If you are operating a digital business, then you know full well how hard it can be to get new customers. For most web designers and developers, SEO experts, and Social Media managers the bulk of new clients come from the same two sources: referrals and word of mouth. And while those two channels can help you build a thriving business, it’s always a good idea to have other ways to attract new business to the services you provide.
When thinking of new ways to attract customers and clients, it’s important to build a repeatable process that doesn’t monopolize your time. After all, you have current clients to attend to and ongoing work to do! Here are five great ways to earn new clients and grow your business without losing focus of the actual work in front of you.
- Attend the right kind of meetups – All too often, digital professionals attend networking events and then complain that doing so was a waste of time. That’s almost always because they are attending the wrong kinds of events. Going to meetups of other programmers, SEO experts, or creative professionals is a great way to learn new things and be introduced to new tools, but it’s a terrible way to find new clients. If you work with small and local businesses, consider joining the Chamber of Commerce and attending regular lunches and events. If you work with a particular industry (like realtors or dentists) then find their professional networking events and start attending those. You’re likely to be surprised at how popular you are as the lone digital professional who showed up.
- Offer something of value for free – Most businesses have a poorly optimized digital presence…they just don’t know it. By pointing out where their website can be improved you create an “in” to talk about being the person to actually solve their problem. Send over a GTMetrix report or quick SEO audit and then ask if they have 5 minutes to talk about how to solve the problem. When people see that you’ve offered them something of value they are much more inclined to participate in a conversation. Even better, your willingness to help positions you as an authority on the subject matter.
- Blog, blog, blog – Finding the time to regularly update your blog is critical to building your digital brand. We recommend posting no less than twice a month and writing posts that are honest, interesting, and something people actually want to read. While some folks suggest posting shorter posts (400-600 words) more frequently, we recommend creating longer content of 1,000 or more words. Don’t worry, if you find something you’re passionate about sharing with others, the words will basically write themselves. Longer posts demonstrate authority and show up in search engine results more often. And once the post is published it becomes an evergreen source of attention that can yield new clients for your business for years to come.
- Monetize your website traffic – The vast majority of web traffic that your site receives is coming from current customers or potential new customers. Making sure you gather as much information from those in the latter group is critical. We’re not just talking about contact forms hidden somewhere on your site. We’re talking about analytics, pixels and similar tools. For example, Upland LeadLander collects visitor-specific information so you can craft an email or make a phone call that essentially says, “I noticed you visited my website…how can I help?”
- Partner with someone else – You don’t have to look very far to find someone else in your community that also owns and operates a digital business. Believe it or not, they’re likely facing the same challenge you are in finding new clients. By partnering with someone that offers a complementary service you can both grow. For example, if you are a web-designer then finding an SEO expert to work with can be a good fit. If you manage social media for clients then finding a web-developer can be a good fit. You can refer your own clients to each other and approach new clients with an even more expansive set of services to offer. Partnerships can be a great way to grow your business and get to know new skills…and make new friends.
The five ideas above can be great, low-effort ways to bring in more clients – and thus more revenue – to your digital business. Even better, each method is a sustainable way to grow that you can repeat month over month, year over year. We all dream of having more clients but sometimes getting them is hard. By spending just a few minutes on any one of the ideas above you’ll increase your chance of success…and probably have a little fun along the way.
If you’re interested in learning more about growing your clients roster and increasing the revenue your digital business generates, we would love to chat with you. LeadLander can help website owners get more customers from their digital presence. Click here to get in touch with a member of our team.
