I want to clear up some of the myths and confusion around how to attract clients online.
It can be tricky to navigate and overwhelming and not easy to get right!
And there are also loads of opportunities to find your ideal clients online - people who are willing to pay you what you are worth. You just need a good strategy to attract them!
Many people feel like they need to be doing a hundred different things, so they end up doing nothing, or just posting pretty pictures or motivational quotes.
So how do you get paying clients online – not just likes and followers?
If you get overwhelmed and confused when it comes to marketing, or you struggle to create content that actually leads to PAYING clients, then you’ll love what I have to share with you.
The number one thing you need to do to attract clients online is this:
Communicate your value.
The businesses that succeed know how to communicate their value.
Every time you share online, ask yourself - is this communicating my value?
If you’re investing a lot of time on social media looking at people’s stuff, for example, that’s good but it should be a small part of your overall marketing strategy.
A good question to ask yourself is “Is this the best use of my time?”
Are you getting paid clients from your time on social media?
If not, you need to adjust your strategy.
You have skills, knowledge and experience that people can benefit from, you just need to be able to clearly communicate that online.
Here are 3 things you can do to communicate your value.
1. Organise your knowledge
Successful businesses take people from disorganised to organised. And the better you do that, the more valuable you will be.
Ben Harvey from Authentic Education taught me this and it really resonated with me. Organised knowledge will always be valuable to people.
So you need to organise everything you know about your topic and create a methodology or a model.
If you’re a health coach, you need to make sure you’re super organised about stuff that you already know about health.
If you’re a relationship coach, you need to make sure you’re super organised about what that you already know about relationships.
Clients are drawn to getting their problems solved and improving their lives, and that comes through organised knowledge.
You need to package up your offers ready for people to pay you money for, then share 'tasters' of what you offer for free online.
When you post content, make sure it has steps and a process, not just your random thoughts.
Digest and dissect things for people - they appreciate it. Yes, it takes time, but it's challenging to communicate your value without it.
2. Join the conversation that your ideal client is having in their mind
Online marketing is not just about pushing out what we want to say, we need to get into their mind and use the language that they are using.
Instead of yelling down the ‘hole’ to where our clients are, we need to get down into that hole with them and we walk them out the journey.
On social media, this looks like using their language. Talking about the pain and the problem. A lot of people don’t want to do this, they want it to be all happy and positive all the time.
They will scroll past if you use ‘insiders’ language – instead speak in the language where people think “She gets me”.
We find this out by actually having conversations – two-way! Not just pushing out our stuff.
When you talk to people, take note of their language. How they are expressing their hopes, dreams, fears, desires and frustrations.
Survey people, use polls, use informal conversations with people to 'mine for gold' that you can use to help more people like them.
Start your content by asking the questions that your ideal clients are asking themselves.
3. Give consistent, specific, relevant and helpful content
A lot of people have said to me “I don’t want to give my good stuff away, because then people won't want to pay me.
This mindset will cost you.
You need to show people you can help them, by actually helping them!
Yes, it's important that we don't leave people with the false perception that they can solve all their problems with our free content.
But we do need to show people our value in advance or they won't pay us at all.
We’ve all got access to information on Google and YouTube.
But people want more than that. They want a faster way from A to B.
They need accountability and support.
People appreciate consistent content, not general – but talking specifically into their problem.
Is your ideal client benefiting from your content now?
Think about your content strategy. Are using your organised knowledge to communicate your value?
If you’re not putting out a consistent, helpful, chunky piece of content at least once a week, you’re probably losing money.
You’re not showcasing your genius zone and your knowledge if you’re just reposting other people’s stuff, or putting pretty pictures up.
Entertainment and inspiration are good – but you need to position yourself as an educator because people need help.
Also, people will value you more if you speak within your genius zone and ‘stay in your lane’.
So where to start with creating content?
If you haven't already, you need to create a content strategy.
I recommend you start by thinking “Am I better at writing or speaking?”
If you’re not currently doing consistent content, just choose one – either written or video.
If you're already doing one of them, perhaps it's time to add the other.
If you’re good at speaking, do videos consistently.
Make sure your live videos are longer than 3 minutes for Facebook. To do this, you need to be giving education. Education for your ideal clients that helps them solve their problem now.
If you're good at writing, write blogs on your website then send people there via social media.
So which one of these 3 things do you need to focus on the most at the moment?
1. Organising your knowledge
2. Joining the conversation that your ideal client is having in their mind
3. Giving consistent, specific, relevant and helpful content
Your next step is to write a plan on how to execute this.
Maybe you need to connect more with your ideal clients at networking events.
Maybe you need to spend more time in Facebook groups.
Maybe you need to create your own Facebook group so that people can receive regular, organised knowledge from you.
Maybe you need to design a content plan around the 5 questions you most get asked about your topic. Or the most common myths or mistakes people make when it comes to the area of life you’re helping people with.
It’s hard to get clients if they don’t know, like or trust you because you’re not communicating your value.
Be you, value your strengths, gifts, experience and skills and don’t be afraid to put that out into the world.
P.S. Did you enjoy today's content and would like to learn more about how to attract your ideal clients?
Then I invite you to join me TONIGHT (Thursday 9th May) at 7.30pm for the ‘How To Attract Your Ideal Clients Online’ webinar.
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