Last week I made a video talking about how I got verified on social media. One of the topics I covered in that video revolved around some of the “non-duplicatable” accomplishments that I’ve been fortunate enough to have in my life that helped assist me on the way to becoming a verified figure. By “non-duplicatable” – I’m talking about things that you can’t just go out there and “do”.
I can tell you to read a book, and you can look up that book, purchase it, and read it. It’s something from my journey that you can “duplicate” pretty easily by just following some simple instructions.
But, if I tell you to go share the stage with Grant Cardone – there isn’t really any templated process or steps you can follow to help you make that happen the way that I have. So what does all this have to do with you landing more clients? Well, mainly because the key to my success has partially been because of the types of clients I work with, and after seeing the videos that come up when searching for “how to get more clients” I saw that they’re all super outdated and not helpful at all.
In this video, I’m going to give you some advice that will help you land bigger and better clients.
Introduction
I run a marketing company, and my clients come to me for help with their branding and marketing – but for you, this could apply to anything. Maybe you are a barber or a makeup artist. These principles will work for you as well.
Sometimes, brushing shoulders with high up individuals can help you make connections and advance your career in ways that you otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to, and sometimes in ways that you could almost never even imagine. Including things like social media verification, landing big client or customer deals in your business, or simply just getting into social circles that allow you to create even bigger opportunities within your life and your career.
To get started, you want to clarify your goals and be somewhat realistic to start. Be as specific as possible, stating things like how many clients you’d like to gain, how you’d like to go about getting clients primarily (you can base this off your personality – if you are a bit of a hermit your answer to this would be to keep things online and remote. If you’re a social butterfly, your answer to this may be to attend events and to make your way to the stage), but most importantly – identify what you’d like to see happen in the future.
Really give this some thought because when you work with important people they expect you to be available and to offer a premium solution to whatever their problem is. You can’t expect to be floating on a boat somewhere in 6 months or be completely out of touch.
Online Methods to Get More Clients
Let’s jump in. As a heads up – the best way for you to get the most out of this video is to write down each idea that stands out to you as I go through them. While I go through these – Ask yourself:
a. Would this be effective for finding potential clients for my business? b. Is this something I could work into my regular schedule for my business?
Blogging – The reason blogging is so impactful is because it can alter your Google results when people search for you. You can start by blogging on your own website, or by applying to write on 3rd party publications. For example, I’m an author on Influencive, Thrive Global, and many other medium-sized publications, and when people Google my name – they find the articles I’ve written on these sites over the years.
Social Media – Obviously social media can be a kingmaker. We’ve all seen people’s lives change seemingly overnight because of social media. Some of the YouTubers that come to mind are Tai Lopez and Dan Lok. When I got started in digital marketing – nobody knew who these people were – including me. I had never heard of them. So make sure you’re creating unique and fun content that will help you build trust with your audience and eventually the right people will poke their head out and connect with you, as well as ask you for help with things you can potentially charge for.
Email Marketing – a lot of people underestimate email marketing. It’s something I wish I started doing much earlier in my career – but having a list with thousands of people on it is very powerful. It’s a cheap thing to implement, doesn’t take a lot of time, and it doesn’t hurt to just have a simple opt-in form on your website, which we will talk about in a few minutes.
Podcasts – Podcasts have been a great tool when it comes to getting your name out there and helping to put some distance between yourself, and all of the “others” in your industry. You can use a site like radioguestlist.com to find yourself some decent podcasts that you can apply to appear on. You could also create your own podcast and interview your existing clients or people in your industry – but that’s not something I have experience doing so I’ll let someone else cover that topic.
Advertising – Advertising is a great way to attract clients if you’re good at it. Anything from Facebook and YouTube ads to even advertising with your local sports teams or magazine – these are good potential ideas. Make sure to use tracking links and trackable phone numbers when advertising so that you know if your efforts are working or not. This isn’t a video teaching how to run ads online – but if you do want to learn the basics I would recommend hopping on Udemy when you have some free time and brushing up on your skills.
Online Groups and Forums – Facebook groups and websites like Quora are great places to attract clients. Now, you have to be careful because Facebook groups are also where some of my worst clients in the past have found me. You know… somebody tags you and praises your work and the great experience they had with you – and all of a sudden you’re bombarded by people who really don’t even have a solid idea of what they’re doing or what they even actually need help with. They just think you are their hero that will solve all of their problems. Be sure to have a solid qualifying and onboarding process in place to make sure you take on the good clients and turn the bad clients away.
Client/Customer Reviews – Don’t overlook or forget about the clients you already have. Your existing clients can be a massive accelerator for your business. If you have the chance – ask some of your best clients if they would be open to a recorded interview. Let them know that you’d potentially like to feature some of the answers to your questions on your website. You can position this as an initiative your company is working on to collect client feedback and improve your business – which is what you should use it for anyway. You can knock out 2 birds with one stone by sitting down with your client and having a casual conversation and asking them how they think you could improve your service – while also asking them how their experience has been so far and what they liked best. I’ve put a link in the description to a simple list of questions you can use to help get you started.
Become a Published Author – in 2018 I wrote a book called Credibility Method that talks about how I worked my way from a pathetic bartender in 2014 who had never accomplished much of anything – to one of the highest-paid consultants in my industry within only a few years. This book was a great tool and resource that helped me get mentioned online, get on stage, and even appear on television. Here is the Amazon link in case that sounds like a book you’d like to read.
Make Video content – People become comfortable and confident about doing business with people when they are able to see their faces and get familiar with someone. Your clients will research you before ever even communicating with you. By creating video content you are getting ahead of the situation and building trust before any transaction actually occurs.
Your Website – Your website is a very powerful tool. What is the first impression your potential clients see when they visit your website? everything we’ve talked about up until this moment, such as a podcast, online advertising, or social media – usually all leads to your website. The key to a great website is to keep things simple and make whatever you’re offering extremely clear. Do not offer a hundred different services on your website.
Joint Venture or Partnerships – I’m definitely guilty of not doing this as much as I probably should – but especially if you’re struggling to land good quality clients, you should try partnering with someone. Try to find other people in your industry that are within reach, and offer to promote them to your list if they will do the same for you. It’s a win-win situation. Now, the key is to make sure you find somebody that offers a complimentary service to yours of course – not a competitive one.
The internet is endless and full of ways to improve your chances of getting in front of “your next big client” – but next, let’s talk about the second method of landing bigger and better clients:
Offline Tactics to Get More Clients
Events and Meetups – This is a love/hate strategy for me – because I usually can’t stand “networky jerky” type of people who collect business cards in a jar. However, if you can do this in a tasteful way and avoid all of the MLMers and weirdos, you might be on to something. My best advice for local meetups is to make sure you find a way to stand out as a true professional. I’m not saying you have to act better than people… but – you know what, on second thought just skip the local meetups.
Public Speaking – this is a much better version of meetups. There will always be times that you want to make sure you are NOT the smartest person in the room. However, being the person at the front of the room with a microphone in hand can do wonders for your business. It also helps with everything we mentioned in the online section of this video – because you can record your presentations and turn that into digital content. Make sure you incorporate your contact information and social media channels into all of your material when giving a presentation. A lot of local libraries offer ways for you to participate in your local community and will give you a platform to speak on a certain topic. Now, gigs like that are not paid and you will not make money from them directly – but they can lead to opportunities such as landing new clients or stepping onto the next stage.
Direct Mail Packages – Speaking of libraries, most public libraries offer a database of free online resources on their website. Many times, you can find a public directory consisting of all of the businesses in your local area sorted by industry. These listing often include the name of the business, address, contact phone number, email, and even the executive’s or owner’s full name. This means you can easily curate a list of potential businesses to reach out to. If you’re a business owner that works with other businesses as your clients, this is a game-changer. Put together a marketing pitch, print it out, stuff a gift along with it into an envelope or box, and address it in big red marker directly to the executive’s name. Call a few days after delivery to follow up on your offer or message. Do this enough times, and there’s no way you don’t land a client. I know this because I’ve done it.
Workshops – Once you start to build your footprint in your local community, you can begin charging for small workshops – or in some cases huge workshops. Last year I partnered with Fiverr and put on a large presence in the city of Richmond teaching marketing to small business owners in Richmond. Fiverr brings in almost $100 million in revenue per year and is a well-known service to just about anybody who’s an entrepreneur or business owner of any type. Needless to say – it boosted my credibility even more. You can use a service like Eventbrite to create a small event in your town, and Eventbrite will promote it in your area which can help you reach people you’ve never even met before.
Referrals – Similar to leveraging customer reviews as we talked about earlier – getting referrals from people you know can be great. Honestly – think about the most popular friends you have or most popular people that you know in your town and just reach out to them. The worst they can do is say no, and if you don’t even ask – the answer is always no.
Local Media – You’d be surprised at how local media might be interested in your story, journey, business, or otherwise. The biggest magazine in my city published an article about my fashion sense and I’m not even a fashion blogger. I have nothing to do with the fashion industry! Anything is possible. Try to make connections and reach out to your local print and tv media outlets. These people need stories to tell and you never know when your story might be told.
These offline strategies are not as impactful when it comes to landing the “big names” but maybe that’s just not realistic for you right now or maybe you’re just getting started in your career. Which of the ideas from this chapter could you potentially use to get more clients? Which are feasible and within your means? Which of these sounds the most interesting to you?
Conclusion:
Take all of the ideas you wrote down or made a mental note of throughout this video and choose the one or two that seems easiest and quickest for you to implement first. The worst thing you can do is procrastinate on this because after a week or so you’ll forget about all the small details I’ve shared in this video and you’ll just simply put it off.
To help you identify which ones are best for you to go after, I want you to think about these things:
- What are Your Skills and Strengths? A good way to figure this out is to ask your closest friends to be honest with you and share what they think you are extremely good at.
- Where Are Your Clients (online or offline)?
- What are Your Competitors Doing?
- What are Your Weaknesses? For example, if you suck at public speaking – maybe save yourself by skipping that one.
I truly hope this has been helpful for you – and you better like this video and subscribe right now. I’ll catch you in the next article. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to my channel on YouTube.
