On this page, you will find a number of frequently asked questions about our services.
What’s the difference between coaching and consulting?
The difference lies in the approach. A consultant is someone you hire to solve a particular problem. For instance, you want someone to critique your ad or audit your website for improvements. It’s very task driven. You have a problem, you call up your consultant, and they provide suggestions on how to solve the problem.
A coach, on the other hand, works with you to uncover your strengths and then helps you determine the best methodologies that would work best for you. Coaching is about helping you come up with your own systems that you feel most comfortable with and then giving you the tools and support to take the reigns.
Which service is right for me?
If you are just starting out and don’t have a marketing strategy, we suggest our marketing coaching programs. In those programs, we explain our approach to marketing, teach you the fundamental concepts of marketing, and help you come up with a marketing strategy that fits with your strengths.
Why do we do it this way? We could act as a consultant and just give you a step-by-step marketing plan to follow, but that doesn’t mean you’d implement it. For instance, the marketing plan we designed might include holding public workshops. If you get bad stage fright when speaking in front of groups, this might not be the best approach for you, personally, though it works well for many others.
Our marketing coaching programs are designed to provide the training wheels while you develop a system that works for you – so that you are empowered to implement the steps yourself after our coaching program ends. They are highly structured. Each week we tackle a different topic and look at how those marketing tactics would work best in your business.
Alternatively, our monthly consulting services are for people who already have a developed marketing plan and are just looking for someone to bounce ideas off of. They may write an ad and want a critique before they run it. They may be looking to redesign their website and want to analyze how best to structure the new site so they get better results. They may have technical problem and need a quick answer.
Many of our coaching clients go on to become consulting clients once their program is done. They like that we teach and train them to do the marketing tasks on their own, but sometimes, a problem comes up and they’re not sure how to handle it. Having us on monthly retainer gives them peace of mind, knowing they have someone to turn to whenever they need it.
Would I be a good candidate for marketing coaching?
Here’s what we look for in our marketing coaching candidates.
- You are a self-employed business owner located in the US who offers a professional service or are a partner in a small professional services firm (i.e. a small legal practice).
- You are willing to invest at least 2-3 hours each week in talking with your coach and completing that week’s exercises.
- You have the ability to make quick decisions and can get things done fast. When you start a project, it gets finished.
- You are committed to being a better marketer to grow your business and are open to try out new ideas.
- You realize that results may not be instantaneous.
Do you provide implementation services?
We do provide copywriting, web development, and online marketing help for clients who complete one of our coaching programs.
Can you critique my marketing materials?
We offer critiques for ads, brochures, websites, blogs, social media strategies, and other lead generation techniques for our marketing coaching and consulting clients. Clients can learn more about these services at our clients-only website.
I just want a website or help with my online marketing. Can you help me?
If you aren’t interested in our marketing coaching services – for instance, you just want a web designer to redesign your site or a search engine optimizer to get you a high rank in Google – we aren’t your company.
You might ask why that is. We’ve found in our 10 years of working with clients that often, what many clients think they want and what actually generates results are completely different. Without a strong marketing strategy, which we cover extensively in our coaching programs, it’s too easy to focus on the wrong elements.
We live by two core principles: 1) adding value to prospects’ lives and 2) generating marketing results. We don’t implement marketing strategies that sacrifice one for the other, and we find that our coaching clients tend to be the “best fit” for our services.
Do you work with retail businesses?
No, we only work with professional services firms such as coaches, consultants, therapists, trainers, accountants, financial planners, attorneys, real estate agents, architects, health care practitioners, etc. Learn more about who we work with.
Do you work with international clients?
No, at this time, we only work with US-based professional services businesses.
I’m new to marketing. Where do I start?
We offer a number of free resources to help you learn marketing fast.
Free First Step – Start learning marketing by downloading our free 45-page Marketing Plan Guide for Small-Business Owners. This guide will walk you through the basics of creating your marketing plan for your service-based business.
Free Marketing Resources – We also offer a number of free marketing resources including Free Audio Programs, Book Reviews, and Featured Articles on marketing strategy, blogging, search engine marketing, and web design and marketing
Marketing Coaching Programs – If you need a more hands-on approach, you can work one-on-one with a marketing coach in one of our three marketing coaching programs. Those programs follow a six- or eight-week curriculum and are designed to help you create a marketing strategy, generate more high-quality leads, and turn your website into a powerful, lead-generating tool.
How do I get started working with Morningstar Marketing Coach?
Start by looking over the program details for our marketing consulting services and marketing coaching programs. If you think you’d be a good fit for one of our services, you have two options to get started.
Option 1: Buy Through Our Website – Each of our services has a “Buy Now” button where you can sign up and pay by credit card using our secure, online form to get started immediately.
Option 2: Sample Our Services – If you would like to sample how we work together, we have two specially-priced introduction services.
- Email Us A Marketing Question for $5 – Want to pick our brain about your specific marketing questions via email? Now you can for $5.
- Request a 30 Minute Phone Consultation for $30 – Have a more in-depth marketing question that you would like to talk with us about? We offer $30 initial Marketing Strategy Phone Sessions where we will answer your most pressing business and marketing questions by phone.
What payments do you accept for your services?
The quickest way to pay us is by credit card through our website. We accept payments by any of the major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express) through Paypal. We also accept checks, mailed to our business address, though we won’t start working with you until we receive payment.