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.
Start a Nurture Program
If you’re not already doing some kind of nurture program, you should start now. It is inexpensive (typically less than $500/month) and highly effective.
Nurture programs are designed to educate prospects about the value you provide – because almost any offering requires some education – and generate excitement and buzz about your company.
The idea is that you identify a small list of people – typically 100-200. Then you send them something every month.
Who goes on the list?
- Prospects who are already in the sales cycle
- Ideal prospects (people or organizations that you would love to have as clients)
- Influencers (respected individuals who could refer business to you)
- Business partners
- Maybe editors or bloggers who you want to have cover you
- Maybe competitors (if you want to annoy them)
- Maybe your best customers
- You (because you want to see what everyone else is getting and ensure the quality is high)
What do you send them?
Your goal is to educate them about your offering, so they fully appreciate the value. You also want to keep them up with what’s new with your company – to show that you have lots of interesting, exciting things going on.
We typically rotate between the following things:
- Case studies
- Postcards (often with a special offer)
- Press releases
- Educational articles authored by you or someone in your company
- Reprints of articles that have appeared about you in industry publications
- Reprints of articles written by others that support your point of view or help educate about a topic they need to understand to fully appreciate your solution
- Personal letters introducing something new that you are doing or making a special offer
- Giveaways (something cute and relevant to your company or offering)
You can do this by email, which is a good idea if you are nurturing people around the world. But we prefer direct mail, because so few companies use direct mail anymore that your mailings stand out more.
Keep in mind that prospects don’t know that you are only mailing to a couple hundred people each month. For all they know, you are blanketing the industry. And in a tough market, where many companies are cutting back on marketing, that’s impressive.
They get the sense that there’s a lot going on with your company – you must be growing rapidly and doing well for them to hear from you so often. That helps your credibility as well as gains you mindshare.
These programs are simple to put together too. Just define the goals for your program, pull together a list to start with, and line up the first 6 months of what you’re going to mail. Then turn it over to an administrative person to execute – you can do it almost on autopilot.
Just revisit the plan every 4 months or so, as your business needs change. Update the mailing list, and tweak the items you are planning to send as new ideas come up and new collateral gets created.
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