How to Get Clients for Your Coworking Space, Fast

Whenever we ask our clients what their number one goal is for their business, we hear the same thing: to get more members.

Attracting new clients to your community takes effort, education, and a lot of patience.

Here’s an easy step-by-step guide on how to generate leads, attract customers, and get more clients for your coworking space.

1. Define your ideal client profile (ICP) for your coworking space

The golden rule of marketing, whether you’re operating a coffee shop or a coworking space is to always start with your customer.

Thus, the first step to getting more leads is to define your ideal customer profile (ICP) and who it is exactly that you want to attract to your community. This includes:

• What their demographics are (age, city they live in, income, occupation)
• What communities they’re currently in, online or offline
• What they care about (values)
• What problems they’re currently experiencing (pain points)
• Why they want a coworking space (motivation)
• What amenities they’re interested in

These questions are best answered with a bit of intuition and a healthy dose of market research. Use online communities, forums, and social media pages like Reddit or Facebook groups to learn more about your ICP and get an unfiltered look into how your target customer really thinks.

Consider running a survey to your ICP to help you better answer these questions in a data-driven and methodical way.

2. Build a digital presence for your coworking space

Building an online presence before you open your doors will give you a mega head start with acquiring leads for your coworking space. The cost of being present online is low, and when done right, the payoff is huge.

There are four main components to organizing yourself online:

• Create a great website
• Set up and optimize your Google Business Profile
• Create an account on various social media platforms
• Set up your email service provider

1. Create a great website

Your website is the most powerful lead generating and lead capturing tool you have for your coworking business. Think of it as your online store — if people are going to be walking in, you want to make sure they’re engaged and take action.

Create as beautiful, as compelling, and as optimized of a website as you can afford. If your space isn’t open yet, this, along with your social media pages, is all people will have to go off of.

Here are our four biggest tips to making your website work to attract leads and potential clients:

Take professional photos of your space (with people in them!): Lively photos of your space with people in it will allow leads and prospective clients to envision themselves in the space.

Invest in a great website designer: you can get a website up and running by yourself using something like Squarespace or Wix. However, investing in a freelancer to create a custom website that is beautifully designed and well-made means you truly own your website. We never recommend using out-of-the-box websites from coworking software providers.

Do SEO right from the beginning: SEO is more than just using the right keyword on your page or writing a blog post every now and then. It’s also how your site is structured, how fast your it is, how easy it is to navigate, how many backlinks you have, and so much more. If you want to rank organically in Google for high-intent keywords, SEO  will be your best friend. 

Put a lead generating form on your website: put a form on your website so you can capture the emails of leads and future clients who are interested in your space. Then, send an automated email to them inviting them for a free week.

Here’s how you can do this with coworking software like Optix:

1. Embed the Inquiry Web Widget to your website to collect email information and whatever other information you’re interested in
2. That user will automatically be added to the Optix dashboard as a a “lead”
3. Create an automation so that anytime a new lead comes into Optix via the Inquiry Web Widget, they are automatically sent an email 3 days later with a promo code for a free 

The best coworking brands have strong websites. Here is an example of some of our clients with thoughtfully designed and highly optimized websites for inspiration.

• KWENCH
• Highland | City Club
• Flockd

2. Set up and optimize your Google Business Profile

Google Business Profiles (formally Google My Business Profiles) are the side panels that come up in Google when you search for retail businesses, companies, or local restaurants. They include photos, reviews, address information, and more.

Next to your website, your Google Business Profile is the most important tool you have to promote your coworking space.

With a Google Business Profile, coworking spaces can:

• Show off pictures of the space
• Post hours of operation
• Provide contact details
• Include various website details
• Collect reviews

A well optimized profile can help you bring hundreds of new clients and leads into your space every year.

Below are a few tips for having a stand-out Google Business Profile:

• Use keywords in your description like “coworking space in [your city], flexible workspace, best coworking space, [your coworking niche], etc.”
• Use professional photos and use alt-text on these photos that include keywords
• Ask friends or family to leave positive reviews highlighting the positive aspects of your space – and make sure you reply to all of them as the business owner
• Ensure all of the information is filled out and is accurate (sounds simple, but many do not do this!)
• Update something on your profile at least 1x a week – Google loves dynamic content and frequent updating will send signals to Google to show your listing more often

3. Create your social media accounts

Social media can be really overwhelming, especially if you’re not familiar with content marketing best practices.

The trick to doing social well is choosing one (or two) platforms to focus on to start and then adding more as you have the resources to expand. Stretching yourself thin across multiple platforms is a good way to stress yourself out.

• TikTok: best for a younger demographic
• LinkedIn: best for independent professionals and a professional audience
• Instagram: best for most demographics, lower organic reach unless using Instagram reels
• YouTube: best for everyone, functions as a video search engine (so don’t neglect YouTube SEO!)
• Facebook: good for building and managing a community as a Facebook group or Facebook page

Think about which social media platforms your audience is most likely to be on. Then, think about how you can create really engaging, compelling content that your audience will enjoy. Most coworking operators choose to invest in Instagram and Facebook to start.

Even if you’re not sure what to post, the important thing is to start. You will figure out what your audience enjoys and what resonates with them over time. The most important thing is to be consistent, as platforms reward consistency.

Pro Tip: Short-form video content is the most popular content right now. Create Instagram reels and repost content to LinkedIn or YouTube shorts to attract members with the highest organic reach.

4. Set up your email service provider

An email service provider is a system that allows businesses to send emails to a list of subscribers. Some of the most popular options are Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and Hubspot.

Before you gain any clients, you’ll want to set up your email service provider and consider how you want to send emails to attract members.

• Do you want a weekly newsletter for potential clients or current members?
• Should an email go out every time a person signs up to welcome them and introduce them to your community?
• Do you want to start an email nurture flow for new signs-ups?
• What about if someone churns – do you want an email to go out to them too asking for feedback on how you can improve?

Optix Automations can handle a lot of your automated emails for you, which can save you from investing in a complex email automation system. With Automations, you can:

• Send tour reminder emails to leads
• Send welcome emails to new members
• Send survey emails to members who churn
• Send nurture emails to new sign-ups based on membership type

It can be helpful for operators who want to unify their email and day-to-day management into a single dashboard.

3. Create a compelling offer for your new coworking space

You’ve defined your ICP and you’ve gotten your digital house in order. The next step is to create a great promotion to get leads and potential clients excited about your coworking space.

Promotional pricing is one of the best ways to acquire new clients, especially when you’re just starting out. Our clients new to coworking often see a lot of success with aggressive offers to get people in their doors quickly.

You may not be profitable at this price. However, you should factor this into your marketing budget with the understanding that investing in member acquisition now and offering exclusive membership packages will pay dividends in the future.

The pricing you choose will depend on the membership plans you offer. Here are some popular promotions we often see:

• Free trials (day, week, month)
• 50% off your first month
• 15% off every month for your first 3 months
• First 3 months free with an annual private office plan
• $250 off your annual membership plan
• Sign up for an annual membership plan, and get a free year of virtual office services
• First 10 sign ups get a 1 month membership plan for free

Choose something that is going to get people excited. The goal is to bring people into the space, fill it with energy, and begin to prove its value so they are more likely to commit to a long-term membership.

Once word of mouth spreads and the community builds, it’ll be easier to bring people in on their own.

Pro tip: consider including an evergreen promotion for new members in your membership offerings, like a free day of coworking for new members or 10% off your first month. You may also want to consider setting up referral programs to encourage existing members to bring in more clients.

How to advertise your coworking space promotion

Once you’ve landed on a killer promotion, next is advertising your coworking space everywhere that you can.

This could include tactics like:

• A banner or pop-up on your website homepage
• Posting about it on social media and getting friends and family to share it
• Reaching out to your city’s top news outlets for free PR
• Sending an email to your newsletter list
• Using google search ads or paid social ads

Digital advertising is a massive topic. If you’ve never done it before, we highly recommend taking a course or even better, hiring a freelancer to manage your ads for you.

Here are some high-level tips to help get you started:

• Avoid using Google Display ads: they have a very low click-through-rate and very high cost-per-click. Opt for paid social or Google search ads instead
• Go for specific, geographic targeting: when setting up paid social ads, make your demographic targeting as specific as possible. For example, instead of showing ads to everyone in Canada, only show your ads to 25-34 year old Canadians in a specific neighbourhood of Vancouver, who have shown an interest in entrepreneurship.
• Don’t skimp on great creative assets: great creative goes a long way in digital advertising. Instead of a static image of your space, consider using a video of your community manager showing off your space and speaking to the camera candidly. Video content tends to outperform static images and carousels.
• Start with a small budget and scale slowly: scaling digital ads is not easy. Start with a small budget and only add 10-20% of your budget max over 3 days to prevent your ads from breaking.

Again, we highly recommend working with a marketing freelancer to manage your ads if possible. This can prevent wasting a lot of money on things that don’t work.

4. Tap into your existing network and local businesses

Tapping into your existing network is a powerful way to grow your membership base and get clients quickly.

Spread the word to your personal network that you’re opening a space and looking for new members. Invite friends, family, and friends of friends to try out your coworking space at a discount to help generate word-of-mouth referrals.

You can also advertise your space in the local business community by networking at events where your ideal customer is likely to be. Here are some tips to get started:

• Look for events in your area for tech start-ups, entrepreneurs, or remote workers. Facebook or MeetUp is a good starting point.
• Attend these events with the purpose of connecting with others and learning about their problems and needs. You should focus on building genuine connections in your community, rather than just advertising your space at these events.

Get to know the people in your community you are most likely to serve by attending regular events. Use this as a way to build connections with others.

5. Host an incredible event for the local community

Finally, one of the best ways to attract members and drum up excitement for your new coworking space is by hosting an incredible promotional event.

We wrote an entire article on creating memorable coworking events to help promote your space and create networking opportunities in your community. Here are some tips for hosting an event that is sure to convert into memberships.

• Decide what kind of event you would like to hold. Happy hours tend to work well as do open houses and other casual social events.
• Determine how you will make your event stand out – will you have exclusive membership options available only to those who attend? Will prospective members benefit in a way that is unique only to them in that moment?
• Leverage your promotional channels and your existing network to build excitement for the event. Aim to partner with local businesses to bring more people into your space.

Getting clients for coworking spaces can be simple

However, it isn’t easy. Get really clear on who it is your business is serving, ensure that your digital presence is in order, and plan an unforgettable opening event to have the best chance of bringing other members to your coworking business.

Together, these tips on how to get clients for coworking space are a great start to getting your first few clients. If you’re looking for more in-depth resources on marketing your space, check out these 20+ ideas to market your coworking space.

Talk to a member of the Optix team to get started with opening your coworking space.