Top 5 Ways to Passively Turn Your Target Market Into Your Clients

A few days ago, I talked about the importance of diversifying your income. If you aren't lucky enough to have piles of passive income flowing into your bank account every month, you most likely will need to find clients for your freelance business.

Some freelancers think that this is one of the greatest challenges when it comes to building a successful empire. I think it's quite the contrary. The most challenging part of running your business is keeping your clients. Anyone can impress someone at first glance and sign a new deal. It's what you do AFTER you sign that client that counts. But, I digress...

Getting clients is often as simple as thinking outside the box. There are some prerequisites, though:

1. You should know who your ideal client is. Let's face it, not everyone wants your service, and that's a good thing. After all, there's not that much of you to go around. You want to make sure you still have time for the things you need to do to keep your business thriving.
2. You should know what your clients like. Do they like roses? Boxes of candy? Those weren't real examples, but you want to make sure that you approach your client in the right way. You wouldn't want to take a church friend to a rock and roll concert. Your clients are the same. They are individuals and deserve individualized offerings.
3. You must know how to speak your client's language. That's right - I mean Jargon. People love to talk Jargon in every industry. Outsiders are often left with a strange look on their face. Think I'm joking? Ask any non-SEO person what "link juice" is. :-)

After you get those "pre-reqs" out of the way, you can move on to actually bringing clients into your business.

So, how do you passively change these people from your target market to a client? It's relatively simple.

1. Be patient. It can take time to sign a client - maybe even a year or more. The more patient and persistent you are, the more likely the client will consider you when you're ready.
2. Create "free" solutions to common problems in their industry. Webinars and teleseminars usually do an effective job at helping with these sorts of things. However, you can also use tools like eBooks, whitepapers, etc. As long as it's free, you are being helpful and when they are ready to spend the money, they will count on you for help.
3. Talk to them. Don't just talk to them when you're trying to make a sale, and don't lose contact with them when you realize that you didn't make the sale. You never know how their situtation will change, and you can be the first one there whenever they are looking for a service provider in the future.
4. Teach them something. If you can show someone how to use Facebook in 5 minutes or less, you will have a line a mile long and filled with people who are interested in this "free" social media service. As more and more people sign up, you'll have even more people to add to your content list.
5. Hang out where they hang out. Are they active in the Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce, etc.? If so, you may want to check into becoming a member. More often than not, the business contacts you gain are well worth the membership fees required to join.

What other tips do you have for passively obtaining new clients?

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Top 4 Reasons You Don't Have Any Clients and How to Change That in 2012

Psst...want to listen to this post? Find the audio at the bottom...

You've read everything related to marketing that you can get your hands on. You've followed the advice to to the letter. You have optimized your website, started social media accounts, you're running ads through Adwords. However, you haven't sold your product/service to one client. At this point, it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel or even to imagine that there is one.

Your biggest question is why. Why haven't you gotten any clients? Why have you spent countless hours and several hundred (or worse yet, thousands) of dollars to get in front of clients only to come up short each time? Why does everyone else seem so successful in their business when you aren't?

I wish I could tell you there was a "simple" answer to your questions. I even wish there was a magic potion I could give you to make clients appear on your doorstep (or the other end of your phone). Unfortunately, I'm not a genie in a bottle and this is not Aladdin. I can, however, give you some reasons that you may not have a client roster. Would you believe me if I told you that your business is suffering due to not following the most basic marketing principles? Well, listen up - it's most likely true...

I'm sure you've heard of the 4Ps, but in case you haven't, they stand for Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. One (or all) of these is the reason you don't have any clients. Let me break it down for you...

• Product: Is your product/service high-quality? Before you answer that question, you should know that this isn't a question for you to answer. Would the person who wants to use your product/service find it to be high-quality. Are you meeting a previously unmet need? Is there demand for what you are offering? If the answer to any of these questions is no, it's time to rethink your solution. This doesn't mean that what you're offering is completely off the mark. All this means is that you need to do a bit of tweaking to get things where you want them to be.
• Place: Where are you marketing your product/service? If it's something that would be of interest to the elderly, advertising on Facebook may not be the best choice (that's not to say that no older people are on Facebook). On the same token, if you are wanting to reach young adults, phonebook ads won't make sense. Ultimately, as long as you put your advertising where your target market is, you should be OK in this area.
• Price: Are you pricing your services too high? Too low? How will you ever know? You won't really. You have to decide what you are worth and hope this falls in line with what the market will bear. This is, quite possibly, one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome. Research what several of your competitors are charging and start your price right around that range.
• Promotion: What form of advertising are you using? How does this advertising reach your target market? Are you using the product/service's unique selling proposition in every piece of marketing collateral? Are you using other forms of non-interruptive advertising? This ties in very closely to place with the earlier points about where you are placing ads. How you are promoting makes a difference as well. Content marketing is a very time-consuming yet effective method (if done correctly). Ultimately, one of the best ways to promote your product/service is to give it away for free...

It's time to get back to the basics. Have you committed any of these "deadly" misfires in marketing? If so, it's not too late. You can still change things up. There is still time to save your product/service and your brand.

What can you do? Start (or cultivate a blog). Offer a giveaway. Define (or redefine) your target market. Talk to the people who make up your target market to see what they want/need from someone like you. Give more than you take. Tell people how to do everything that you do for free, and if they can't do it, guess who's the first person they'll call on?

Of course, there are many other ways that you can change up your marketing strategy, but if you don't have any clients something needs to be done sooner rather than later. What are you planning to do differently in 2012 and beyond?

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