When I first started my business I had no idea how to get clients. I thought that was may biggest business problem. That once I solved that, I'd be set for life. But, fast forward a few months, and although I had clients, I was so busy serving them; that trying to keep up with attracting NEW clients felt like a never ending hustle…
The emotional rollercoaster of serving, then hunting, then serving, then hunting for clients AGAIN was exhausting! Which is why in Part 2 of the 31 Ways To Bring New Clients Into Your Online Coaching or Creative Business, I’m sharing some long term strategies you can use to build a client-generating-machine.
Here's the thing: client attraction strategies fall into two camps. And if you want to be successful, without burning out, you're going to want to do a bit of both! (But not all at once! Get one working, then stack on the next!) As I was saying: client attraction strategies fall into two camps: HUNTING & FARMING. If you're hungry and you need to eat tonight, you’re going to need to hunt - waiting for a seed to grow into an apple tree just takes too darn long. You’ll starve before that comes to fruition. So - if you need more clients NOW - then you need some hunting strategies (You'll find more of those in part 1 of this blog here.) But, if you never plant any seeds, you’ll never get a farm - and you’ll always have to hunt for your dinner. #exhausting! Now, it may take time for those seeds to turn into apples, but once you have an apple farm - there are more apples than you can eat. And that’s where scale and growth live! #FreedomLivesHere
So, you want to have a combination of hunting and farming strategies when you're building your business!
I’ve shared 10 awesome farming strategies below. Getting just one of these strategies dialed in means it can start doing some of the heavy lifting for you. Which means more ease and flow. Because the best business is a profitable aaaand sustainable one. And remember, they may take a bit more effort to master, but when you’ve got them working - they’ll keep working for you bringing clients in on repeat for days, weeks, months and years to come! Now doesn’t that sound Ahmaaaazing! (Why yessss, yes it does!) Time to dive in… starting with number twelve on the list.
(Part 1 covers the first 11 strategies that are most powerful if you are just getting started.)
12. CONTENT LOOPS - Create Long Form Content.
If you’re selling high-end coaching or done-for-you service based packages, chances are slim that you’ll make a sale off one post or one advert that you shared one time. In order to book clients, you’ll need them to know you exist, trust you, and want to work with you. Which means you need long form content. Your content is the #1 way to nurture your audience and become that go-to expert in their minds. This truly has the power to position you as a thought leader! I remember when I was first starting out in this world of coaching, I found a fabulous lady talking about Pinterest. She had a blog on her website about how Pinterest could generate leads. My plan was to do a quick skim of that article, to see if there was anything that could help my business to grow. Well, that 2min skim transformed into 2 hours, as one blog lead me to the next and the next and the next. It wasn’t long before I was downloading all her freebies, and signing up for her masterclass… because her blogs were THAT good! She had sucked me into the perfect content loop.
By the time I was done, I knew that if I was going to hire a Pinterest guru - it was going to be her. No doubt in my mind. And that’s exactly what YOU want to happen with YOUR audience.
Even if they’re not ready to buy today… they know you’re the person to go to.
It was 18months before I was ready to invest with her - but she was my go-to gal as soon as I was ready. That’s the lasting power of a strategic content loop. Turning an audience into loyal fans… which then turn into PAYING CLIENTS. And that’s what has people reaching out to work with you, that’s what sells out a launch, that’s what - because the TRUST is already there. And it doesn’t matter whether you prefer to write, talk, or be on video… Blogs, Podcasts and Videos are ALL powerful ways to create content loops. The only question is, which one do you enjoy? Which one will you show up for? Consistently?
13. SEO. (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO is one of the most powerful strategies you can employ in your business long term. Every single day someone is searching on Google for answers to the very problem that you solve. Your clients are out there actively looking for help. Just imagine if when they typed their question into Google’s search bar, your website popped up on page one with answers… That’s like magic. Clients finding you. Again and again. Now, getting to the top of google takes some work. You won’t get there in one day. It’s a long term strategy that builds over time. But, when you work this strategy with a long term view… you can find yourself pulling in thousands of new leads each month - without having to sweat it on social media all the time. One of my clients has almost zero social media presence. 90% of her leads come from her SEO and she has more than 12,000 visitors coming to her website every single month. HOW you ask? She has a clearly defined niche. Her keyword strategy is on point! She blogs consistently. Her website and blogs are SEO optimized. Google sends her traffic. And those blogs continue to get new visitors MONTHS after she’s written and posted them. And the best part, they will continue generating leads for months and years to come!
And while we’re on the topic of SEO - YouTube is the second largest search platform (owned by Google) so if video is more your thing over blogging, the same principles apply - optimizing videos for searchability to have new clients finding you on YouTube! And your videos live on for years. Again - it takes time to build up a channel where your videos come top of search results and in the suggestions - but it’s a strategy that gets easier and pays bigger dividends over time.
14. PIN IT.
With over 90million Pinterest users in the US alone, Pinterest is a powerful platform to attract new clients. Many coaches and service based businesses say Pinterest is their #1 traffic source sending new visitors to their website each month.
Here’s the thing. Pinterest is NOT just another social media platform.
In fact it’s completely different. With other social media platforms, your posts disappear in the feeds within a few hours (or days if you’re crushing it with engagement). Afterwards all your hard work disappears and you have to post again. Now, that doesn’t mean social media is bad - it’s fabulous for building and nurturing relationships with your audience. Buuuut, Pinterest’s magic lies in the fact that your posts live forever. How so? Well, Pinterest is actually a search engine. Which means anyone looking for answers to solve their problems can find your pins when they search. And if you’ve got a powerful keyword strategy working for you, then Pinterest can be sending leads to your pins and from your pins to your website, even while you’re sleeping, or coaching, or enjoying your life! No engagement necessary. And the best part, your ranking just keeps getting better with time. So, Pinterest is a powerful tool to increase your reach and to bring new people into your world. As long as you have great content to send them to...
15. BUILD A PROFIT LADDER.
If you’re struggling to get clients for your high-ticket programs / packages, ask yourself, is there something that I can provide people as a taster - something where I can give them a WIN where they’re at right now, that will help them to be more ready for the full program.
There are a few different ways to do this. You can do a taster: E.g. If you’re a coach, this may look like an intensive BEFORE 6 months of coaching. E.g. Or it may look like a mini-offer (you’ve seen plenty of $29 offers online, or anything under $100) that leads into a coaching program or signature course.
You could offer something that they need to get them ready to work with you: E.g. If you’re a graphic designer who builds websites. But you know your clients need to be clear on their brand BEFORE you can build them a website… you could choose to have an intro offer to help them create their brand. The next obvious step will be using that brand to build their website! E.g. Some of my clients want to sell courses. But the success of a course launch lies in your ability to build an audience. Which means even more important than the course creation, is the audience building. And that’s why I teach my clients how to build an email list of raving fans and ideal clients, before they launch their signature course. Want to build a profit ladder in your business, ask yourself: - What’s an easy first step that will give my clients a great WIN? - What are they struggling with right now that I can help them to get results with? - What’s the first thing they need… that I can give them… that will build trust because you actually got them results! Building out a profit ladder, makes it easier for your clients to take the first step with you and to continue saying yes to the next step. And we all know - it’s easier to sell the next thing to an existing client than it is to find a new one! Not to mention, a mini-offer in itself can add an extra $10 - $100k to your bottom line each year!
16. FUNNEL IT.
A Profit Ladder looks at each offer and how it leads into the next. A Funnel builds out the marketing pieces that support that journey. A funnel looks at the entire sales journey - from attraction, to nurturing, to offering and everything in between. From the landing pages, sales pages, up-sells and down-sells; to the email sequences, follow ups, and cart closing. Funnels look at EVERY STEP of the journey that moves your audience from “just-found-out-about-you, to raving fan, to buyer, to long term client.” A funnel can be the difference between a business that throws spaghetti on the walls and gets a random client here and there but has NO idea how on earth to repeat that success… drowning in overwhelm and fear each time a new month begins and the dollar clock starts over from zero. VS A business that has a pipeline, knows exactly what it takes to bring in clients on repeat, has a lot of the pieces working in the background (#AutomationQueen) and will work even if you take a holiday, a sick day, or just want to focus on growing a new offering in your business. Funnels bring predictability, stability and ease into business. They help you build waitlists that have clients lined up on tap. And they allow you to optimize your conversion at every step of the process and identify exactly what is and isn’t working, so you can turn your sales process into a well-oiled machine just plain works!
It’s not magic.
It’s a funnel.
And before you think it takes seconds to implement - nope! it takes work - building, testing and tweaking… but once it’s working - that’s when your business goes from solopreneur playing around with a hobby that’s costing them time, money and tons of emotional equity, to a business that can scale all the way to EMPIRE.
Every.single.multiple 6-figure and 7-figure business has a funnel (often multiple funnels - for multiple offers!)
17. OPTIMIZE FOR CONVERSION.
This is one of the most overlooked ways to get new clients. Most people spend a TON of time being distracted by SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME. They keep looking for new, better ways to attract clients. So they keep starting a new strategy each week or month BEFORE they have one strategy locked in that’s working like a bomb. Remember, every single strategy works (or has worked for someone!) but you have to work it long enough for it to bring in the results for YOU! And then you have to OPTIMIZE to improve your conversion rate. This is KEY!!!
One of my clients had an incredible freebie she was giving away on her website to build her email list and attract new clients. She came to me looking for ways to get new clients. Instead of looking for NEW strategies, I looked at what was already working in her business and we doubled down to optimize. Her opt-in page went from 30% of people downloading the freebie to 70%+ in just 3 days of optimizing the copy and sequence on the page. Yip, small things can make a HUGE difference. Optimizing is about testing and tweaking what’s already working. The compounding effect of this can be huge!
Another client already had a funnel built out. She was converting at 4.5% on her funnel. We optimized her masterclass and her conversion rate increased to 10%. We optimized again and her conversion rate increased to 24%. What would an extra 19% in sales mean for your bank account?
Ask yourself where you can OPTIMIZE what you’re doing before switching strategies.
18. CREATE A SIGNATURE MASTERCLASS
A Masterclass (also called a webinar) is one of the most powerful client generation strategies.
When it's done right, a masterclass does four things:
Gives clients a quick WIN - they learn something incredible that they can implement immediately to start getting results! Which means fast TRUST BUILDING.
It breaks down their objections before you even ask for the sale. Which means it’s an easy YES aaaand you don't have to be ‘salesy’ to get it.
It explains why what they’ve tried before didn’t work, and why this will. Which positions YOUR solution as a new opportunity for them to get their problem solved (finally!)
& it creates urgency for your audience to get RESULTS NOW!
Oh and #5 - IT MAKES SALES FOR YOU. (And can even do it while you sleep if you set it up for evergreen.
Just imagine waking up to new discovery calls booked in your diary. Or the ka-ching on your stripe account as another course sells - while you were sleeping!!! That's the power of leveraging a masterful masterclass.
Almost sounds too good to be true, but that's exactly what happened to one of my clients. She already had a business coach. But she was struggling to get new clients.
She'd taken a two month break from her business - which meant her leads had gone cold and she was struggling to get the momentum going again on social media. (Not to mention, she just didn’t have the time to scroll through social media all day long looking for people who might be a fit). So we started laying the foundations for a solid sales process that would keep working for her even if she took weeks or months off at a time. And a masterclass was a critical element in that sales process.
By the time we completed her masterclass - she not only had over 100 signups for her first class, but within 5 weeks she had a two month waitlist. Aaaaand she felt like she had fallen in love with her business again. BOOOM!
19. GUEST APPEARANCES - On Podcasts, Lives, Blogs… Everywhere!
There is nothing more powerful than leveraging someone else’s audience to make sales.
Here’s the thing - when you are a guest speaker or writer for someone else’s audience - they’ve already done the hard work.
They’ve already done the hard slog of building that audience, nurturing them and turning them into engaged fans. Which means they have a lot of trust with their audience.
And when they have you guest on their podcast, in their FB group, on their emails, on their blogs etc... well they’re basically handing you their audience on a golden platter... and that audience immediately trusts you, because you come from a highly recommended source. It just doesn’t get better than that.
This strategy is responsible for one of my clients keeping her Masterclass bookings full. Guest appearances - send to Masterclass - send to calendar to book call. Simple. Effective. She worked it till it worked.
And now she wakes up to appointments in her calendar with ease - and in fact she has more clients than she can handle! (scaling problems - new level, new devil ;))
20. HOST A LIVE WORKSHOP
Workshops are a special breed. Part challenge, part Masterclass... but they incorporate something special - you see, a true workshop means instead of just listening and learning - you’re DOing.
You’re taking action in the room. You’re getting it done in the room. And that right there is magic.
A powerful live workshop achieves 2 things.
It gives your audience a powerful win because they’re not just learning about something that they’ll have to try on their own afterwards... they’re actually taking action with you in the room… which means they get invaluable guidance in the moment and walk away with that problem resolved.
Workshops focus on one tangible problem and provide one tangible solution. Think of this as a bite size entry offer that provides the perfect stepping stone to working with you in a bigger offer. Your audience gets a taste of what it’s like to be coached, to take action, to get results… to work with you… and that makes the next step an easier HELL YES!
21. JOINT VENTURES. (Strategic Partnerships/ Referral Network) Collab Queens.
What if there is someone out there who already has access to a bunch of your ideal clients. Some one who is already working with them… Someone who’s already done the hard work of marketing to build that audience... Someone who isn't your direct competition and could refer those exact same clients to you… Wouldn’t that be magic?
Well, it’s true. Someone is out there serving your ideal client right now. All you have to do is brainstorm some complimentary services that your client would be using, and then reach out to them to form a strategic referral partnership.
E.g. If you’re a wedding photographer - who else would your client hire? Wedding planners, florists, venues... etc. These providers all make for excellent strategic referral partnerships.
It only takes one good referral partner to fill up your business in a fraction of the time that it takes you to figure out all the social media platforms. Building a network of complimentary service providers to refer clients to each other can be one of the fastest ways to get new clients into your business. This can be done purely on a favor basis where you return the favor by referring back, or you could include an incentive for referrals that is paid for every successful referral. You get to create this in any way that feels good to you. Just get started.
22. WAITLIST IT
One of the best ways to launch a new group program or online course is to build a waitlist for it so you have a bunch of warm leads primed to say yes BEFORE you even open the cart. (aka open your program for sales.)
This works particularly well if you are selling a course or a group coaching program. Building interest before you make your offer available is a powerful way to make sure that people are actually interested in what you’re selling. Your course or program doesn’t have to already be built in order to waitlist it or to begin selling it. In fact, the best way to launch (without wasting 6 months building something that nobody wants to buy) is to validate your offer by pre-selling it.
If you have sufficient interest, you can drip-feed lessons weekly, which means you only need to be one or two weeks ahead. You don’t have to have the entire thing created to get started.
This also means that if you don’t get any interest, you can go back and determine where the problem lies:
Is your offer irresistible?
Does it solve a burning problem that clients are willing to pay for?
Does your messaging clearly communicate the value?
In your potential clients' own words?
Did you get enough eyes on your marketing?
Did you promote it long enough?
Etc.
This means you can adapt, test and tweak quickly when getting a great offer to market and KNOW that there are people lined up waiting to buy.
So there you have it, 10 additional powerful client attraction strategies. Stay tuned for Part 3 coming 7 Feb 2022.
I’m curious, which strategy excites you most? Which one would you like to have working in your business? Tell me in the comments below.
P.S. Want to get off the serve-then-search-for-new-clients rollercoaster, and actually enjoy the business you’re building, knowing that clients are always reaching out to you! DM me the word “SCALE” to find out how.
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