Reach More Clients via the “Offer Doorways” Strategy
Have you ever felt like you keep tweaking the same offer, wondering how to gently launch it again and again to reach more people?
How can you experiment with different ways of presenting the exact same service or product?
It’s useful to understand the concept of “Offer Doorways.”
Imagine your core offer — your coaching, your healing modality, your consulting framework — is like a magnificent castle, or a beautiful garden, transformative temple, or whatever image of an inviting refuge resonates with you…
Now, think about your potential clients. Do they all arrive wanting the exact same thing? Do they see their situation in the exact same way? Probably not. They come from different directions, motivated by different needs, problems, and desires.
They might be experiencing various surface-level problems, but your framework addresses the underlying root causes.
They might have different aspirations, but your core work provides a pathway to achieve them.
They might be asking different questions, but your service holds the answers they seek.
These different points of entry, these different motivations, are what I call your “Offer Doorways.”
Making Entry Easy
Make it easy for potential clients by creating a distinct doorway each of the different ways they might approach your work.
One person might be drawn in because they’re struggling with a specific problem you address.
Another might be inspired by a particular goal you help people achieve.
Examples of Doorways
Some examples from my client group program:
As an evolutionary astrologer, Jackie Johansen’s main offer is a Natal Reading. But she has doorways focused on specific angles like Finding your Genius… Shadow Work… Self-Care… or applying astrology to Business & Creative Work. All of these offers are essentially a Natal Reading, but it’s framed in different ways.
Same core skill, different entry points.
Or consider Beth Budesheim. Her Energy Healing work can be accessed through a doorway specifically for Fertility & Conception, or another for Stress, Anxiety & Overwhelm.
Mike Wang’s Doorways
Mike Wang offers his Inner Foundation Series, but he has created specific doorways targeting Self-Doubt, Worry, Anger, Defeat, and Feeling Unfulfilled. Each doorway speaks to a particular pain point, yet all lead to the same foundational course. Check out the links here:
Doorway #1 (Self-Doubt):
https://www.mikewangcoaching.com/inner-foundation-series-selfdoubt
Doorway #2 (Worry):
https://www.mikewangcoaching.com/inner-foundation-series-worry
Doorway #3 (Anger):
https://www.mikewangcoaching.com/inner-foundation-series-anger
Doorway #4 (Defeat):
https://www.mikewangcoaching.com/inner-foundation-series-defeat
Doorway #5 (Unfulfilled):
https://www.mikewangcoaching.com/inner-foundation-series-unfulfilled
All 5 doorways “point” to Mike’s Inner Foundation Series of courses:
https://www.mikewangcoaching.com/ifs
Cara’s Doorways
Another example, shared with permission, is from Cara O’Shell who created this simple and effective page to direct people to the doorway of their choice:
Why Do Doorways Matter?
- Increased Reach: You connect with a wider audience by acknowledging their diverse starting points.
- Targeted Marketing: You can tailor your messages (blog posts, social media, emails) to resonate deeply with specific client needs and pain points. You speak directly to their immediate concerns.
- Content Creation: Each doorway becomes a natural topic generator.
- Client Connection: It shows you understand their world and makes your work feel instantly relevant and appealing.
Finding Your Doorways
So, how do you identify these doorways for your own work? Think about your ideal clients and the journey they take with you.
Brainstorm answers to these questions:
- Problems: What specific problems, complaints, frustrations, or struggles does your work solve? What words have clients used to describe their pain points to you?
- Goals: What different goals, positive outcomes, or transformations does your framework help clients achieve? What are their aspirations? What words have they used to express their desires?
- Questions: What questions are clients asking that your work can answer? What are they curious about? What are they searching for online?
- Keywords: What terms might clients type into Google? What hashtags might they use related to the solutions you offer?
Listen to the language your clients use. That’s your goldmine for identifying doorways. When my client Sina was exploring this, she talked about clients feeling stressed. That’s a start, but it’s a bit broad. When we dug deeper, the stress was often related to work situations, financial anxiety, or wanting a job that pays well and offers recognition. Those are more specific doorways: “Work-Related Stress,” “Financial Anxiety,” “Career Dissatisfaction & Uncertainty.”
Another client, Scott, helps people with pain. Just saying “pain” isn’t a clear doorway. But “Recovery from an Accident”? That’s specific. Or “Pain in the Lower Torso”? Very specific. Someone experiencing that exact thing feels seen.
Specificity is Key
A good doorway feels almost magical, like it appeared just for that person.
Think “Lack of Fulfillment in Later Life” versus just “Lack of Fulfillment.”
The more specific the doorway, the more magnetic it is for the right person. It helps them feel, “Ah, this is exactly for me.”
You don’t necessarily need to niche your entire business or framework, but it’s wise to niche each offer or doorway.
Your framework itself can suggest doorways. Every step, stage, principle, or concept within your unique approach can potentially be an entry point. A client might be drawn to one specific aspect and then discover the richness of your entire framework.
Putting Doorways into Practice
This concept directly addresses the challenge of launching the same offer repeatedly. If you have one core coaching service, how do you keep talking about it without sounding repetitive? Doorways!
- January: Launch Doorway #1 (e.g., Stress Relief).
- February: Launch Doorway #2 (e.g., Finding Career Fulfillment).
- March: Launch Doorway #3 (e.g., Improving Sleep).
- April: Relaunch Doorway #1, perhaps with a fresh angle or story.
This allows for gentle, consistent launching. As you’ll discover, launching more often (but lightly!) is usually always better than infrequent, heavy launches.
How do you build these doorways?
- Separate Webpages (Ideal): Create distinct pages on your website for each doorway. Each page can share core information about your offer but emphasize the specific problem/goal of that doorway in the headline, introduction, and bullet points. The earlier examples from Mike Wang use this approach.
- Social Media Posts (Easier Test): If creating multiple webpages feels overwhelming right now, experiment with doorways through your content. Dedicate different social media posts or emails to specific doorways, telling relevant stories or addressing distinct issues, but always linking back to your main offer page or contact information. Separate these posts by a week or two.
Experiment and Observe
The beauty of doorways is that you can experiment. Try different angles. Announce different doorways over time. Pay attention to the response.
Which blog posts about specific doorways get more comments? Which social media posts get more engagement? Which doorways lead to more inquiries or sign-ups?
Maybe you notice people are consistently drawn to doorways on the “east side” of your castle. Great! Perhaps explore creating more related doorways in that area. If the “west side” isn’t getting much traffic, maybe you focus your energy elsewhere or rethink how you’re presenting those doorways.
Remember, clients might enter through one specific doorway focused on an immediate need. Then, once inside, they might discover the full scope of your framework and engage more deeply.
Or, they might find that the targeted solution offered by that single doorway is exactly what they needed. Your signature framework provides the flexibility to meet clients where they are!
So, start thinking about the different entrances to your work.
What doorways can you create to make it easier for your ideal clients to find their way to the transformation you offer?
