The Marketing Measurement Manifesto: For Coaches Who Want to Market Smarter, Not Harder

Marketing strategies that align with your capacity are the key to sustainable business growth. This manifesto breaks down how to market smarter, measure what matters, and build systems that work for you—without burnout.

Because the best marketing is intentional, measurable, and aligned with your capacity.

Why Now? Why Coaches?

In the current digital marketing landscape, coaches are caught in a whirlwind of marketing advice that feels impossible to keep up with (because it is.) The landscape is constantly shifting – algorithm changes, new platforms, and pressure to create endless content just to stay visible. Meanwhile, the promise of “plug-and-play” or “steal my proven” marketing systems often leads to exhaustion rather than the promised results, leaving you feeling frustrated and burned out. To combat this, you need marketing strategies that align with your capacity.

The truth? The marketing strategies that work aren’t about chasing trends. They’re about alignment – with your values, your business model, and your actual capacity. They’re about leveraging your marketing data to make decisions based on what’s working for you, not seeking external systems from bizfluencers with systems based on what works for them, not you or where you’re starting from.

It’s time for a new approach. One that prioritizes sustainability over stress. One that helps you measure what actually moves your business forward. This manifesto is for the coaches, consultants, and service providers who are tired of spinning their wheels and are ready to build a marketing strategy that works for them – not against them.

The Five Core Principles of Smarter Marketing Measurement

1. Measure What Matters

Not all metrics are created equal. The industry has conditioned us to focus on surface-level engagement: likes, page views, and follower counts. But real business growth happens when you shift your attention to the numbers that actually move the needle:

• How many leads are you generating each month?
• What percentage of those leads turn into paying clients?
• How long does it take for someone to move from becoming aware of your brand or offers to investing in them and becoming a coaching client?
• Which marketing activities have the highest return on your time and energy investments?

 

The shift: Track business impact over impressions. Leads over likes. Engagement over reach.

Example of what this looks like in practice: Not just looking at how much traffic comes to your site, but knowing how many people are signing up for your email list because you (or the measurement expert you hired) customized your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) setup to measure the “generate_lead” event so you know the work you’re doing is attracting the right kind of traffic (high-quality because it’s people who engage with your offers, including freebies/newsletter sign ups.)

I also have a full guide to Google Analyitics 4 you can pick up for free here.

2. Progress Over Perfection

Most coaches fall into two traps when it comes to marketing measurement:

1. Overanalyzing every detail, getting stuck in perfectionism, chasing accuracy (over looking at trends and patterns) and never actually implementing.
2. Avoiding measurement altogether, relying on guesswork, and feeling overwhelmed because of the technical aspect of it.

There’s a middle path. Sustainable marketing is about iteration, not instant perfection. Small, strategic shifts based on what’s working (and what’s not) will compound over time. The key is to start simple.

• Track one key metric per marketing channel before adding in more.
• Set up basic analytics that give you clarity without complexity. Basic analytics needs to include at least one business goal oriented metric (i.e. lead generation measurement.)
• Review data monthly, not just when you feel stuck.

 

The shift: Small, measurable improvements lead to big results over time.

Example of what this looks like in practice: A good starting point, even with out-of-the-box GA4 and no “generate_lead” event setup, is using the Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition Report to at least learn how people are coming to your site each month. Use this information to update where you focus your marketing efforts. This gets even more informative once you customize your setup with the “generate_lead” event!

 

 

3. Sustainable Systems Win

The hustle-for-every-lead approach is a recipe for burnout. The most effective coaching businesses don’t rely on constant launch cycles or heavy manual effort – they build systems that generate leads, nurture trust, and convert clients consistently. The time to “turn on” your marketing systems isn’t when you need to book clients, but setting up something that brings you high-quality leads on autopilot so you can get back to coaching.

This means:

• Owning your audience (email list + website/blog > social media algorithm dependence)
• Creating evergreen marketing assets (SEO content, automated email sequences, referral and testimonial request systems)
• Using marketing frameworks that scale without requiring more and more of your time (Hint: What content to expect on this site and what I share on my email list.)

 

The shift: Marketing should work for you, not require you to work more.

Example of what this looks like in practice: Taking your best content from social media (generated the most engagement – shares, saves, comments, likes (in that order)) and expanding on it and upcycling it into a blog post on your website (to start building topical authority for SEO) and/or as a newsletter email. SEO content can continue to work for years with minor updates once you rank for consistent content compared against the average lifespan of a social post:

 

 

If you don’t have a website or email list – focus on creating the email list first, then work on the website so you can start building out your owned marketing ecosystem instead of depending on the constant song and dance of social posting. As long as you’re time and energy are going to the short-lived social media content hamster wheel of doom, you’re not developing marketing strategies that align with your capacity as a coach.

4. Marketing as an Extension of Your Coaching Values

Your marketing shouldn’t feel like a completely separate, disconnected activity from your coaching. It should feel like an organic extension of how you serve, teach, and support people.

• If you value depth, create marketing content that showcases your deep connection and depth of thinking with your topics over trying to recreate trending, viral content.
• If you believe in transformation, share content that actually moves people forward instead of gatekeeping your best stuff. Your best stuff is what will help you stand out online in a crowded niche and it also builds trust with your potential clients.
• If you’re all about sustainability, your marketing should reflect that – no gimmicks, no fake urgency/scarcity, just clear and confident messaging.

 

The shift: Marketing isn’t something you do to people. It’s something you create for them.

Example of what this looks like in practice: This blog post is an example of how marketing is an extension of my values of transparency and empowerment through data. I’m not just telling you what needs to be done, I’m providing examples of the how to get started with this and linking to DIY instructions so you can act on this post instead of just reading it. My goal is to provide value whether or not you choose to work with me.

5. Data as a Tool, Not a Judgment

Marketing analytics can feel overwhelming, especially when numbers don’t look the way you hoped. But here’s the thing: data is not an evaluation of your worth or expertise. It’s simply information – a tool to make better decisions as you build marketing strategies that align with your capacity as a coach. Data is the tool that enables your sustainable marketing ecosystem so your marketing doesn’t burn you out while bringing you your best clients on autopilot.

Instead of seeing low numbers as failure, use them as feedback:

• If your email open rates are low, test new subject lines. I use Kit for my email marketing which has built-in A/B testing for subject lines on their paid plans.
• If engagement is down, look at what topics or posts resonate most with your audience. 
• If conversion rates are lower than expected, refine your messaging or offer positioning.

 

The shift: Data isn’t here to judge you. It’s here to guide you.

Example of what this looks like in practice: You’re spending money running ads on your social platform of choice and you’ve customized your Google Analytics to measure the “generate_lead” event so you can look at your reporting to know whether or not the money you’re investing in Ads is translating into leads for your business.

After a month (or two) of data, you’re seeing that it’s not the ad traffic bringing in the most leads to your site, but the organic search traffic from your evergreen SEO content bringing in the right people. So you know you can confidently scale back or leverage the ads for retargeting the leads you have instead of using it to continue to generate paid-for leads.

Bridging the Gap Between Where You Are Now to Building a Sustainable Marketing Ecosystem: Where to Start

If this manifesto resonates, you don’t need to overhaul your entire marketing approach overnight. In fact, attempting to do so will only frustrate and overwhelm you more.

Bookmark this post and start with one simple step that makes the most sense for where you and your business is at:

• If you don’t have a website or email list – you can use a platform like Kit as a great starting point for your email newsletter, landing/opt-in pages for your offers, and even a simple website. They have a full academy to take you through things step-by-step so you aren’t left guessing on the “how”.
• If you don’t have any form of analytics – Watch this video on how to set up Google Analytics on your website. Even turning it on can be useful even if configuring it and customizing it is too overwhelming for you right now. (But totally make plans to customize it!) For a lot of platforms including Kit, SquareSpace, etc. you’ll just need your Measurement ID to get started. (That’s also covered in the video.)
• If you have Google Analytics (or something similar) – Create a habit of looking at the Traffic Acquisition Report at least once a month so you know which parts of your marketing ecosystem are helping you:
  • Get new and returning visitors to your site – These are your Brand Awareness channels
  • Generating your leads – These are your Brand Consideration channels
  • Generating bookings or sales – These are your Brand Nurturing and Transaction channels
• Identify one way to simplify your marketing systems or shift them into working more effectively for you.
• Find one way to make marketing feel more aligned with how you actually coach and want to show up for your clients online.

You don’t need to do everything. You just need to take one intentional step forward.

Join Me in Taking the Guesswork Out of Your Marketing Strategies 

Marketing doesn’t have to be a chaotic guessing game. It can be strategic, intentional, and – dare I say – even enjoyable when you approach it through the lens of sustainablity, alignment, and measurement.

If you want to build a marketing system that works with your capacity instead of against it, I invite you to join my email list where I share insights, strategies, and practical frameworks to help coaches like you create marketing that is measurable, sustainable, and deeply aligned with your business. You’ll be among the first to know about new blog posts, new ideas I’m developing, and examples of these ideas in the wild.

Sign up below and let’s build a smarter, saner marketing ecosystem – together.