5 steps to find your next client

If you’re a business owner and you have a profile on LinkedIn, you are probably hoping that it will give you a network that will spit out new clients or customers and help your business grow.

Here’s the bad news - it won’t unless you put some effort into it.

And the good news - it will take less time than attending a breakfast meeting each week.

Let’s assume you’ve already optimised your profile (or read this first) and you’re ready to build some useful relationships.  Here are my top tips:

1. Know what your ideal client looks like - in as much detail as possible.  If you know what you’re looking for, it’s much easier to find them.  If you’re struggling with this, look at the profile of your best client and look for more like them.
2. Use the search function to find good matches.  Click the search box and the magnifying glass, without entering any information.  This will take you to the search page.  Choose people - and all filters.  You can search your 1st and 2nd level connections, locations - by country, companies (current and past, industries and one or two other filters.  You can no longer search by job title with a free account, you’ll need to pay for that privilege.
3. Do your homework.  Look at the profiles of the list your search produces to see if they’re a good match.  If you’re not already a first level connection, make the connection.  TIP:  Use CTRL/click to open a profile in a new browser window, so you retain your list to come back to. 
4. Check out their groups.  When you find a good match take a look at the groups they’re members of and join two or three relevant groups where there are lots of similar people.  Check the group is active.  Activity is more important than thousands of members.  Monitor the group and be visible by being helpful.  If you post comments, make sure you return regularly to respond to anything people say.  Don’t sell at people (some groups will kick you out if you try to do this, but even if they don’t it doesn’t impress anyone.)  Your aim is to build a reputation as a friendly expert who gives good advice.
5. Talk to people.  If you’re already connected, but haven’t had much of an exchange, start a conversation using the message facility.  Be authentic and be interested in them and their business.  

Follow these steps consistently and you’ll find you’re having better conversations with the right people - and some of these will turn into great clients.

Are you an expert?

Do you find that people often ask for your advice?  When you’re at a networking meeting do you get lots of people saying “So how do you do [insert your specialist subject here]?  Do you find your business connections often refer people to you for help?

Sounds like you might be an expert!

If you find you’re often explaining things to people, showing others how to do things and maybe being asked to speak at groups about your area of expertise, you’ve probably got the raw material for a book.

If the idea of writing 40,000 words sends you running for the hills, don’t worry, there are other ways to get that book out of your head and into print.

Talk it out

Instead of writing you can record your book in episodes.  Actually, you could record it as podcasts using software like Spreaker or Anchor and then you get the double whammy of having a podcast AND a book.

Of course, for the book, you’ll need to get it transcribed, but you can find people who will do this on freelance sites such as Fiverr, People per hour or Upwork.

We have clients who have literally dictated their books over the phone or on a VoIP system.

Get yourself interviewed

Effectively this is how a ghost writer works.  You’ll need a plan first to establish the structure (and that applies regardless of how you get your book out of your head and into print).  A good ghost writer will then interview you to get the content for each chapter.  Generally, they’ll record the interviews as well as taking notes and then go away and write up the manuscript.

You’ll need several interviews to extract the information for a full-length book.

Work with a professional writer/editor

The right editor will be able to help you with the whole process, from planning and structure to developing the manuscript from your notes, discussions and any materials you may have developed for presentations, training or clients in the past.

Don’t cut corners

When you’ve got your first draft you’ll need to review it, maybe add bits that you forgot to mention earlier - and then turn it over to a professional editor who will look at how the overall concept works, what needs pruning, what needs developing, what would add more value and what doesn’t contribute to the overall message.

This isn’t proof-reading (which will need to be done before it goes to print), but will make the difference between a book that gets read and recommended and one that readers never finish (a literary agent once told me that most people don’t get past chapter 3 of a non-fiction book!)

At the end of the process you’ll have a book you can be proud of.

How often should you send out a newsletter?

Many people see newsletters as a weekly, monthly or quarterly activity - but why have these intervals been chosen?

It depends on the content of your newsletter as to how often it should go out.

Just in!

If your business sells fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) then a weekly newsletter might be a great way of getting engagement.

Companies like B&Q are good at this - they feature their latest offers alongside great advice articles from their blog that complements the offer.

There are companies who update their products daily - budget fashion sites such as Everything5pounds sends out daily ‘new in’ updates.

If you have a list made up of former customers they’ll appreciate getting the heads up on the latest products and offers so a frequent newsletter works well.

Don’t forget us …

Small businesses that provide services often like to send out a monthly newsletter to remind the people on their list that they’re still around.  But what makes a good monthly newsletter?

The ones that have great value are the ones that share good advice and knowledge - their subscribers usually stay subscribed.

If you write regular blogs that feature useful information, adding these into your newsletter is a good strategy.

In some cases there may be more than one audience - and that can mean two or more different newsletters.

For instance: A solicitor may have a family law division, a conveyancing division, a business and commercial division, a criminal law division, etc.  The audiences for these services are vastly different.  There is a case for educating one audience about the other services, but the main article in the newsletter needs to focus on the interests of the target audience.

… and you’ll never believe this …

If you’ve ever got on the list of some of the professional marketing companies you’ll know that some of them send daily emails - sometimes more than one a day when they’re promoting a webinar or product promotion with a deadline approaching.

Some of these marketers are very clever and write entertaining and useful emails,

Nick Stephenson is a writer who teaches aspiring authors how to write and market books and sends several emails a week - quite long ones - but they are always entertaining and contain value.  He frequently offers free learning - as well as promoting his paid-for services and systems.

If you’re going to send frequent emails you need to know your audience well and know what will appeal to them - and then entertain and give value first, before trying to sell your stuff.

Seriously?

If you send your newsletter out quarterly, my question is why wait so long between issues?  If you see the newsletter as a vehicle for telling your readers about happenings in your business:

1. It implies nothing much happens if you only have a quarterly newsletter.
2. Most of the things that happen in your business aren’t interesting for most readers.

Do you want to know who has just joined your suppliers companies?  Are you excited to discover they’ve just opened new premises in Glasgow (if you’re based in Kent)?  Are you thrilled to discover they’ve just won an award?

These are all big events for your company - but as a news item they don’t stand up.  There needs to be a human angle that has some impact for your readers to make them into news.

Break the ‘rules’

There’s nothing that says you shouldn’t simply send out a newsletter when you have something to communicate.  It doesn’t have to be daily, weekly or monthly - it just has to have fantastic value for your readers.

We send out newsletters with a couple of our educational blogs (like this one) every couple of weeks.  If you’d like to get on our list and learn lots of stuff about reputation and content marketing you can sign up here (and get access to the Treasure Chest which is full of free goodies)

Social or business?

If you’re in business you need to do some marketing to keep your business’s profile visible to potential clients.  But what kind of activities should you be doing to market your business effectively.

Marketing today cannot ignore social media as a valuable resource to promote products and services.  People go to their social platforms to find what they want rather than consulting the local newspaper or industry press.

Some companies focus a very large proportion of the marketing activities on social media as it’s become a powerful way of reaching a clearly defined audience.

So is your social media operating as a business marketing tool - or are you one of the people who ‘doesn’t do social media’?

The challenge for most business owners is to decide which social media will work best for you - there are so many to choose from.  Isn’t everyone on Facebook?  Oh no, not any more, they’re now on Instagram - unless your customer base is younger, who, of course, are on SnapChat.

Sorry, what was that?  Not Snapchat?  Really? OK so TikTok is the latest social platform.  How do you keep up?

Pick your platform

LinkedIn

This is a business platform.  People who are active tend to be focused on business activities rather than purely social.  But that doesn’t mean that you should operate as a business only.

The most successful way to connect is through your personal profile, so it’s as important that this is optimised to get found in searches on your key words as it is to have a company page.

People can’t have a conversation with an organisation, they want to know who they’re dealing with and, at the end of the day, people ‘buy’ people first and whatever they represent (their company) second.  That means you need to open a conversation and talk to the individual.

Just remember that you’re talking to a person when you start that relationship building process.  My English teacher used to lecture us about treating people with respect - and one of her favourite phrases was ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.  If you HATE receiving a sales pitch as the first message after making a connection - don’t do this to other people!

Be friendly, be interested and comment on their profile intelligently.  Nobody is fooled by leading questions about their business or how they do their marketing/IT support/accounts/[insert your business here].  Get to know people first and find out what you can help them with.  Give first and you’ll soon find that, if they’re interested in hiring an expert in your genre, they’ll ask for more information.


If the message conversation is going well, offer to have a phone/Skype/Zoom call to get to know each other better.  Or, if you’re nearby, a coffee is an alternative.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t actively connect with people who could be potential clients.  Even the free LinkedIn account lets you search on company, job title, etc.  Be focused on building relationships with the right people, rather than relying on random connections.

Another way to build relationships is to be active in the right groups.  Aim to help, offer advice, tips and other valuable information and you’ll attract interest from people who can see you’re an expert.

Facebook isn’t just for dummies

On Facebook it’s harder to find business connections as Facebook is very social, people post almost anything on there.  It can be difficult to separate personal and business activity if you’re just using one profile.

However, it’s not a smart move to have two profiles - instead, create a page for your business and people can choose to follow your page, rather than become your ‘friend’.  If you want to keep your personal Facebook just for friends and family, you’re in control of who you accept as a friend.

Some of your customers may become friends, but you can choose if you let them join your ‘inner circle’.  It may depend on what you post - and what your existing friends post.  Make an informed decision before just accepting a friend request - and make sure that your privacy settings are appropriate.

Personally, I have two adult children who occasionally post things I probably wouldn’t share with purely business connections.  However, some people do use their personal profiles for business, but not for much else.  It just means you need to make a value judgement.

Facebook filters are now so rigorous that even people who have liked your page, may not see your posts.  If you use an external social media management tool for scheduling posts - like Hootsuite or Buffer - you’re almost invisible.  Facebook gives you more visibility, if you’re actually posting directly on the platform.

Even so, you’ll need to be active, maybe run some low-level ad campaigns (that’s how Facebook makes its money) to improve engagement and make your Page one that people actively come back to - because the content is brilliant!

The better the engagement on your page, the less you pay for your ads.  This is Facebook’s ‘reward’ for being present on their platform.

Instagram - picture perfect

Facebook bought Instagram because they saw how popular it was.  It seems that we all love taking pictures - and sharing them with the world.  Nothing is too boring to be snapped and an eager audience laps up every weird and wonderful image!

For businesses Instagram has become a powerful tool.  Beautiful images that attract the eye are great ways to get people’s attention, so it’s important to give this some thought, rather than simply uploading an ad for your product or service.  The more creative you are the better.

Short videos make an even better impact.  Joe Wickes (The Body Coach) made a fortune from smart use of Instagram and built a reputation (and fortune) from his wacky 15-second speeded up recipes and before and after pictures of his students.

Like all these platforms the secret is in being consistent and - as with any good business strategy - a plan is essential.

Instagram doesn’t really work very well on a laptop or desktop, it’s designed for the smartphone/tablet, so bear that in mind when you create your images - words in the image can be too small to read.  And long captions are boring!

Also remember that Instagram doesn’t let you include a live link in your caption or image - so the only clickable link will be your company website.  Instagram advertising has all the features that Facebook offers and is linked to the Facebook demographics tools to let you target your ads really well.  It is a good option if your audience is on Instagram.

Twittering

Many people still don’t really ‘get’ Twitter, it seems so random and many people are unsure how effective it is.

I think it’s a bit like a joining the dots exercise.  You connect to someone and you have potential access to their audience - if they share your posts by retweeting.  That means that, while you may only have a few hundred followers, if some of those have thousands, your reach extends.

The downside to this is that you have to post really good content to get retweeted.

I think Twitter is good discipline for people to keep their thoughts short and succinct.  We all get so much information every day, online, via email and even through the good old postal system, that it’s hardly surprising that attention spans have shortened.

We have to reduce reading time so we only read what we need to or want to.  So a Twitter post is effectively a short summary of something.  If you get your post right, and provide a link to the expanded information, those people who are interested can choose to go and look at the longer version.

Twitter is a great forum for questions and answers.  Ask your followers for help and you’ll find plenty of people respond.  Journalists know this and use Twitter very effectively to track down experts and case studies for their articles.  The corollary of that is that, if you show up as an expert, you might find yourself getting coverage.  And, if you use Twitter to search you could find PR opportunities.

Every picture tells a story

And with Pinterest you can upload images - with up to 500 characters to describe them and add information.  Unlike Instagram you can choose where the live link goes.

Lots of people think Pinterest is for kids and women who are looking for fashion, décor and craft ideas - and if they’re your target audience then - hello!  However, while Pinterest users are predominantly female, they’re not just passing a few moments alleviating their boredom.  Pinterest is where many people go to research products and things that they want to buy.

It’s also where people go to learn - the plethora of infographics provide tons of useful information for business people on a whole range of subjects.  While they won’t be the in-depth nitty gritty on a subject, they will give you loads of tips and point you at places where more information is available.

If you use a tool like Canva (other applications are available) you can create attractive graphics with a little experimenting.  Give your boards names that reflect what people search for and you can create a stream of interested people.  All you have to do is find ways to engage them - be creative!

Visiting the movies

You can’t ignore YouTube - although if you’re not comfortable in front of the camera, it can be tempting to try.  However, you don’t have to be a talking head to make great videos.

The days when shooting any kind of film was an expensive activity have gone.  Now we all have a high quality video camera in our pockets and the focus is on value, rather than technical excellence.

Of course, if you want corporate video, you’ll need experts to do that for you to present your business professionally.  However, YouTube thrives on the immediacy of self-shot video content - as long as the clip is interesting, offers valuable information or is entertaining - or all three.

You don’t have to please everyone - but you do need to know what will tick your target audience’s boxes.  Creating video can be done with a video camera (aka your smartphone) or use a PowerPoint presentation converted to slides using one of the many applications available, such as ShowMore or ContentSamurai.  You can create animated slides with something like Doodly.

You can even use static images with just a few words and some royalty-free background music.

Better still, if you know how, you can easily get your videos onto the front page of YouTube for your key words (want to know more?  Ask me!)

Getting your ducks in a row

Of course, there are many other social platforms - these are just the well-established ones.  Snapchat and TikTok are both used for business by certain companies, but are still not mainstream for business promotion for most.

If you’ve read this far (thank you) you’re probably wondering how on earth you will find time to do all these things.  I suggest that you take a step back and first think about your strategy.

What do you want to achieve from social media?  This will need to be more specific than ‘get more business’!  Who do you want to influence, connect with, engage with?

You will benefit from developing a connection strategy.  This doesn’t have to be rocket science - just a few basic ‘rules’.

• Which social platforms are the best for your business?
• Which social media will you use for mostly personal or mostly business use (or not at all)?
• What kind of material will you post - for business and personally - and how often?  
• If you’re using a social platform for both business and personal, what do you want your business connections to know (and not know) about you?
• What activities will you undertake on each platform besides posting content?  E.g. activity in groups, on Pages, in forums.
• How often will you monitor your business social media activity?
• How will you measure success?  Beware of simply counting connections - having 1000 connections on LinkedIn or 1000 followers for your Facebook Page doesn’t count if none of them are talking to you.  A connection isn’t a relationship.

TIP:  Never post on social media after drinking more than one glass of alcohol - it’s been the downfall of many!

Social media is a fantastic way to get to know people who may become either customers or advocates.  Make sure you keep your reputation shining bright.