Reaching out for new clients is part of your business that should never sleep. You need to always be out there generating leads, even when you have plenty of work to keep you busy…NO especially when you have plenty of work already. It takes time to nurture relationships and you never know when you’ll bump into a lucrative business opportunity. Here are 7 tried and tested methods for finding new clients.
Ask for Referrals
The best business comes from referrals. A happy client tells others about you and the new person already knows the unique value you offer. We usually wait for referrals to naturally occur, but it’s even better to ask for them proactively. Make it a regular part of your business operations. Whenever you receive positive feedback from a client, ask if there’s anyone they know who could use the help too. I have always found that existing or previous clients are more than happy to put you forward to their contacts if they get to support 2 parties, which makes them feel great.
Join Social Media Groups
Social media is essential for finding new clients, but are you active in groups? There are groups dedicated to every single topic of interest on these platforms. These are places where people get together and discuss common interests. If you’re active there, you’ll raise your visibility. Make sure you have researched where your ideal client mixes online and focus your attention there rather than trying to juggle every social media platform out there.
Speak at Industry Events
Find industry events and trade shows to speak at, these can be offline as well as online. Share your expertise with people and you’ll find new clients. Give a presentation on a topic related to the work you do, then encourage participants to either sign up for a free gift you may have for them, maybe even a copy of the presentation slides, or invite them to join a social media group you run. By teaching them, you’ve already started the relationship by giving them something of value they can use.
Hold Webinars
Hold your own educational events online through webinars. The great thing about webinars is that they are incredibly flexible in when you can hold them, what type of information you share, and how you run them. They are low-cost and people from anywhere in the world can join. While you share your expertise with participants this builds massive trust FAST and if you run a good format your webinar attendees will be looking for more from you.
Put out Press Releases
Whenever there’s any news related to your business or your industry, put out a press release, I know it sounds like an old-fashioned way of getting your business out there but here's the inside scoop….it still WORKS. There are directories where you can publish press releases online and media outlets will pick them up.
Write Guest Blog Posts
Guest blogging helps you reach a new audience with your expertise. Reach out to blogs in your niche with a pitch for a post and see if they’ll publish it. They get a free piece of high-quality content and you get exposure to their audience. Approach guest blogging strategically, writing and publishing on a regular basis to high-traffic blogs. Make sure when you use this strategy to take the time to understand the blog site you are approaching and that your content is a good fit and that their audience will BENEFIT from your content. Active blogs are always looking for good HIGH-quality blog posts, you can learn more about blogging for business here
Create Free Giveaways or Lead Magnets
Pay it forward by offering free information. Info products can be whatever you want them to be. reports or ebooks or even a video can be published on your website and other places online for potential clients to download and enjoy in exchange for their email address, you can get very creative with these and you should, think about a free place on training, the first module of a course you may have, a coupon for a course or even a free place on a webinar there are lots of option available to you Once you have their email address you can then add them into automation of emails or message them, directly and start to follow up with them to make them some sort of offer.
Create a Strategic Marketing Mix
Always be on the lookout for new marketing channels and strategies. Add them to your mix one by one and monitor the results. Gradually, you’ll have a whole arsenal of techniques to help find new clients. Be careful to not fall for the shiny object syndrome though, it's important to keep an eye on this one as you can get carried away, creating a profile with links back to your website on each social channel is always a good option though
Bonus Tip – Build An Affiliate network
building a team of affiliates that will promote you to either their current audience or elsewhere is a great strategy as again it taps into a new audience for you, the difference here is that it's often directly to a product or lead funnel with an offer at the end. When a successful affiliate referral is made you then give commission to your affiliate, think of them as your sales team however they only get paid on a successful sale.
Conclusion
There is a lot of business being done out there and based on recent numbers from google people are searching for services and products that they don't know where to buy from, this gives you a fantastic opportunity to makes sure some of those customers come your way.
If you are looking for more support with your sales and marketing for your business then it could be time for you to join our academy membership which will help you achieve your sales and marketing goals that bit quicker.
