Where Are You Finding Clients?

How are you finding clients? Do you toss up a website and hope they come? Do you make those faithful Facebook posts promoting your business every day? Do you attend networking groups to meet as many people as you possibly can?

All of these are legitimate ways to find potential clients and customers, but your efforts can’t stop there. Let’s take a look at each of these prospecting activities.

Website

It’s true that in this day and age, if you want your business to grow beyond a very small entity, you need to have a website. Google processes over 3.5 billion searches every day! With tablets, smart phones, desk tops and lap tops, people have the internet at their fingertips 24/7. When looking for products and services, they turn to Google.

If you don’t have a website, I strongly recommend you have one built for you. Make sure to use someone who is well versed in the mechanics of setting up a website, and have someone manage your SEO (search engine optimization). It’s not just enough to be on the web, you need to be FOUND on the web! 75% of people NEVER SCROLL PAST PAGE 1! If your business isn’t on page one, you aren’t showing up.

Once you have some traffic, consider a tool like a landing page. About 1% of traffic through your website will actually pick up the phone or walk in the door. A landing page helps capture email addresses you can build a database from. Using an email client like MailChimp, you can craft regular emails to your list, keeping your business top of mind. You can easily move that 1% to 5%.

Social Media

There are all sorts of platforms out there for social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, SnapChat, Instagram, Pinterest, the list goes on! The key is to find the one where your target audience lives.

There are some nifty tools out there that can help you figure out where your target market lives on social media. Social Crawlytics is a free tool that helps identify where your competitors content is being shared. You can also do a keyword search on each social media platform to see what is being said about similar products and services. When you find the conversations, you’ve found your audience.

If your target market is on Facebook, you should have a company page on Facebook. If your business is more on the professional, business to business side or you are trying to attract talent, LinkedIn is a great place to be. Conversations are going on all day and all night on Twitter. We give you some tips on Tweeting here.

You can’t just put up a profile and call it good though. You have to participate in the conversations regardless of the platform. Keep in mind the 80/20 rule and talk 80% about topics that are relevant to your target audience and 20% about your business.

Finding clients will be easier if you are consistent. You’ll find you’re becoming an authority in your field. Granted, you already are, everyone else just doesn’t know it yet! With some practice, you can be a social media rockstar!

Networking Groups

In my experience, this is a huge change from just 5 years ago. When I was looking for clients, I was cold calling and knocking on doors. Sure, we had the Chamber of Commerce and groups dedicated to specific industries, but there weren’t business networking groups.

I love networking groups. The key here is to determine if a particular group either contains your target audience or can connect you with your target audience. Don’t go in with the intention of selling something to the group. Networking is about developing relationships. Meetup.com is a great place to find networking groups, both social and business.

When you find a few groups that have the right people in them, go consistently. Make sure you have your 30 second commercial down and that it’s not too much of a pitch. Go with the thought that you want to help them, and you will find they also want to help you and you’ll surely end up finding clients!

Driving traffic isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Have a great team of people to help you, and you can take your business to the next level and beyond!