Getting In Front Of Your Ideal Client [Day 5: 30 DBWB]
[This post is an excerpt from the 30 Days To A Better Wedding Business Workbook]
You’ve figured out who your ideal client is (and if you haven’t, head back to this post and get to work), so today I want you to think about how to get in front of them. It’s much easier to get in front of people where they already spend time if you develop solid relationships with people who can help you with that. This includes anyone who shares your target market including other suppliers who serve them and bloggers who are popular with your ideal client.
One of the best ways to develop a good relationship is by offering to help the other person with something. You can do this by curating the content that your favourite wedding pros are producing, thereby helping them to get it in front of more people. This is a lot simpler than it sounds and it will actually work to your advantage as well because you are sharing content your audience enjoys without having to constantly create it.
Here is how to implement this strategy:
1. Go to your Twitter page and create a private list called “Outreach”. (You can go directly to your lists page by going to www.twitter.com/yourtwittername/lists)
2. Sign up for a Hootsuite free account if you don’t already use it. This Hootsuite Quick Start Guide will show you how to add your Twitter account and add the new list you’ve created as a stream. This will make it easier and faster to monitor what is happening not only on your new list, but throughout your entire Twitter account.
3. Sign up for an RSS reader like Feedspot and search for the people you added to your Twitter list. This will allow you to pull all of their blogs together in one place.
4. Put a 30 minute block into your calendar everyday for relationship nurturing. I put this into my Google Calendar so that it pops up everyday to remind me. Take this time to check your RSS reader and Twitter list to see what your contacts have been up to. This rarely takes me the full 30 minutes to complete so rest assured, it can be done quickly.
5. If any of the people you follow have linked to, blogged about or tweeted about would appeal to your audience, share it. Make sure they know you have shared it by structuring your tweets like this:
How To Deal With Negative Reviews http://ow.ly/haoP3 via @debbieorwat
As you can see, I shortened the link in Hootsuite and mentioned the author of the content so that they know I shared it and enjoyed it. Hootsuite allows you to schedule updates as well so you can spread them out.
This may sound like it would be too small of a gesture to matter, but you are helping your contacts build their audience by sharing their content with your audience. If you do this on a regular basis, they will notice. I have personally built some great relationships this way. Marketing is very frustrating for a lot of people and they really appreciate it when someone takes the time to lend them a helping hand.
Building and maintaining relationships should more like farming than hunting. If you keep at this regularly, just like watering a plant everyday, you will reap the benefits later.
Why does this matter?
Relationships are everything in business and if you have helped someone they will be keen to return the favour. This comes in especially handy when trying to pitch guest posts or get referrals. These people are also more likely to share your content which means they will be putting it in front of their audience and essentially endorsing you in the process.
This simple strategy takes very little time and effort but it can have a massive impact in your business. Think about it: if you knew someone who was looking for a photographer, would you send them to someone you knew of or someone who had helped you in the past? This is your way of getting your foot in the door with people who influence your ideal client and you never know what that relationship might turn into!
