Estimated reading time: 3 mins
Whether you are alone sole trader, freelancer, small business start-up or a corporate giant. It can be tough to make it and find leads in a very saturated world. With more and more niches being filled every day, and more and more people joining the mix and making the market even more saturated. It can sometimes seem impossible to find a gap and then find customers. However, it doesn’t have to be this way! There are various options that you can choose from that can help improve your chances of gaining business leads!
Networking
Networking is one of the best ways to gain leads for your business, and there are several reasons for this. Firstly, it’s personal. You can go directly and talk to people, often from the same area of expertise or people who are going to network primarily to find someone to help them. Then, when you find someone who is looking for something that you can do, then you can really talk and build a relationship with them right there and then. Then, if all goes well, and you have exchanged contact details, you can start talking about what each other wants and then start the business negotiation and hopefully gain a long term client.
Networking events are also good to get your name out there, and then this leads to word of mouth, which this article will delve into more deeply later.
Approach Agencies
Marketing agencies like Due North have become invaluable to businesses because they can cut out the stress that comes with generating leads. Leads need to be one (or all) of the following to businesses:
- Cheaper.
- Better quality.
- Higher in volume.
Having a marketing agency on your side can give you the focus to create a winning strategy, while potentially covering all three bases. When we do not understand how to approach the act of getting leads, quality always trumps quantity!
Browse the Web
Another way to get customers and project leads as a business is to simply browse the web. Today, most companies have an online presence. Platforms for finding projects and leads that you can bid on such as onlinetenders can also be a good alternative.
Using social media is also something that you can do, for free, to get your message out there. Or, if you are in the place to be able to invest in social media marketing, boosting posts and getting some targeted adverts may also be a good idea! You can share what you have done, for example, if you are a graphic designer social media, which tends to be a very visual platform is amazing for sharing your work with the world. Social media also houses many users, FaceBook, for example, has 2 billion active monthly users, which is a huge pool that most likely houses many of your target market!
Also, by sharing your experience and skillset, showcasing your personality and branding yourself as an authoritative voice on social media, you can quickly build an audience on multiple platforms (Instagram and Twitter to name a few) and use your newfound circle to attract new customers and leads for your business!
Word of Mouth
Word of mouth, as it said was going to mentioned once more in more detail, and here goes! Word of mouth is great because once again its a free piece of marketing, that if done right, can garner you, new clients, forever! If more happy clients leave your business, then they will tell others who then come and then leave happy and tell more and so on and so on. It is a proven method and its a method that you should apply to your business!
