What we often hear 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 are not that difficult.
Let us give you a bit of perspective here. Think about all of the businesses that there are on the planet, every single one of those businesses needs branding.
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 and messaging and positioning strategy then you have the 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 the strategy that works best for you, it will bring clients into your business then you simply replicate that system so 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.
This blog will not just talk about what you need to do to get a client for yourself, but also give you a roadmap of exactly how to get it done efficiently.
1. Low hanging offer
This is not a groundbreaking strategy but it works. If you implement this strategy you will get clients to create a new offer that is based on a time limitation or a number limitation so basically
So you can simply say “ It’s going to expire next week or there are only a certain amount that you’re going to offer “
You can create an offer along the lines of a brand audit that would normally be GHC 500 and offered for GHC150
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 if you put 100 out there you will get bites so make sure you create a compelling offer that speaks to the outcome that they want to achieve the challenges that they want to avoid and put that out there into your network strategy.
2. 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 their job title is and where they are hanging out. Go and find them, find them where they are going 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, exactly who they’re working for and 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; engage with them on a human level and show your personality strategy.
3. Network like a Giver
What I used to do at networking events is I used to go in with the idea that I needed to hand out as many business cards as possible but that was the wrong approach and it was the approach that everybody else was taking. In the networking event as well so you had a group of people all going in there with the idea that they were going to hand out as many business cards as possible so you had all of these empty conversations and that’s how I used to come away from those events feeling empty. Feeling like nothing landed, I had no real great conversation so I changed the script on that I changed my approach.
Instead of going in with the idea that I was going to take, I went in with the idea that I was going to give my attention to the people that I was talking to and I was going to show genuine interest in their businesses, I ask questions about what they did about who their target audience was about, the challenges that they had about who their competitors were, about the position that they took in the marketplace and they were happy to give this information.
They were happy to talk about their business and I was able to have genuine conversations with these people and that strategy worked because I started to get calls weeks and months later people told me that they met me at this event. So show an interest.
Other people show an interest in their business and they will show an interest in who you are and what you do. So network like a giver and don’t be a taker.
4. Actively engage
This strategy dovetails with proactive hunting when you go out into the market. 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 stuff, follow their content,000.like their comments if you comment on their content if you 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 your LinkedIn profile or whatever profile you’re using for your social media and they’ll know who you are by the time you reach out to them. By the time you put an offer in front of them and engage them and say hey I like your business
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.
5. Piggyback Partnerships
This strategy is all about going out and identifying businesses that are already serving your perfect client. We are not talking here direct competitors
We are talking about complementary services so 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 you provide additional services through those businesses and to those clients so essentially you’re piggybacking off the hard work that they’ve done you’re piggybacking off 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 offer as well so they go from just offering website design services to website and brand strategy services so 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
6. Proactive referrals
Sitting around and waiting for referrals is not a strategy but going out and proactively looking for referrals can allow you to create a system to generate referrals through your existing or past clients. A great way to do this is to over deliver on value to over deliver on what you’re offering and make sure that they have a really really great experience and then incentivize them to go out and refer your business to put business in front of yours and to tell other people about the great experience that they have now this only really works if you over deliver on that service if you give them a really good service and a really great experience now i’m not talking here about over delivering in terms of what you’re offering in terms of your deliverables i’m not saying that they pay for x and you give them x, y, z i’m really 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 that 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 so again over deliver on that experience make sure that they enjoy the experience and they get the outcome that they’re looking for and encourage them to tell their business partners about it and strategy
7. 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 so 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 I.
This simple strategy creates a compelling lead magnet put them onto an email drip sequence and this will generate leads for you.
We hope you enjoyed our article about getting clients for your agency. With this knowledge, we know that you can attract the clients you need to keep your business thriving. So what are you waiting for? Download our business proposal templates today. Click here
