Best Way to get clients

Youtube Video is also great source of traffic. It can go viral within a second. Creating some hype in social media can bring traffic. If you want local traffic then I think you should think on offline marketing such as going over on radio, newspaper, pamphlets, tshirts prints etc etc..

Some great advice on this thread. Actually would have been useful to us a couple of years ago before we made all the traditional marketing mistakes!

Just some examples...

- Done 1000's of flyers (locally targetted and general)
Response rate was hardly traceable! But as Steve said earlier, good for cetrain local businesses, e.g. sandwich shops.

- Telesales cold call new people
Had experienced (and I mean experienced) telesales people try to sell upgrades on the phone to prospects, the amount of effort required was phenomenal to get just one sale. Definitely don't recommend that unless you have a strong brand that people know and trust.

- Telesales cold call existing customers
Exactly the same as above. You wouldn't think so but it was. Did so many trials on this on so many angles but couldn't get it to pay

Online is the way to go for most businesses, i.e. AdWords (if you have the money - or can make it pay for itself in terms of conversions). Of course directories (but I would say that), but only quality ones in a post panda world (see Steve's link in 'The Friends of MLF' section on the homepage of this blog). Social media and content publication is my preferred method but takes time and commitment to achieve serious results.

I know it sounds silly but simple things sometimes works well (especially for local businesses), e.g. if your business doesn't require a van then get some big window stickers printed and whack them on the back of your car's rear window (make sure you can still see tho )

Oh yeah and absolutely no luck on newspaper advertising (except if you can get in the nationals on an editorial angle - we've had a few of those and created massive interest / hits). If you pay for column advertising then you have to do it week-after-week to see any benefit and money would be better spent on AdWords.

YouTube is good but getting a viral video is very difficult - we've tried for a couple of years and the best performing one was just 16,000 views.

We've just created a Podcast publisher account on iTunes and read our unique blog articles to mp3 - got 4 uploaded now but it's early days to see how successful it is.

Anyway, just some of my rambling thoughts based on millions of trials.

If you are much aware about that business in which you are dealing then it can play an important role in your website promotion. You just have to do quality work on it for customer ease and benefit. It is the only way to make your business successful in a short time of period.

I can suggest that you can also try blogging or social networking like facebook. You can easily make a fan page of your business there. You can take a pic of what you want to sell then upload it. Then you can add some friends then your friends can help you out promoting your page. In there you have a big chance to get a client.

You gonna have to use newsletter and email marketing to draw attention more people and produce good lead.

Best way to get clients is by allowing them to feel comfortable with you. Sending newsletter, email is one way to get clients. telephone call are usually not enertained but some do.

My Approach Involves Following Steps:

1- Blogging

2- Article Submission and Directory Submission

3- Social Networking and Bookmarking

4- Updating Content


Avy

I agree. It's good to broaden your prospects as much as possible. I'm new this business and I tried and invested on the said forms (newspaper, etc). but I don't just stop there, I personally talk to the client because it's a new business. I'm not used to talking but because I chose to form a business of my own I had to force myself to get used to socializing and business talk. I'm starting to read a few articles and a couple of books to help me. The latest article I read gave me these basic set of guidelines to put together a good quote for a client. With all the pressure going on, it's good to have those guidelines to think of for proposals

Start with all the free ways to advertise your business.

Once you've maximized the results from these free channels, boost your campaign with some paid marketing efforts: outsource telesales, CPM display banners, CPC adword campaigns etc.

The matrix of free channels I'd recommend are as follow. Pick the ones suitable for the type of product/service you offer and try to use as many of them as possible, as regularly as possible.

1. Classifieds ads
Try: craigslist, gumtree, targro.. there are many others.. try more if you have the time
Try picking a few different categories suitable for your business
Try creating a few different ad templates so you can post a different ad every other day
Take some enticing pictures of your products or previous work you've done and include them in the ads
Classifieds ads is a good way to establish a local presence. I personally know a lot of people who 'shop' on gumtree instead of ebay.

2. Business platforms
Put your business on websites like alibaba, lacartes. You can create a dedicated page with information on your business, photos and prices of your products/services. You will also be able to engage and interact directly with customers.

The biggest advantage with these sites is your dedicated business page will also appear on all search engines, so you will be getting direct exposure to high quality highly targeted search engine traffic - people who are actually searching for your products/services. This is the best kind of exposure you can get online.

3. business directories
There are many niche directories specialised in different business sectors. the benefit of these directories is that many potential clients could be using them to shortlist their service providers.

4. review blogs and local blogs
many blogs are devoted to product/service review. try finding a few blogs about your products/services and contact the blogger about writing a piece about you. You can also try blog comments.

5. press releases
write your own press releases and submit them to article/PR distribution websites like ezine. each article should be between 500 - 1000 words, which should take just a couple of hours to produce. You can write and submit one article every other week, over time the results will build up. These articles will generate awareness for your business/products/services and create backlinks to your website

Build a good website, then buy banners and email traffic to your site. Total test budget: $2000

Just make sure you can close them.