videos, an example.
Speaker:Lisa doesn't realize she's burned out until she reads your blog post about
Speaker:hidden signs of burnout in solo coaches.
Speaker:She sees herself and now she's paying attention.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:I hope so from option weighers to action takers.
Speaker:So how do we move this 12% into the top 1 to 3%.
Speaker:So these people, these folks already know they have a problem, right?
Speaker:They know, they feel the pain of it.
Speaker:It's there, it's pretty solid.
Speaker:But they're not really sure what to do yet.
Speaker:Like, they see some possible solutions, they're weighing their options, right?
Speaker:Or when I say solutions, they see some possible coaches that could help them,
Speaker:but they're not sure which is the right one, or they're not sure what they're
Speaker:ready to spend or they're not sure if it's going to work for, for them, Right?
Speaker:So your job here is to build belief and trust.
Speaker:So in the first group, the really big group, we're bringing
Speaker:awareness and relevance.
Speaker:We're helping them to see the problem and identify with what you're talking about.
Speaker:Now, we want to bring belief.
Speaker:We want to help them to believe in the solution or you as the possible solution.
Speaker:We want to help to build trust so that they feel comfortable working with us.
Speaker:And in this case, they need to see proof that your process works.
Speaker:They need to feel understood and supported and believe that your
Speaker:offer is a right fit.
Speaker:The kind of content that you use here is case studies, testimonials, client
Speaker:wins, clear breakdowns of your offer. Right?
Speaker:Step by step, this is how it works.
Speaker:If you don't have testimonials or case studies yet, use your own stories here,
Speaker:chances are you are your ideal client.
Speaker:You, five years ago is probably your ideal client now.
Speaker:Case studies, testimonials, client wins, clear breakdowns of your offer.
Speaker:An example, Sarah wants to become a business coach, but she's
Speaker:unsure she can do it.
Speaker:She sees a story about one of your clients who did it despite the odds, and
Speaker:now she believes that she can too.
Speaker:Helping action takers say yes.
Speaker:You can still be speaking to just the action takers.
Speaker:Their top 1 to 3%.
Speaker:The people who know there's a problem, they want to fix it.
Speaker:They want to fix it right now.
Speaker:They're ready to buy and they're still not buying.
Speaker:And oftentimes this is because the offer isn't clear or the checkout process
Speaker:has some friction in it, right?
Speaker:It's not super simple and easy. It takes too long.
Speaker:There's problems or there isn't a direct call to action.
Speaker:You'd be surprised at how often I see that.
Speaker:And even in my own stuff, if I go back and look, it's like, oh, I wasn't
Speaker:making a very clear call to Action. There was I.
Speaker:No, it's normal.
Speaker:So the content to use here is simple.
Speaker:Sales pages, clear emails, reminders, limited time, invitations.
Speaker:If someone's ready to buy and your sales page confuses them, you've lost them.
Speaker:So make it easy. Easy.
Speaker:Have a button says buy now, right?
Speaker:Start the course today. Right?
Speaker:Click here to start the course.
Speaker:Click here to book a call with me.
Speaker:These small shifts make a really big impact.
Speaker:And you know, it isn't that you have to go change everything that you're doing.
Speaker:All I want you to do is start being mindful of the window shoppers and the
Speaker:option weighers as well as the action takers in everything that you do.
Speaker:So that you're including, you know, for now, before
Speaker:you're segmenting more heavily.
Speaker:Just here in the beginning, you can simply be including the elements like
Speaker:the relevance, right, and the belief.
Speaker:And so the testimonials and the clear call to action and the awareness, right?
Speaker:In that very first group.
Speaker:If you think about like a sales page, for example, a sales page is generally
Speaker:going to include all of these elements.
Speaker:That awareness, that bringing awareness to the problem, relevance, right?
Speaker:They can see themselves when you talk about the pain points and the struggle
Speaker:or the identity, the proof that the process works, the testimonials
Speaker:laying out your process step by step.
Speaker:The there might be some education in there and a very clear call to action.
Speaker:A button that says buy now.
Speaker:As I said, you don't have to overhaul anything.
Speaker:I just want you to fine tune your marketing.
Speaker:Even tiny changes in how you structure your content and your messaging
Speaker:can create massive momentum.
Speaker:When you start speaking to the full spectrum of your audience, not just the
Speaker:3%, you'll see more engagement, more belief building, more
Speaker:qualified buyers, saying yes.
Speaker:The way that this started unfolding in my own business and showing up is I started
Speaker:getting DMs from people that I didn't know, just commenting on a.
Speaker:A meditation that they did that I created.
Speaker:Or they reply back to an email, right, and say how much they appreciated this.
Speaker:Or they comment on a video or they make a low tier product purchase
Speaker:something small like advanced manifesting.
Speaker:That's just $9 a month.
Speaker:That's how I started to see that early group.
Speaker:Those window shoppers begin to move into the option weighers
Speaker:and even action takers.
Speaker:Your next power move, audit your last five social posts or emails.
Speaker:Who were they speaking to?
Speaker:Just go take a look and say, did I speak to all of these groups there?
Speaker:If so, wonderful, keep going.
Speaker:If not, remember next time to just bring in a little bit.
Speaker:Share a story, a testimonial if you have it.
Speaker:Talk about the symptoms of the problem, right?
Speaker:That's often the pain points.
Speaker:Even if they're not aware that they have a problem, they will recognize the pain
Speaker:points if they're dealing with them, right?
Speaker:Make it so that your readers can see themselves in what you're talking about.
Speaker:That's usually talking about how the struggle is showing up in everyday life.
Speaker:And make sure that you're making a call to action.
Speaker:Very clear, very simple, very easy to follow through on.
Speaker:You want to create content for the 85% so that they feel seen.
Speaker:Help the 12% believe that it's possible, and then make it easy for the 3% to buy.
Speaker:And if you're doing this on a regular basis, it's like this steady
Speaker:in motion thing, right?
Speaker:So they're moving from 85% to the 12% to the 1 to 3%.
Speaker:And again, you've got this steady flow of clients beginning to come in.
Speaker:When you align your content with audience readiness, you stop spinning your
Speaker:wheels and start seeing real growth.
Speaker:It's a simple understanding of where your people are in the moment
Speaker:and meeting them there. Care.
Speaker:Much love.
