Running your own business is hard enough without the stress of having to cold call, find clients and chase sales. After all, time is money, so wouldn’t it be much better spent doing the work you set out to do in the first place rather than battling to make your voice louder than your competitors? Of course, it would! So, what if I told you that growing your client base doesn’t have to mean spending huge amounts of time and money desperately hunting for new business? In fact, the less you do this, the better your business will do.   

Sounds crazy, right?

It’s not. Think about it this way: Traditional methods of outbound marketing are time-consuming, financially draining and a huge output of energy. Tactics such as attending trade shows, print advertising and cold calling can be effective, but because so much effort is put into pushing the message out, it is difficult to measure how effective they are at bringing business in. This makes it a much less valuable way to spend limited resources.

However, inbound marketing reduces the time and money you need to spend on putting your message out there. Clever content and targeted digital marketing strategies require less effort with the bonus that most of the platforms you can use are free!

According to a study by Ironpaper, inbound lead generation tactics have not only improved over the last year but are also proven to produce much higher quality leads for sales, making it a much more efficient choice for businesses looking to attract new clients. Conversely, outbound marketing lead generation shows no signs of growth and is producing fewer leads for businesses.

In the digital age, there are plenty of ways to get new clients to come to you, leaving you free to spend more time on your business. It is important to remember that while these methods might not increase the odds of you becoming rich overnight, they will go some way towards creating a foundation for your business to grow from, without the hassle of finding the work.

So, how do you change the flow of your marketing strategy? 

Targeted advertisingis one of the best things about social media. Instead of wildly sending out printed leaflets in the hope that it might generate a few leads, targeted advertising allows you to select the demographic of your desired audience so that you can specifically deliver your advertising to them over the internet. 

Generating business by word of mouth can be tricky if you are finding it hard to get the clients in the first place, but positioning yourself as an industry leader will increase your public profile and in turn encourage people to approach you. Regularly publish industry-relevant opinions and content on social media to attract your target market and increase your visibility. Attending events as a speaker is another great way to build your reputation within the community, so contact your local networking events to see if they have any opportunities for you to get your message across. If the idea of public speaking is not for you, simply attending the networking events themselves is a great way to make connections with a huge number of potential clients in one hit.   

Aligning yourself with other similar organizationscan also increase your target demographic overnight. Can you run a promotion with another business that would benefit you both? This will open you both up to each other’s social media followers and raise awareness of your business. When it comes down to it, building relationships with people in the industry is what will help you grow your base in the long run. Following these tips should help you to plug the leak of outbound marketing and change the direction of new business, meaning that you can sit back and wait for the clients to come to you!