Why is it so difficult to get leads and clients for my business?

Wondering why it’s so difficult to get leads and clients? The thing is so many business owners can struggle getting a steady flow of quality leads and clients.

And that’s frustrating as heck.

What you don’t want is to spend your precious time using a scattergun approach in your attempt to get quality leads and clients.

So it makes sense to know where you could be going wrong so you can put it right.

In this blog, discover the main reasons why you’re struggling to get leads and clients for your business and what you can do instead.

Discover:

• The reasons nearly every single business owners struggles to get leads and clients.
• How to get more eyeballs on your business, and what to do to create your steady flow of leads and clients.
• Why knowing your business goals and objectives are key to creating your steady stream of leads and clients.

Let’s go!

1. Leads v Clients: What’s the difference?

What’s the difference between a lead and a client?

The Marketo.com website tells us

A lead is a person who has provided at least some basic information that suggests a potential interest in buying from you.

A client is someone who has bought from you.

2. What’s the most common reason business owners struggle to get a steady flow of leads and clients?

No-one has taught you how to do this marketing malarkey.

And very few business owners focus on the basics of marketing so they can get people interested in what they do and interested in buying from them.

Having a website and a social media account doesn’t mean the leads and clients are going to flow.

If only it was that easy.

Let’s dive into what you do need to know and do to get leads and clients.

1. You don’t know what problem you’re solving for your audience

Why does that matter?

Not knowing the big problem you solve for your audience can be why you’re finding it tough to get your steady flow of leads and clients.

Be crystal clear on the problem you solve for your potential client.

When you have a clear idea of what problem you’re solving it makes knowing what to say on the home page of your website easier and how to answer the question ‘How can you help me?’ when your client asks.

Here’s a few examples of companies who know what problem they solve and how they clearly explain it on their website homepage, leaving their audience in no doubt if they’re for them or  not.

If you’re not clear about what problem you solve, you’ll leave your audience bamboozled at what you can do to help them.

They’ll tootle off somewhere else.

How to research your audience’s problems 

Let’s imagine you help parents with toddlers that are fussy eaters and you want to know – rather than guess – what they struggle with so you can make more impact with your marketing.

The book reviews (found on Amazon) will tell you what the book specifically helped them with.

Here’s an example:

The book is Feeding Toddlers: A Pediatrician’s Guide to Happy and Healthy Meal Times.

Here’s a couple of reviews:

‘The author uses her personal experiences as a mum and knowledge as a doctor to convey the importance and ease of introducing healthy eating into the home. Making mealtime a fun family time. I used to worry about the amount my picky toddler was eating but after reading the useful section on portion size I can now see she is eating sufficiently. I also enjoyed reading the recipe suggestions.’

‘Getting young kids to eat well can be such a battlefield and this book does a great job of demystifying child nutrition and suggesting a step by step approach.’

From two reviews you can see parents are concerned that they’re giving their little ones the right nutrition, mealtimes can be a battlefield and they’re confused about portion sizes. They worry a lot.

Knowing this you can now talk to your audience about their concerns.

What book reviews can you check out?

You don’t know who you’re solving a big problem for?

For some business owners this is easier than others.

And for those that may struggle to identify who it is they’re solving a big problem for it can be tempting to decide to help everyone and anyone with this problem.

When you’re talking to everyone and anyone with your marketing you end up talking to no-one as you’re not cutting through the noise online and standing out for a specific group of people.

The clearer you are about who you are talking to the better.

It may be that your target audience is a certain group eg Lawyers, vets, working mums, working dads, Personal trainers, ex-corporates, small business owners, florists, vegetarians…

Why does it matter?

It helps you create content specifically for them.

• Content they’re looking for.
• Content they’ll want to read.
• Content that may inspire them to work with you or buy from you.

Examples of blogs I found specifically for certain groups:

• How to generate more clients at your veterinary practice
• 18 Lazy Dinner Ideas For Busy Parents
• Florist pricing: A basic guide to markup
• The best vegetarian protein sources

You don’t know what results your audience wants from your product or service

Sadly guessing isn’t the way to go.

What is?

Research what they’re saying online. Amazon book reviews are fab for this as we saw earlier in the blog. 

In the book reviews they’ll chat about what they were struggling with and worried about and what’s changed and the benefits of the change.

In other words what results they got.

Check out testimonials of your competitors too. Again, they’ll talk about the problems and the results they’ve got.

Ask previous clients. What results did they get?

You don’t have a clear marketing message

What’s a marketing message when it’s at home?

A to-the-point way of explaining to your audience what your business does and why they’d benefit buying from you or working with you.

Ideally it’s a well-formed sentence.

You can create your marketing message in three steps:

Step 1: Identify your client’s problem

Step 2: Explain how you will help them

Step 3: Tell them their happy ending

Create your own clear marketing message by following the steps in my Blog  and I’ll share examples of clear marketing messages too.

You don’t know where your audience is looking for a solution to their problem

You need to be where your audience is looking for useful and helpful content.

If they’re online – be there

If they’re attending networking events – be there

Find out where they are so you can get your marketing in front of them.

You’re not where your audience is looking for you 

Imagine your audience is looking for you and they can’t find you.

Be where they’d expect to find you.

You’re not sharing your useful and helpful content consistently 

Sharing content once in a blue moon ain’t gonna cut it with your audience.

They need to get to know, like and trust you so showing up with useful and helpful content plays a big part in creating this relationship with your audience.

Planning, creating and getting your marketing out there takes time, but this is how you’ll build a connection with your audience.

One day at a time.

Share content that helps them with what they’re struggling with – social media posts, videos, blogs, ebooks, lead magnets, webinars.

Lead magnets are a great way to help you create a steady flow of leads and clients.

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet can also be called a list builder, ethical bribe or a freebie or maybe you’ve heard it called something else.

Whatever you decide to call yours, it offers your audience great content that helps them to solve a problem.

Check out my beginners guide to lead magnets

Start  the chat with your audience

Being social on social by:

• Asking questions so you can #StartTheChat with them
• Answering their questions too.

Share your stories

Sharing your stories that are relevant to your audience are a great way to build a connection.

Tell them about what you struggled with. Ideally it’s something you know they struggle with too.

Tell them what you did to stop the struggle. 

Come across as human – like them – by sharing what didn’t work. 

Behind the scenes

You can also share what’s going on behind the scenes so they can get to know you as a person.

Answer their questions

Answer questions they have about your product or service

Get some ideas and inspiration on doing that here

11. You’re not telling your audience what to do next

You want and need leads and clients.

Encourage them to become leads or clients with your fantabulous calls to action.

Tell them what to do next. If you don’t they’ll do nothing.

Let’s imagine your ideal client has read your blog.

Encourage them to do something.

Some ideas for you are:

• Encourage them to read more of your blogs – to help them do this share links to your other blogs that are useful and helpful.
• Offer them a lead magnet they can sign-up for that will add them to your email list so they can get more amazeballs content from you straight to their inbox.
• If your blog is related to your product or service invite them to have a call with you, click  here to buy, book a demo, have a peak behind the scenes..

More call to action ideas

• Let’s say they’ve watched a video on your YouTube channel? Ask them to subscribe and click the bell for notifications.
• Sent an email to your list? Ask them to hit reply and ask you any questions they may have.

Be clear on what you want your client to do when they engage with your content and invite them to do it.

12. You’re not sure what your goals and objectives are for your business

Without these you won’t know what marketing to create to help you hit them.

To help you hit your goals and objectives you’re going to need leads and clients.

If you’re not sure what your business goals and objectives are, now might be the right time get yourself some business planning done.

Know what you want to achieve

Such as:

• How much money you want to earn? By when?
• How many of ‘X’ product or service you want to sell? By when?
• What new products/services do you want to introduce? When?
• What products/services do you want to promote? When?
• What lead magnets are you going to offer? When
• What networking events are you going to?

Then:

• Create your marketing plan on how you’re going to make your goals happen
• Get clear on how you’re going to drive traffic to your content
• Get clear on how you’re creating and building your relationship with your ideal client

13. You have no idea what’s currently working and what isn’t

The temptation to just get your marketing out there is mahoosive.

I totally get it.

And to hope something will work – eventually.

Right?

Erm…

You can get better results when you track what is and isn’t working.

Such as:

• What content is your audience reading?
• What content is your audience sharing?
• What content is leading them to more of your content?
• What lead magnets are working?
• What lead magnets aren’t working?
• What emails are they reading?
• What pages on your website are getting visitors?
  How long are your visitors spending on your website?

Once you know what you want a part of your marketing to do for you, it’s easier to know if it’s working for you or not.

The key is:

• Have an objective for each part of your marketing.
• Track how it’s performing for you.
• Keep it, ditch it or tweak it once you know.

In Summary…

• Be crystal clear on the problem you solve and who you solve it for
• Understand what it is your audience really wants
• Make it crystal clear what results they’ll get and be sure the results you offer are the ones they want
• Have a marketing message that speaks to your ideal client
• Know how to find your clients and how to help them find you
• Put your content in front of your audience consistently and regularly
• Tell your client clearly what you’d like them to do next
• Create a plan for your content to achieve your business goals and objectives
• Know what works and what doesn’t