Tweet

Activity Attracts

Written by: Stuart Ayling

Article Overview: If you want to attract more clients… get busy. Because activity attracts. Your busy-ness should include: Being seen at industry or networking events. Writing articles that get published – at least in your own newsletter. Participating in industry meetings. Participating in web-based discussion groups. Don’t just be a lurker on the list. Getting out and meeting people, prospects and referral partners. Having projects that you are working on, even if you are in-between client engagements. Running surveys to find out more about your market space. And more...

Activity Attracts

If you want to attract more clients… get busy. Because activity attracts.

Your busy-ness should include:
Being seen at industry or networking events.
Writing articles that get published – at least in your own newsletter.
Participating in industry meetings.
Participating in web-based discussion groups. Don’t just be a lurker on the list.
Getting out and meeting people, prospects and referral partners.
Having projects that you are working on, even if you are in-between client engagements.
Running surveys to find out more about your market space.
And more...

What I’m saying here is that you should have a planned approach for increasing your perceived level of “activity”. Your potential clients want you to be busy, because it implies that you are good at what you do. Plus it could mean you are one of the few hip, happening, and tuned-in professionals in your field.

Before you increase your activity, first understand who your market is. That’s right, you need to define your target audience. I know the concepts of “market segmentation” or “target market” or “ideal client” might sound pretty boring. But you really need to do this so you can…

Focus your efforts.

When you focus your efforts you can more easily create multiple points of contact with potential clients. This means you will accelerate the process of awareness-trust-engagement.

Too often I speak with service providers who are advertising widely, letter-box dropping, or mailing out offers to all and sundry. They’re working on the shotgun approach – which is so-called because the shot from the gun spreads very wide as it travels, and each pellet makes a very small impact.

But instead of using a shotgun, I say you should really try to be a marketing sniper. Pick your selected audience, and then find multiple opportunities to hit them with your message.

By increasing your level of perceived activity you will attract more clients. It works.

You might notice that I have described it as “perceived” activity. This is important, because what really matters is that you are seen to be busy and in-demand.

To achieve this you really will need to do something. So don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that you should trick people into believing you are busy. But your activities must first be noticed in order to create an impression.

Evaluate your activities to ensure you are getting the best impact in return for your efforts.

Be careful to avoid:
Networking events that are not attended by potential clients or referrers.
Submitting articles to publications that are not read by your chosen audience (i.e. your target market).
Participating in fringe industry groups that are not well known.
Sending out direct mail offers that sound like you are desperate for work.
Creating a web site but failing to put in the effort to have it found on search engines or relevant directories.

Activity attracts. But don’t dance in the dark - make sure you get noticed.

Related Articles
  Activity/Activity/Activity
  How To Use "Law Of Attraction" For Your "Business From Home"
  Hobby Loss Rule
  Making the Team
  Good websites!

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Need help in Team Building Activity.. - Hi! I am tasked to organize a Team Building Activity in the office. I would like to seek help from you guys on ideas on how to make it worth the time and effort. I want the team to ask for more team building activities after this one. Thanks! jane
Run a major competition - You beat me to the punch LoveInventions! I was just on my way to post this! The idea is simple: run a competition for a major prize to get people posting. In this case Darren put up a $729 Nikon DSLR up for grabs as the top prize. The winner was selected randomly and each post you wrote gave you another chance to win. [quote:1nc4sv0r]The Goal - the aim of the exercise was simple. To sign up new members to my forum and increase page views. My hope was to have a bumper month but also get new members signed up to have an ongoing impact on overall activity going forward.[/quote:1nc4sv0r] [quote:1nc4sv0r]Results: Traffic - Over the full month traffic was increased 66.7%.[/quote:1nc4sv0r] [quote:1nc4sv0r]Results: New Members - Recruiting new members to the forum was another goal of the competition. We’d had an influx in January of 1803 new sign ups as a result of a previous smaller competition but since had been around the 1200 per month. April however saw a boost in numbers by an extra 2823 members.[/quote:1nc4sv0r] [quote:1nc4sv0r]Results: Activity - Another bonus related to increased traffic is the increases in user activity on the forum. Here’s the increase in new ‘threads’ to the forum (up from the 1500’s to just over 4000 for the month). And here is the increase in new posts (up from 1400 per month to over 43000 for the month).[/quote:1nc4sv0r] [quote:1nc4sv0r] The Downside So far it’s sounding fairly rosy isn’t it. Increases in traffic, members, activity and even earning are all good. However there was two downsides. 1. Moderation Workload - I have an amazing team of moderators to DPS but the month of April was the hardest that they’ve ever worked. I totally underestimated the extra load upon them in setting up this competition. It has made me reconsider how I run future competitions. 2. Impact upon Quality of Reader Interaction - over all the increased activity of the site brought in some wonderful new members who are interacting on the site with genuine interaction. However a small number of new members were just there for the competition - even though I made it clear that spammy entries wouldn’t win. This impacted moderators workloads but also the overall morale on the site a little. I think we managed to contain it but again - next time I run a competition it’ll not be based upon post numbers but rather some sort of quality level of interaction.[/quote:1nc4sv0r] What do you guys think? Is it worth testing out? Considering we already give out over $1,000 in month prizes, what would be the ultimate prize that we award at the end of the competition?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How to Sell to the Price Driven Customer

Induction – your first management job

Ten Reasons to take Notes during Sales Meetings

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.