How to Find Clients Online With Enjoyment and Ease
Whether you’re just starting out and need to drum up some leads or you’ve been in business for a few years. Here are 16 ideas to fatten your pipeline and bring new business in the door.
Before you delve in, I have to caution you: Don’t try and do ALL of these things. Pick a handful that feel do-able and fun (hence the title ‘with enjoyment and ease’).
The main thing is to be consistent and patience. This is gardening not hunting. You have to cultivate the soil before flowers will bloom.
Email friends and family. Let everyone you know know about your new business or your new offer. I don’t recommend reaching out to people you haven’t contacted in awhile but everyone else is fair game. It’s also a great way to keep in touch with people you care about. You’ll find specific guidance on how to do this after you launch a new website here.
Start a blog. Contrary to popular belief, blogging is not dead! A blog is a great way to attract and engage your ideal clients.
Go to online networking groups. Covid was surprisingly great for getting me into this. I live in Munich, Germany but I regular attended networking groups based in London, Rotterdam, France and Massachusetts. I still attend many of these events and have made connections and even friends who I have yet to meet in person.
Go to in person networking events. Sometimes you have to go offline to maximise online. Nothing beats face to face meetings.
Start your own networking event. If the idea of going to a networking event makes you want to poke your own eyes out, start your own! You can design it in a way that feels good and enjoyable. A great resource is Dorie Clarks short guide ‘Stand Out Networking’ or her networking course on LinkedIn, which has a module on how to host your own networking event.
Learn SEO. If you do decide to blog, SEO will help your efforts immensely. Get good at learning what problems your ideal customers have, how they phrase these problems and write about them. Not sure how to start a great starting point is my Super Basic Keyword Workshop.
Figure out where your ideal customer is online and hang out there regularly. Answer questions when you can. This is where blogging can really help you grow your audience, community and business.
If you ever find a question that you’ve written the answer to extensively as a blog post, drop it in the comments. DON’T do this if it is not all relevant to the conversation or if someone hasn’t asked for help on the particular topic you’ve blogged about. This is great for Facebook Groups, Mighty Networks or any kind of online community.
Get on podcasts. There is a lot of leg work involved here, but guesting on podcasts can generate leads over the long term. Think of this as a long term investment, you not only get the interview, but also backlinks in the show notes. Most of the work involved has to do with finding the right podcast, listening to several episodes and then pitching. I’ve found podcast guest/host matchmaking services like The Podcast Collaborative to be really helpful for streamlining this process.
Guest post on blogs. Old school, but it works! I get regular traffic and interest from guest interview posts I’ve done like this one on Kerstin Martins Studio Talk 5 Series.
Create a talk and find places to give it. Create a presentation on something you’re knowledgable on and/or love to talk about. Give it a MeetUps, 12 minute me sessions, local conferences or similar events.
Ask former clients for referrals. I do this and offer my client a 10% referral bonus. If you’ve done a good job, most clients are happy to refer you and do it anyway, but a bonus sweetens the pot and creates an excuse to reach out when you have a new offer.
Create business cards with a QR code to your website. Whenever you meet someone you can give them a business card and they can go directly your website with their mobile phone. Bonus points if the code links to a newsletter sign up landing page!
Add your website address to your email signature. Every little bit helps! Especially if you’re website has been designed to convert visitors.
Case studies. If you can’t bear the idea of regular content creation, create case studies from time to time. These are a great thing to host on your website and share with potential clients, or anyone who could refer clients to you. A case study will describe the clients problem, how you fixed it and the outcome/impact.
Create postcards or flyers. Another offline way to get online. Sort of like the business card idea mentioned in item #12 but instead of a business card, create a postcard or flyer that describes your service and/or offer and leave it places where potential clients might hang out: co-working spaces, conferences, bulletin boards at the gym, even the supermarket! Make sure it has a QR code the links to your website!
Show up regularly (multiple times a week!) on a platform you enjoy and provide valuable content. My place is LinkedIn. I enjoy hanging out there, sign up for access to my content library below and you’ll get access to a short video where I break down my approach to LinkedIn marketing (based on a class I took that is sadly no longer available). This is one of the main sources of new clients for my business.
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