You’ve got the skills but how do you get your first clients? How do you let people know that you’re ready and available for work?
This is when social media becomes your best friend! Social media marketing is a great way of getting the word out about your new venture, everybody is on some form of social media, including your target market and… IT’S FREE!
So I’m here to give you a couple of tips on how to find your first clients through social media marketing.
Word of Mouth - Tell Everybody you're Looking for Clients
Your family, friends, and people who you’ve worked with before will be your biggest advocates. So make sure they know you’re looking for clients. Ask them to share your social posts and tell people who might be interested in your services or products.
Facebook Groups - Be Active!
Facebook groups are a great way of expanding your reach and networking with potential new clients. If you’re B2B go for the industry expert or local business groups, if you’re B2C look for the groups whose interests align with your products or services. Once in them be active, don’t go in for the sales pitch, be active by contributing to questions and offering advice and potential solutions. By doing this you will establish yourself as the industry expert and people will begin to recognise you and trust your advice, which in turn will lead to either recommending you to others who may be looking for your services/products, or they may find a need for it in the future.
LinkedIn for B2B - Start Building your Connections
Linkedin is the perfect tool if you are targeting B2B, start building up your connections on Linkedin firstly by simply finding your existing contacts and sending them an invitation. Join groups for networking and actively contribute by joining in the discussions on them. Demonstrate your knowledge on Linkedin by commenting on other posts, provide useful feedback and interesting comments, post your own content to your page including Linkedin Articles on topics that your intended audience will be interested in. Make use of tools like the “people who viewed your profile” and “People you may know” sections, if appropriate, send invitations to these people. Also use the advanced search functionality to find contacts within your target audience and look through the connections of your connections and invite those that are relevant to your business.
Make sure you personalise your invitations, you’re more likely to get interest if you reach out to them personally rather than sending a blanket invitation to everyone. Take the time to explain why you would like to connect with them, build a rapport by looking through their profile and posts, find commonality and comment on something they have posted or shared, or their profile.
Instagram - Hashtags, Stories and Reels
For Instagram utilise hashtags, stories and reels to help grow your followers. As with all social media platforms be active and contribute with informative and engaging content. Include relevant hashtags in your posts to help increase your reach. Instagram stories sit at the top of the page for anyone who follows your account, they are a great way of keeping your page and brand in front of your audience. Instagram Reels enables you to create fun and engaging video content, like TikTok, it not only displays content from accounts you follow, but also popular or trending accounts on Instagram. What is included in this reel will likely be based on what you interact with and already follow. So this is a great way of getting your content out there to new users who have similar interests to those that already follow you.
Use Industry Specific Platforms to Help
This one is very much dependant on what your business is. But for the services industry Upwork and Fiverr are a great way to easily get your name out there when you’re starting out. There are so many different platforms out there to help entrepreneurs start finding clients, do some research and if appropriate, the get your business registered on them.
By registering with industry specific platforms for your business you gain access to a massive pool of businesses that are already looking for projects to be completed.
These tips are just a starting point to help you on your way to entrepreneurship! Go for it, the hardest part is taking the first step. I love to hear how your new businesses are going so please drop me a comment or message and let me know how you’re getting on.
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