Finding Qualified Customers

Finding customers is the heart and soul of any business, but in this case not just any customer will do you need qualified customers.

What I means by that is, you need to find people who are ready to buy your service, this is especially important when you are first getting started.

Leads From Serp's

I personally start with keyword research, I will look up some local keywords like, "Miami fl plumbing" this gets 128 searches and only has 129 competition.

Now I watched Jays WAbinar, "Hello Local.. Local Marketing as a Business" which by the way, is a must see for anyone wanting to learn more about Local, and he says to start on page 10, but I prefer page 2, and work my way back from there.

The reason I do this is because I know that many people on page 2 or 3 get stuck there and just don't know how to make it to page one, I have found that these people are so close they can taste it, and are often willing to do whatever it takes to come the rest of the way.

The way I see it anything between page 2 and page 20 is fair game, that's a total of 19 pages, or 190 possible clients for every keyword you find, but you have to be thorough doing it this way, when you find a possible customer, you need to see where they rank for each of the keywords you have found. Doing this will get you that much closer to just the right customers.

If a customer is on page 2 for one of the keywords, but on page 1 for several others, move to the next one, you are looking for business that rank on page 2 -20 for several of your keywords.

This method requires a bit more work but in the end I feel it gets you that much closer to finding customers who need your service, to me it's about the quality of the leads not the quantity.

Leads From The Local Paper

Your local paper is full of possible leads, the best part about this is when you see a local business advertising in the paper, you know they have an advertising budget, and they are willing to spend money to get customers.

You still need to do your research however, check the add for a web address, if it has one, go check it against the keywords that you have already found, to determine if this is someone you may want to approach.

If they don't have a website, then you will want to add that person to your list of possibles.

Everyone these days, knows you need to have a website, be it a plumbing company, or local sign maker, or whatever the case may be, so these people will automatically want to know what a service like yours would cost, and that's your foot in the door right there.

The Phone Book

This is pretty much the same exact thing as what I said about the local paper, phone book adds are not cheap, nor are they effective. I know because I have advertised in there before, I spent a fortune on that add and it only netted me 1 or 2 jobs, over a 3 year period.

I mean when was the last time you needed a local service and picked up the phone book, wasted your time flipping through it, making 10 different phone calls, etc etc etc.

If your like me the last time you did all that was before you owned your first computer, my point is, the phone book is so easy to compete with, it's not like you have to convince people that everyone looks everything up online, every man, woman, and child on the planet already knows that.

So, start going through the adds, and looking up websites, and so on, it's the same process I mentioned before.

Local Poster Boards

This is not the most obvious of places to look, but these can be a gold mine, if you know how to sift through them. Many people advertising on local billboards, don't have websites as yet, or there websites are very basic, and non professional.

You can find these poster boards, in your local, chamber of commerce, the local post office, and many grocery stores still have them, and laundry mats almost always have one.

The problem with this method is, these are people that are using free advertising, and many of them will not have any money to pay you with.

However if you are just trying to get started, this can be an absolute treasure trove for you. you can approach these people, and basically just tell them, "look, I'm just starting a local marketing business, and I need references, if your willing to pay $5 per month for hosting, and $10 per year for a domain, I will do all the work for free, but you have to provide me an honest review of my work on my website."

This is a great way to start, for 2 reasons,

1. It gives you a starting place to build your reputation, with no pressure, but if you do go this route you should take this job just as seriously as if they were a high payiing customer.
2. If you build that person a website, and get it ranked, they are going to love you, and they are going to tell everyone they know how great you are, and the testimonial they leave on your site will be worth the effort.

Yard Signs

If you look around your town you will see little road signs advertising everything from, healthcare to electrical contractors, painters and many other small local businesses. These too are a great way to find customers.

When you find these little signs, snap a pic on your phone, or write down the info, and go do the research as mentioned above.

Pretty much anywhere you see people advertising is a possible client, remember this, these people are all advertising, which means they are actively looking for new customers, and to them you are likely to be a god send.

The hard part is approaching these possible customers in a way that they perceive you as such, which I will cover on the next page.