When you're self-employed and running a business, clients are without a doubt the most important aspect. Without a regular clientele your business will struggle to see consistency, so maintaining a strong customer relationship and client base is key.

However, with so many businesses taking social media by storm to reach out to potential clients and offer similar services, businesses can no longer rely solely on approaching customers. Instead, in order to expand your business’ clientele, you need to find ways to get customers to seek you out.

Sounds unusual, right? That’s exactly why it works.

Here are our top 5 tips to get your clients to seek you out, in a short process that will have your business standing out from the crowd in no time.

1. Perfect your ‘Elevator Pitch’

Step one to engaging potential clients is writing a strong ‘elevator pitch’ that explains exactly what your business does and showcases the products and services you offer.

It’s important to be as detailed but as succinct as possible here and really aim to attract a niche – you want to let people know that you’re the perfect ‘expert’ business for them.

In order to do this successfully, make sure you’re absolutely clear and confident when talking about your business, and that you understand your target audience/niche fully.

There are thousands of businesses out there that will be offering similar services to you, so it’s imperative that you understand and emphasise what makes you better than the alternatives. Ensure you can answer WHY they should come to you.

2. Shift your approach tactics

Secondly, you need to change your mindset when it comes to sourcing clients and connecting with them. Too often, businesses are set on finding potential clients online and messaging them straight away to offer their services and sell, sell, sell.

However, this isn’t effective when your potential client also has 20 other businesses approaching them with the exact same tactic.

A good idea is to change the way you do things and adjust your tactics slightly. Instead of going in full steam ahead, approach them more gently, introduce yourself, educate them, help them, and then make your offering to them. Your end goal will remain the same, however, you’ll be building a positive relationship with the client first and setting yourself apart from the crowd.

In order to do this successfully, you need to use your knowledge of your business’ uniqueness to make it shine so they can see the sparkle.

Educate them on how your services can help compliment them and what your services offer that no one else does. Above all, be friendly and let them know you’re open to questions and happy to elaborate if they’re interested!

3. Provide free value and build trust

Providing free value for your followers and clients is a great way to build likeability and trust so they get to know the real you. In order to do this, educate your followers on your social media and give free resources on your website if possible and provide content that they can’t find easily anywhere else.

Let them get a taster of your business so they can 'try before they buy'.

For example, if you’re a lash tech, how about some handy information on how to maintain your lashes or how your natural lashes shed/grow? This will help to educate your audience and build trust and authenticity for your brand.

Another way to achieve this is to put forward actionable content on a regular basis for your clients. This way, you’re allowing potential clients to engage further with the business and potentially spread the word to a wider audience.

If you’re wanting to expand this, you could even offer discounts or free sessions on your page – allowing clients to come to you instead of you directly approaching them.

4. Increase your business’ visibility

This is vital. If you want clients to seek you out, you need your business to be visible and easily accessible. One simple method to achieve this is by enhancing your social media platforms and expanding onto as many appropriate platforms as possible to ensure maximum visibility.

Warning: Do not spread yourself too thinly here though and create a pressure cooker for yourself where you are juggling too many things! It’s better to do a couple really well than have a presence everywhere that is driving you to a nervous breakdown!

Make sure you’re using platforms that your ideal clients are also likely to be using, and make sure your account is active and consistent for best results.

Alternatively, as well as social media you should also be utilising Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques to boost your business’ visibility on search engines. This can have a hugely positive impact on the reach of your business, so make sure to research this thoroughly and adopt as many relevant tactics as possible.

Once you’ve implemented these strategies, the key is to maintain your focus and continue to develop them. By doing this, you’ll be ensuring your content is relevant and engaging for potential clients.

5. Systemise a process of converting leads into clients

Last but not least, in order to encourage clients to seek you out, you need to fine-tune your process of converting 'leads' (potential new clients or prospective clients) into clients. This can seem daunting at first, however, once you get the hang of it, it’ll become almost second nature and the results can be outstanding.

In order to do this successfully, you need a solid process in place to avoid any hiccups on calls or when talking to potential clients. Start by writing out a mini script to start off with and use as a backup just in case you get a bit tongue-tied or stuck on the call.

As you get more confident, you’ll be able to branch off into more detail and free conversational chatter without relying on having the words in front of you.

Remember: Try to always end any calls or conversations with an action for the other person. Your aim is to convert them into clients, so be sure to ask whether they’re interested in your business or taking further steps at the end of every exchange.

Ready to get started on your journey to more clients? Be sure to let us know how you get on!