069. How to Grow Your Pool of Potential Clients

Well, hello there, ladies.

How are you?

I hope you're having a fabulous day. Welcome to the podcast. I have a really special episode for you today and you may have noticed we came in a little differently because a couple of things. We have a very special party going on on my social media all throughout this month and I wanted to bring in on that and just share the live broadcast that I'm doing on social media. I wanted to share those with you on the podcast so you don't miss out. So I'm going to be replaying the most recent live that I did. And so we have a special maximize your marketing in March party going online and I hope you join me for that. So I also want to let you know that is being brought to you by my 90 day marketing accelerator. And so we have the doors open now for that marketing accelerator. So if you really want to be creating marketing momentum. And I absolutely love helping my clients to really simplify their marketing so that you can get back to working in your zone of Genius. It's a 90 day group program where we have group sessions and skill workshops as well as I love the one on one private coaching aspect as well. So you get six private coaching sessions with me and so we can work specifically on your business and I can hold you accountable, which everybody loves. Right.

So I hope you check that out.

And I hope you join us for Maximize your marketing in March or magnify your marketing in March and enjoy this episode. And I hope to see you live. I'm going live and doing a masterclass each Wednesday, so I hope you join me for that. In the meantime, enjoy this episode.

Well, good morning. Good morning. Hello. How are you? We're here. I have a little bit of a cold, so I'm just hoping my voice will cooperate. But welcome to March. We're partying this morning. It's so great to have you here with me. This is a momentous occasion kicking off right now, the month of March and our magnify your marketing party that's going on all month long. And I'm so glad that you're here with me to join me today. And so if you don't know me, my name is Melissa Kellogg Luick and I am the founder and CEO of the Avanti Business Academy for Women. And you can find us on YouTube, you can find us on Facebook, and of course the website. So we'll have all of that contact information for you. But I started my business 18 years ago this month, so I'm very excited to get to celebrate that Also in March. We also know that March is Women's History Month, right? And what I like to say is like not only is are we celebrating women's history, but we're also celebrating women making history. And that's me, that's you. And so I really want you to think about that legacy perspective, right? And think about what do we want to leave behind and what is the change that we seek to make in the world while we're here. And I know for me the change I seek to make in the world is to offer any woman that wants an opportunity to create financial freedom through entrepreneurship. And I do that by helping her create great marketing strategy as well as the mindset of confidence and courage to go for it. And that's what I do. I love simplifying and demystifying marketing so that you can get back to your zone of genius and the business that you love doing as well as be consistently bringing in clients and new deals and new opportunities. So that's what we're going to talk about today and throughout the month of March. I'm going to be coming on Live like this every Wednesday at the very least. And then I'll be doing some pop up lives on the social medias throughout the week. And I want to really see set you up for success, help you to really create a marketing plan. A marketing system that's going to actually work for you and work for you in a simple way that feels great to you and also is bringing in new business. And that really is what this is all about and there's no cost for it at all. It is brought to you by my 90 day marketing accelerator program which the doors are now open. Hello, I'll put the link in the chat. But the 90 day marketing accelerator is a great container where we come together as a group of women to really focus on our marketing creating that those consistent new connections coming in. We nurture our audience, we learn how to make irresistible offers and also create valuable content that is going to make our mark on the world. Right. And serve our best fit clients. And so that's what we do in there with a much more hands on. It includes one on one as well as group sessions. And so you're welcome to learn more about that on the website. And I'll put that link in. I was just going to do that actually. So let's just take a minute and put the link for that in. So let's see where else am I going here? So first of all let's dive in and just start talking about marketing. Right. So the definition that I like to use for marketing is a super simple one. And I have an MBA in marketing. And this is not the way I learned marketing. I have worked in corporate marketing, and this is not the way we did it, but the way we as small businesses, as entrepreneurs and solopreneurs are. Marketing is completely different in a good way. Okay. Because marketing, the way I define it, is simply creating connections and relationships with other humans consistently over and over. Right. And making offers to them. And that's simply all marketing is. I love that simple definition because marketing for so many women that I talk to seems so complex and mystical and confusing and intimidating, and it doesn't have to be. Right? So I. Part of my mission is to help you to see that it doesn't have to be that way. I'm putting this in the chat, and I'm one of those people that's like, I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. So talking and typing and getting links is a whole other animal. Right? All right, cool. I'm going to put that in there. All right. So there you go. Oh, I have confetti in my coffee cup. That is a party. So that's how I love to define marketing for you. And so that's really the foundation that we're going to be thinking about as we. We move forward this month, that marketing is simply creating connections and relationships with other people. And it's so funny because I always say that, you know, this is something that is uniquely and suited for us as small business people because we have very close connections with our clients. Right. And I was actually at an event yesterday and talking with. I sat next to a COO of a major medical system in our state, and she was asking me what I do, and I was telling her. She said, well, what is the greatest piece of advice that you give your clients? And I told her this idea of how I define marketing, that we can just keep it simple. It is just simply creating connections with other humans. And. And she said, yeah, that's what we're big on. Also, like, even as a huge corporate entity, she's like, we are obsessed with trying to create that very personal relationship type of feel and connection. And it's much harder for a huge corporate entity, especially in the medical field, because the higher ups are so usually so far removed, and even the marketing people are so far removed from actual clients and customers and patients, in her case. But for us, we are consistently in touch with our clients. Right. So we have that beautiful opportunity, and it's can make marketing even easier for us than it can for, you know, big corporate entities like this one I was talking to yesterday. So if we use that as our definition, some of the biggest issues that I see when I'm working with clients or meeting new clients is that they're in large part and actually let me back up. So the number one thing I want you to remember, in addition to the definition of marketing, the number two thing. Hello. Thank you for the thumbs up. Yay. The number two thing is that you always need to be bringing in new people into your audience, your network. Right. Always need to be bringing in new people, and we always need to be nurturing those relationships. And that's the first two things we're going to talk about. I'm going to talk about how we bring in those new people today, but we always want to be bringing in new people. Because what I often see that when clients are not creating the revenue they want to be creating is because they're marketing to the same group of people over and over and over. And even if they have a very loyal, very committed group of clients, those clients are only going to buy so much. Right? And so if you remember that you always need to be bringing new connections in so that you can develop those relationships and they can become new clients. And so that's what you really need if you want to be growing your business. And then of course, we always need to be nurturing those relationships, but for the purposes of today, we're going to talk about bringing those new people in. All right? And so some of the biggest issues I see when people are struggling with this is that they're not or that they're only doing one on one growth. And what I mean by that is they're only connecting with new people one at a time. For example, going to networking functions, which I love doing and I still do. And I'm going, I went to one yesterday, I'm going to one tomorrow. And I absolutely love being out in my community and connecting with folks. However, it can't be the only way that I'm bringing new people into my network. Right. And so I just encourage you to consider that it can be very exhausting if you're trying to be everywhere and meet everyone and growing and scaling your marketing operations by doing one on one type of connecting. Right. So it can be exhausting and it makes for slow growth. So I always encourage my clients to be thinking about, and we'll talk more about this, increasing your reach and duplicating your efforts and Creating more marketing efficiency, right? And you can do that by doing more marketing online and where, and you know, using email marketing, where you're writing one email and it goes out to 50 or 100 or 500 people, right? Or writing one social media post, recording one video and posting it and it's being seen by multiple people. So like I said, I'm still doing the one on one. But also start increasing your reach this way. And then, and then we always need to be serving these folks well when they come into our network, right? And we're going to talk about how to do that and then keeping in touch with them and nurturing those relationships. And so the bottom line here is, is that if you want to be making more money bringing in more revenue into your business, which we all do. Well, I guess not all of us, but most of us, you need to be inviting more people in, you need to be building and nurturing those relationships, those people that are coming in and continually making offers to them. So how to do this? Well, we can be marketing or meeting people in person like we talked about with networking, or we can be meeting them online, right? And we're going to talk about how to do both of those. And so if you're doing in person networking, bringing new people in in person, and that doesn't necessarily just mean personally, you know, it can mean in person or it can even mean like zoom networking. Like I have networking organizations that I'm a part of that we meet on zoom, but it's still that one to one type connecting, right? So to make in person networking effective, we need to be intentional about meeting more people and about starting relationships and, and growing those relationships. And so this all sounds very obvious, but a lot of us, we do little bits and pieces of this, but if we streamline all of it, we can really have a really great system going on. And so think about where you like to meet new people professionally in person, whether it's in your community or in your, you know, affinity groups, things, activities that you like to do, you're always meeting new people. And it doesn't have to be just in a professional setting. You can meet people at the grocery store, you can meet people, you know, at your kids sports activities. There's a lot of different ways to meet new people. And it's not selling to people, it's just meeting new people. So when you meet someone new, I want you to always think about having a way to follow up with them. And so a lot of times, and I still do this because I forget we all forget, but it's just a habit to get into, to have a way to follow up with them. So that doesn't mean, like, I give you my business card and then you just disappear and I never see you again. It means I give you my business card and then I say, do you have a business card? And if you don't, oh, that's fine. What's your text number? And I'll text you, and we can get in touch that way. Or let's connect on LinkedIn, right? Let's connect on Facebook or whatever it is, so that you have a way to follow up with that person. And then what you're going to do is make sure that you are connecting with them and then following up after that connection and, and creating a. An opportunity to either chat further, whether it's a coffee chat or meeting on Zoom or just a way to get to know each other, because this is how relationships are born. And if our business is built on relationships, and if marketing is all about creating relationships, we have to think like, how do I create relationships? Sounds very simple. But it's almost like starting a romantic relationship, right? Where you meet someone at the grocery store and you're like, oh, we should get together for coffee. And then you get together for coffee and you find out, you know, that your businesses have things in common, and maybe you could collaborate or, you know, refer business back and forth, or maybe you want to be their client or they want to be your client. Like, that's how the relationship gets started. And so, so you have that initial meeting, you exchange information, you follow up with them, you meet up with them, and then you have a plan in order to nurture that relationship. So, so say, for example, you meet them for coffee. You don't leave that coffee without having a plan of how we're going to stay in touch or how we're going to meet up next, that sort of thing, right? I like to invite people to listen to my podcast or get on my email list because I, you know, send out valuable emails each week. And so that can help you create that efficiency and also can help you keep in touch, right? And get. Continue to get to know each other. And then, so that's really the process for meeting people and creating those connections in person. Now let's think about online. Online. You can meet new people online from your couch, right? Or anywhere else that you like to sit and your desk chair. You don't have to get dressed up and drive to a networking function and have, you know, lunch or whatever. This is why I love networking online. And I know we're all watching this online, so we're like online people already. So. So I like to think of. I know a lot of people that I talk to don't really like to network on social media, and that's fine, but it's such a great opportunity. I have a client, or had a client, I should say, that used to spend $23,000 a month in order to reach the residents, the people, the customers, potential customers in their local area. $23,000 a month on radio ads and TV ads. Because before the Internet, my friends, that's the only way. Unless you're going to do direct mail or billboards, radio ads, yellow page ads, and they all cost a lot of money. I know when I first started my marketing career, we were doing yellow pages ads, and I think they were like $500 a month. And that didn't even have any pictures or anything. That was like basically just black on yellow ads. And that was the way that we reached out to and brought new people in. Right? But now we have the Internet, we have social media, and all the people in our local area or in our country or state or wherever our potential customers are, they're all on social media. So why would we not figure out a way that we can stand being on there and connecting with these humans that are just hanging out there waiting for us to come and say, I can help you with this problem that you have. Right? So just think about that. And there's ways that you can do it that my clients have found to be much more palatable. For example, getting involved in Facebook groups that they feel very aligned with. So for me, I work with women entrepreneurs, so I'm in Facebook groups for other women entrepreneurs. I grew out my. My silver hair, right? I'm in a Facebook group for women that are growing out their silver hair. And these are all places where I can meet new people. We have things in common already, and that's how people find me and hire me. And so this is completely available to you and it costs $0. It's wonderful. So I highly recommend it. So things that a couple just quick tips and then I know we're. We've been on a while, so I want to keep it short, not. Not go on forever, because I could talk about this forever, but my voice will not allow me today. So tip number one is, first thing, just scroll through your feed, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and comment on people's posts or interact with people, have conversations. It's just like walking into a networking function where there's a room full of people or walking into a party. This is our party right now, right? And there's a room full of people and you just kind of go and you say hi and have conversations and how you doing? What's, tell me what's up with you? Or you know, those kinds of things. Do the same thing on social media. You can follow on LinkedIn or on Instagram your clients and see what they're doing and comment on them and encourage them and just connect with people continually. Right? And then you can create your own post too and be putting your intellectual property, your value out into the world. So those are a couple of tips with social media. And joining Facebook groups is a great way to be bringing new people into your sphere. Also, using hashtags is a great way to to bringing, be bringing new people into your sphere, helping your content get seen by people other than your current friends and followers. Right? So think about when you're using hashtags, what would your client, your best fit client be searching and what kind of hashtags are they watching? Right? And if you don't know, you can always ask them. And those make great ways to connect with new people. So that's what I wanted to share with you today. And like I mentioned, this is brought to you all by my 90 day marketing accelerator. And this is the work that we do in there. We learn and learn these skills and then I work alongside you to implement them in your business. And so please join me all month long. We have our Magnify your marketing in March. It's all completely free. And, um, just be watching on social media. And if you want to be on my email list, direct message me your email and I will. We're having a VIP experience for those that are on my email list and I will be doing some special sessions with them. So make sure that you're taking advantage of that and it's all for no cost. And I really feel strongly about helping you create that financial freedom that you want for yourself and your family through entrepreneurship, through having your own business. Because I know you can do it. You are full of value and you are so valuable and the world needs what you have to offer. So let's get the word out. I can help you with that. And Annette says thank you, Melissa. Great tips. Great live podcast. Yes, you needed this today. Thank you. So great to see you. So thank you all for being here. And next Wednesday we're back here, same place, I believe it's a different time, but it'll be out on the Socials. So join me next Wednesday. And all throughout the week, you're always welcome to reach out to me on Social Direct message me your questions, comments, and I would love to help you make history this month. Right. All right, See you later, folks. Have a great Wednesday. Bye.