Local Search Brainstorm: Best Ways to Get New Clients Fast? Round 2

[Linda Buquet]

<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/questmark.jpg" alt="questmark" width="15%" />

IF YOU NEEDED 3 NEW CLIENTS IN THE NEXT 2 WEEKS
WHAT WOULD YOU DO???​

Was it a slow summer? Need more new clients?

The summer lull is almost over. For most people kids are back to school and vacations are almost over. So I thought it would be a good time to start a new brainstorming session about How to get NEW clients... the lifeblood of every business!

So the big question: what's the best way to get clients fast if you are a Local Consultant or agency?


Here are a few random prospecting ideas in no particular order...

.:. Ranking your site high for your main keywords - let prospects find you

.:. Social media marketing? If so please specify: Facebook, Linkedin, G+ or other

.:. Small business seminars in your local market

.:. Business networking groups in your local market

.:. Cold calling

.:. Email marketing

.:. Snail mail

.:. Referral program

.:. PPC

I'm sure there are many other marketing methods. What's working for you???

Let's think outside the box and come up with a great repository of lead gen ideas.


Over 7,000 of you have read my advice <a href="http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/consultants-corner/1213-jumpstart-your-local-search-consulting-business-list.html">in this post</a>, which was basically:

Find a niche. Build authority. Then ATTRACT qualified leads - instead of chasing them!
So that's my best (OLD) advice. But it's not necessarily fast. It takes time to build rep.


I'll tell you what might be good right now... what if there was a way to look at 7 packs before these new 3 packs hit? You could contact the businesses in your niche that didn't make it to the 3 pack. There is a way. Just look at the Local Finder in your target markets and contact those who are in 4th - 7th place. I'm sure many of them were shell shocked by the changes and would like to try to get into the 3 pack.


The Places Scout Find Local Clients module could help with that. PLUS you can set it to pull leads by pretty much any criteria. It can provide up to 400 points of data about any business, giving you a wealth of background intelligence data that can be used for competitive analysis or prospecting purposes.

With this data, you can hand pick targeted businesses based on any of those 400 data points and offer these businesses a wide range of services depending on the services you offer. (Find SMBs that have not claimed their Google listing OR don't have a FB page OR have a bad rep and need help with ORM OR whatever service you want to focus on.) So that's one prospecting tool to have in your arsenal!


I asked about the best ways to get new clients, a little over a year ago and many pros shared great prospecting tips. Head over to check out their ideas, then come back and share your own.

IF YOU NEEDED 3 NEW CLIENTS IN THE NEXT 2 WEEKS
WHAT WOULD YOU DO???​

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[Dino]

Thanks , Linda. Ranking well will get it done, since it's what most of us already do, but it certainly isn't fast unless you're already there.

It's not as easy as it used to be, but the fastest results for me have been with old fashioned face-to-face networking. Put me in a group of business owners and I can almost always come out with a new prospect - and I suck at selling. Lately, I've been doing a lot of webinars and seminars. Those work, but you have to target the right audience or you'll get a bunch of start-ups with no money.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for weighing in Dino!

I know lots of consultants that have great success with local networking & seminars.
Great point about picking the right audience!

 

[JoyHawkins]

That lead generation thing from Places Scout looks really cool. Has anyone tried it or could we see what a sample report looks like?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Joy it does SOOOOO much.

I'm going to be doing a big post on that module specifically and especially how to use it for competitive research and reverse engineering the algo.

I have a screenshot of the new lead finder/competitive analysis reports somewhere.
Let me find them. BRB

 

[Linda Buquet]

I have 8 screenshots for the Places Scout Find Local Clients module. (Which also does competitive analysis.) BUT they are huge and won't fit in the forum so I had to upload to blog.

BUT don't have the carpal bandwidth to do them all.

So here are a couple. I asked Mark to do screenshots for SEATTLE CHIROPRACTOR

The 1st one shows: NAPW and some other metrics. So skipping..

This 2nd one shows some of the GMB metrics like: categories, description, # of reviews, latest review, latest NEGATIVE review, # of followers, etc.
http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/leads-2.png

Here is the 7th screenshot, which shows a bunch of organic metrics like whether keyword or location are in meta title, domain, head tags, whether site is mobile and if it's responsive.
http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/leads-7.png

AMAZING! See how great this is for competitive research and reverse engineering the algo for the market you are tackling for your clients???

And even with 8 screenshots it can't begin to show you all 400 datapoints you can sort by and generate reports for.

When I do my big post showing all the features, I'm going to try to consolidate all the main metrics you guys would be interested all in one screen shot. OR maybe by then, Mark will have all the screenshot uploaded to the site.

But best way to see all features is just do the Free Trial at Places Scout.

 

[KabanaSoft]

That lead generation thing from Places Scout looks really cool. Has anyone tried it or could we see what a sample report looks like?

@Joy - we recently posted updated screenshots of what the data looks like here:

https://www.placesscout.com/screenshots

The screenshots for the competitive analysis / lead gen data are towards the bottom of the page.

Let me know what you think when you get a chance!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Awesome! Thanks Mark! So glad you got all the new screenshots up.

Yes Joy, really excited to hear what you and Colan have to say.

I can see you guys using this ALL DAY LONG at Imprezzio for competitive analysis and reverse engineering the algo for various client markets. Either new clients or tough clients in competitive markets you are having a hard time ranking.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Oh and we should have mentioned, the <a href="https://www.placesscout.com/lead-generation">Lead Generation Software / Competitive Analysis</a> page has been updated with all the new features that module does and there are screenshots there too.

There are sections for Lead Gen, the topic of this post but also for how to use it for competitive analysis and reverse engineering the algo.

I just gave Mark some suggestions for some important new features, so those will be coming out soon as well.

 

[Jim Froling]

To secure new clients fast there is nothing better than just getting out there in your local community. We all focus on local search. So why not work our local communities?

For much of this summer my business development was severely constrained as I was helping my son with his job due to a broken ankle. Help him or he gets fired from his job and moves back into the house. Easy choice for me: Help Him.

As a result my offline networking dates crashed to near zero. Resorting to just PPC, Social Media, Email marketing, etc., failed to produce a single qualified lead. Google even co-sponsored a Digital Breakfast with me for area realtors. (Tough niche by the way).

Now the kid's ankle is healed and I'm back to attending local networking events. Went to one yesterday and walked away with three suspects/prospects that I can close within the next two weeks, or sooner.

My hook? Give my services (some) away for FREE! I can do a website analysis (through SEM Rush) that can tell me SO much about a website's basic architecture. Takes seconds to do and gives me some pointed talking points for the prospective client.

"Your title tags are weak", "Your meta description doesn't include your best keywords", etc.

Prospect is like a deer in the headlights. No clue.

Opportunity.