Get a Couple More Clients
Are you looking for a few more clients?
The easiest way to have a steady stream of leads is to set up a simple nurture marketing program designed to get referrals.
Most small businesses are built on referrals.
They are the easiest leads to close. They tend to close faster, and they usually buy more than leads that come in cold.
You can set up an inexpensive program that will reach out to people who could refer business to you on a regular basis. You can use email, you can use social media, or you can do it with regular mail.
You can do it for less than $100 a month (you can do it for free if you need to).
And if you do it consistently, you will be generating a steady stream of leads.
If you would like to have a program like that for your business, sign up for our new Nurture Marketing Workshop.
New Nurture Marketing Workshop
This is a 2-hour online workshop where we teach the basic concepts behind nurture marketing, and then go hands-on - walk you through the steps to design a nurture marketing project for your business.
At the end of the workshop you will have a project plan, ready to work on or hand off to your assistant.
You can use the workshop to design whatever kind of plan you want – you can focus on referrals or you can nurture leads, customers, the press, or whatever group you want.
You can use email, social media, SendOutCards, postcards or letters.
You’ll get a comprehensive introduction to what to do, then you’ll actually create your own project plan.
At the end of the workshop, you’ll have a list of topics for emails/mailings or an editorial calendar for social media posts. You’ll have a starter mailing list. And you’ll have a list of action items for what needs to happen next.
We will share resources – where you can get inexpensive writers (if you need that) or find a good virtual assistant (if you don’t have one yet).
Bring a friend for free
The workshop costs $197, and you can bring a friend for free.
So if you are a business owner, you can bring the virtual assistant who will be helping you with the nurture project for free.
If you are a virtual assistant you can bring a client for free. (Or get the client to pay for it and you come free.)
If you don’t have an assistant (or a client) yet, this workshop will be a good place to meet one. We’re going to have online chat throughout the workshop so you’ll have the opportunity to network with the other participants.
First Workshop
The first workshop is Sunday, November 20, from 2-4pm Eastern.
I hope you can join us.
If you can’t be there live, sign up anyway. You’ll get a link to the recording plus all the materials, templates and worksheets.
There is more information about the workshop, including the agenda and list of handouts and workshop materials that you will receive at
www.proresource.com/nurture-marketing-workshop
If you know anyone else who might be interested, please share this with them.
Theme 3: Care about Quality
A third theme for your social media marketing is quality.
Let people see that you care about quality and excellence. Everyone wants to know that if they buy from you, you will deliver as promised, and they will get good results.
Show them that you care about delivering a high quality product or excellent service.
You can do this in a lot of different ways…
You can respond quickly whenever any problems surface. Twitter is good for this – if anyone complains or has problems, you can let everyone see how quickly you respond and how helpful you are.
You can share customer quotes and testimonials that talk about how pleased people are with the quality of work that you do.
You can congratulate employees, subcontractors and partners who go above and beyond to deliver excellent results.
You can talk about what happened on those rare occasions when quality was not up to par – what did you do? How big a fuss did you make? How did you fix it?
Something that is very easy to do is to appreciate quality and excellence wherever you encounter it. If you received excellent service at a restaurant, share that. If your coffee was made perfectly, tell people. If you met someone who absolutely delighted you with their service, tell the story.
Talk about your initiatives to improve quality. Maybe you are a Six Sigma fan. Maybe you are a process fanatic. Maybe you are all about continuous improvement. Let people see that you care and that you are always working to improve. That impresses people!
Know your numbers – let people see that you monitor quality and track results. Talk about the improvements you see.
An extremely easy way to do this is to share quotes from people who talk about quality and excellence, like W. Edwards Deming.
The most important message here is that you care about making sure your customers have a good experience – that delivering quality is important to you. How do you let people see that excellence matters to you?
Theme 2: Open a Window into Your Business
A second issue people have is that they wonder what it will be like to do business with you.
Social media provides a great way to invite people into your business and show them what your company is like. Let them get comfortable with who you are and how you do business.
You can do this in many ways…
On Facebook, introduce team members. Upload a photo and say what each person does for the company.
You can tweet about projects you are involved in for clients.
You can also use Twitter to provide customer service – show how quickly you respond, how courteous and helpful you are, how much knowledge you have about your products and services.
Tweet about deals with customers, partners, investors and vendors.
Blog about advanced tips for using what you sell, so customers can get more out of their purchases.
Thank people who send referrals.
Share results clients have achieved from your services.
Use videos to show people how to use your products.
Blog about the steps prospects should take to prepare to do business with you. For example, if you have a needs analysis as part of your methodology, what information will they need to pull together.
When you post on Facebook, talk about the wide variety of problems you can solve for people – share signs that they need what you do.
Do a top 10 reasons to do business with you.
Get your employees or subcontractors or partners to interact with you – ask them to comment and like your posts on Facebook, to retweet, to circle you.
You can ask customers to participate in videos or do audios about how much they like your company.
If your company has rituals or does holiday celebrations, extend them into social media.
What are you doing to let people feel like they know your business on social media? Share what works for you by posting a comment…
Theme 1: Demonstrate Expertise
One of the first questions people will always have about your company is “Do they know what they are doing?”
They need to have ways to confirm that you will do a good job for them.
Social media gives you a lot of opportunities to show off your knowledge in your field.
- On Facebook, you could give a series of short tips relating to your area of expertise.
- One virtual assistant has been doing 2-minute videos with office organization tips and shortcuts.
- I’ve seen SEO consultants give tips about choosing keywords and using alt tags.
- Graphic designers give tips about page layout and optimizing your site.
- Social media consultants give advice about getting better results with Facebook or tips on how to use Google+.
In your blog, you can tell stories about projects you have worked on for clients. You can do mini case studies – with brief outlines of what the client’s problem was, how you solved it, and what results they achieved.
You can upload short videos that answer questions prospects commonly ask.
You can tweet when you close a new deal.
You can forward news from industry sources and explain why it matters.
You can quote a statistic from a recent report and say why you think it’s wrong.
You can quote two statistics from different reports that seem to contradict each other and explain why they are really two different ways of looking at the same thing.
You can blog about trends you’re seeing in the market.
You can forward news from others who are respected in your field.
You can share useful websites.
You can do reviews of tools you find useful.
You can compare methodologies and talk about the strengths and disadvantages of each.
This is usually one of the easiest ways to find content for social media. There are dozens of ways to show off your knowledge – if you have some that aren’t included here, add them as comments. I’d love to hear how you do this.
Can You Outsource Your Marketing Project?
The reality is that many projects are not a good fit for outsourcing.
Others can be outsourced, but only after you have a good relationship with someone who knows your business well.
Of course, some are great candidates and can be outsourced easily.
The trick is knowing which is which.
When you know which projects and what types of work fall into each category, you will find that outsourcing works a whole lot better for you. And you won’t waste your time and your money trying to outsource work that you are not going to be able to outsource successfully. Read more
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