3 Easy Steps to Find More Clients with Creative Thinking

We all experience periods of slowness in our businesses. Sometimes it’s seasonal, sometimes it’s caused by external factors like the economy but no matter the industry or reason, it’s always so tough at those times as a business owner to keep the customers coming in and the bills paid.

This ends up being a financial downward spiral.

1. A lack of customers coming in means less money being brought to the business.

2. This means the business needs to advertise more to attract customers which can rack up a hefty bill quickly.

3. This means you need even more customers to now cover the extra expense.

4. So you need to boost your marketing avenues again which causes further need for customers to cover the outlay.

5. And repeat.

Now, in this situation, it is all too common for business owners to rush to the costly marketing options instead of doing some creative problem solving and going back to basics to attract new business.

Let’s use the example of a Dog Grooming business in this situation.

First, we need to think about the product or service we’re delivering and who the target audience is. So with our Dog Grooming business, the target audience is… dog owners!

Secondly, we now need to think about where we can find this target audience. 

Where do dog owners frequently go? Pet stores would be a first immediate thought, vets would be a next must for all dog owners, doggy day cares would be a slightly out-there idea, dog walking groups are another option, maybe dog forums or discussion groups is another out-there idea.

We need to come up with as many ideas of where our target market can be found. The more creative the better as these can often be our hidden gems of ready-to-buy customer bases!

Thirdly, now we have our list of places to find our customers, we now need to figure out a way to reach these people… and this is where the magic happens!

We now need to figure out what medium would be best to reach these people. A lot of the ideas we’ve just listed are little-to-no-cost to target.

The Dog Discussion Groups and Forums are a very easy option to get a quick return from, as most of these are on Social Media, you can easily post an offer to these community or group pages for no cost but be received by 1000’s of people.

Again, with the pet stores, vets and doggy day cares, you can create a promotional flyer per less than a penny per flyer offering your services to be put at the tills of the pet stores, the main entrance to the doggy daycares or the vet’s desk and inside any paperwork the vet provides to a dog owner.

Even something as simple as a discussion with the owner of a Pet Training business to refer clients to each other is a low-cost-high-yield solution where both parties can benefit.

These are all key areas where you have an active target audience visiting frequently and can reach for such little cost but just require going back to basics and coming up with some creative ideas.

It is often in these ideas that we can surprise ourselves with how many customers we can find especially when times are tough, as opposed to paying large sums of money for leads through normal channels.

Try and list as many different businesses that are in your business niche, and then write a list of all the different mediums you can target and engage with their customer base to support your business.

In summary:

1. Write down your target market.

2. List all the places and businesses your target market can be found.

3. Write down all the ways you can interact with your target market.

You’ll be amazed at just how long your lists can get with some creative thinking!

The above example is a tried and tested method for myself for a Dog Groomer that filled up her diary for the entire month within 6 days of implementation.

If you need support with growing your business, click the “Book Your Consultation Now” link or email benjamin@nextgenerationmarketing.co.uk.