How to reliably get new clients
Cold emails to get new clients
Follow ups to get replies
Link building emails
Partner with influencers
Graceful apologies
Pitch journalists
Onboard new users
Ask for donations
Ask for referrals
Send a message to all of your email contacts asking them if they know someone your services can help
❶ How are you? Wishing you, your family and friends safety and health during this time. đ︎
A bit of an update from my side:
❷ As some of you may know, I started helping clients with their digital marketing 3+ years ago. It has been immensely rewarding to help business owners get customers and make a living out of doing what they love.
❸ As businesses cut their operations and tighten their budgets during this time, I also find myself in a difficult spot.
So I have a big ask to make -
❹ Do you know someone who is open to creative ideas to keep customers coming, especially during times like this?
❺ I can offer them a free 30-min brainstorm session. Even if we donât end up working together, theyâd still get a lot of value and ideas out of it.
❻ Hereâs a template youâre welcome to use:
Hey,
I know a digital marketer whoâs offering a free 30-min brainstorm session for getting customers during this time. Let me know if youâd like to connect with her.
❼ If you can pass this along to someone you think I can help, it would make a huge difference for me. Big thank you.
❽ If I can return the favor in any way, please let me know.
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❶ Start off by wishing them safety and health, to show awareness and acknowledgement of whatâs happening in the world.
❷ Briefly mention the client work youâve been doing, framed in terms of a heartwarming relatable benefit you provide your clients (ie not a businessy benefit like âhigher conversionsâ).
❸ Honestly admit that businesses have been cutting back and this affects you as well.
❹ Mention something specific you can help their contact with.
❺ Offer their contact something valuable upfront so your email contact is more likely to refer you to them.
❻ Provide a pre-written template your contact can adapt and use. This makes it easier for them to refer you and gives you more control over how they talk about what you do. Focus the referral message mostly on your upfront offer so their contact doesnât shy away thinking that youâll hard pitch them.
❼ Mention how much it would mean to you if your contact passed along your message to activate their intrinsic altruism.
❽ To express your gratitude, offer to help them with something in return.
Proactively reach out to companies who are still actively spending and hiring
While many businesses have cut back their operations and spending, some others are still chugging along and have the budget to pay for your services.
How do you find these largely unaffected businesses?
1. Go to Facebookâs Ad Library and enter the names of a few businesses that you think would benefit from your services.
If you see that they posted an ad on or after March 16 (approximately when coronavirus started severely affecting businesses around the world), this shows that they still have spending money and are likely able to afford your services.
2. Enter â[name of company] jobsâ into Google.
If you see active job listings from this company that was posted on or after March 16, thereâs a good chance that they also have the budget to still hire freelancers and contractors as well.
Now you can reach out to these prospects by providing 2-3 actionable ideas related to your services and tailored for their business. This is much more effective than just talking about your benefits and results because now you're not just offering skills and experience prospects have to figure out how to put to use, youâre offering them ready-to-go solutions to improve their business.
❶ I came across your comment on Product Hunt about LeadBot.
❷ In terms of attracting more ready-to-convert leads, I found asking these questions work well for coming up with the best content topics:
❸ ă» What would someone who would benefit from my product be searching for? For LeadBot, topics would include: checklist for qualifying prospects, how to score prospects, how to identify the top sources of qualified prospects.
ă»What key points do the top ranked articles for these topics cover? Enter each topic into Google and see what points each of these articles cover. If there are actionable steps or valuable insights most or all of the articles miss about one of these topics, this is great opportunity for you to create a 10x better article to attract more readers and in turn, more leads.
ă»Create and offer a downloadable resource related to the topic of each of your popular articles. Someone is much more likely to give you their email address in exchange for supplementary material about the topic they just read. After they sign up, you can nurture them about LeadBot.
❹ Would you be open to a 15-min brainstorm where we can come up a few high converting content topics for LeadBot?
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❶ In one sentence, mention where you found the prospect to open the conversation.
❷ Mention you'd like to share your process for achieving a business goal that's important for them (and related to your services).
❸ Share 2-3 key steps of your process. This lets you provide value and demonstrate your expertise upfront and shows them exactly what you can do for their business.
❹ Ask them for an initial call, framed as a brainstorm session so they are excited to learn more from you. The call will give you a chance to build trust and rapport with them and further demonstrate your value to further entice them to hire you.
Can't afford to wait for leads or referrals to come through? Here are 6 more templates to proactively reach out to clients.
If a client is requesting to end a contract or project, offer to continue working at a reduced scope and rate
Note: itâs important to be sensitive and not ask this of clients who have had to completely pause their operations and truly donât have the cashflow to pay for your services.
❶ I know it has not been easy for you and your business and I would love to keep supporting you during this time.
❷ Would it be possible to continue working together, with a reduced scope and rate focused on the highest impact campaigns?
Even though customers may be cutting back, since you offer a subscription box of lifestyle products, this gives you a huge advantage while many people are staying at home.
❸ Here are a few ideas to keep sales steady while building community and goodwill:
ă»3-4 emails and social posts a week that share one activity someone can do with a product from one of your recent boxes to stay on top of mind and keep sales flowing
ă»small giveaway contest to incentivise customers to share what theyâre doing at home with your products - re-share as social proof at key points in the subscription flow
❹ Let me know what you think,
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❶ Acknowledge the difficulty of the situation and express your desire to keep supporting them.
❷ Ask if you can work together with a reduced scope and rate focused on the highest impact activities so they can get enough ROI during a period of reduced cashflow to keep you on.
❸ Provide 2-3 concrete high impact ideas you can implement for your client during this time so they can clearly see what theyâd get out of continuing to work with you.
❹ Ask them what they think to open the conversation.
Reach out and get hired for a remote job
During this time, you can opt to apply for a remote position at a company for long-term work and stable income. You can personalize the email below to send to the hiring manager or the manager in charge of the role's department to get ahead of the hiring process and stand out.
❶ Saw that you're looking for a Content Marketing Manager.
❷ Based on my experience working with ecommerce brands, I found the key to hitting targets quarter after quarter is staying on top of your audience's mind with wow/lol/omg-worthy content, and reaching new people with their reshares. A few content ideas that be shared and repackaged many times:
❸ă»USP campaign: offer an incentive to customers who are 1-2 days from receiving their bags to record their unboxing reactions - share on socials, emails and articles
ă»Fun infographics: resale value of popular bag brands, the most rare bags in the world, average bag price of popular brands (excluding outliers)
ă»Bag verification: Instagram Stories of the Baggr team verifying bags (skip scenes that reveal any trade secrets) and reshare clips via blog articles and emails. Find Stories are one of the best mediums to build trust.
❹ Let me know if you'd be open to an initial chat? No matter what, we can come up with a few cool content ideas for Baggr. :)
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❶ Reference the job listing you're reaching out to them about.
❷ Share an important way to achieve a key goal highlighted in the job description to show them you know what you're doing.
❸ Share a few actionable ideas related to the role to get them excited about hiring you so you can implement these ideas for them.
❹ Ask for an initial chat, framed in terms of a brainstorm so they know they'd get value out of chatting with you no matter what.
Offer your clients and prospects a free strategy session
Provide value upfront by offering free strategy sessions to prospects and clients. Share a few actionable ideas of what their business can do to get through these times related to your services and some of them may hire you to implement them.
❶ To support you and your business during these uncertain times, Iâve opened up a few spots for free 1-on-1 strategy sessions.
❷ We can talk about:
ă»ideas to retain your existing customers
ă»relevant and socially sensitive content to share during this time thatâs relevant for your customers and business
❸ Book a 1-on-1 strategy session with me here
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❶ Offer to support their business during this time by providing a free strategy session. Subtly mention that there are just a few spots available to spur them to take action.
❷ List a few actionable topics you can go over with them to pique their interest.
❸ Provide an easy way for them to schedule a free time slot with you.
Reach out to other experts in your field to learn from each other
During this time, you can reach out to people in the same field whose work you look up to and ask them for a call to learn from each other. This can also lead to a new connection and opportunities down the road.
❶ Really liked your tip on how to make images look like backgrounds in emails.
❷ I work in email marketing as well. Wondering, would you be open to a 15-min brainstorm where we can trade some tips?
❸A few off the top of my head:
ă»If you want to center a few elements or images, I find it easier to use & nbsp; than tables and padding to add space between them
ă»Finding behavior triggered emails generate a lot more sales than broadcast ones - nudging them to act while they're "hot"
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❶ Provide a meaningful comment about something work-related they shared.
❷ Mention you work in the same field and ask if they would be open to a chat to learn from each other.
❸ Tease 1-2 learnings you can share to show that you're also an expert in the field and it would be worth it to chat with you.
