The key to building a successful Information Marketing business is to establish rock-solid relationships with your clients and prospects. One of the best ways to do this is through coaching programs. But how do you get started?

Offering a free teleclass to your potential (and existing) clients is the easiest way to gain exposure and show the world what you have to offer. By introducing people to your coaching style and the high quality of the material you teach at no cost to them, they will be able to experience, first hand, the benefit of working with a coach and, more importantly, the results they’ll achieve by working with you, specifically.

1. Create the curriculum

Outline the topics of a course that you can teach in 6 or 12 weeks. Note all of the key points in each section so you have something to refer to as you deliver your content. Create any handouts you’ll need for each class and get them set up to deliver.

2. Practice

Practice delivering each section to be sure the curriculum portion lasts about 40 minutes. If you need to add more content to make the delivery last for 40 minutes, be sure to update your outline so you don’t miss anything during the class. Also practice introducing yourself and the topic, and try to keep this under 5 minutes.

3. Set up your sales process

Write a sales letter for the course, focusing on benefits, benefits, benefits. Give each section a powerful title to make potential clients desperate to find out more. If you don’t have a merchant account, you can use PayPal to accept payments. Create a registration page where they can register their purchase. This will actually add them to your autoresponder campaign for people who order the course (see #5 below). Create a thank you page that gives them the details for calling in for the classes. This is also where you will post any handouts for the class (and call recordings, if you’ve promised to deliver them).

4. Set up your teleconferencing line

Sign up for a teleconferencing service like thebasementventures.com or instantteleseminar.com. Test your bridge line to make sure both moderator and participant can interact (use your land line to call in as moderator and your cell phone to call in as participant). Check all of the different features so you’ll know how to manage the call when you go live. Also test the recording functions to be sure you’ll have a good product at the end of your call.

5. Set up your autoresponder

If you don’t already have one, sign up for an autoresponder service at getresponse.com or aweber.com. This will allow you to automate contact with your clients and subscribers. Create a campaign for all of your subscribers if you don’t already have one. Then set up two campaigns for this course:

• People who purchase the course. Set up 1 message to be delivered immediately after their purchase, thanking them for the purchase and reminding them of how to get to the page with the call details. Then set up reminder messages to be mailed out the day before each call and the morning of each call.

• People who sign up for the free session. Set up 1 message to be delivered immediately after they sign up, thanking them for signing up and reminding them of the call details. Then set up reminder messages to be mailed out the day before the free session and the morning of the free session. Also set up 2 or 3 follow-up messages to remind them to purchase the rest of the course before the next class. When they purchase the course, you can remove them from this campaign.

6. Set up your sign-up form

Create a squeeze page to allow prospective clients to sign up for the first session. Keep in mind this needs to be heavily benefits-focused. Your goal is to show them how much this session will help them solve a problem. Don’t explain the other sessions on this page – you’ll do that during your teleclass and on the sales pages for the course.

7. Deliver the first session

Five minutes before the published start time, call in to your bridge line. If you’d like, you can allow people to introduce themselves. Introduce yourself and teach your curriculum, and then educate the listeners about the rest of the course. Allow 15 minutes for Q&A at the end of the call, and close with a call to action sending them to your sales page for the course.

8. Follow up

Your autoresponder will follow up with participants who did not sign up for the remaining calls. At some point, you might consider surveying that list and simply ask them if there was something you could have done differently to make them sign up for your course. This is extremely powerful in developing future products and improving your sales process.

9. Deliver the rest of your calls

Teach each class using basically the same format: introduce the topic, teach the curriculum, allow the participants to ask questions.

10. Follow up

Use your autoresponder to contact the clients who purchased the course and ask them for testimonials, referrals, feedback, or anything else you want to know. During the first few weeks after the end of the course, send out several messages that reinforce how they can implement what you’ve taught them. You can also use this opportunity to tell them about additional products that complement the course they just completed.

Free teleclasses will give you two benefits that are invaluable: they will get your name in front of your target audience as a go-to resource and they will force you to test your material so that you know it inside out.