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Whether you are a new business owner, wanting to start a business, or have been in business for a while, you may be wondering: How do I get customers or clients for my business? The following article contains a list of various ways that you can build your business including Networking Groups and Sites, Directories and Databases, People You Know, Seminars, Print Advertising, Cold Calling, Business Websites, and Online Marketing. You can find which of the strategies work best for you and combine the ones that work best for maximum results.

Join Some Networking Groups and Sites

Join as many organizations as you can. Network with others in your field and area and let them know what services you offer.

1. Meetup.com
Meetup.com lets anyone organize their own group online and these groups meet in person. There are many different types of Meetup groups ranging from hobby groups, social groups, and business groups. These groups are great for getting to know people face to face and they allow you to introduce yourself and your business to people.

2. Your Chamber
Your chamber usually has a website and lists all the contact information for their members, allowing you to connect with other businesses. You can also check out your Rotary.

3. Your City’s Website
Your city’s website lists local companies.

4. Idustry-Based Association Events and Sites
Join these types of events to meet people in the industry of your interest and spread the word about your business. If you are looking to connect with lawyers, architects, engineers etc., go to their industry websites where they list members.

5. Business Groups for Women or Other Groups
Some examples are Ladies Who Launch, POWE, Women Can Do Anything (These are local biz events).

6. Networking Websites
You can find networking sites such as www.4networking.biz to help you grown your network.

7. Authority Websites
Authority websites such as QuickBooks Pro Advisor have a lot of traffic and might be good places to connect with potential clients.

8. Free Websites
You can find some free websites to advertise your business on such as free classifieds.

9. Dinner Parties
For some businesses, dinner parties are great for taling about your business or for doing demonstrations related to your business.

Search Available Directories and Databases

1. Yellow Pages
You can get information on businesses by looking at the yellow pages. You can also advertise yourself there.

2. List of New Biz Openings in Your Area
Your county might have a website that has listings of the new businesses that have registered each month. You might try checking with your local tax collectors office or business registration office and ask them. You could gain some new clients by contacting these new businesses.

3. Reference USA Database
ReferenceUSA.com provides information on over 20 million businesses, 222 million consumers, U.S. new businesses, U.S. new homeowners and movers. Your local library might also have access to this database. ReferenceUSA helps researchers, students, and job-seekers.You can select a location and do a radius search to look up the number of similar businesses in the area or check the strength of competition with years in business and credit rating. You can look for businesses to buy or network with other businesses. You can also search based on business size, number of employees, sales volume, home-based, etc. Another database you might want to use is DEX.

4. Scott’s Directory
If you have access to the Scott’s Directory, which is used in Canada for searching business contact details, via your local library, you may be able to use it to send out e-mails by copying each e-mail address into a database or spreadsheet.

5. Office Space for Lease Websites
Office-space-for-lease websites list current tenants, which can help you find information about businesses.

Use Traditional Marketing Methods

People You Know
Ask family, friends, associates, former co-workers, and neighbors for assistance in spreading the word about your business. Perhaps you can give them a reward like coupons for their help.

Hold a Seminar or Workshop
Holding a semminar or workshop that relates to your business can be a good way of attracting potential clients and customers and marketing your business while providing valuable information to people. I once went to a free semminar on goal-setting where the speaker asked eveyone to email him and ask him about how he is doing with writing his book. This was a great marketing strategy for his book.

Print Advertising
1. Printing business cards and giving them to potential clients is a common strategy.
2. Creating large postcards can work well for advertising your business.
3. Find a trade magazine for a group, such as women, and place an ad, or contact those that have ads to let them know about your business.
4. Create flyers and post them in libraries, grocery stores, or give flyers or business cards to potential clients. Also, places like grocery stores often have job boards for sale/rent/buy where you could advertise your business.

Cold Calling
Cold calling is a strategy that might work well for you, depending on your strategy and your business.

Volunteer
You can volunteer your services to organizations in a variety of ways. For example, you can offer to help a church write a newsletter, help update someone’s website, help with graphic design or spreadsheets etc. You don’t even need to be at the organization’s location to help them; you can assist them from the comfort of your home. By helping out others, you can gain experience, confidence, and references and referals that you can use on your business website. When you give with an open heart, you will often get more than you expected back in return.

Check Out Some Job Sites

You might find some clients for your business on sites that have job postings.  Be aware of scams.

Set Up a Website and Market Your Site

In today’s world, setting up a business website for your business is essential. Your website is where people can go to learn about your business and you can show your expertise by having a blog that is relevant to your business with content that your potential clients or customers would be interested in. Your website is also a place where you can promote your social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. These sites provide more ways for people to network with you. Doing some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your site can help you to get traffic to your site. There is a lot of information out there about this. Also, here is a great resource that lists ways for how you can Increase Your Website Traffic Below are some common stratagies for getting the word out about your business. On your site, include a “Contact Us” page where people can easily contact you and also include an “About Us” page which will let people know who you are.

Forums
You can join forums that are related to the clients or customers that you want to attract. Interact with people on forums and give them useful information, but do not directly advertise yourself because this can make you look like a spammer. If you wan to connect with real estate agents, for example, go to ActivRain, join the forum and answer questions that are being discussed. Your profile shoud include information about your business and direct people to your website where they can learn more about you and your business.

Social Media
Social Media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook can be great for gaining new clients. One of the best ways to attract people is to offer free tips, products or services. You might, for example, invite your clients to Twitter and give them tips on how to use Twitter for their business. Encourage others to contact you and ask you questions if they need help. If you have a Facebook page, make it interactive. Join groups on LinkedIn that your customers and clients are a part of. For example, if you want clients that are authors, find a group of authors and give them tips on questions they have.

Blogging
Blogging can have many benefits; it creates unique content for your site and clients and customers have a chance to get to know you as an expert from reading your posts. Blog about topics that your cutomers or clients would be interested in. Guest blogging can also be a great way to get traffic to your site and can lead to referrals. Posting comments on the blogs of others or linking to client’s blogs on your blog can also work well with time.

You Tube Videos
Make video tutorials and post them on YouTube and embed them in your blog. Usually, videos that do well include how-to videos, videos involving animals or children and videos that are funny.

Newsletters
Set up a newsletter to get contacts through them. You can sign up with a service such as Mail Chimp and copy the newsletter box to your site to begin collecting email addresses from people who visit your site. Think about what relevant information you can provide to your target audience in your newsletter. You might provide important tips.

Referrals
Refering other people is a great way to gain friends; they willl often refer you too if you refer them first. Send a message letting someone know that you referred them, and many times, they will refer you back to return the favor. You can also encourage referrals from current clients and have Google alerts set up. You might also have referral exchanges where you ask people to refer you in exchange for refering them.

Press Releases
Writing press releases can be a good way to get exposure for your business. You can write a press release and put it on a few of the free press release sites and then take that link and post it on your social media sites, blog and website.

Your Signature Line
You can use your signature line in forums, posts, and your personal email to help attract clients. In your signature, you can include your website and social media addresses and include a line about the launch of your new company or other relevant information.

Link Exchanges
You might exchange links with others to help build links to your site.

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
If you have some money for advertising, you can use a pay per click program such as Google Adwords to advertise your site.

Do you have any other ideas? Feel free to share in the comments below and we can add your idea to the list!