Twelve seeds to plant to keep your sales funnel full

If you have a few full-time clients and need more, you need to market your business on an ongoing basis. When you do this, your sales funnel stays full and you line up prospects so you constantly have new customers. Once you have this funnel, getting clients becomes a numbers game and it works in your favor. You don’t have to accept any old proposal with boring work just because you need the money.

You are in control. You decide who you are going to work with. You can decide your rates. You can position yourself as a consultant solving problems for your clients, and not just someone looking for a job.

Really? Just keeping a full funnel?

Yes, but there are two drawbacks. It takes time for it to work that way, and you have to do it constantly. You need to realize that marketing your business online is an ongoing process and not something you can do sporadically.

You can start this process by nurturing the relationships you already have. Go through all those business cards you got at various networking events. Contact them, ask if they need your services, ask if they would mind getting on your mailing list so you can keep in touch, and ask for referrals.

You can also use social media to keep in touch. Just start the dialogues without sales pitches. Then start asking about your business and offer a solution. Eventually you can ask for a date when the dialogue goes that way.

Start with what was successful before. Work with your warm market first. This can produce quick results. Once you get results, you can start trading on a cold market.

This is how to start:

Plant your “seeds”

You need more than one marketing method that works so you can get leads from more than one place.

Here are twelve ideas that you can implement one at a time:

1. Write a free report and post it on your website. It can be titled: “10 reasons to…” or “5 ways you can…”
2. Join or start a business networking group where you can meet people and make quality relationships.
3. Give one speech per month that is related to your niche. If you don’t like public speaking, you can join Toastmasters and learn. This is a great way to attract customers.
4. Guest blogging. Find other blogs in your niche and approach them to blog as a reciprocal guest.
5. Write a book or e-book. This is a long-term project, not for the faint-hearted, but it will increase your credibility and establish you as an authority.
6. Send a laser-targeted direct mail. Remember to test this first and send it to your ideal clients. Make sure you offer them something they want.
7. Start a magazine, ezine, or online newsletter. Be sure to focus on the needs of your customers and show how you can help with various examples and stories. This is a great way to keep top of mind with your prospects.
8. Partner with professionals who have services that go with yours. For example, if you are a life coach, develop a relationship with a psychologist or EFT practitioner who can help your prospects in a different capacity and to whom you can send referrals and receive referrals.
9. Sign up with a good autoresponder and write a series of 10-20 emails to keep in touch with prospects. These should provide them with useful content about your business and how you have helped other customers.
10. Create a second website in a related niche how niche marketing works. For example, if you are a life coach, you might have a business-related website and one for individuals.
11. Join a trade association, which is a great way to meet specific prospects.
12. Write articles to establish your credibility and provide great content for your website.

It’s all about getting in touch and staying in touch with your target market and keeping your name, face and business in front of them so that you are the person they associate with your niche. This will help them refer people to you and call you when they need to.