Are you being served?

When you're selling to individuals rather than businesses, targeting new clients looks like an onerous task. Anyone could be a prospective client and many use this dilemma to exonerate their use of lazy tick-box marketing exercises (sponsorship, advertising, brochures) or, worse still, no marketing at all.

However, targeting is possible if you take time out to ask yourself - and your team - two simple questions:

1. Who are your current clients?

2. What type of client do you want?

The answers will provide everything you need to inform your marketing decisions.

I am often asked about the difference in value between work generated from existing clients and that of new clients. The answer is simple: a pound is a pound. However, with minimal cost of sale and a much easier conversion, work generated from your current clients is, by definition, much more profitable.

The old idea of picking the 'low hanging fruit' is clichéd. But when was the last time you worked through your client bank specifically to identify potential sales opportunities? When was the last time you reviewed your files in terms of those clients being people with friends, families and people with multiple service requirements?

Between your team, you have an accurate picture of your clients. You (should) know their age, family size, income bracket and the services someone fitting that profile usually needs. From there, it's not a massive leap to second-guess what they need. Your marketing must let them know what you provide and remind them that you offer more than just the last service line they used.

Brand cameo

Looking at question two, it's important to remember that the clients you want will probably look like the ones you have but with an increasing number of top-end clients. But who are those top-end clients? What are their jobs and interests? Where do their social circles meet? Where would you bump into them and start those important conversations?

We call this a brand cameo. Once you know who you want as a client, the back-filling is easy. The answers let you tailor your marketing so you and your name repeatedly crop up in the places where they'll attract the attention of your target audience. This will not only make your new client acquisition more effective, it'll make it more cost effective. You'll be able to drop the low yield (and often most expensive) activities and replace them with initiatives that work.

I used 'start' and 'conversation' earlier. To truly engage with people and create the trust required to persuade them you're the right person for the job, you need to have those conversations. And remember the obvious: advertisements, sponsored roundabouts and banners at the local library don't create conversations - people do. If your marketing is going to generate the level of return you want, it must be built around people talking to you and about you, not around abstracts like brand awareness.

Creating brand cameos will direct you to places, groups and events where you will meet new people and start conversations. But new client acquisition isn't the be-all and end-all of marketing. You also need to consistently leverage two additional sources of interesting conversations.

First, your existing clients. Remind them you are there. Send them practical information they can use to make their lives easier. Remember birthday and Christmas cards. Initiate 'saw this and thought of you' type communications. This is a very simple piece of marketing.

Second, your professional contacts. Getting instant and immediate access to your prospects of choice may not be straightforward. However, the other professionals already servicing those clients have that access. By getting in with the right firms, you will stack the odds of those professionals recommending you to their clients when the opportunity arises firmly in your favour.

So, what's the next step? How can you get things moving? Well, that's easy. Just take some time out and ask yourself who your current clients are and what type of client do you want.

Douglas McPherson is director at Size 10 1/2 Boots

He writes a regular blog about marketing for Private Client Adviser