How to Land Your First Five-Figure Client

Many entrepreneurs start out by offering their products and services at a low price to stay competitive. This approach may work initially to get their feet wet but soon they find themselves working 24/7 without a whole lot of profit to show for it.

Not to mention, they get frustrated because they’re spread too thin, and the workload is impacting the quality of their work. Landing high-paying clients are the key to getting off the hamster wheel so you can deliver high-quality products or services while generating more revenue and working less.

It may seem daunting to command a five-figure fee in the beginning. Thankfully, the advance in online marketing technologies means you can effectively leverage your time and resources to target the right prospects, nurture the relationships, and convert them into clients.

Here’s how to leverage digital marketing strategies to land your first five-figure client and increase your profits:

Define Your Expert Positioning

People are willing to pay more for expert knowledge and services, which means you can command a premium fee if you can position yourself as the subject matter expert and articulate how your specialized knowledge can solve a certain issue for a particular type of client.

You can leverage content marketing to share your unique approach and become known as a thought leader by publishing on your own website, social media, authority sites (e.g., Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, etc.) or republishing platforms (e.g., Medium, LinkedIn Pulse, etc.).

Offering workshops, speaking at events, or getting interviewed by the media are also great ways to stand out and claim your expert positioning.

Identify a Lucrative Niche

Research your industry and identify a niche with potential clients who are willing and able to pay for your high-end products and/or services.

For example, you can use a variety of digital marketing tools, such as Majestic, SmiliarWeb, and Spionage to spy on your competitors (to see who they’re targeting) or run test ads on Facebook and Google to see how your intended audience responds to the positioning of your products or services.

Know Your Ideal Clients

When you’re selling high-end products or services, it’s important to understand what makes your ideal customers tick so you can speak to their pain points, challenges, and desired outcomes.

If you’re selling B2B, you’ll likely be communicating with multiple decision-makers within a company. They’re likely to focus on different issues and have different priorities. Construct a buyer persona for each of these roles to help you deliver the right marketing message to the right person at the right time.

Also, pay attention to how your prospects talk about their challenges so you can position your offering in a way that’s most relevant to them. For example, you can do some social listening or research on sites such as Quora.

Drive High-Quality Traffic To Generate Leads

Most people won’t commit to a five-figure investment the moment they read one of your articles or land on your website. You need to attract high-quality prospects and capture their information so you can nurture the relationships to convert them into clients.

Online advertising can help drive high-quality traffic to your website and convert visitors into leads — e.g., have them sign up for a lead magnet and add them to your email list.

To get the highest ROI from your ad budget (i.e., driving traffic that’ll turn into high-paying clients) take advantage of the advanced targeting features on platforms such as Facebook Ad Manager or Google AdWords to make sure your ads are reaching high-quality prospects.

Use Email Personalization To Nurture Leads

You have collected information from your prospects and added them to your email list… now what?

Personalized email marketing can help you build trust and relationships with these subscribers by continuing to communicate with them and provide value.

In fact, some marketers have seen a 760% increase in revenue from targeted campaigns while personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.

To maximize the power of email marketing, create a lead nurturing email sequence that aims at delivering the most relevant information to the recipients. Track how they engage with the content and send them the most appropriate resources or invite them to take the next step (e.g., set up a call.)

Deliver an Omni-channel Customer Experience

To nurture trust and relationships, you have to show up consistently and deliver the right message to the right prospect in the right place at the right time.

Tailor a coherent experience across all touchpoints on which your potential clients interact with your brand (e.g. website, social media, email, chat, phone, messenger apps, etc.) so you can facilitate the prospect’s journey along the sales funnel without missing a beat.

To effectively implement an omnichannel marketing strategy that helps accelerate your sales cycle, map out your customer lifecycle to inform how you can deliver the most relevant content or offer at the appropriate stages to increase conversion rate.

Leverage Online Reviews and Testimonials

Did you know that 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations?

Ask your past clients who are happy with your services to post an online review or write a testimonial. You can also use video testimonials to deliver an engaging experience on a variety of channels, such as social media or website.

In addition, share these testimonials in email campaigns or remarketing ads that target prospects in the decision stage of their buyer’s journey to help increase conversion rate.

Final Thoughts

The key to landing your first (and second and third!) five-figure client is to start with a clear understanding of what your ideal client wants so you can speak to their challenges and desired outcome while positioning yourself as the expert.

Then, nurture trust and relationships with your leads by delivering the most relevant content, messages, and offers in the right place at the right time. It’s important to deliver a personalized customer journey that makes working with you a unique experience to distinguish your brand from your competitors.