Website Alternatives for Coaches Who Aren’t Fully Booked
An alternative title was going to be Coaches Don’t Need Websites, but that felt a little flat.
And that’s because while most coaches do NOT need websites, they do need a way for potential clients to find them, learn more about their offers, and enroll in coaching.
This post offers coaches like you some alternatives to having your own website.
— In this Article —
Email & referrals
If you have a great network that you can lean on for referrals, you can probably rely exclusively on email.
In fact, several well-known (and often “high ticket”) - coaches like my mentor Martha Beck, Steve Chandler, Steve Hardison, and others - may have websites, but they don’t offer their coaching services through them. As far as I can tell, their clients come to them via referral.
Whether you have a network or not (and even if you’re a total introvert like me who hates networking), I highly recommend The Prosperous Coach co-authored by Steve Chandler and Rich Litvin for any coach who’s not fully-booked. You can thank me for this later!
Create referrals.
One suggestion - and I’m sure that I initially encountered it from The Prosperous Coach - is to go through the last 20 (non-spammy/non-marketing) emails you received. Wherever you notice a problem or unmet desire, offer to help that person solve it. Not with the intention of signing them as a client, but with the intention to be of genuine service to them.
Then, coach them powerfully (with their permission, of course — no stealth coaching!). When they’re blown away by the insights they’ve gleaned from your coaching, you can just mention that you’re a coach who helps people solve problems…or whatever it is that you do.
They will remember how you powerfully you served them and may just refer others to you. Maybe they’ll work with you or maybe they won’t (or maybe now isn’t the right time but later is), but you’ve left an impression that can help you by leaps and bounds in the long run.
Email your network.
Craft a great email signature, making sure it’s crystal-clear what you do and what potential clients should do if they want to work with you. Include this in all of your emails.
Then, craft an email that informs your recipient what you do, who you serve, and whatever else. Personalize this email to each individual (do not cc a ton of people), and maybe offer them an experience with you so they can confidently refer you to their networks.
Want more ideas like this? Read The Prosperous Coach!
Also, Tad Hargrave’s Marketing for Hippies blog, vlog, and membership site have tons of resources for coaches who want to build their businesses via “hubs,” which I highly recommend.
Social platforms
Many social and professional networking platforms offer you the ability to create a landing page with external links to, say, your scheduler. While you don’t want to rely on these platforms exclusively - your account could get flagged or hacked or whatever, and then what do you have?! - they can nonetheless be a great place for people to find you or for you to send to your network.
Here are a few of my favorite options:
One of those “link in bio” pages
LinkedIn
Substack
Create a link-in-bio page.
Okay, these are ugly but they are free and everyone on Instagram seems to have one. Side note: I include a much nicer social links page in my One-Week Website offer, in case you want one.
Overhaul your LinkedIn profile…or create a business page.
LinkedIn has decent SEO (search engine optimization) built right into it, meaning that if you go exclusively with a LinkedIn profile for your online presence, you may show up in google searches. Unless your offer is exceptionally niche, it probably won’t show up if the searcher doesn’t include your name. But for an online home to send your network to? It’ll work just fine.
My favorite: create a Substack.
I’m just gonna say it: Substack has a lot going for it. I know of some marketing and coaching-adjacent professionals who rely on it exclusively and no longer even have a separate website.
You can create your own very basic website on Substack with multiple pages and links to your scheduler or whatever. And if you produce content like blog posts or podcasts, you can do so for free on Substack…and then put up a paywall to monetize it.
Lots of people are leaving social media for Substack. Here’s a link to mine, in case you’re curious.
There are caveats, of course. If you google my name, you’ll notice that my website and LinkedIn page are higher up in Google’s search results. But my Substack is there (at spot #3 as of May 5, 2025). Just sayin’ — it’s totally legit.
Coaching CRM platforms
Coaching CRM platforms sometimes offer a built-in website, so see if the one you use or plan to use does. These built-in website options will never be anything fancy from a design perspective, but if you’re seeking a website alternative, you’ve probably already reconciled that.
The nice thing about a website built into your CRM platform is that it’s going to be pretty damn easy for potential clients to book calls and sign up for your offers. The not-so-great side is that they probably suck when it comes to SEO, but that’s just a guess.
Reasons to have a website
The above options are most useful for an existing network. If you want to attract clients who don’t know you from Adam (side note: where did that phrase even come from?!), you’ll want to make sure that people googling your services can find you in their search results. This requires SEO or search engine optimization.
CRM and social networking platforms may not be optimized for SEO. Test this for yourself by googling the kind of coaching service you provide. What shows up in the search results? If you got niche enough, most of your top results are probably individual websites rather than pages on social or professional or CRM platforms. That’s SEO at work, baby!
Additionally, it’s worth stating that potential clients who don’t already know you are going to want to learn more about you before they drop a wad of cash on a service called “coaching.” A website offers them this opportunity.
A few considerations
Put yourself in your ideal potential client’s shoes when considering where to create your online home (if you even want to have one).
If you’re going the referral-only route, there’s probably not much point in investing your time, energy, or even money in any platform or website development.
If your ideal potential client is someone already in your network and is just waiting for you to share your offers, a social or professional networking platform or your CRM’s built-in website is probably all you need.
But if you’re relying on google searches, a website that offers you the opportunity to optimize your SEO is going to be critical.
I build websites for coaches.
If you’re just starting out, you probably want some kind of online home where you can hang your “open for business” sign, show off your professionalism to your friends, and enable potential clients to book calls.
You may not have a blog or digital products or a bazillion offers, and the idea of investing or DIY-ing a fancy website is sooooo overwhelming (and completely unnecessary). My One-Pager Template and One Day, One Page Websites were created with you in mind.
And if you’ve been around the block, or if you want to start a blog/podcast/vlog, sell digital products, and enroll clients in a multitude of programs, my One-Week Website or Wickedly Custom Website offers may be a perfect fit.
That is all.
xo Kristi
