Something I hear often from so many new freelancers or new agency owners is how do I get clients and it’s fair enough, that is the most pressing issue when somebody starts a business because without clients there’s no revenue and it won’t take you long to go south. But the reality is that getting clients is not that difficult. Let me give you a bit of perspective here. Think about all of the businesses that there are on the planet, every single one of those business needs branding. Of course, if you’re offering logo design services only then you’re probably going to be looking for startups because most businesses have a logo and if you come to them offering a logo they’re going to say well we have a logo already. But when you start to offer branding services that go beyond the visuals using strategies such as storytelling, messaging, and positioning strategy then you have to opportunity to approach businesses with revenue who can afford the services that you’re offering. The beautiful thing about systems is that once you figure out your system as in once you figure out the strategy that works best for you to bring clients into your business then you simply replicate that system. You turn it on and off like a tap to bring in clients when you need them and turn it off when your pipeline is full. In this article, I want to give you seven strategies that you can go over and decide which one is right for you, your business, your personality, and your approach to go out and get clients into your business.
Low-Hanging Offer
This is not a groundbreaking strategy but it works, if you implement this strategy you will get clients. Create a new offer that is based on a time limitation or a number limitation. It’s going to expire next week or there are only certain amounts that you’re going to offer. Create an offer along the lines of a brand audit that would normally be $495 and offered for $99, a heavily discount that offer to further incentivize your audience. What you want to do is create a list of about 100 people of your perfect type of audience or connections who will have your perfect type of audience within their network and put the offer out there. But make sure that it is a genuine offer. Make sure that it is genuinely discounted and make sure that there is genuine limitation there. If those tick boxes are checked then this will be a great offer that you can put in front of that group of people and trust me if you put 100 out there people you will get bites. Make sure you create an offer that is compelling and speaks to the outcome that they want to achieve and put that out there into your network.
Proactive Hunting
Whether you like it or not getting new clients is not a passive game. You can’t just sit back and wait for them to come in. You can’t just post a couple of social posts and think that they’re going to come knocking on your door, it just doesn’t work that way. You have to be proactive in getting new clients. One of the best ways to do this is to identify who it is that you’re trying to target, what is their job title, and where are they hanging out. Go and find where they are, go and search for that job title on LinkedIn and get an exhaustive list of people who might represent your perfect client, and start reaching out to them. I’m not talking here about blanket emails just copying and pasting the same message, take the time to understand exactly who they are, who they’re working for, what kind of jobs they have out there in the market at the moment so that will tell you what kind of challenges they have, where they need help, and engage with them on a human level and show your personality.
Network like a Giver
Show interest in other people and their business and they will show an interest in you and what you do. Network like a giver and don’t be a taker.
Actively Engage
This strategy dovetails with proactive hunting. When you go out into the market and you proactively look for people who would be your perfect client or look for groups of people where your perfect clients are hanging out then you want to engage with those people, you don’t want to just approach those people cold and put an offer in front of them. If you follow their content, like and comment on their content and share their content they’re going to see your name time and again and they’ll be curious about who you are, they’ll follow whatever profile you are using for your social media and they’ll know who you by the time you reach out to them and put an offer in front of them and say hey, I like your business and I’ve seen what you’ve done, I’d like to work with you. They’ll know who you are and they’ll be much more open to engaging with you and listening to what you have to offer.
Piggyback Partnership
This strategy is all about going out and identifying businesses that are already serving your perfect client. I’m not talking about direct competitors. I’m talking about complementary services. For example, if you offer brand strategy services, you might go out and look for website designers or developers or social media managers, businesses who already have your perfect type of client and you go in there and provide additional services through those businesses and to those clients. Essentially, you’re piggybacking off the hard work that they’ve done, their leads, and off their clients, and not only are you generating leads and sales and piggybacking off their hard work, you’re also enhancing their offers as well. They go from just offering website design services to website and brand strategy services. This is an effective strategy if you can identify businesses who are serving those clients and you can set up a partnership, this can work well.
Proactive Referrals
Sitting around and waiting for a referral is not a strategy but going out and proactively looking for referrals can be. You can create a system to generate referrals through your existing or past clients. A great way to do this is to over-deliver on what you’re offering and make sure that they have a great experience and then incentivize them to go out and refer your business in front of yours and to tell other people about the great experience that they have. This only works if you over-deliver on that service and you give them a great experience. I’m not talking here about over-delivering in terms of what you’re offering. I’m not saying that they pay for x and you give them XYZ. I’m talking about over-delivering on the experience that they have on holding their hand right throughout the process on touching base with them, on making sure they understand exactly what’s happening and where they’re going, and making sure that they’re happy with the overall service that you’re providing.
Create a Digital Machine
I’ve listed this one to the end because it is digital. It does require some technical abilities but all of this can be learned. I’m not technical and I’ve learned all of these steps and I’ve used all of these steps to generate thousands of leads and hundreds of sales. If I can learn it, you can learn it too. But the strategy is simple. Create a compelling offer in the form of a lead magnet that your perfect audience will be happy to exchange for their email address and once you get that email address make sure you put that on an email drip sequence that sells them into your idea that educates them on the challenges that you can help them overcome and in turn it earns trust as you do it. A simple strategy creates a compelling lead magnet. Put them onto an email drip sequence and this will generate leads for you.
There are seven strategies here and I do not recommend that you go out and try all seven strategies certainly not at once. I suggest that you pick one that suits you and your business and one that you are most likely to commit to because it’s that commitment that will end up generating those clients for you. Pick one of the strategies, commit to it, go all-in on it and stay with it long enough till it generates your leads and new clients. Once you get those clients you want to make sure that you’re making the most out of each one of them and you’re generating as much revenue as you can from every client.
