It’s time that someone told the truth about the client acquisition process. Bringing in clients is a very simple process and only requires a small amount of skill and perseverance. It also requires a willingness to give your clients more in use value than you ask for in cash value.
The Client Acquisition process only involves these five steps:
- Define your ideal client
- Attract/Target your ideal client
- Create interest/intrigue by defining a problem or revealing a secret
- Present prospects with your offer
- Help them move forward with your solution
This is the old acronym A.I.D.A (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). We’ve all heard of it and it’s been tested and proven over and over again. However, that’s only mentioned in Steps 2-5. The very first step is defining your ideal client.
Too many of us are trying to attract anyone with a pulse to our products and services. That’s not only ignorant but it’s wasteful too. This is commonly referred to as shotgun marketing also known as mass marketing. This approach is when you choose to willfully ignore that there are people that are absolutely perfect for your product or service and decide instead to broadcast a message that will reach the largest number of people possible.
Some examples of shotgun marketing are radio, television, billboards, and even the Yellow Pages. Now of course, these approaches have their place. If you have already penetrated your niche markets and have a large enough advertising budget to accommodate these methods, then it’s a great way to go and will likely yield great results. But if you’re smaller or just starting out, it’s best that you define your ideal client, target them very specifically with digital marketing and scale up as you go.
When it comes to creating interest, it’s as simple as defining the biggest problem your market faces and providing a solution.
For example, if you are cosmetic dentist and your ideal client needs veneers, you target those types of people with PPC marketing on search engines and/or social media and you put an ad together with a sample headline: Don’t Get Veneers Until You See This Video. Inside the video you reveal the steps they need to take and what other cosmetic dentists are potentially doing wrong. At the end of the video you direct them to your website to fill out an application for a free consultation and 10% off when they visit your office to get veneers.
It really is that simple. Here’s a recap:
- Define your ideal client and what they need
- Target them via PPC marketing on search engines and/or social media
- Create an ad campaign
- Run traffic to the ad campaign by paying the platform for showing your ad to a specific set of users
- Create an email follow-up campaign
- Serve the clients that show up to your door
Now that you know the truth about the client acquisition process, don’t allow yourself to be fooled by mass marketing approaches. Your best chance of acquiring clients is working with a specific set of people who are likely to be interested in your offer.
Your Turn
Has this been helpful to you? Have a question about something? Let me know in the comments.