Making Clients Come to You

Whether you are working a full-time job, looking for extra work on the side, or building your own business, social media can be a great way to attract new clients and business opportunities. But simply having a profile on social media is not enough. You must establish yourself as an authority in your field.

Merriam-Webster defines authority as “an individual cited or appealed to as an expert.” The question is, how do you convince people that you know what you’re talking about?

Social media sites offer a perfect platform for demonstrating your knowledge and skills, but to do so effectively involves giving away some of your knowledge for free. The two core components in establishing authority are content creation and engagement. Before you start building your “street cred,” take some time to create a home base of operations and identify the social media platforms your target audience uses.

Building a home base

In the not-so-distant past, business experts were telling everyone to create their own website to share business information, extend marketing efforts, and attract new clients. Although having your own website offers many advantages, such as being able to maintain your online presence in a stable fashion regardless of what tomorrow brings, today’s entrepreneurs and small businesses often skip the website-building expenses by relying on social media options (e.g., Facebook pages) or free tools such as Substack newsletters, which include a no-frills website.

In this increasingly digital world, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to what the best home base is. All options have pros and cons and attract users from specific demographics. Consider your target market and where they are likely to “live” online. If you’re not sure who your target market is, Entrepreneur Life offers a step-by-step approach to identifying them.

Whatever option you choose, build a home base where you can house all the information about your business and services, gather email addresses to contact potential clients directly, and answer potential clients’ common questions.

Content creation

Content creation refers to developing blog posts, articles, videos, graphics, downloadable content, courses, and social media posts that you can share on various platforms. Such content does not need to be comprehensive or deep, but it should provide something of real value for your potential clients.

What content to share. The best content for establishing authority comes from answering (potential) clients’ questions or solving a problem for them. Spend some time engaging with your target audience on social media to identify some common questions you can answer.

For example, if you offer a service for writers, join writing-related groups on social media and pay attention to the kinds of questions group members are asking. Are they noting their frustration with a process or product? Consider the issues they are discussing. If one person is asking for help, others are probably encountering similar challenges. What can you create to help them: a checklist, quick explanation, flowchart, or video?

Once you create the content, include your contact information, but don’t use this content to make a “hard sell” of your services. Make the content available from your home base and share it on social media as well as with anyone experiencing similar issues.

When creating content, tips and tricks for saving potential clients money are always good too. If you provide a service at an hourly rate, think about what clients can do to make your process easier (meaning you spend less time on their work and, thus, charge the clients less in the end).

For example, perhaps you offer free 30-minute consultation calls to new clients as a way to introduce your business. However, you discover that people are asking you the same questions during these calls. Consider creating a PDF of these most commonly asked questions and offering it as a free download from your home base and via social media.

Providing answers to common questions saves you from having to answer the same questions over and over, but it also saves the clients’ time. Instead of using their free 30 minutes to ask these questions, they can delve deeper into issues unique to their situation, which will likely make the call more meaningful for them.

Periodically review and update your content to make sure it is still appropriate for the clients you are attracting.

How much content to share. A good rule-of-thumb when generating blog content in order to establish yourself as an authority in your field is to aim for 750–1500 words per post. At this length, you are not necessarily looking to create a flurry of comments and shares. Rather, you are demonstrating that you have the skills and insights necessary to make clients’ lives easier.

If you are providing courses or downloadable content, like PDFs or ebooks, they will be a bit longer as well as more comprehensive in nature. These can actually be compilations of your shorter posts.

For example, let’s say you create a series of blog posts explaining the correct uses and placements of different types of punctuation. You could also pull all these posts together into a downloadable file that includes a few extra examples of each type of punctuation as well as some trickier uses that might be too complex to explain in a blog post. If you have enough material, you could even produce an ebook, which you can make available via online bookstores to reach more potential clients or give away as a lead magnet.

Don’t reinvent the wheel every time you create new content. You don’t need to write completely new articles for every single platform. Use the same content in different formats, adjusting it to fit specific platforms. If you write an article for a platform like Medium, create a set of graphics highlighting key takeaways or powerful quotes from the article. Use these graphics on social media sites like LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. Use the same content to create a guest blog post, revising it so you are speaking directly to the blog’s targeted readers.

Instead of trying to think of different types of content to share on various platforms, focus on one idea that you can present in different ways to different audiences. Adopting this approach can help you stay on target without feeling overwhelmed.

Engagement

The second core component for establishing yourself as an authority is engagement. You can start engaging with your potential clients even before you have developed content. In fact, engagement will help you identify new areas of content to provide for your target audience.

Remember that your core audience will not be congregated in any one area. People have different preferences for how they get information. Identify several platforms (e.g., social media, websites, blogs, newsletters) where you can engage with potential clients.

Engagement can take different forms, including (but never limited to) responding to comments on blogs and articles, sending out newsletters, and interacting with people on social media.

Responding to comments on blogs and articles. Most people who post a blog or article will monitor comments and respond accordingly. When responding, think of each interaction as an opportunity to demonstrate to the commenter that you would work well with them in a professional capacity.

This does not mean selling your products or services. Rather, show that you understand the person commenting and want to help them. If they ask a question, answer it and point them to some of your free content that will provide even more insights and help. Also offer to chat with them privately, if warranted; for example, if they have a specific question unique to their situation, offer to set up a free 15-minute consultation call. Even if they are not ready to use your products or services, they will remember your willingness to help when the time comes.

If someone makes a comment without a question, use the reply function to ask for more information and expand on their comment — again, offering additional content as appropriate. Perhaps a reader says he had a bad experience with another service provider in your field. Although you don’t want the comments section to devolve into a free-for-all complaint party, you can ask questions like “How could your experience have been improved?” and “How could the service provider have met your needs more effectively?”

Remember, the goal is not to sell yourself, but rather to present yourself as someone who genuinely likes helping people (i.e., potential clients). When you refer commenters to your free content, don’t direct them to your entire library of content; rather, send them to a specific article, PDF, or graphic that will help them.

Another way to use comments on blog posts and articles is to engage with people commenting on blogs/articles that you haven’t written, although if you choose to use this approach, make sure that you don’t give off that smarmy salesman vibe. Respond only to people you can help directly. For example, if you produce workbooks for homeschoolers, don’t tell someone who is struggling to find quality content to go buy your workbooks. Rather, direct them to one of your graphics or articles for how to identify and assess good content effectively.

Again, the goal is to be helpful — sincerely helpful. Think of it as putting good karma out into the world.

Finally, use the comments on blogs and articles to identify more areas for content creation. If people are asking questions, you want to have an answer for them.

Sending out newsletters. Even before you have readers signed up for a newsletter, you should be creating a newsletter sharing your tips, tricks, and free content. One reason to start early is because it gets you in the habit of producing newsletters on a timely basis. Another reason is that it creates a library of content for people looking for expertise.

Making your past newsletters available for download from your home base means people can see all the wonderful content you are sharing, which might lead them to sign up for your newsletters as well. The content is also accessible to online searches. Most importantly, a new potential client who comes to your home base will see the wealth of information you are sharing, which gives you a stronger chance of forming a connection with that person, changing them from potential to paying client.

Interacting with people on social media. Many people see social media as a rabbit hole that can lead to a waste of time with little return on their investment. However, if you think of it as a networking opportunity, you can move through the maze of social media with purpose.

Social media is not limited to your own accounts. Go forth and interact! Find where your potential clients are congregating and join their groups. If you sell home-spun yarn, join knitting groups. If you are a farmer, join recipe-related groups.

Don’t join the groups with the intention of selling your goods and services (in fact, many groups do not allow any selling in their groups). You are there to network, to interact, and to engage possible clients and show them that you are knowledgeable, helpful, and accessible.

Approach social media in much the same way as you would blogs and articles: respond to questions with meaningful advice and free content when appropriate while also mining the posts and interactions for ideas for shareable content.

You can use your own social media accounts to share your free content as well. Set a specific day or time to answer followers’ questions. Share your library of content (especially your backlog) routinely throughout the week. Don’t share only your own content though; make sure you include other experts and industry news, commenting on it so your followers know why the information is important for them too. Sharing relevant content from others in your industry reaffirms that you know what you’re doing because you are staying up to date on any changes.

Know your social media platforms

Not all social media is created the same, and each platform attracts different types of users. If you’re trying to attract clients nearing retirement, Snapchat is not going to help you much. On the other hand, if you want to engage with recent high school graduates, Snapchat might be a good place to frequent. MarketingCharts.com provides insights on which social platforms different demographics use.

In addition to your target audience, think about the kinds of content you want to be able to share. If you are providing mostly text-based info, you will have more work to do to use visual-driven platforms like Pinterest and YouTube.

Final Thoughts

“Marketing” can feel like a dirty word for those who don’t feel comfortable promoting themselves. Presenting yourself as an authority in the field can be one way to make marketing more palatable. It is important to know where your client base tends to hang out online and make sure that you are responding to their needs and questions in a helpful way. Establishing yourself as an authority can attract new clients, but it is not a short-term or immediate answer. This long-term approach can help you build a solid foundation that will continually turn potential clients into paying clients.