Graham McGregor: An easy way to attract new clients

How could you turn your ideas into a new client marketing magnet? Photo / iStock

In most businesses we have three basic marketing challenges to solve.

1: How do we get large numbers of ideal new customers to contact our business?

2: How do we convert some of these people into happy paying clients?

3: How can we get large amounts of repeat and referral business from the people who already know us?

In this column let me share one of my favourite marketing strategies to get ideal customers and clients to contact your business for the first time.

I suggest you create what I call a 'new client marketing magnet'.

Let me explain...

A new client marketing magnet usually contains helpful information that will help a potential customer solve a big problem or reach an important goal.

Here are two examples:

Example One:

I have a client who relocates homes. In other words they cut up a home into pieces and physically transport it to a new location.

On my advice this business created a new client marketing magnet that was a short booklet called 'The 11 secrets to successfully relocating your home'.

This booklet explained all the steps and potential pitfalls in relocating a home.

My client offered this booklet in an advertisement in his local newspaper. He received several dozen orders for his booklet and two of these people booked his home relocation service and spent over $40,000 with his business.

Over the next 8 years this new client marketing magnet produced over 8 million dollars of new sales for this business.

Example Two:

I wanted to build a large email list of business owners just over 5 years ago.

So I created a new client marketing magnet called 'The Unfair Business Advantage Report.' www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com

This report contains transcripts of interviews I did with over 30 top sales and marketing experts around the world.

Each expert was invited to share their single best sales and marketing strategy.

This new client marketing magnet quickly produced thousands of business owners who subscribed to my email list.

And it's still working well today.

Now your new client marketing magnet can take many formats.

It can be a booklet, a DVD or CD, webinar, seminar, article, e-zine etc.

The key is it has to contain useful ideas that a potential client would be eager to have access to.

And the ideas should preferably be so valuable that many people will be keen to mention your marketing magnet to other people they know.

Here are the types of ideas you may want to include in your irresistible marketing magnet:

• Answers to the most commonly asked questions about using your product or service.

• Details on the biggest mistakes that people make when buying your type of product or service and how to avoid making them.

• 3-5 Helpful ideas (explained in detail) that would be of great value to anyone who was considering buying your type of product or service
Once you have some useful ideas, put them into an easy to use format and start offering this to potential clients.

Important Point:

Even though your marketing magnet is being offered for free you will still need to sell your potential clients on the value of ordering it.

To do this, mention all the benefits that a person will enjoy (or the problems they will solve) by reading your booklet, watching your video, booking on your webinar and so on.

Here's a good example:

I consulted with a business that did expensive office fit outs.

The average client for this business would spend between $300,000 and $3,000,000 on fitting out or refurbishing their offices.

I persuaded this business to create a new client magnet that was a special report that contained a large number of 'how to' ideas that were invaluable for anybody planning an expensive office fit out.

My client then took out a small display ad in a weekly publication that was sent to every law firm in their city as Legal firms were good potential clients for their office fit out business.

Their ad looked something like this:

===============================================================
An Important Message for Solicitors Planning to Relocate Their Offices:

If you are planning on relocating your offices within the next 6-18 months; don't do anything until you read this FREE REPORT:

Relocating your offices can be hugely expensive in both time and money; so it's vital you do it right.

XYX Business have just released a brand new FREE REPORT called 'The 3 Critical Steps to a Successful Office Fit Out'. This report will show you how to successfully relocate your legal offices.

You will learn the three critical steps to follow and how to avoid the seven most common and expensive mistakes. There's a handy 10 point check list and detailed 'how to' instructions on every stage of the process.

You can get your copy of this FREE SPECIAL REPORT (without obligation) by phoning XYZ on 1234-5678 or by emailing info@XYZ.com =============================================================

Over the next 2 weeks this simple ad produced 29 requests from law firms for this special report. (One of these requests was from the second largest law firm in the city.)

It might be very helpful to create a new client marketing magnet for your business as well. If you do it properly, this new client marketing magnet could work well for many years.

"There's a way to do it better-find it." - Thomas Edison

Action Exercise:

Write down 3-5 helpful ideas that would be immensely helpful to a person who was considering buying your type of product or service. How could you turn these ideas into a new client marketing magnet?

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. You can download his 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage' Ebook at no charge here.