What are some marketing techniques or strategies to gain more clients? I am the owner of a Home Health agency and there is a huge market! I am small and private owned and still need a lot of direction.
I will try to offer a few thoughts that might help you market your business.
Member Directory:
If you have not done so, be sure to get your business listed on the NASE Member Directory: When you have an opportunity, take a look at the NASE NextBizThing, Member Directory located in the upper left corner of the NASE website. My team and I use that member directory to help small business owners market their business. I also use that free directory to generate a list of prospects to forward benefit collateral to. List your business in every free directory you can find. Call customer service at 800.232.6273 and one of the NASE customer service reps will walk you through the process on the phone.
Partnerships:
When growing a business, reach out and contact your partners. Talk to your service associates, business developers and financial institutions. I’ll bet you know everyone in your area.
1. Call your partners on the phone and let them know that you are accepting new clients.
2. Create a follow up thank you letter and mail it to your partners.
3. Create a follow up email and send it to your partners and local senior centers.
4. Touch your partners as many times as it takes to get your prospecting funnel filled up.
Leads & Lists:
If you go the route of a lead generation company, you will likely need to provide the list. If so, buy a test list to be used as an email or direct mailer or calling list. Reach out to companies such as Info USA, DnB, Exactdata, Business.com, American List Company. Test 10,000 names to identify your market. Split the 10K in half (A – B test) and send different marketing pieces.
You can buy leads or list although you’ll need a complete marketing campaign to avoid losing money. if you can find a vendor that supplies specific leads (in your area) for your specific business, review the lead data and consider buying the leads. Warning! Not all leads are created equal. Some companies will try to sell you generic list (name-number-email & mailing address). Those companies supply list primarily for cold marketing.
If you buy leads, be sure that you have a safe and practical way to capture the data from the company you purchase the leads from. If your company uses a CRM (customer relationship manager), you might be able to import the leads directly into your data base. That will allow you to work the leads and track results. If you do not use a CRM, the easiest way to receive leads is through your email server. If you receive leads via email, be sure that you track your data for duplicates and bad data. Always ask for credit if you receive bad data.
When buying leads, the list company might ask you to identify the exact type of business you want. One method of identifying business type is to download the SIC code list. https://classcodes.com/sic-code-list/. You will be able to review codes with a general business description.
Referrals:
As you know, referrals or word of mouth is the #1 and most successful strategy to generate customers. People are more likely to become a customer if they hear friends, co-workers or sponsors talking about your business. If you are not already doing this, be sure to ask every client for referrals. In addition, ask your former and future customers to write a short testimonial. Get those testimonials in front of your future prospects. Add a testimonial button on your website menu bar. Testimonials are a great resource for generating additional leads.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization):
You want visibility online to get your website on the first page of any search results for your business. Be sure that you think through your key word list so that Google and other search engines recognize who you are. Business is being done… It might as well be through you.
Sitemap page:
If you do not have a sitemap on your website, I suggest that you or your webmaster create one. “A site map (or sitemap) is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for Web design, or a Web page that lists the pages on a website, typically organized in hierarchical fashion.”
Hopefully I listed one idea that might help. It's not easy reaching the consumer masses without spending a bunch of money on TV, Radio or high-volume email blasts.