Before you spend any more time, money or energy chasing new clients or customers, it might be a good idea to first get CLEAR about the most likely way people will find you.

According to research from HUBSPOT, these are the top 4 ways a prospective customer goes about selecting a professional service provider:

• Recommendations
• Referrals
• Brand awareness
• Networking

And I’m going to drill into each of these in this blog post!

1. RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PEOPLE WE TRUST

When a trusted friend/acquaintance provides a word-of-mouth recommendation, this significantly increases the changes of us using that service or product.

No surprise there.

Most business owners will tell you recommendations from other clients/customers are their number one source of business.

That’s awesome, because obviously it means you’re doing a great job.

However, there the problem with this strategy that is that growing a business with organic recommendations can be painfully slow.

The key is to ignite your efforts, this means you need to stop waiting for them to slowly roll in and start driving them in by actively seeking out testimonials from your clients/customers to use as social proof in your marketing.

How? Simply ask for them – let your valued clients know that you are doing a marketing push, and ask them for a testimonial or review. Send them through to your Google My Business page and ask them to leave you a review! Or to share your content on their social media!

Clients or customers who love your business will generally be really happy to do this for you, especially if you are able to give them a prompter about what they might say!

 2. REFERRALS FROM OTHER BUSINESSES

Outside of your clients your next best source of business are the clients of other quality service providers.

I know that I’m constantly asked by my clients for referrals to other service professionals I would recommend.

This is one of the reasons you need to build a strong network of service professionals, people you have real faith in. The fact is when you recommend another service provider to one of your clients you place your reputation on the line.

You don’t want to HOPE they will do a good job and look after your client well, you want to KNOW they will.

I know there are a lot of referral networks out there, but my rule of thumb is if you don’t know the quality of the work another service supplier offers be careful. Referring someone who let’s your client down can be a costly exercise.

The lesson in this:_

Build a great network of service providers around you and

ONLY refer if you’re certain they do good work.

For many businesses, referrals from other professionals are their number one source of business.

And it makes sense because people like to buy from people they trust. Referrals leverage the trust of a friend, or the positive experience a customer has had with another service provider.

It makes the buying decision faster and much easier to make.

3. BRAND AWARENESS

Having brand awareness is the third most likely way someone will decided to work with you.

If you can build brand awareness it means your work and reputation precede you.

It shows you have earned “top of mind awareness” in the mind of the prospect.

This is the goal of any serious brand.

Here’s a quick brand awareness test for you.

Grab a pen and piece of paper and as you read the next 3 questions write down the very first words that come into your mind.

Ready?

Okay here we go.

• Write down the name of a Soft Drink company.
• Write down the name of an American car company.
• Write down the name of a baby shampoo company.

What did you write?

The most common responses to these questions in the past generally have been:

• Coca Cola
• Ford
• Johnson and Johnson

What’s important to understand is those companies have invested Billions to try and make that happen.

And we know that the tide is turning towards more customers seeking out the “local” businesses and products instead of defaulting to the “mega-corporates” and their marketed products.

So – in a small business sense, the key is to focus on becoming famous for one thing.

To narrow your offerings and own a niche where you are the first name people think of in your field. 

 4. NETWORKING

The HUBSPOT study actually found that people who saw someone speaking at a seminar or event was a way they selected a service professional.

That’s right – SPEAKING is an awesome way to attract clients!

The fact is speaking is one of the most powerful marketing tools you will ever possess.

It’s all part of your BUSINESS NETWORKING – getting yourself out there and making yourself known to others!

If you have the confidence to network and speak in front of a group of people then you have the potential to market your business like few others do!

Why is speaking at networking events or seminars so effective?

Here’s a short list.

• You get to speak to MANY making it time efficient.
• You get to provide massive value upfront.
• You get to demonstrate your expertise and share your knowledge.
• You get to build rapid trust.
• You get a massive competitive advantage.

These are just a few of the reasons why networking, and even better – speaking at events – is such an effective tool for business building.

So – let’s recap – if you are wanting to bring more customers or clients to your business, then make sure you have some strategy around the following:

• Recommendations
• Referrals
• Brand awareness
• Networking

And definitely reach out to me if you need some guidance with this!

CONTACT JENN:

I love helping people with ways that they can attract their ideal clients to their business. Simply Book a discovery call with me here!

Don’t forget to join my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group too! The sharing of experiences and expertise with other small business owners makes it such a supportive community.

Or you can DM me on Instagram or send me an email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au

I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Yorta Yorta People, on which I conduct my business today and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this blog post today.

About the Author:

Jenn Donovan of Social Media & Marketing Australia.  Jenn’s a coach and mentor from rural NSW and is all about empowering business owners to earn what they’re worth so they can make a bigger difference in the world.  The Founder of Buy From a Bush Business, Co-Founder of Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business Marketplace and host of the very popular podcast Small Business Made Simple, Jenn is all about community and humans interacting with humans!  H2H Marketing – human to human marketing. Jenn talks the talk but importantly walks the walk! Jenn’s online community is over 320,000 with her famous Facebook Group currently at almost 351,000 members and still growing every day.  She’s the major of her own little online city!

Get in touch – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au

On Instagram – @jenndonovan_

On Facebook – Jenn Donovan

Or on LinkedIn as Jenn Donovan