Last time, I talked about some ways to meet business owners face to face. It’s a great strategy that’s often overlooked in today’s Twitter-centric world.

Of course, sometimes meeting a prospect in person doesn’t make sense. Fortunately, there are some other client-building techniques you can add to your virtual client building tool belt when you’re not able to make a real-world connection.

Try email.

Dropping an email to a business owner that gets his curiosity up or opens ANY kind of communication can work.

Your response rate is likely to be lower than with a phone call. But it doesn’t take as much work either.

Attached is a template you can personalize to entice local business owners to schedule a consultation. Use this initial email to play local businesses against their competitors who already rank for valuable keywords. It works brilliantly.

Pick up the phone.

All this carry on about “I don’t want to cold call” etc etc etc.

Well, it’s time to suck it up. Business owners call other business owners all the time when they have something valuable to share.

Just remember these words: “I have my own business…”

They work like magic when you want to talk to a business owner.

Stop being a whimp and pick up the phone.

One secret…you can call some business owners after hours and leave a message that forces them to call you back out of curiosity.

Also if you’ve opened communication through email or direct mail the sooner that conversation moves to a higher level (phone conversation or face to face) the higher your chances of getting hired.

If someone emails me back and I have their phone number I’m calling them on the phone immediately.

That will convert a huge number of prospects into paying clients.

Ask Questions and Be Interested.

If you’re talking to business owners and trying to tell them about PPC, SEO, or any other service YOU WANT TO SELL THEM, then you deserve to crash and burn.

Stop thinking about yourself and get interested in them and their business.

Ask questions and then listen.

Gather information.

When you’ve built some rapport and trust you can use that information to create customized suggestions.

When the business owner gets excited about one of your suggestions you can establish the value of that idea to the owner, ask for 50% in advance to get started and run with it.

These are some of the best ways I know to sign a clients fast. But what do you think? What techniques have you applied successfully to drum up business?