How many online businesses are there? Research shows that only 66% of businesses were online in 2018 while this is equal to no less than 14 million. At the same time, there are around 2.05 billion of online shoppers worldwide.
These three numbers prove that digital business is prospering. Surely, you want to have (hopefully, already have) online business and grow the client base.
There’s only one simple question remaining: where and how to find clients for digital marketing?
Who are potential clients
Before you attend clients, you firstly need to generate leads and help them go through the sales funnel from the awareness to the purchase stage.
Leads, known as potential clients, are people who may become your customers. There are two types of leads, non-enriched and enriched. The first type includes those leads with little information about (this includes basic data like the name and the email to get in contact with). The second group of enriched leads contains those people with much information.
Depending on the niche, you may need and have different data:
- Personal and/or business demographics
- Business type
- Buying decision
- Company size
- Buying intent
- Values, goals, pain points, etc.
All this information means nothing if you don’t care whom you want to reach out to. Yet, you are a professional who doesn’t want to turn into a spammer and aims to be relevant. So this information about your potential clients is vital to you.
How to find clients for digital marketing
B2B and B2C niches differ a lot. Still, they are similar in the methods you can find clients for digital marketing. There are dozens of ways you can do this but let me show you four the most popular and efficient ones.
- Open directories are the trustworthy sources of leads for any business. This is thanks to the fact that businesses there are filtered according to numerous parameters (location, type, size, etc.). Lead generation directories provide not only websites of companies but contact details too.
- Databases are the oldest method that helps professionals find clients for digital marketing. The greatest disadvantage is the price (may cost up to $20k). Yet, they give you access to filtered bases of targeted and scored leads.
- Social networks are a goldmine for lead generation as there are thousands of people who are open to sales and collaboration. Depending on the niche, you can use either LinkedIn or Facebook with Twitter to reach out to them. The greatest benefit of social media is that you can get in touch with individuals (just as through emails). Also, you can use an email finder to get email addresses of people to reach out to them in a professional manner.
- Website search is implementable thanks to email hunters. They surf the relevant websites and get email addresses associated with a definite domain name. As stated above, you can use them on a social network to get the leads that suit your business.
- If you sell SEO services, look for companies that are ranking on the 2nd and 3rd page of Google. Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush (you can compare them here) to run analysis on where they currently rank, and find improvement opportunities to pitch.
Tips on how to find clients
Any company, either enterprise or a solopreneur, is searching for the best and the most targeted clients for their digital marketing. Though their clients differ, there is still much in common in the ways they generate leads.
Be informative
In this case, information stands for creating a content marketing strategy, blogging and guest posting. Whatever the niche you are in, blog posts matter. Through them, you (and, in fact, should) inform your clients and leads about something relevant to their needs.
This also includes another thing, the visibility of your content. This is where SEO and, if you want to use them, automated blogging tools come to the rescue and helps your posts be well-ranked in search engines. The higher the position your blog or guest post takes, the more people will read it, the more clients you may get. You will be the luckiest if your post gets into a snippet.
Pay for ads
Targeted online advertising is what drives a significant number of leads to you. What makes paid ads so fetching? Targeted ads aim to attract potential clients based on their keyword intent, not demographics or any other data.
Another yummy point about paid ads is that you can choose exactly the source you need. There are separate tools of ads for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Google, and Instagram. There are two unpleasant things about paid ads: the price and the necessity to pay for each of them.
Let’s say that your business is lead inspection Baltimore. Setting up some local social media campaigns can be very beneficial for your business.
Be social
You won’t get any clients for digital marketing if you stay passive online and do nothing. This is you who need leads and clients, not they need you. To become visible and recognizable, you need to be active on social networks and communities.
This includes groups on Facebook and LinkedIn where you can take part in discussions, Quora and Reddit where you can share relevant information and answer the questions of other users. Moreover, you can join some groups in Telegram or Slack where you have an opportunity to not only participate in discussions but also connect people in person.
Participate in events
Conferences are a great opportunity for you to come into the spotlight. There are a few options for you:
- Join a conference as a visitor or as a speaker
- Host your own conference
- Sponsor a conference
- Set aside some time for an open house
All those will help you grow brand awareness and gain new leads.
Build partnerships
Partnerships are profitable in the means of passive lead generation. You need to reach out to companies you’d like to build partnerships, communicate a bit on the collaboration terms, and it’s all done!
There are two options on the search parameters:
- Find an enterprise with high prices. This will make you more profitable to small and medium businesses.
- Reach out to your similar businesses that don’t offer what you do. This collaboration will be profitable for both of you.
Be unique
Whatever business you are in, whatever tools, services or products you offer, your selling proposition needs to be unique. Surely, when you were getting into business, you’ve researched the market and found out what there already is in the market. Still, you need to emphasize it, even if your business is a hundred years old already.
How many social networks are there? 5? 7? 20? And how many are there professional networks? LinkedIn’s example proves its uniqueness by means of the word professional. Rocketlink, as well as Snovio, highlights their exclusivity by means of a short word, any.
Find what differs your offer from other similar ones. More than that, not only have something outstanding but say it loud! Your clients and leads have to know about your uniqueness.
Define your price
High price doesn’t necessarily equal high quality. Your aim is to gain as many leads as possible and convert as many of them into customers as possible.
One of the key aspects that influence the buying decision is the price. But how to price a service? To find clients for digital marketing, consider A/B testing of your pricing. This will attract new leads and make them be more favorable to you when considering a new service.
Get as much information as you can
As a professional, you need to know a lot. There are at least two points you need to have information about.
You need to analyze the market and find out what your competitors offer and at what price. You do remember what for, don’t you? Mainly, this will give an opportunity to develop your business and enlarge the service. Secondly, being aware of the alternative prices, you will adjust your own ones.
Secondly, you need to get as much information on your leads and clients as you can. This will later help you reach out to them, nurture them, and build trust relationships.
Be relevant
People want to have what they want to have.
Much of a muchness, I know. But think of the following. If you want or even need a tool to send email sequences, would you have a desire to get a project management tool? Doubt it. Will a salesperson persuade you? Not sure.
Another example. Let’s assume you come across the article titled “How to find clients on Facebook”. Of course, you open it because the title is relevant to what you need to read. But when you open it, you find out that there’s not a word about searching for clients on Facebook, it’s all about professional communication on Facebook. Relevant? Not exactly.
Whatever you are doing, writing a guest post or a cold email, be relevant.
Create an affiliate program
An affiliate program is a real savior for you to find new clients for your digital business. The word of mouth is still working and every person is more likely to buy on the recommendation of an acquaintance.
If your friend sends you a link with a comment “I’ve bought these jeans from here! Enjoy!”, would you follow their advice? We both know the answer.
When creating an affiliate program:
- Decide on commissions
- Think of the maximum number of referrals (or make it unlimited)
- Write the affiliate program policy
- Determine the payment terms
- Choose the affiliate platform
If you need some inspiration, have a look at these referral program examples.
Ask for referrals
There’s hardly anyone who will trust you speaking about yourself more than a person speaking about you. Analyze your users or clients, find the most loyal ones, and offer them to write a review about your service. Add their comments and reviews in your email campaign, in your posts on social media, etc. Everyone loves social proof.
May success follow you
Now that you know how to find clients for digital marketing, you can do this like a pro. Relevant content and offers at affordable prices, unique selling proposition and paid ads, social networks and referrals are what will support you.
Written by:
Azat Eloyan
Azat is a digital marketer and mobile marketing enthusiast. With over 5 years’ experience in content marketing and SEO, he believes that valuable and informative content is key. He is currently working as a marketing specialist at SendSMS.Global a service which is providing SMS marketing services globally.
