Last updated on June 5th, 2025 at 12:33 pm
Small Business Owners receive (what-seems-like) millions of emails every single day, that the ‘delete’ button fell off my keyboard the other day from punching it so many times.
In this new age of technology, I do believe that many novice marketers have been trained to click-click-click and blindly send marketing emails on the daily to hundreds of thousands of unknown prospects, in the hopes that some desperate soul might finally open their email and become their next BIG DEAL.
Though this email marketing strategy may be an effective way to reach hundreds of potential prospects in a very short period of time, for free, it is certainly not the way to convert and create long lasting relationships, and I would also say, that it may not be the ideal way to start one.
Though there may be very few professional marketers that honestly do deploy serious email marketing strategies, the overwhelming presence of instant-machine-gun-email-marketers make it very difficult for a serious practitioner of email marketing to get the attention that they are looking for.
The reality, in my view, is that email marketing only truly works when you are sending an email to someone that you are currently and/or actively building a relationship with, or have already established a relationship, whether it be in person or on the phone.
Short of that, the chances of your spam-like-marketing-email being clicked over to the ‘trash’ folder are as high as a burrito wrapper being tossed into the garbage.
Though I am not advocating to NOT engage in ‘cold’ email marketing, there are specific email marketing tactics that are well defined, and when used properly, can be very effective.
For now, this post is recommending a powerful marketing strategy that has been proven to deliver strong results for many decades.
What I am suggesting is to ‘disconnect’ from technology and to actually get out and meet people in the real world face-to-face.
Regardless of age or generation, the fundamentals of meeting people with a handshake and a smile, and exchanging good stories, and engaging in good conversation, all in an effort to ‘get-to-know-each-other’, has been, and always will be, in my view, a powerful method of building relationships.
In fact, getting to know someone without any intent to sell them anything is yet even more powerful.
The selling of your business, product, or service, should quite frankly be tertiary in any initial meeting, in most instances.
The first contact should always include the ‘Hello’ and the exchange of pleasantries, and then, expressing genuine interest in getting to know this new person that is standing in front of you.
Then, if you are meeting people the ‘right way’, then the question that most often comes up in the course of natural conversation is: ‘So, what do you do for a living?’, which can then be the beginning of a blossoming relationship.
Here is a key point… If the person that you are speaking with is not inclined to ask you the question: ‘What do you do for a living?’, then YOU are doing something wrong.
So, where do you meet people?
Just so we are clear, we are discussing ‘marketing tactics’ here, so when you consider meeting people for the purpose of generating new clients for your business, it is important that you cast your fishing line in the proper waters.
In other words, if you are casting your fishing line off the edge of a pond, expecting to catch a TUNA, you may want to rethink your strategy.
So, following are some ideas on where you might connect with prospective clients. Please adjust as needed for your own specific needs:
- Attend Business Meet Ups in Your Local Town
Doing a Google search for ‘local business meetups’ can bring up a few publicly announced business meet up sessions in your town. Some may be free and some may require membership. Whether or not you decide to pay for a meet up session depends on the value that you believe that you can contribute to the group and what it may bring to your business. - Get Active in Your Local Community
Whether it’s a social group, a political group, or a charitable group, everybody is there for the same purpose, and it’s a great way for you to meet people and to contribute to a cause, and most important, help you to build out a network of people that can spread the word around town about what your business has to offer. - Join a Local Sports League
Sports are universal, and because of the very nature of the activity in sports, very strong bonds can develop between individuals. Developing relationships with teammates can progress into so much more than a simple ‘business relationship’. Partnerships, support, networking, strategy, planning, and so much more, has been gained from being a part of a ‘team’ that plays towards ‘winning’ on the field. Those type of attributes can easily transfer to any business endeavor. - Start Your Own Meetup
By doing so, this can be an incredible way for you to not only meet new people and build a network, but this also presents an incredible opportunity for you to meet and ‘interview’ members in an open and relaxed venue and select one or more who may be a potential good hire for you.
The big take away here is to get out and meet people face-to-face, because as Business Owners, we should always be on the look out for potential clients, and by the way, if we happen to discover an incredible diamond for us to hire to help us to build and grow our business, it just sweetens our efforts.
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