09 Jun Why You’re Struggling to Get Clients and How to Change It

The biggest challenge most small business owners tell me they have is getting more clients. The real problem is that they don’t have enough leads, and on the Internet that also means more traffic and more people on their e-mail list. Getting more clients is a three step process:

1. get traffic to your website
2. convince those people to take action and sign up for your mailing list
3. convert a percentage of your subscribers into paying clients

Let’s address the problems I see people make all the time that you can easily correct.

Traffic

There are three ways to get traffic to your website:

Buy it, as in pay per click ads,

Build it, as in organic traffic generation activities like social media, blogging, submitting articles to article directories, submitting podcasts and video and search engine optimization

Borrow it, as in doing a joint venture with another business owner who has a responsive list of the people in your target market and who is willing to promote your product for a healthy percentage of sales.

The biggest problem I see is that people do dabble at each, but they don’t consistently commit to anything. You need an Online Lead Generation Plan which will be implemented each and every week. When you develop a system that you implement consistently you will see a significant increase in traffic. However one article every couple of months and a few minutes on twitter each week are not going to do it. What do you do every single day to generate targeted traffic?

Getting People to Take Action

This is where I see the biggest mistakes of all. When people arrive at your website, be sure that the language on your website is all about them—their pain, their challenges, and the results they want that you can provide. Take an honest look at your website and drop the “we” and “I” language. Tell them what you will do for them.

Your headlines, product titles and the title of any free giveaways you offer must be results oriented or create a strong curiosity for your prospect to learn more. What is the biggest result your clients want from you? Include that result or benefit in your headlines and titles.

Converting Leads to Clients

Again, your sales language must focus on proving that you understand the exact problems and challenges people have—the ones that are so urgent that they will pay you to help solve them. Your products need to be positioned and perceived as producing a specific, highly desired result. Don’t be vague, be very specific. A product title like “Improve Your Life and Reach Your Dream” is much too vague, but a title like “How to Overcome Any Obstacle and Achieve Your Biggest Goal with This 10 Step System” is more specific.

Build trust and make people feel confident about buying from you with great testimonials from people who have gotten results from your product. Offer a guarantee so buyers feel confident because they know they have a return option. And most importantly, make sure that the perceived value of your product is that it’s worth as much as or more than the price. You can increase the perceived value by adding bonuses or offering a limited time discount. If people fear that they won’t get the results they want or they won’t get value equal to or more than they’re paying, then you won’t convert them.

So put yourself in your buyer’s shoes, understand how they’re thinking, create “buyer-centric” language on your web pages and marketing materials and then consistently work on traffic generating activities. In a few months getting clients will be so much easier.