ATTRACTING IDEAL CLIENTS TO YOUR BUSINESS

As your business develops over time, there will inevitably be change. How often do you sit down and take stock of what the next change might be?

If you are a solicitor, changes to Legal Aid, fixed fee arrangements or the requirement for price transparency may have forced you to rethink your working practices and build in efficiencies, such as digital working or hiring a different mix of staff to undertake new tasks.

Similarly, accountants have seen huge changes with ‘Making Tax Digital’ this year and Financial Planners must constantly keep a close eye on their regulatory and compliance framework.

But what about your clients? Have they changed over time too? And how do you identify who your ideal client is?

Here are some things to consider:

• What is your niche? Law firms may choose to specialise in one or two areas, such as family law or conveyancing. Within those specialties, you may choose to represent children, parents, or both. Or your firm may deal exclusively with commercial rather than residential property. Do you want to be known as a generalist or a specialist?
• What is most profitable? Financial services firms may work only with high net worth individuals, and others may choose to offer mortgages and mortgage protection, rather than a wider wealth management service. Can you target your marketing efforts to attracting more of your most profitable clients?
• Where is your expertise? Accountants may specialise in services for contractors, given their expertise in limited companies, sole traders and IR35 tax rules, while others may focus on R&D tax credits or complex tax investigations. It’s important to be clear about your service offering.

How can you use marketing to attract your ideal clients?

Marketing your business successfully requires time and financial commitment. Not only do you need to work out what you are going to say, you need to know why you are saying it and to whom.

Content marketing can be a great way for your business to spread the message about what you do, what you charge and who you like to work with. Use video, blogs and your website to explain these topics and develop your proposition as the ‘go to’ expert in your sector. Use social media to share your knowledge, build engagement and develop relationships with the right kind of people. Check out our blog on repurposing content, to save time and effort, and this one on using video.

Knowing where your clients are, online, helps you focus on which platforms to use. There are many platforms and you could spend a lot of time trying to maintain them all. But there is little point in creating content for Twitter if your clients are more active on Facebook, for example. Depending on the age demographic and lifestyle of your ideal client, you may need to look at Instagram, webinar or podcasting apps, too.

Social media advertising, such as on LinkedIn or Facebook, can be targeted to exactly the type of clients you want to attract based on their interests, business sector or job title, for example. Because it is so targeted, such advertising can be very cost effective, driving traffic to your website and generating new enquiries as a result.

Cal Partners is an award-winning marketing, digital marketing and business development agency in Newcastle upon Tyne. Our clients are professional services firms including lawyers, accountants, chartered surveyors and financial planners, who are interested in raising their business profile online, generating new business streams and overall business growth. Contact us for a free consultation today.