1. Email Marketing
The easiest way to get started with finding more B2B customers is through email marketing.
Statistics also show that email marketing is the highest return on investment activity with a 40-1 ROI.
It’s easy to get started, it’s very cost-effective and it’s a very effective way to start generating new business.
The one task that all business owners do everyday is check their email.
If you send a target email to a targeted prospect, it’s very likely that they will see and read the message.
2. Direct Mail
Direct Mail is a highly effective way to reach new clients and is also extremely cost-effective.
The big advantage to direct mail is that very few people are actually using it these days which makes it a blue ocean opportunity.
If you sell a high ticket product such as IT services or marketing services, direct mail has to be a fantastic way to reach your target audience.
The key to success with Direct Mail is making sure that you sent a personalised mail piece to the correct person.
Generic letters go straight in the bin.
3. Facebook Ads
Facebook can work for B2B and B2C although it generally works better for B2C products.
Facebook has advanced targeting options that allow targeting of interests, behaviours, demographics, buying behavior, education, and technology use, as well as a number of other criteria.
For example, you’re able to target people who have just had a baby, which is great if you’re setting baby products.
You are also able to target personal status such as recently engaged which is great if you’re selling wedding photography or wedding services.
You’re also able to target people who follow Thought Leaders within your industry.
If you’re able to identify who those thought leaders are, it’s possible to access a large number of people who are likely to be interested in what it is that you do also.
The drawback to Facebook Ads is the cost…it can be expensive.
4. Google Adwords
Google Adwords is a great way to reach new customers for businesses who offer services such as emergency plumbing, emergency breakdown, emergency electrical etc.
When somebody is facing an emergency, Google is the first place that most people go.
If you’re having a plumbing emergency, it is very unlikely you’re going to go to Facebook and check your news feed.
That person will go to Google and search “Emergency Plumber”.
If you offer services where the need for that service is immediate, Google Adwords can be a great option.
Conversely, if your service does not have an immediate need, there’s a possibility that the prospect is in research mode and just looking for information.
In this case Google Adwords may prove to be expensive as the sale will most likely not be immediate.
5. Networking
Networking is a great way to meet potential clients.
There are a number of professional networking groups such as BNI that are specifically for business owners to network with each other.
The drawback to these organisations is that the groups are very general in nature and are comprised of general business owners not industry specific business owners.
They also tend to meet weekly with the same people so after several meetings it can be difficult to find new prospects.
An alternative to this is Meetup.
Meetup holds networking sessions on virtually any topic you can imagine, so if you were looking for IT Business Owners, it’s very likely that there is a Meetup specifically for that.
Simply go to the Meetup website and search for Meetups in your town or city.
6. Telemarketing
Telemarketing and cold calling is an excellent way to find new business.
Simply picking up the phone and calling potential prospects and asking them if they’re interested in the service that you provide is still a very effective way to generate new business.
Generate a list of prospective clients and start calling them.
If you’re uncomfortable with calling yourself then there are agencies and telemarketing companies that can do this on your behalf.
7. Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the most profitable long-term strategies that you can engage in.
By creating an abundance of helpful, high-quality content on the problems that your product or service solves, you’ll be receiving new clients on autopilot for years to come.
Many of the strategies contained in this guide have to be constantly maintained in order to be effective.
For example with paid advertising such as Facebook or Adwords, as soon as you stop the advertising, no more clients are coming from those channels.
The same is true of direct mail, as soon as you stop sending out letters, clients stop coming in.
By creating great quality content such as blog posts, podcasts and guest appearances on other people’s websites, you’re able to create a long-term, sustainable strategy that continues to produce clients long after you cease to create content.
Content marketing is also the best way to have prospective clients find you for free via Google search (Search Engine Optimisation).
Simply focus on creating helpful useful content and distribute it wherever possible.
8. News Paper Ads (Classifieds)
Classified ads in newspapers are still a great way to generate new business.
Electricians, Painters and Decorators and any of the trades still work extremely well via classified ads.
Classified ads obviously work best for local businesses offering services in the local area.
If you offer a service to a local market, I highly suggest giving classified ads a go.
9. Banner Advertising
Banner Ads appear on websites, not in search results as you can see from the example above.
By choosing websites that are frequented by your ideal audience and placing banner ads on those sites, this is a great way to put your message in front of qualified prospects.
Banners are a more advanced strategy and can be fairly difficult to get to work, but if you’re able to get it to work, the traffic can be cheap, qualified and plentiful.
An easy place to start would be with a network who sells banner ads such as “Buy Sell Ads”.
A more advanced starting point would be the “GDN” or Google Display Network.
10. Video Marketing
YouTube is now the number 2 search engine in the world after Google, and video is one of the most popular ways to consume content.
This gives us a great opportunity to use video to generate new clients.
By creating “How To” videos and interesting video content on the topics of the industry that you’re in, this is a great way to create authority to reach potential prospects that would otherwise not have been reached.
The easiest way to do this is to simply use smartphones to capture video of you talking on a particular topic.
It doesn’t have to be high value production and it doesn’t have to be visually amazing.
What’s most important is that the content you provide is top quality.
Another strategy is to create PowerPoint presentations and record them via screen caption software.
11. Joint Ventures
Joint Ventures can be extremely profitable ways to find new clients.
Look for complementary, but non competitive Industries who have access to your ideal client base, and you potentially have access to their ideal client base.
A good example would be Business Coaches and Accountants.
A Business Coach has the ability to recommend accounting services to their clients, and an Accounting Service has the ability to recommend accounting clients to a Business Coach.
Joint ventures are an amazing, low cost way to generate new clients for any business and
This will clearly be a mutually beneficial arrangement.
I would suggest that seeking out joint venture relationships should be high on the list of any business owner
12. Referrals
The next step on from joint ventures is asking for, or paying for referrals.
Referrals can come from existing clients or from potential referral partners.
The easiest place to start is to simply ask for referrals from existing clients.
If they’re happy with the service that you provide, then they generally will be happy to offer referrals to new clients that are within their business network.
Another good strategy is to incentivise referrals.
Offer existing clients a discount or a finders fee for any new business that comes as a result of a referral they have made.
Another possibility which is similar to Joint Venture is to find referral partners, and instead of offering to refer clients back, offer a finders fee for any referral that turns into business.
13. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a peer-to-peer network that has been designed specifically with the intention of business owners being able to contact each other.
LinkedIn is going to be particularly good for recruitment companies looking for candidates as they are able to find candidates in specific roles already and reach out to them.
It’s also great for businesses looking to reach specific decision makers in a specific industry.
For example if you want to reach Chiropractors, it’s a fairly easy way to do this .
14. Retargeting
Retargeting is something that every business should be doing regardless of what methods they’re using to generate new clients.
Retargeting is where a visitor to a web page is pixelled, and you are then able to show ads to that person wherever they go on the internet.
Statistics show that prospects need to see your brand anywhere from 15 to 20 times to become comfortable with it.
A single visit to a website does not achieve this.
By using retargeting you’re able to show your brand to the Prospect many times after they leave your website.
Retargeting can improve the effectiveness of your marketing by 10x or more.
The easiest way to get started with retargeting is with a company that specialises in it such as Perfect Audience.
Forum Posting
Forum posting is a great way to generate traffic to a website and to create new leads and customers for your business.
Generally people go to a forum when they have a problem, this is your opportunity to solve a problem for them.
By doing this you show yourself as an expert in a particular area and you show that you have solutions to problems that people are potentially willing to pay for.
To use this strategy simply look for forums where people are asking questions to problems that you solve.
If you do this on a regular basis it won’t be long before prospects are reaching out to you personally asking if you offer products and services.
The key here is to not try and sell your services in the forum.
Simply be helpful and solve problems.
You can also create a forum signature which can include a link back to your website.
This works well in conjunction with a content strategy.
So that’s our list of 15 ways on how to find B2B customers.
