I’m Ready, Where Are They? Finding Your Client Base by @MallaHaridat

Congrats! 

You spent hours working on your website and are loving the final product. You researched, talked with friends and other planners and set your prices. And of course, you LOVE hosting events and are passionate about the details and setting a good environment. But there’s a big problem you are experiencing….

Where are your clients?

When it comes to drumming up new business, where do you go and what do you do? You found your first few clients through referrals.  But the steady stream of clients and events that you hoped for…hasn’t happened yet. So, aside from hunting random people down on the street, what is a business owner to do?

Here are two ideas to get your started:

Define Your Ideal Client

First things first…Who is your ideal customer? Before you start searching for just anyone, you need to know who your target audience is. If you had an ideal customer who would they be? And please, don’t start by sharing “But I’ll do ANYBODY’S events”.

Defining your ideal client is the key to marketing well.  So spend some time thinking about the following:

• In the past, who are the types of clients that you have really enjoyed working with
• What types of events did they need?
• Where are they buying their event planning services from now?
• What’s their peak event season?

In order to know how to reach out and draw in more business, you must know who you are reaching out to.

Build Relationships

The market has changed with the emergence of social media networks. People don’t want to feel prospected that want to feel connected. We often want to cut to the chase and share our business. But, in this age of information, people are overloaded. The way you stand out is by forming connections and earning people’s trust.

Yes, it takes a bit more time, but the payoff is huge. You will have loyal business followers who share your offerings with all their friends.

Here are some ideas for building relationships:

• Try providing quality free content in line with your services and share it over networks that your potential clients frequent. When you add value to the lives of others, they are much more likely to remember you and want to give you their business.
• Make sure to spend extra time with your top clients/customers if you know they might be interested in repeat business.  Don’t just send out regular holiday greeting cards.  Find a personalized gift that you can create or buy to show how much you care about them individually.
• Underpromise and overdeliver – Simple things like meeting your deadlines or communicating quickly when you can’t meet them is key to building the overdeliver factor throughout the course the relationship.

While these ideas won’t generate customers overnight, they will produce a stream of customers/clients in the long term.  So I encourage you to get started and have fun with it!