So how do you keep a full pipeline with eager clients and customers? Let me share 3 steps to get you started:

Step 1 — Know who your ideal client is. If you don’t know who you’re trying to put into your pipeline it’s going to be pretty hard to get them in there.

But this is deeper than just taking on anyone who waves a check in front of your face. If you want to fill your pipeline with clients who are EAGER to do business with you, you want to attract your IDEAL clients.

So what is your ideal client? Your ideal clients are the ones who you love to work with. They’re the ones who are a perfect fit for what you offer. They are NOT “women between the ages of 20 and 50 who are married with 2 children and trying to start a home-based business.” That’s a target market and that’s different from ideal client. Ideal clients are about an attitude, a shared vision or goal. An ideal client description would look more like this: “mothers who have been stay-at-home mothers but their children are now starting school and they’re ready to start working. But they don’t want a job, they want something they can do at home and have flexible hours so they can still put their kids first.”

See the difference in the description?

Now, you might be someone whose pipeline is empty and you REALLY need the cash flow, so while an ideal client is nice, you’d be happy with anyone who waves a check in front of your face.

First off, I get it. I’ve been there myself. However, as I know you know, taking on those less-than-ideal-clients while might be necessary for financial reasons, usually turn into a bigger headache than what you signed up for. I know you sometimes have to do this, but wouldn’t it be better to NOT have to? Start now focusing on attracting your ideal clients into your pipeline. Will a non-ideal client slip in from time to time? Of course. And if you so choose, you can take the on as a client. But start it off right by building that solid foundation first.

Step 2 — go where your ideal clients are. Now that you know who they are, it’s time to hang out where they’re hanging out. Don’t know where they are? Then go back to step 1 and do more digging. If you really know your ideal clients, you’ll know where to find them. Then you can focus your lead generating activities in the places where they are.

Step 3 — nurture your leads. Once you have your leads in the door, now it’s time to build a relationship with them. The best way to do this is through a consistent follow-up system, such as an ezine and/or direct mail piece. If you have a weekly ezine or something that goes out regularly to your leads, you don’t have to worry about remembering to contact them.

It takes AT LEAST 7-13 touches to turn a prospect into a client. In this “new economy” this number is even higher (I’ve found you need to be a little more aggressive to get the same level of sales as you would have a few years ago.) So if you have an easy and automatic way to stay in touch with your prospects, you’ll find building that relationship with your prospects that much simpler.

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting, marketing communications and creativity agency. She helps people become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://www.writingusa.com. Copyright 2006 Michele Pariza Wacek.

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, most if not all of your marketing energy is focused on bringing in new business.

Maybe you’re doing a lot of networking…Or placing ads…Or cold calling…Or finding referral partners…Or all of these and more.

I call these “attraction” tactics because they attract new clients and customers. And they can be quite effective.

Most entrepreneurs gravitate towards using attraction tactics right off the bat. Mainly because attraction tactics are what everyone is most familiar with.

Think of all the companies that advertise on TV or radio, or in magazines and newspapers, all the time. Not to mention on billboards, the sides of buses, and these days even on eggs (yes eggs–apparently this is the next advertising frontier).

If all those big, successful companies are spending oodles of cash on attraction tactics, you probable should too. Right?

Well, yes and no.

There are actually two more, powerful types of tactics. And you need to use all three if you really want your business to grow.

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The problems with attraction
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Now, I’ll be the first to say that attraction tactics can be a valuable and effective part of any marketing plan. They get your name out there, create a sense of familiarity, and hopefully make your business memorable.

The problem is that straight attraction tactics are usually the most expensive, and take the longest to generate results (IE sales).

Here’s why…

On average, it takes 7 times more money to get a new customer than keep an existing customer.

Because you’ve got to get in front of people 7-10 times before they notice you. Then another 7 times or more before they even think about taking action (calling, buying, etc.) And that’s assuming you’re getting in front of the right audience.

On top of that, it is often difficult to track results from attraction tactics. Coke has no idea how many people, if any, buy more soda after watching their Super Bowl commercials.

But they can afford to spend a ton of money just building and maintaining brand familiarity.

Most of us small business owners can’t.

Thankfully, attraction tactics are not the only game in town.

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The 3 types of marketing tactics every business should use
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To really make your marketing work magic, you can’t just focus on attracting new customers. You need to use a mix of:

1) Attraction tactics to get you noticed, develop brand recognition, and increase familiarity and memorability

2) Conversion tactics to get people to take action, call, sign up or buy

3) Retention tactics to keep you in touch with past customers, and ideally turn them into repeat customers and referral sources

Actually, I rarely recommend my clients even invest in straight attraction tactics. Because the other two kinds of tactics–”Conversion” and “Retention”–provide far more bang for the buck. Plus, conversion tactics can usually do double duty as attraction tactics anyway.

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Converting the masses
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Basically, conversion tactics are designed to get you to take some kind of action. They convert cold prospects into warm prospects, or prospects into customers.

The best example is direct response marketing–whether it’s direct mail, a coupon, sweepstakes or a special giveaway.

A letter in the mail that says “Put a sticker here. Send this back in. Order this. Do that.” is conversion marketing.

An advertisement that says, “Call now for your free report on…”
is looking for you to take action. Conversion again.

Effective conversion is a very, very good thing because it often results in sales.

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Don’t forget about retention
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The final category of tactics is retention. This is where most entrepreneurs fail miserably.

It’s easy to spend so much time focused on getting new customers–or taking care of ones you have–you forget about the ones you already have. And before you know it, they’ve forgotten about you too.

Yet retention tactics are usually the easiest, most effective and least expensive to implement.

After all, you don’t have to tell past clients who you are, or explain the value of what you offer. If they were happy the first time they did business with you, chances are they’d feel good about coming to you again–or referring someone else.

But that’s only going to happen if they fondly remember who you are and what you do. So you need a system for staying in touch and top of mind.

Maybe you send out a newsletter. Write thank you cards. Hold special events.
Call people personally. Whatever.

The bottom line is, you can’t just advertise and sit back hoping people will decide to call or come in. If you want to turbo-charge your business growth, you need to use a mix of attraction, conversion and retention marketing tactics. Once you do, your sales will soar.

©2002-2007 Success Stream. All Rights Reserved. www.success-stream.com

Home Business Marketing: Your Home Business Success Engine

Marketing is the engine of home business success. If I could only give you one tip, one suggestion about how to build a successful home based business it would be this:

Think of marketing as a process, an on-going cycle of business activity which can be duplicated and used over and over again. 

One of your first projects is to design and build your marketing strategy and write a marketing plan that will serve as a road map keeping you and your business on track–on time and on target. Choose your marketing tactics carefully and choose a minimum of 5-6 tactics (both online and offline).

Offline marketing strategies and tactics include:

• Fliers
• Newspaper ads
• Business cards
• Radio ads
• Public speaking
• Free workshops or seminars 

Online marketing strategies and tactics include:

• Blogging
• Social marketing
• Google AdWords
• Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns
• Email lists and email newsletters

There’s a master out there–a master of marketing according to a road map that keeps you on track. His name is Robert Middleton and his business is Action Plan Marketing. Robert has Free Stuff for your home business start up at his web site that I recommend you take advantage of:

• Marketing Plan Start Up Kit
• More Clients Blog