When starting a new business, the first thing you’ll be looking to do is get clients, and normally the best way to get new clients in the door quickly is by using paid marketing strategies so you can reach a wider audience.
Though, what happens when you don’t actually have a budget for marketing, but desperately need clients? It’s a predicament a lot of entrepreneurs find themselves in, so you’re definitely not alone here, and we do have some useful tips and strategies for you below.
The thing that’s important to mention here is that when starting a business and getting it making profit quickly, you’ll either need to invest time or money – sometimes a good bit of both, but if you’re intending on bootstrapping due to lack of finances to get things moving, then you definitely need to be prepared to put in the extra hours.
Collaboration:
Many new entrepreneurs find themselves a bit lost when starting a business and often fail to recognize that there are so many more out there just like them who are either struggling to get their business off the ground, or who may be a bit more established. This is an often-missed great opportunity for collaborations with other entrepreneurs who perhaps offer a complementary service to yours, but who are not in direct competition with you. For example, a copywriter and a graphic designer could team up to refer clients to each other since clients often need both services, or they could team up and put a package offer together where they provide more of a full service solution.
Podcasts:
Podcasts often have thousands of listeners, so getting on to a podcast to be interviewed on a topic that you’re knowledgeable about and that can offer great value to people is a great way to get in front of more people who could be potential clients for your business. Generally at the end of the podcast interview, the host will allow to offer up a link, such as a freebie or a blog post on your website where people can go to learn more about you and your business.
Guest blogging:
A lot like podcasting, but just in written form, guest blogging uses the same concept of utilizing someone else’s existing audience in exchange for something you have of value for free to offer them. This is also a great way to reach more people quickly who otherwise wouldn’t know about you and then bring them into your audience. Where guest blogging has an advantage is it can help you be found more organically with help from SEO.
Having a sales funnel:
A sales funnel is simply the process of taking someone from never having heard of you to then buying from you and hopefully becoming a repeat customer. These can be as simple or complex as you want them to be, but simply offering something for free that they can download on your website in exchange for their email address where you will send them ongoing valuable content and make offers for paid products or services is a great and fast way to get new clients into your business without a marketing budget.