How to Get Clients For Your Business- Marketing Without Social Media
Table of Contents
Many small businesses are basically dooming themselves. In today’s post I’ll tell you how to get clients – without the use of marketing on social media.
Although done unknowingly, many entrepreneurs design their business in a way that keeps them stuck in the Merry-Go-Round trap.
They’ve designed their business in a way that keeps them stagnant. And then they wonder why they aren’t growing.
I bet you know the feeling: hustling your booty off doing daily lead generation for Instagram, sending multiple dms a day just to get your potential clients to pay attention. You’re utterly sick of it and exhausted.
You always wonder how these other business owners around you are attracting dream clients with ease, clients knocking down their door and they aren’t evening dming or engaging that much.
You are doing what all the people are telling you to do.
And yet nothing seems to be moving the needle when it comes to bringing in those clients effortlessly without the hustle on social media.
You’re so close to the situation you don’t even realize you are spinning in circles. You’re too dizzy to see your potential clients are hiding in plain sight.
Here’s the answer: GOOGLE!
In this post I’m going to tell you all about how you can finally get clients to come to YOU without you having to hustle on the gram to sign them.
Were gonna talk ALL about marketing without social media.
Let’s jump in!
Why You need a blog to get more clients for your business
- Having a blog increases SEO to rank on google
- Having a blog is evergreen helpful content that will funnel them to low ticket offers or services
- Your blog will help you stand out
- You will get 10x more email subscribers than you do without a blog
- Will help you make more money
Let’s dive deeper into each of these!
1- Having a blog increases SEO to rank on Google
There are other entrepreneurs who offer services similar to yours. How do you stand out against the competition?
Easy – you rank high on page 1 of Google 😉
The benefit of being this high up in Google search is that 1) people are finding you and 2) they actually click through to read more about you and what you have to offer.
Think about that copy that you spent hours cultivating to write the perfect about page or those thousands of dollars you invested into a whiz copywriter to clarify your offerings…
This is where that all pays off. Your brand, your story, and your offerings on your website will actually be read by ideal clients.
This is where you can showcase what makes you different from others offering similar services.
2- Having a blog is evergreen helpful content that will funnel clients to low ticket offers or services
Evergreen blog content stays useful season to season, year to year with little or no need for upkeep. It can be referenced long after it was originally published, and even then, it’s still valuable to the reader. If you’re wondering what makes blog content “evergreen,” it basically is the following:
- Timeless: As mentioned, content that is evergreen stands the test of time. With the exception of sometimes needing a few tweaks here and there, evergreen content won’t change much and is practically everlasting.
- Valuable and High Quality: In order to reap the true benefits of being evergreen (which we’ll cover in the next section of this post), blog content must be valuable and high quality enough to get noticed. If a piece of blog content that you intended to be evergreen isn’t valuable to your readers and doesn’t attract substantial views when it’s first published, it will never become evergreen.
Okay, so now you have a better sense of what makes certain blog content ‘evergreen,’ but you’re probably still wondering what all the fuss is about. Why is evergreen content so valuable for you to get more clients? There are three main benefits that evergreen content can provide for a blog:
- High Search Engine Rankings: Because of the quality and timelessness of evergreen blog content, it will typically rank very well in search engines over time. This makes it critical for bloggers to make sure evergreen content is well-optimized with the keywords for which they’re trying to rank in search engines.
- High Traffic: Because evergreen content typically achieves high ranking positions in search engines, it gets found more, which means it contributes a steady, continuous amount of traffic into your blog and website, even long after it was initially published.
- Continues to Generate Leads: As a result of the continuous traffic it generates, evergreen content that is optimized for lead generation also has a powerful capacity to continually generate leads over time. The HubSpot Inbound Marketing blog, for example, which has published nearly 3,000 articles to date, can credit a lot of the day-to-day leads it generates to articles that were published months and even years ago.
In other words, the reason evergreen content is so valuable is because it continues to work for you long after you publish it. That’s why a blog that incorporates evergreen content into its strategy is at an advantage. If you took a news-centric approach to your content creation and only published content about breaking industry news, your blog content would become outdated and irrelevant quickly, and it wouldn’t generate long-lasting traffic.
Evergreen content, on the other hand, guarantees SEO, traffic, and leads over time. And in today’s marketing world where regular and consistent content creation is a marketer’s job, who wouldn’t appreciate the timeless benefits of content that’s evergreen?
3- Your blog will help you stand out
Having a blog will help you stand out in the crowd and get more clients because:
- You’ll have even more content for your ideal client to go through and learn from
- You’ll allow those ideal dream clients to become a “warm” lead
- You will develop a well-branded platform (branding is important)
- You will market on several platforms to get leads as well so your awareness pool will build
But how do you use a blog to stand out?
There are currently over 600 million blogs in the world and the number is increasing by the second.
But in order to really stand out from the sea of Blogs, you are going to have be a special cookie and have a unique Blog.
- 1. Be Authentic
When you’re just starting out, I know it can be absolutely terrifying to be yourself.
Because you don’t know who you are yet and it can take a while to become comfortable putting your content out there for the whole world to see.
Added to which, you will want to aim for perfection.
Let this feeling go. And just be yourself. Write from your heart. Infuse your personality with your Blog and let your individuality take over.
And ask yourself what you truly want to be known for and think back on all the times people complimented you.
What is your true calling?
People have constantly praised me for my bright and colorful personality and have appreciated my humor. So, it only made sense to seamlessly integrate this with my Blog.
- 2. Your Blog’s Design matters
Having worked as a Website and Graphic Designer in the past, I can’t stress enough on how important your website’s looks are.
Yes, yes, we all know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but in reality, we all do it.
Apart from your theme and your overall design, speed and functionality is just as important.
People are going to leave if:
- Your website is slow
- They find it difficult to navigate or understand where everything is
- You use fonts and colors that are just not savvy
- Their user experience is just downright cumbersome
Basically, if your Website looks cheap, people are going to assume that your Blog is not worth reading.
This is somewhat similar to putting sawdust in cupcakes and expecting people to buy them from you.
All of this can be avoided if you buy a good WordPress theme. So, I will suggest that you focus on finding a paid WordPress theme that:
- has good customer support
- is extremely easy to work with
- is SEO friendly and lets Search Engines crawl pages and posts easily
- has a lot of demos and cool short codes that provides you with a lot of designing flexibility
- is really user-friendly and helps boost your overall Brand
This is why I absolutely love using Showit for blogging.
- 3. Focus on building a Brand that sticks
The main purpose behind your Brand is that it should not only look good but be extremely memorable.
This means, that apart from having a good layout, a pretty and functional theme, and beautiful brand colors, it should be coherent. For example:
- People should be able to recognize your pins when they see it. Sticking to 2-3 fonts and a simple layout helps!
- When anyone sees your writing, they should immediately connect it to you. This is where being authentic comes in.
- Every image you incorporate should scream your Brand’s name.
Even the way you interact with people really matters and helps you stand out. For example how you:
- Reply to your comments: Make sure you reply to every single comment with a positive and kind response. This really goes a long way in building a loyal readership.
- Write your newsletters: Once you discover your style of writing newsletters, stick to it and watch your readership and sales blossom.
- Engage in Facebook Groups: By being super helpful and kind, you will automatically draw an audience.
So, be kind and reciprocal.
Show genuine love and compassion to your readers or clients. Be understanding. Really take the time to understand what they’re saying and make sure you hit every point in your response.
Because these little things go a long, long way when it comes to building a Brand that sticks.
- 4. Write long-form quality content consistently
Aye, that’s quite a mouthful.
In general, it takes time to become known in the Blogosphere.
Whether you like or don’t like the extra attention, standing out and being a unique will help your Blog grow at an alarming rate.
And standing out is all about finding your unique talent and then doing it consistently so that you create a Brand. Write a Business Plan to help you see where your Blog will be 5 years from now.
What tip are you going to try to make your blog stand out?
4 – You will get 10x more email subscribers than you do without a blog
If you’re like most business owners, you’re in a constant battle to increase the size of your email list AND your social media following.
There’s no doubt you need both to build your online presence and drive traffic to your website.
But, which one should be the top priority?
Keep reading as I lay out the 5 reasons why building your email list wins the battle over social media.
Why Your Email List is More Important
This post contains affiliate links, which means I will make a commission at no extra cost to you should you click through and make a purchase. I only recommend products that I believe will provide great value for my readers.
On the subject of email marketing, right now you can get Flodesk for $19 a month instead of $38.
They’re the provider I use and recommend.
They’re the provider I switched to after being with another popular company for several years.
What you’ll find with them is that they make everything super easy to do.
From managing your list, to setting up sequences and automations and much more, they’re simply the easiest to use for bloggers like us.
With that said, let’s get onto the five reasons why I think your email list is more important than your social media following…
- 1. You Own Your List (Not Your Followers)
Let’s start with the fact that you don’t own your social media following.
Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or any of them, they’re the owner of the platform and the users.
Not you.
I know it can feel like your followers are your peeps, but it just aint so.
#ToughLove
An audience built on a social media platform is an audience built on rented land.
You’re the renter and not the owner.
You see, at any point the platforms can change their algorithms or suspend your account and *poof* that audience you worked so hard to build is now gone.
Now let’s talk about your email list.
You own it and you can take it with you from one email platform to the next.
You have a ton of control over who stays on your list and who you can remove.
You can tag them, segment them, communicate with them, market to them and more without worrying about how any of it affects some stupid algorithm.
That right there should convince you!
- 2. More Consistent Website Traffic
Imagine if you could press a button and a bunch people will come visit your website.
Well, that’s pretty much what happens when you send an email to your list with a link back to your site in it.
Let’s say you just published a great blog post. One of the first things you should do is send out a broadcast email to your list and tell them about it.
Inside that email, include a link to your new blog post with a call to action for your subscribers to click on that link.
By doing this, a percentage of the people on your list will click on that link and read your blog post. Voila… Instant traffic!
If you do this consistently over time, you will remain top of mind with your subscribers and they will continue to come back and visit your site.
Of course, the same thing holds true for links inside your automated email sequences too.
The Problem with Social Media Traffic
Social media traffic is much less consistent. There are so many distractions on the social media platforms and people don’t always consistently check their social feeds.
Plus, your social post appears at the whim of the platform’s algorithms. You may or may not get your post seen by people who follow you online. And even if it does appear, it will quickly go away as posts by others appear afterwards.
Things move much slower in someone’s inbox, giving you a better chance that your message will be read and links will be clicked.
- 3. Your Subscribers WANT to Hear From You
If you think about it, a lot of thought and commitment goes into subscribing to someone’s email list.
Someone had to make a conscious choice to give you their email address.
At the time of doing that, your subscriber made a commitment that they WANT to be on your list and they WANT to hear from you.
Or else, they wouldn’t give you their email address in the first place.
Choosing to follow someone on social media is much more passive, with very little commitment. Not to mention all the distractions mentioned in #2 above.
- 4. Better Engagement
Since your email subscribers have chosen to hear from you, they’re also more likely to engage with you.
As a matter of fact, don’t be surprised if you get replies to your broadcast messages and sequences. People will ask you for your advice, respond to your email call to actions or even just share what’s on their mind at the moment.
I love it when that happens!
One of the classic, old school ways to learn more about your subscribers is to ask them (in an email) what they’re struggling with as it relates to your niche. It’s a great way to get content ideas as well.
You can also run surveys and contests through your email list, without having to worry about all the rules associated with doing the same on social media.
5. Better for Selling
Finally, they say the money is in the list and it’s true.
What’s great about your email list is you can take the time to nurture your subscribers, so that they get to know, like and trust you.
Once they have your trust, they’ll be more likely to purchase from you.
And of course, an important part of any good sales funnel is your email list.
When it comes to selling through an automated sales funnel, nothing beats email. There’s just no way to setup the automation you need via social media.
And also, on social media platforms, selling is usually dismissed by people pretty quickly. People are on social media platforms more so for entertainment purposes then to be sold to.
Even if you pay to promote on social media, you still end up trying to get people onto your email list to make the final sale.
So, that makes your email list much better for selling than social media.
5- Will help you make more money
With the ability for clients and customers to find you when you’re not actively marketing, you’ll most likely see an uptick in leads and sales.
Especially if you have digital products you sell on evergreen (such as templates, masterclasses, and courses), you’ll see the benefit of ranking high on Google.
You’ll be able to fill your sales funnels with more leads.
How to achieve SEO for your small online business
There are a number of ways to attract readers and viewers using SEO.
Some of the ways to achieve this include:
- Create content on your blog that’s unique to other blog posts and articles that are ranking on page 1 for the keyword you want to appear for
- Use descriptive keywords in your copy and blog posts so that Google can correlate your website with those terms
- Use related keywords to become an authority in your niche
- Review your old content and update it over time with new content or internal links to other relevant blog posts
- Attain relevant backlinks from similar websites and blogs
- Implement a strong user experience on your website so that it’s clear and easy to navigate
The secret equation to getting more clients
Visibility + value + l.k.t + CTA = clients + customers
Let’s break this down:
VISIBILITY
When it comes to growing your business, visibility is one of the most essential business activities you need to make an effort to do, no matter what. No matter whether you’re a blogger, business coach,social media manager, if you want to stand out in the marketplace and stay in business for the long term, you need to be visible. No matter how certain or uncertain the times.
The key to staying visible is to remind yourself that it’s a long game, not a short one. It isn’t something you can dip into, as and when you need to know how to get clients. It’s not about just advertising when you need to, or writing a blog when you feel like writing, it’s about maintaining a visible, professional presence at all times.
Visibility is about getting your name and brand out there and being seen in your industry or niche. It’s about becoming a go-to person for help, advice and valuable information, and it’s about showcasing why you’re an awesome business owner. Visibility is about standing out and staying at the forefront of your ideal clients mind, as well as showing that you are open for business – no matter what certain or uncertain times we may currently be experiencing.
So how can you do that? I’d recommend you get help to do it right. That’s why so many business owners have joined my signature blog coaching program – The Blog Growth Lab.
To get visible you need to:
- FOCUS ON SEO (main important one)
- Post regularly to social media- use Reels, carousels, etc.
- Engage on FB groups
- Pin to Pinterest daily using an updated Pinterest strategy
VALUE
I’m sure you hear the scary-mentor voices chanting in your dreams…
GIVE VALUE.
BE INTERESTING.
CONNECT WITH YOUR PEOPLE.
STAY CONSISTENT.
And on and on with the seemingly “simple” mantras delivered for *guaranteed success* and conquering the stupid-freaking algorithm.
Sure, those things are simple, but ONLY if you know what value to provide, how to be interesting, what fuels connection with your people. Without all of those things, consistency is impossible, and PLANNING CONTENT is… well… in Lorelai Gilmore’s words:
“I’d rather slide down a bannister of razor blades and land in a pool of alcohol” than plan content in advance when I have NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK TO SAY.
Today I’m giving you my workflow for planning a week of social media content in 35 minutes flat. BUT, I’m also giving you the BEFORE. Before you can plan great content, you have to have a foundation to work from.
Your foundation will help you remember:
– what you want to be known for
– what your audience wants to hear
– why *you* are the exact right person to serve them in that way
THE BEFORE | THE FOUNDATION
As with most of my advice, establishing this foundation is going to require a little bit of digging.
HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO KNOW BEFORE PLANNING CAN EVER BE A BREEZE:
Your Content Categories + Your Core Values
Creating Content Categories
Content categories are essential in any business. If you don’t know what you want to be known for or what your “thing” is, you might be caught sharing a recipe one day, talking about brand design the next, and sharing a million pictures of your kids or your home with a simple “It’s Tuesday, dude” attached.
Sure, you might “be consistent” and spend your time “creating content,” but if it’s content that doesn’t matter to your audience in any way, you’ll leave them confused and primed to unfollow.
While creating your content categories…
FIRST, THINK OF THESE QUESTIONS:
- What do you want to be known for?
- What are you passionate about?
- What can you teach people about for days/weeks/months/years?
- What does your dream audience want, need, fear, hope for?
My advice: Nothing is small. NOTHING, people. There is a booming Instagram account all about pumpkins. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. There are people on the internet teaching how to scramble eggs and fold a shirt.
Often times, things that are second-nature to us are completely MIND-BLOWING to other people.
Start by writing absolutely everything you can think of in relation to those questions above.
THEN, categorize. Does anything fit together? Try to come up with no more than 5 Content Categories, to make sure you’re not overwhelming yourself and muddling your message.
THEN, think about this: Will this message fuel my business? How?
Content is an audience-builder, building your audience means making real connections, but we also really need to get paid. Amen, sister. Am I right?
Content is value in and of itself, but try to make sure it’s funneling people toward trusting you to the point that working with you is almost a given!
My Content Categories:
- Blogging Tips
- Business (tips + inspo + #realtalk)
- Life/faith/personal
- Marketing
- Productivity/mindset
My Most-Recent Client’s Categories:
- Copy + Messaging Tips
- Business (tips + inspo + #realtalk)
- Life/faith/personal
- Finding your voice
- Community spotlight (brag central about my awesome friends and clients!)
You have to push out valuable blog content in order to know how to get clients.
LIKE, KNOW, & TRUST FACTOR
Have you heard of the know, like and trust factor?
It’s important when it comes to knowing how to get clients and referrals, and something we, as business owners trip over.
So let’s take a look at what it is, and how you can incorporate the know, like and trust factor into your marketing while staying within your ethical boundaries.
People buy from people and companies they know, like and trust.
But if you’ve ever read anything about blogging and marketing, you’ll probably have been told that to increase this, you should allow the real you to come through by being vulnerable, sharing personal stories and case studies.
the know, like and trust factor in action
There’s a guy I follow on Twitter who’s a man with a van. You need something moving, he’s your guy. All in all not the most interesting of businesses (in my eyes anyway!).
But the way he uses Twitter is amazing. When he stops for lunch, he takes a cryptic photo of his surroundings always making sure his business card – which has a distinctive, cute cartoon van on it – is somewhere in the picture and asks ‘where in Lincolnshire am I?’ And people try to guess. Simple, fun.
He plays hide and seek with his business cards – leaves them in strange and cheeky places and takes a pic of it. If he’s in the pub he’ll talk about the top quality pint and take a pic which includes his business card, or out with his partner for a meal he’ll talk about the lovely ambiance, take a pic and his card is casually on the table. His pics always includes his business card somewhere.
Sometimes, he hides it a business card in a shop, and the first person to find it gets £20.
But you never see his face! It’s fun, he’s funny! And more importantly, it’s memorable.
He’s promoting his business in the most unsalesy way possible. Only about 1 in 20 tweets are him saying ‘need to move something, give me a call’.
And because of this, if I need a man with a van I know I shall choose him because he has the know, like trust and factor. He’s made himself memorable.
I know he’s likely to have a smile and some banter, and that brightens up the day.
Know: he shares his day
Like: he’s fun!
Trust: he posts consistently, he’s been in business a while and he’ll sometimes post smiley pics of satisfied customers, and posts VALUABLE educational content to show hes an expert in his niche
How to Build your Like, Know, and Trust Factor?
BE VISIBLE:
- Include a photo of yourself on your website, bio’s and social media accounts – don’t use a logo as your profile image.
- Share some details of your day on social media – a photo of your coffee and cake or a tool you use in the counselling room, for example
- Only share things on social media that fit with your niche, so it’s clear what your focus is
- Check out local networking events and start making relationships with other business owners in your area
- Consider how you introduce yourself, so when you meet people they will know what you do and who you work with
- Offer to talk at local events or companies
- Use Facebook live and video to let people really get a sense of you
- Share your ‘why’ on your about page – what makes you so passionate about what you do?
- Communicate with people about what you do
BE YOURSELF :
- Allow the passion you have for your niche to come through in everything you do, every blog, social media update or conversation
- Use a conversational style when blogging, write as though you are talking to one person – remember, blogs aren’t essays
- Be relevant, use your empathy to consider what your clients are struggling with on a day to day basis and write or share blogs that address those concerns
- Use Facebook live to let your warmth shine
- Share something about yourself – your love of maltesers, of clouds, of coffee.
BE RELIABLE:
- Be consistent. Decide how often to blog/post on social media/send emails and stick to it
- Only write or share high quality, relevant stuff that your audience will love
- Share testimonials from clients.
- Consider the language you use. Don’t use babble and unnecessarily big words or you’ll come across as pompous and distant. Keep it simple and conversational
- Be helpful, be kind and don’t be salesy.
CTA TO GET CLIENTS
TELL YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT FROM THEM WITH CTAS!
It’s a buzzword you may or may not have heard of before, but ‘Call to Actions’ (aka CTAs) are in fact one of the most important elements of any website or web page AND blog posts. Without them, your website is simply a list of information with no obvious ‘next steps’ for your visitors.
SO WHAT ARE ‘CALL TO ACTIONS’?
Much like the name suggests, a Call to Action is an element on a web page (such as a button, text or image) that tells the reader what they should do next. If you want your website visitors to engage more with your brand by contacting you, signing up for a newsletter, downloading a PDF or viewing your portfolio, then you need clear CTAs on your website.
WHEN MIGHT YOU WANT TO USE A CALL TO ACTION?
As you can see, a Call to Action doesn’t have to be ‘salesy’; sometimes they are simply used to direct people around your website and be helpful. You might want to use CTAs for a number of reasons:
- To create a clear journey around your website -I’ve written before about creating users journey for your website, but the key is to make it clear & simple for your site visitors to explore your site. For example, after people have looked through my portfolio, I want them to go to my Services page so they can see how I might be able to help them. Therefore, at the end of each portfolio item I add a button to ‘View My Services’ which takes them directly there.
- To provide people with information in the clearest way possible–
Your website should always be the perfect blend of consistent branding & design, with necessary information. To keep things clean and minimal, sometimes you’ll need to strip back the content to the bare essentials, but what if people need more? You could create a separate page on your website, or even a downloadable PDF that contains more in-depth information on a certain topic, and provide a CTA for people who want to know more.
- To encourage people to contact you–
For any service-based business, the goal of your website is probably to get people to contact and hire you! So it’s important to have CTAs on your website giving your visitors little nudges and reminders to do this. There’s no harm in adding a CTA for this purpose on all pages of your website, as long as it doesn’t come across as desperate or too pushy.
- To encourage people to purchase from you
If you’re running an online shop, or are selling a specific product, then of course you want to encourage people to hit ‘Buy’! Placing buttons or links to your shop around your site is a great way to direct people to the focus of your site. Depending on the abilities of your website, you could also go one step further and add ‘featured product’ sections on different pages of your website, with direct ‘BUY’ buttons there.
- To get people to sign up to your mailing list
These days it’s all about building your email list! It’s super important to have a base of interested potential customers that you’re able to update with news and marketing materials. But you need to motivate people to sign up in the first place! I’ve written about building lists with opt-in freebies before, but placing regular CTAs is very important too.
- To get people to trial a product
Software companies do this all the time; knowing that the best way to convert website visitors into paying customers is to get them to test the product out for themselves. Due to the high conversion of this strategy, clear CTAs around your website are super important!
- To ask people to follow you on social media
This may not be your number one goal on your website, but it’s still a valid Call to Action. Many people put social media links in their blog sidebar or within blog posts as they want blog readers to have a way of following their updates.
- To get people to comment or share your blog posts
Similarly, if you want more engagement and traffic to your blog posts, you’ll probably want people to comment and share your articles. So ask them to! Just adding a sentence at the end with a Call to Action can remind people to do this.
So there you have it! Know you know how to get clients with the secret equation!
How Boss Lady Bloggers can help you know how to get clients
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We want you to start harnessing this right away inside your business. We are ready to help you break it down and make it work for your business. Join us inside our private Facebook community!
