There’s only 3 major ways to get clients for your services
1 – reaching out to new folks
2 – reaching out to people you already know
3 – driving inbound
Let’s dive into each since there’s a lot of confusion in the marketplace (it doesn’t have to be this way)
1 – Reaching out to new folks
This includes
• cold emails
• cold LinkedIn messages
The only way to make these cool is to be relevant:
have a legitimate reason to reach out and add value
Your goals can include
• wanting to be on their podcast
• you want them to be on your podcast or show or blog
• you want to introduce yourself in a call and see if there’s a way to support them
2 – Reaching out to people you already know
This is your warm network of:
• Existing clients
• Past clients
• Past deals that didn’t close
• 2nd degree connections of people you know
This is separate from “warm outbound from inbound requests” (that comes up next)
3 – Inbound
There’s a lot of confusion here.
Inbound isn’t your content, it’s the activity that happens because of your content.
Before we dive into that, let’s discuss content:
you must make content that your ideal clients and partners will consume
For some that may look like a
• course
• podcast
• blog
• newsletter
• video series
• YouTube channel
• straight LinkedIn content
your ideal clients dictate your approach, so don’t follow some internet influencer’s approach or someone you look up to just because it looks cool.
Content works when you generate inbound activity
• profile views
• website views
• inbound comments/emails/messages
Follow up on all of these.
Generate conversations, build relationships, and win new business.
Once you find what works, you can use ads to amplify your message.
That’s it.
There’s a lot you can be doing, but focus on what works:
1 – talking to new people (cold)
2 – getting referrals (warm)
3 – attracting ideal clients (inbound)