Get More Clients-Keep More Clients

Every business owner wants more clients. After all, that’s what keeps a business growing. While there are many ways to attract more clients, that is only one-half of the equation. You also need to work on keeping the clients you have. The quickest way to attract new business and keep existing customers is to be engaging. 

When you engage your potential and existing clients, you bring them closer to you. You keep the attention of potential clients and draw them through your sales funnel. You show your existing customers why they need to return to you when they are ready to buy again. 

When you leverage engagement, you are keeping your clients focused on you and your offerings. Engaging your clients allows you to earn their trust. It allows you to see potential issues and fix them quickly to ensure your clients are satisfied. The more contact you have with clients, the more successful your business will become. 

How to Attract More Clients

No matter what you sell, chances are someone is looking for exactly what you have to offer. But just because you have an awesome product or service, doesn’t mean clients are going to flock to your website. If you want more clients, you have to work to gain their attention. 

Being attractive doesn’t mean looking your best or having a flashy, shiny package, or the latest bells and whistles. Being attractive to your clients means making connections with them – finding out what they need and desire. It means understanding the issues they face and how you can help them meet their goals. 

How do you do this? One way is by tapping into their emotions. 

The Emotional Aspect

In years past, marketers depended on emotions such as fear, greed, and lust to gain sales. Today, emotions still play a part in the marketing process. Successful marketing and advertising campaigns tend to be based on tapping into people’s core emotions. Without the emotional rationale, it’s difficult to move an interested prospect into a paying client. 

Which emotions should you try to evoke with your marketing campaigns? Take a good look at your product or service and ask yourself some key questions:

• Why did you create this product?
• What need does it fulfill for you?
• What void did it fill?
• Who else has a product similar to yours?
• How is your product or service unique?

There are several emotions to tap into when it comes to marketing your product or service.

Pride

What emotions are stirred up when you think about your product? Is there pride? Does your product solve a cosmetic issue such as thinning hair, or does it provide a solution to the problem of feeling like being less successful than your neighbor? Does having or owning this product give your prospect a sense of pride and fulfillment because he/she now is the proud owner of product X?

When it comes to pride, don’t underestimate the value of this emotion. 

Don’t be afraid to incorporate a bonus or freebie into your marketing plan. Allow your customer or client to feel as though they have gotten something for free and they will brag about how they “got one over on you.” Don’t take offense to this – use it as a smart marketing ploy.

Customers love, love, love to feel as though they receive something for free. It gives them a sense of pride and a sense of winning. In the game of marketing, when your client or customer feels like he/she has won, that’s all the reason necessary to come back and visit again.

Stress

If you can meet the emotion of feeling stressed and feeling short on time, you can meet the emotion of just about any human being on the planet. Think about everyone you know – they all talk, discuss, and complain about the same thing – lack of time and too much stress. If you hone in on this one emotion, then you’ll hit a home run in your marketing endeavors.

Part of the Clan

This is another big emotion that has run the human race since the beginning of time. All humans have the need to belong – whether it is to a group or a clan, a community or family; all humans need to belong. If you have a product or service that will make the prospect feel as though he/she belongs, then you have a winning marketing foundation.

Feeling Important

In alignment with feeling like part of the clan, it’s important to note human beings want to also have what everybody else has. Every time you turn around, there is a new latest and greatest trend coming to light. In order to feel important, everyone who is anyone must have this latest object. Cell phones are a perfect example. Why do customers continue to purchase the latest version of a cell phone when their current phone is perfectly capable of performing the functions it needs to perform? It’s likely because they want to feel important and, more importantly, that they’re current with the latest and greatest trend. No one wants to feel left out or unimportant.

Transparency

While “trust” was the buzzword centered on marketing to customers back in the day, in today’s world “transparency” is the new buzzword. When you are transparent in your marketing, you gain the trust of your client or customer. Why is it so important to gain trust? It is important because of the burgeoning market on the Internet for making sales. Making online products and selling online products is something just about anyone can take on for their business.

Creating a decent landing page on your website to gather valuable information, along with product marketing via the Internet through the use of videos, is becoming more commonplace than ever. However, some of these ploys are not transparent from the onset.

For example, have you ever visited a website with the promise to get a brilliant eBook, set of references, or a comprehensive guide for free and it turned out to be more of the same old and outdated information? Did you go back and visit again or, better yet, did you buy anything? Chances are, when a business owner is not up front and completely open about what he/she is offering, you won’t return. There’s simply too much competition to give anyone a second chance. Remember the old adage about only having one chance to create a good first impression?

Integrity

Mean what you say and say what you mean. You and your bottom line depend on it. If you say you are offering something for free, then follow through and deliver the goods. If you offer to do a buy one/get one deal, keep your word. Leave out the small print and ifs, ands or buts disclaimer. No one wants to deal with a business owner that has no integrity from the outset.

Worry

If your prospect is like most individuals, there is some degree of concern and responsibility for living a productive life. For example, having the right amount of homeowners’ insurance coverage or having enough money to retire or funding college for your kids are all perfect examples of how your prospect worries.

Figure out what keeps your client awake into the wee hours of the morning and you’ve got the gold. 

Empathy

How many times have you watched a YouTube video or Facebook advertisement and needed an entire box of tissues to get through the rest of your day? Empathy is a core human emotion and strikes a chord every time.

Creating a feeling of empathy – an understanding as to what it must be like to have little food or water (for non-profit organization marketing, for example) or how sad it is when “those” pet commercials come on – is where you can reach right through to your client’s heartstrings. Where the heart is, then sometimes the funds will follow. 

I want it now

Just like we want more time and less stress (along with that newest, latest and greatest cell phone) we also want everything now. Not only do today’s consumers want everything new, and the latest updated version of it, they want it now. Is it here yet should be the mantra of today’s consumers. 

Solving a Problem

As consumers, we all have problems that we need solved. As a business owner, you come up with the solutions. However, it’s more than just that. You also need to really get inside the head of your prospect.

Create a Persona – Walk a day in the life of your prospect. What worries him/her; what keeps them up at night; what are they thinking about now and worrying about for their future?

Check out statistics on that particular gender, what level of income they earn, where they live, what their hobbies are. Do the research. How much do they spend on their vehicles? What about their level of disposable income? How much do they invest for college, spend on travel, and put away for retirement? Get to know your prospect intimately.

Why Should Your Prospect Buy from You? 

Why should your prospect buy from you rather than your competitor? Find something unique that belongs to you, and only you, and use that to attract more clients. For example, if you have a niche in the gardening market, perhaps you offer tips, advice and coaching or sell books on organic gardening. Well, that’s wonderful news; however, there are hundreds upon thousands of organic gardening blogs and products – what’s different about you and yours?

If organic gardening is your niche, dig deeper. What about organic gardening for city dwellers or for rooftop apartment building gardens? Offer how-to tips on encouraging building owners to get on board with you and allow you to grow a garden up top. 

Be specific and be unique, choose a niche and a sub-niche. If you teach Spanish and want to earn more money tutoring – then consider picking a niche specialty, such as children under five or senior citizens, for example. If you have a love for children or elders and combine it with your Spanish-speaking abilities, you have the makings of a unique brand.

Engaging More Clients

What’s the difference between engaging more clients and attracting more clients? Attracting new clients is a way of luring clients to you because you hit an emotional trigger or because you can offer the perfect creative solution to his or her problem.

Engaging a client is more along the lines of relationship. When it comes to marketing – especially online marketing – you need to create a relationship with that prospect. Gone are the days of expensive advertising campaigns with tricky messages. Marketing is more about relationships than ad copy these days – especially online marketing.

Captivating Email

Ask anyone to confess how many emails they have in their inbox and chances are they will tell you they have lost count. We live in a world where we subscribe to everything and read nothing. We bookmark and put things in our favorites and organized in folders, but then never click through to read those emails.

A captivating email is only as good as its headline. It is vital for today’s marketing purposes to create captivating email headlines. Start with a question:

• Are You Trying to Reach Us?
• Were You Aware of This One Thing About…
• Did You Realize How Much You Can Save on…

Or start a headline with an urgent call to action:

• We’ll be Shutting Down This Offer by….
• If You’ve Been Thinking About (blank), There’s Only 48 hours Left
• We’ll be Sorry to See You Go if You Don’t Take Action Now
• Open Here to Find Out What (blank) Doesn’t Want You to Know

Value 

One of the best ways to engage more clients is in offering them value. How does this create relationship? Well, it creates trust. In the beginning of any relationship, you are either observing or being observed – it’s just human nature. Offering your client a no-strings-attached value just because you want them to trust you is the perfect way to start off any relationship; with trust.

• If you need an email subscription list, write an eBook full of tips and advice, but don’t give away the farm. Give just enough so that they come back to your website, blog or business wanting more. Always leave them wanting more. If you write that eBook, ask some pertinent “future” questions and direct your new prospect toward visiting your ecommerce store where he/she can find books, tapes, and products to learn more about your product or service. 

By incorporating your next call-to-action into the end of your eBook, you have a perfect lead in to what’s next for your client. You’ve solved his/her problem in advance and they will thank you for it by visiting your page.

• Special customers/special deals – If you already have special customers that frequently come and buy your product or use your services, ask for a referral but take it one step further. Reward your special customers. Create an email campaign for your top 100 clients and offer them a sweet deal in order to bring a new member on board. You can create this to show up as an annual deal happening only once per year, so you really hone in on how special it is. 

Social Media

What better way to engage more clients than through social media. Many companies, believe it or not, still do not have social media platforms. Or, if they do, they don’t manage them well. Posts on Facebook, images on Interest and Tweets on Twitter are left undone. Time is of the essence.

If you do not have social media campaigns and don’t have the time to take it on yourself; hire someone. Do you have any idea how many college students there are out there that know this stuff like we know brushing our teeth? With their student loans mounting and their resumes still floating around with not enough job prospects, this is a win/win situation for you both. Hire a college student or recent grad to take care of your social media platforms.

Go Mobile or Go Home

With all the talk of “Mobilegeddon,” businesses today have no choice in the matter of going mobile. If you website is not mobile-ready, it’s now time to make it so. Moreover, if you have an app in mind, take some time to look into the cost-effectiveness of creating an app for your business. 

Everywhere you turn, from waiting on line in the supermarket to even, unfortunately, in places like libraries and movie theatres and driving, mobile phone are always at their users’ fingertips.

When it comes to social media, however, don’t forget one important key – it’s all about them. It’s not always about a new product or service. It’s about engaging them, entertaining them, solving their problems, offering friendly advice and getting them one step closer to the next step in your business plan. 

Engaging with Emotions

Yes, the subject of emotions has come up once again, but this time rather than striking a chord with your customer, it’s about the way you are being emotional. When you want to engage with your clients, remember these three ways of being:

• Be raw
• Be vulnerable
• Be transparent

In the world of personal development, the way you are being will attract more of how you are being. Have you ever noticed waking up in a foul mood and your day just spiraled worse and worse until you couldn’t wait to go to sleep?

Well, it’s the same with the way you are being with your customers. If you are being raw, vulnerable and transparent, you will gain trust, respect and most importantly you will gain credibility. Your prospect now has the opportunity to connect with you on a level of being that is equal to theirs.

Have you ever gone to an event and struck up a conversation with a random stranger and found yourself saying, “You too? I thought I was the only one.” That’s how that works. You connect by being real.

Call yourself out on something once-in-a-while in a humble way. You will be surprised how glad your customer or client is that you did. It shows that while you have the solution to the problem, the reason is because you suffered from the same thing in the past. You empathize with them, you understand and you get them.

Clients today are seeking the real deal when it comes to companies. There are more causes and philanthropic ventures now than ever. It is important in today’s marketing efforts to be relevant to the woes of the world as a whole. More importantly, that needs to show up in your content, as well.

Content for Attracting More Clients 

Content used to be a way and a means for getting detailed information on a subject; similar to dictionary style. Today, content has changed fiercely. Content must be real, raw, truthful and vulnerable in order to be relatable. It also needs to be engaging and entertaining. And you thought your only worry was where to put the comma.

Relatable experiences and content connect the user/shopper/buyer to you, making them more likely to trust you. It is imperative to gain trust in a potential client, as trust is the number one ingredient to attracting and keeping clients. Make your content about your potential customers.

Once Again, Headlines Rule

While content may be considered king, it all starts with the headline. An attractive engaging headline that peaks curiosity has more of a chance of drawing a client in and leaving them wanting more. How to use teaser headlines that lead in to getting your client to scroll down, read more and contact you.

Types of Content

Back in the day, writing was writing. Now writing is marketing – content marketing. There are many examples of content that you should be using in your marketing plan:

• Videos
• Infographics
• Case studies
• Articles 
• Posts
• Memes

A meme is a quirky graphic with a saying on it that could be humorous or poignant. As long as it delivers a message in a short and concise manner, it has done its job. Whatever type of content you use, make certain that if offers valuable insight and leaves the client wanting more – either by buying your book, service or product. Pique your reader’s curiosity.

Another way to attract and engage clients is through your landing page. Create an offer including a free eBook, special report or white paper on a subject. Landing pages work to create an email subscription list so that you capture a lead for future marketing efforts. It takes several attempts before you win over a prospect, and a good landing page can provide you with their email contact information. A good landing page will have short, concise content that engages the reader and leaves them wanting a bit more. 

Decide up front what you want your potential client to do when they visit your website – buy something or opt-in. Make certain that your call-to-action is clear as a bell so that your customers have a clear idea as well. 

Have Some Fun

With all the stress of living in today’s world, viewers, subscribers and customers want to have some fun. Put up a funny or amusing video that makes light of a situation such as shopping online. Ask them to participate in a fun and quirky quiz or to take a survey that is entertaining and that will produce some fun results for them. 

Mix the fun quizzes and surveys with questionnaires that read, “If you answered three out of five of these questions with a yes, then your business needs (blank).”

Your Website

Your website needs to have an eye-appealing header and logo. Don’t forget to include a catchy tag line. Your website must have a catchy tag line that specifically states what you do and how it sets you apart. Don’t be afraid to spend a lot of time giving thought to your tag line and logo. What sets your logo apart from the rest? What makes your business different and unique?

Clearly state on your home page what sets you apart and what problems you can solve, what your services are and what your specialties are. Give testimonials and show samples.

Create strategies for getting repeat clients/ getting more work. Offer a free 15-minute or 30-minute consultation. “I visited your website and I noticed that you are not doing anything about (blank).” For example, if you have a web writing business, you could offer to write compelling content and then lead into offering your writing services for a monthly newsletter. Then, of course, they will need an email marketing plan and a promotional package. These items are all necessary on a monthly basis. Once you get your foot in the door, you have given yourself opportunity to show your work, and prove your value for future projects.

If you are a marketing expert, go on other small business websites and find the holes; contact the company with a few hints and suggestions for plugging up those holes. Make sure you have a high ranking website to begin with so you can show by example. 

Create a website and add a blog. Years ago, a static page was good enough for a website, but that’s certainly not the case today. Readers want to see and read what you can do, and when they visit, they want information and they want it fast. They also want to be entertained. Make your blog posts humorous, touching, engaging, informative and relatable.

Different Methods of Marketing

There are many ways you can market yourself. There is still the world of direct-marketing, where you mail out packets of information and record the positive responses via a code. And then there is still the world of cold-calling; if you have the gift of gab, this may work very well for you. 

Email marketing is another avenue, as well as positioning yourself as an expert in one field of your business. If you’re a marketer, ask yourself whether you’re a social media marketer or a content marketer. Which one do you excel in? Word-of-mouth marketing is still alive, and a good referral can last you years into your career. Work early on in your career on gathering referrals. The more organizations you can affiliate yourself with, the better. Put up referrals on your website as well as testimonials

Linking to other websites is another way to market your services. Speaking engagements and coaching videos and programs are great ways to promote yourself as well. Host a webinar for a free thirty minute session with an option to sign up for a paid 7-week class on the subject you teach on.

Join and connect with networking events. Have your business cards handy and have that elevator speech prepared. Charitable functions are great ways to network and reach clients.

Facebook ads or Google AdWords or a pay per click campaign, as well as creating a power package of fees and services instead of an hourly fee, will each help you attract more customers. A package gives the idea of a bargain and people so love a bargain. Affiliate marketing on other websites, as well as inbound and outbound linking, are all marketing efforts to pursue. 

The biggest difference in marketing today as compared to years past is that you’re not necessarily going to “get” more clients through aggressive marketing techniques. Rather, it’s when you court and woo your clients that you’ll be more likely to attract and engage them.