Tactics to Generate Clients

Question: “Beryl, now that I’ve settled my target market and know exactly who my idea client is, how do I find them?”

My Response: There are a number of ways to create a list that you can use to tell about your services. A few of my favorites are:

• Offer a newsletter and/or something free like a report, an ecourse or audio download, to persuade people who come to your website to give you their contact information.
• Write a newsworthy press release, and submit it to media outlets and online distribution sites
• Post articles you’ve written to online article directories, newsletters, and trade associations, making sure to include to link to your website in your resource box
• Include a link to your website in your email signature, when you post in discussion groups geared to your target market
• Join social network sites and make friends
• Advertise in newsletters, podcasts and blogs that are geared to your target market
• Publish a newsletter and/or blog, and ask your readers to tell their visitors about it
• Attend meetings and training offered by the Chamber of Commerce and trade organizations geared to your target market. Introduce yourself to others in attendance, and get their business cards.
• Ask your doctor, lawyer, banker, realtor, accountant, hair dresser, and personal trainer to tell their clients about you and your business
• When causally speaking with your neighbors, the parents of your kids; friends, the person standing in line ahead of and behind you in the grocery store or bank, the person sitting next to you on the train or plane, causally mention your business
• Make sure your current and past clients know that you would like referrals
• Do a search on the internet for your target market, and create a list from companies that come up
• Compile a list using business directories like Dun & Bradstreet and Hoovers
• Membership lists of trade and professional organizations that are geared to your target market are also a great way to build a list
• Those top company lists put out by your local business journal and Forbes are another source of names to add to your list
• There is also the option of purchasing a list from InfoUSA or American Business List