Clients are the lifeblood of a business, no matter the industry. When you’re first starting out, attracting clients can be a challenge. You have a limited marketing budget, no referral partners, and no clients to provide word-of-mouth recommendations, reviews, or testimonials as social proof.

So, how do you get started? What does it take to give your early prospects enough trust to take the plunge?

Getting momentum is challenging, but all you need to get started is 10 clients. Just these 10 clients can get the ball rolling and keep your business growing.

Understanding Client Acquisition

Client acquisition is the process of onboarding new clients to your business. This strategy takes specific techniques to attract and motivate potential clients and develop a sustainable plan to acquire new clients consistently and grow revenue.

This is similar to marketing, but client acquisition is completely devoted to driving action. The ability to consistently and systematically attract and convert new clients is what keeps a business running.

Client Acquisition to Bring in the First 10 Clients

Going from zero to 10 clients may be intimidating, but with a solid strategy, you can make it happen. Here’s how:

Refine the Target Audience

Your audience is what it’s all about. If you don’t know who they are, you can’t market to them effectively and convince them to buy what you’re selling. Defining your audience gives you insights into their motivations, so you can speak to them.

If you have a diverse business, like a law firm, you may have a few different audiences. Law firms may have multiple practice areas, all with different audiences. Each of these audiences should be targeted and refined.

Communicate Your Value

Your prospects have a problem, and you have the solution. Maybe the problem is that they need a software solution for customer management, or a good divorce attorney, or a realtor to sell their home. Now’s the time to show them how your business has the solution and value they’re looking for.

The core of your strategy should be communicating the benefits of your product or service and how it fits as a real-world solution to your clients. It’s possible that your prospects are considering you in a pool of competitors, so you have to differentiate yourself as the business that understands them better and provides a better solution.

Craft Quality Content

Content marketing is an effective way to sell yourself without being pushy or salesy. With blogs, articles, and videos, you can get the word out about your business, answer common questions, and address the problems your client has. When they come across your content in a search, they begin to see you as the solution they need.

Your content has to be valuable to be effective. Don’t just churn out content – make sure it’s relevant, informative, and targeted to your clients. Your market research and audience should provide some insights into the content that will resonate with your clients.

Leverage Your Network

You may get some of your first clients from your marketing campaigns, but it’s possible that many of your clients will come from your existing network. Family, friends, friends of friends, past coworkers, old classmates, and other contacts may need your services or product, or perhaps someone they know does.

It’s important to treat everyone as though they’re a potential client. Don’t pass up opportunities to pitch yourself and talk about your business (without being pushy). When it comes time for them to search for a new dentist, a child support lawyer, or insurance agent, you may be the first they call.

Build Your Email List

Email marketing is highly effective for conversions. Building your email list may be difficult, but don’t cave in and purchase a list. These people may not fit in your audience and didn’t show interest in your business.

Ideally, your email list will come from subscribers on your website. One of the ways you can enhance this is with gated content. Downloadable content, such as ebooks, webinars, and whitepapers, offer more in-depth information about a topic beyond your usual content. To get it, people have to provide their email address. You can use your existing content to promote your gated content and direct people to your website.

Ask for Feedback

Your first clients have a lot of value for shaping the future of your client acquisition strategy and your business. They showed an interest in your business before anyone else did, and they can tell you what you did well, what you can improve, and what they’d like to see from you.

Ask for feedback regularly to gain valuable insights and honest advice from your clients. It’s good to maintain a relationship with your first clients as well, which can turn them into loyal brand advocates that bring other clients to you.

Maybe your first client put a lot of trust in you to handle a stressful and complicated divorce case. If you provided exceptional service and kept them as comfortable as possible throughout the process, even if the outcome wasn’t favorable, they’ll remember the experience. When someone in their life asks about a lawyer, you’ll be at the forefront of their mind and they may recommend you.

Don’t Underestimate Anyone

You may be surprised by where your next client comes from. A chance interaction at the grocery store or on your morning commute could spark a conversation about your business and what you do. Even if that person doesn’t need your services, they may know someone who does.

Your target audience matters, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore everyone who doesn’t fit into it. Don’t underestimate anyone as a potential client – or the referral that gets you the next client.

Client Acquisition is a Marathon

This client acquisition strategy should give you the tools you need to get your first 10 clients. Now you can sit back and relax, right?

Client acquisition is an ongoing process. Once you get those first clients, you need to keep the momentum going to turn the 10 into 100 and into 1000, and so on. Your strategy laid the foundation for continuous client acquisition, but keep refining as you go to build client acquisition tactics that can drive your future business growth.

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Author Bio: Maxwell Hills is the founder of Hills Law Group, a premier Orange County family law firm with a concentration on high net worth divorces. Max’s entrepreneurial career stretches back to his teenage days when he had his music used in Grey’s Anatomy and ESPN. Today, Max has used that experience to build Hills Law Group with 0 customers and $0 in revenue to a respected firm in the industry.