How To Attract New Clients
I recently conducted a Poll on LinkedIn and asked people what is the best way to attract clients in 2026?
The results are now in!
| Use AI in various ways | 3 | 14% |
| Use social media / website | 3 | 14% |
| Direct cold calling / messaging | 1 | 4% |
| Relationship building / network | 14 | 66% |
| 21 Votes |
In the age of AI, I find this particularly fascinating!
I have long held the belief, it is not who or what you know but who or what finds you and how you can be verified.
This ties in to the concept of relationship building and networking – because whether a person or some form of technology helps someone with their buying decision, ultimately, you will need to be verified and whilst a personal recommendation is highly valued, a lot of people still want to do their own due diligence and research to find out if you ‘stand up’ to scrutiny via social proof.
We are all aware that generative artificial intelligence is using the EEAT formula.
Experience
Expertise
Authority
Trust
If we think about building a relationship and networking, we understand that this process does the same thing – it assesses a person or an enterprise’s experience, expertise, authority and their level of trust.
So what are my best suggestions for building a relationship and networking so that you can attract new clients in the future?
1. Keep Circulating In Person
We cannot hide behind technology and assume that technology can do all of the heavy lifting. You still need to show up in person. Now how you do this depends on who your ideal clients are and where they will be most interested in seeing you.
My favourites include:
- visiting clients, suppliers and stakeholders in person (bringing refreshments also helps)
- being a guest speaker for an aligned audience
- attending relevant events and business networks
- organising events on topics related to my audience’s needs
- participating in events related to my profession and industry (to keep myself current)
- showing up on video speaking directly to camera
I would also add that you need to be intentional about this process and keep up a reasonably regular routine to keep yourself ‘in circulation.’ At every event I attend in person, I aim to connect with at least three people on LinkedIn using the Scan Code feature.
2. Keep Circulating Online
As a minimum, I suggest that you add content to your enterprise website and all of your social media channels at least once a month. It is preferable to do it once a week – but the maximum I recommend is three times a week.
My favourites include:
- Your Website – for your enterprise and/or your own name – this is the only content you own
- LinkedIn – for building your network of individuals and enterprises
- YouTube – for video content that can appear in all search and AI results
- Facebook – still where the largest active audience is online and essential for reviews that can be seen in Bing and ChatGPT
- Google Business – a fantastic tool that allows you to collect Google reviews, appear on Maps, share content and events as Posts that notify Google as well as provide answers directly to all online engines
- Bing Places – to optimise for anything related to Bing Search, Microsoft owned services, ChatGPT etc
As you can see below, I produce content for several other social media platforms including Instagram, Pinterest, Substack and TikTok. Ideally, the content you add should be designed to provide information for your ideal clients, to answer their questions and substantiate your experience, expertise, authority and trust.
Including your own labelled images and video as well as relevant text is essential. I have often said that social media is a megalomaniac that wants more people, more often, for longer, so any content that keeps people in platform has the potential to reach more people.
What has changed in recent times is that AI is reviewing what you share for context and meaning and it is now about creating genuine engagement and conversation rather than a viral one-hit wonder. Keep in mind that you need to add value and be prepared to experiment with the new inbuilt features of each platform. For this reason, I recommend that you login to each platform every six months and check all of your settings and options both on a laptop or desktop as well as phone or tablet.
3. Be Responsive
Respond to every phone call, text message, direct message, email, enquiry form etc as quickly and effectively as possible. So much business is lost simply because someone else responded more promptly.
You will need to check your in platform notifications and messages, respond to comments and consider being proactive with your contributions. If you are strategic, you can allocate short time windows and not waste time, but once again, you need to keep showing up and remain in circulation!
I am a huge fan of the Notification Bell 🔔 that helps me receive Notifications from my selected VIPs – individual people or organisations that I classify as Very Important People. This can include thought leaders I admire, clients I value and prospective clients I would like to work with in the future. It also helps the platform algorithms show me more of the content I value.
It is also important to be proactive and do all of your follow up after every interaction. For example, every time I host an event, I connect with everyone who has a LinkedIn Profile. I say thank you to anyone who has given me an opportunity to present in front of their group (and I usually post a photo and story on my socials and link to it on my website). If I meet someone at a networking event and promise to reach out with more information later, I do. I also tag emails I receive to follow up.
By keeping an active presence online, I have had many people reach out to me years after our first meeting. LinkedIn Newsletters are a fabulous feature that send out a notification each time they are published but they do not clog up a person’s email inbox. Essentially, I am happy for a person to connect, remember what I do and then call me whenever their need arises.
I realise that the suggestions I have made here are mostly related to being a service provider (B2B) rather than a product provider (B2C). However, the general principles are the same – we need to be remembered by people who are looking for our products or services in the future – because at the end of the day, they are the ones handing over their money in exchange for what we offer.
People also love unexpected gifts! That mint chocolate with your restaurant bill generates more tips! I still remember the day I received my replacement printer cartridges in the post with two wrapped chocolates!
Every buying decision relies on being found and trusted to deliver. For everyone who contributed to the poll, thank you! If you have any suggestions you would like to share or would like some assistance, please contact me directly.
