23 Proven Ways to Attract Clients for Your AI Agency

1. Fiverr

Fiverr is a platform where many business owners go to find professionals offering services. By positioning yourself as an AI expert on Fiverr, you can attract clients and build up reviews/ratings to establish authority and credibility.

2. Upwork

Similar to Fiverr, Upwork allows you to list your AI services and be discovered by potential clients. Putting in the effort to build a strong profile and get positive reviews is key.

3. Referrals

After completing successful client projects on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, be sure to ask for referrals. This can provide you with warm leads and added credibility.

4. Warm Outreach

Reach out to your existing network - contacts in your phone, email, social media followers, etc. Offer your services or ask for referrals. This is one of the easiest ways to get started.

5. LinkedIn Content & DMs

Post valuable content on LinkedIn to attract early adopters. Then follow up with personalized direct messages to start conversations and book discovery calls.

6. LinkedIn Connections & DMs

Automate connecting with your target audience on LinkedIn, then send a sequence of direct messages offering your services.

7. Twitter Content & DMs

Similar to LinkedIn, you can post helpful content on Twitter and then reach out to engaged users with direct messages.

8. YouTube

Building a YouTube channel to showcase your AI expertise can be a game-changer. Focus on providing value and building trust with your audience.

9. Medium Articles

Writing informative articles on Medium can help you reach new audiences and demonstrate your knowledge, without the need for being on camera.

10. Charities & Nonprofits

Offer free AI services to charities and nonprofits. This can help you build experience, testimonials, and credibility to land paying clients.

11-15. Paid Advertising

Explore platforms like Google Ads, YouTube Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Meta Ads to run targeted campaigns and generate leads.

16-18. Online Communities

Participate in relevant school communities, Facebook groups, and LinkedIn groups to connect with your ideal clients.

19. Cold Calling

While daunting, cold calling can be an effective way to reach out to potential clients directly.

20-21. Expos & Walkins

Attend industry events and expos, or simply walk into local businesses, to introduce yourself and your AI services.

22. Cold Email

Craft compelling cold email outreach, offering free audits, lead magnets, or free services to get your foot in the door.

23. Webinar Funnels

Run ads to promote a webinar where you can showcase your AI expertise and convert attendees into paying clients.

Remember, focus on mastering one or two of these methods before expanding. Consistent effort on a single platform is key to building a successful AI agency.

Fiverr and Upwork are two popular platforms that allow you to list your AI services and be discovered by business owners. These platforms can be effective client acquisition methods if you're willing to put in the effort.

On these platforms, you can position yourself as an AI expert who can build solutions for clients. By building up positive reviews and ratings over time, you'll gain the authority and credibility needed to close deals.

Mark, a top-rated AI expert on Fiverr, is an example of someone crushing it on these platforms. He consistently ranks at the top when users search for AI-related services. You can even run ads to get featured placements on these platforms.

The key is to treat Fiverr and Upwork as serious parts of your business, not just as throwaway platforms. By dedicating time and effort to building your presence and reputation on these sites, you can generate consistent lead flow and land clients.

After you've done a couple jobs on Fiverr and Upwork, you can then go ask the people that you've worked with for referrals for other people that have similar businesses and similar problems to them. Referrals are something that a lot of businesses forget to do, but you need to build it in as part of the system to your business. After a certain number of days when you finish a client project successfully, you should ask or request for referrals. If you do this every time, you will get some clients from referrals, which is just free acquisition. It also comes with a little bit more authority and credibility when you go to hop on those calls with those referrals, because it's coming from someone that they know and who has said you did a good job.

Warm Outreach, or warm reach outs, is a highly effective way to get your first clients when starting an AI agency. This involves reaching out to people in your existing network - contacts in your phone, email, social media followers, etc.

The key is to build a list of people you have a "warm" connection with, and then craft personalized messages to them. Offer your services or ask them to refer you to others who may need your help.

This is one of the easiest ways to get started, as you're leveraging existing relationships. Many people in the AI accelerator program have been able to sign 1-3 clients within the first few weeks just by doing warm outreach.

The "homi strategy" detailed in the $100 Million Leads podcast is considered the gold standard for this approach. I'll provide a link to that podcast in the resources on the school community, so you can learn the full process.

The main idea is to systematically go through your contacts, craft personalized messages, and start conversations that can lead to new clients. Don't overlook this - warm outreach is a low-hanging fruit that can kickstart your AI agency.

LinkedIn is by far one of the most effective platforms for getting leads for AI agencies right now. People in the accelerator program are crushing it with some of the content they're putting out there.

The key is to post valuable content on LinkedIn. When people engage with your posts by liking, commenting, or sharing, you then have the justification to reach out to them via direct message (DM). You can say something like "Hey, I saw you engaged with my post. I was wondering if you have any other questions or if I can help you out in any way." This can lead to booking a discovery call.

Posting valuable content on LinkedIn allows you to attract early adopters who are interested in implementing AI in their business right now. The majority of the market may not be interested yet, so you want to focus on those early adopters.

In addition to the content strategy, you can also set up an automation to automatically connect with people from your target industry or niche, and then send them a sequence of direct messages offering your services. This is a more automated way to leverage LinkedIn.

The key is to pick one platform, whether it's LinkedIn or something else, and really focus on mastering it. Don't try to do too many different strategies at once. Pick one, get really good at it, and then you can consider adding another platform to your client acquisition efforts.

I'll provide resources in the school community on how to set up these LinkedIn content and DM strategies effectively.

Twitter can be an effective platform for client acquisition for your AI agency. Similar to LinkedIn, you can leverage both content creation and cold outreach to generate leads.

Twitter Content

• Post valuable, educational content related to AI and how it can benefit businesses in your target market.
• Aim to build a following of your ideal clients by providing genuine value.
• The more engagement your content receives, the more opportunities you'll have for follow-up outreach.

Twitter Cold DM

• You can often directly message people on Twitter, unlike LinkedIn where you need a connection first.
• Research your target audience and identify key decision-makers at companies that could benefit from your AI services.
• Craft personalized direct messages offering to help solve their business challenges with AI.
• Focus on starting a conversation and building a relationship, not just making a sales pitch.

The key is to combine the authority-building power of Twitter content with the direct outreach of cold DMs. This allows you to attract your ideal clients organically while also proactively reaching out to them. Consistency and patience are important, as building a presence on Twitter takes time. But the platform can be a valuable source of high-quality leads for your AI agency.

YouTube is extremely effective for building an AI agency. I have built my entire AI career off of YouTube. I haven't focused on doing anything else - sure, I do a bit of posting on LinkedIn and Twitter now, but my main thing has just been YouTube. I've grown a massive following within the AI space and built three different businesses off the back of it.

YouTube is the gold standard of personal branding because people sit here and watch you for so long, you build up a lot of trust. And again, you need expertise, lead flow, and credibility/authority - YouTube handles all of those. If you're able to get on camera and talk, and sound like you're intelligent and know what you're talking about, and you've got experience, then people are going to trust you a lot more and you're going to get a lot of highly engaged leads messaging you.

The key is to give out value, identify who the people are that you're going to be selling to and the people you want to engage with, and put their niche or who they are in the title and the thumbnail. It's not really that hard, but I'll leave some resources on the school community as to how I got started on YouTube, and that'll be pretty helpful for you to see how I got off on the right foot immediately and the resources that I used.

Medium is a platform that allows you to write blogs and articles. It has a built-in discoverability algorithm that can help your content reach people who have never seen you before.

Similar to YouTube, Medium provides a way to share your expertise and knowledge without having to be on camera or use additional equipment. You can simply write articles and let the platform's discovery features work to your advantage.

Some key points about using Medium:

• It's a text-based alternative to video content on platforms like YouTube.
• The discoverability features can help you reach new audiences who are interested in your topic.
• You don't have to worry about the overhead of video production, just focus on writing valuable content.
• It can be a more lightweight option for those who don't want to be on camera.

One of the members in the accelerator program, SJ, has had success using Medium to supplement his income. He's been able to learn new skills, document his journey, and generate leads through his Medium articles.

The key is to focus on providing genuine value in your writing, rather than just trying to sell. Build trust and authority by sharing your experiences and insights. This can be an effective way to attract clients for your AI agency.

I'd recommend checking out the interview I did with SJ to learn more about his Medium strategy. The resources for that will be available in the school community.

Reaching out to charities and nonprofit organizations can be an effective strategy to get your first few clients as an AI agency. This approach allows you to build some initial experience, testimonials, and credibility, even if you don't have an extensive portfolio yet.

The key is to offer your services to these organizations for free or at a heavily discounted rate. Explain that you're looking to build up your experience in the AI space, and you'd be willing to create a website, chatbot, or other AI-powered solution for them at no cost.

Many charities and nonprofits don't have the budget to invest in advanced technologies like AI, so they'll likely be receptive to your offer. This gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your skills, get positive feedback, and use those case studies to attract paying clients down the line.

According to Mark, a member of the accelerator program, this strategy has worked well for him in getting his foot in the door and building up his agency. The response rate from charities has been very high, and he's been able to quickly gain hands-on experience by taking on these pro bono projects.

So if you're just starting out, don't overlook the potential of working with local charities and nonprofits. It can be a great way to kickstart your AI agency and build the credibility you need to land higher-paying clients in the future.

Next, we have a whole bunch of ad platforms that I'm going to separate out, as I don't want you to think you can do them all well at once. We have:

1. Google Ads (search)
2. YouTube Ads
3. LinkedIn Ads
4. Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.)

All of these can be learned individually and sent to some kind of offer, whether that's a free AI audit, or some kind of lead magnet where you give them an ebook, etc. But each of these platforms offers a very lucrative way to get clients in this whole ad space.

If you have experience in digital marketing, this is a very exciting place for the AI agency space right now, as very few people are experimenting with actually getting clients through paid traffic. However, this is not something you can just casually pick up - it does take quite a while, and you are going to need to focus on just one platform at a time.

For example, you might decide to just focus on Google Ads. You'll need to spend time to focus on just that one platform and test different offers to see what's converting the most. You may even need to bring in an agency or get a consultant, but you will eventually find some combination of ad creative, copy, messaging, and the offer on your landing page that is able to generate you leads and booked calls on a consistent basis.

The key is to turn up the ad spend once you've found that winning formula. This is an extremely lucrative approach, but it requires a significant investment of time and money to get right. If you have the resources and are willing to put in the work, experimenting with these paid ad platforms can be a game-changer for your AI agency.

This is one that we're starting to see quite a lot in my accelerator, where people are using these School communities to find hyper targeted pockets of their ideal customer - the business owners they're trying to attract.

They can then go in there and build a bit of Rapport, make posts, Network, and DM directly. Using the school communities as a way of just finding a big pool of the people they want to get in touch with, and then working some leads in there as well.

The guy in my accelerator who's really crushing it and getting a lot of bookings with us at the moment, he's selling an AI Co-calling system to real estate agencies and agents. What he's doing is finding School communities that have the people that he's trying to sell to. He's going in, making posts, sharing value, and directly DMing people, building up a bit of Rapport in the community. And then he's getting a ton of bookings from there, by just sending them the link by DM, etc.

School communities are great for that - finding a big pocket of people that you want to get in touch with. You do have to be wary when you're doing the school Community strategies, not to come in too hot and just immediately start saying "I sell this, who wants to buy it", because you'll get banned immediately if you do that stuff in my community, you'll get banned instantly.

But if you can go in and build a bit of rapport, make posts, become known as the AI guy or girl in the community that they can go to to talk to, get in touch with the moderators, get in touch with the owners, etc. - and you make yourself a part of that community and give out a lot of free value and actually add to the net sum of the value in that Community - then you'll be able to generate leads in that Community basically whenever you want, if you have a good offer and if you have new stuff to sell them.

So it's an extremely effective strategy, because it's hyper targeted. And you know that if you go into a large school community and you spend 2-3 months even building up Rapport and becoming the person within that Community that they can go to, you have basically an infinite pool of people. And there's always people coming into these communities as well, so you've got an excellent client acquisition method if you choose to do this. But again, you just pick one and do it well, you'll have enough clients to get you off the ground.

Similarly to school communities, Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups can be effective ways to find and connect with your target audience. The key is to find groups that contain the type of business owners or decision-makers you want to reach.

When joining these groups, it's important not to come in hot and start immediately trying to sell your services. Instead, focus on building rapport, providing value, and becoming an active, trusted member of the community. Make posts, engage with others, and demonstrate your expertise.

Once you've established yourself, you can start reaching out to relevant members, either through direct messages or by posting about your services. The key is to avoid being overly salesy - position yourself as a helpful resource who can solve their problems with AI.

By taking the time to genuinely participate in these groups, you can tap into a highly targeted pool of potential clients. Just be sure to follow the group's rules and norms to avoid getting banned. Slow and steady relationship building is the name of the game here.

Yeah, this is everyone's favorite, but it is quite terrifying for most people. However, if you do it well and just focus on learning how to cold call businesses and get them interested in AI solutions, that would be all you need to do. You can then teach other people how to do it on your behalf as well.

While it is terrifying, it is extremely effective. You can, in the space of a couple of hours, call hundreds of businesses and offer them your services. In terms of input-output and the amount of time and effort you put in versus the potential output, if you were doing that every single day, there is no way that you would not get clients.

I will leave some resources on the school community on how to get into cold calling as well.

If there is a type of business owner or an industry that you want to target, and there is an expo or an event in a big city near you, this can be a highly effective way to reach your ideal customers.

By attending these events, you'll be surrounded by your target audience. This gives you an infinite number of opportunities to have conversations, learn more about them, and get inside their heads.

If you're trying to be a niche agency and focus on selling to a specific type of business, this is one of the most dense and effective ways to connect with potential clients. In just a few hours at an event, you can speak with dozens of people, get their contact information, and pitch your AI services.

While it may feel a bit uncomfortable at first to be approaching strangers at an expo, the potential payoff is massive. In a single day of relative discomfort, you can propel your business forward further than months of other lead generation methods.

The key is to have a clear strategy for how you'll approach people, what you'll say, and how you'll follow up. This will vary depending on the industry, but the core principle is to maximize the number of meaningful conversations you can have in a short period of time.

So if there are any relevant expos or events coming up in your area, I highly recommend exploring this as a lead generation tactic. The density of your target customers in one place makes it an incredibly powerful way to kickstart your AI agency.

In this digital age, we sometimes forget that you can simply walk into a business and introduce yourself, offering your services. All you need to do is search for the types of businesses you want to target on Google, get a list of their addresses, and then go out and visit them in person.

The tricky part here is figuring out the process when you're in the business - what do you do when you're there? How do you approach the receptionist, and what do you ask for? This will vary depending on the industry, so you'll need to come up with your own strategy.

The key is that if there are businesses in your town or city that fit your target customer profile, you can walk in and introduce yourself, offering your services. This direct, in-person approach can be an effective way to get your foot in the door and make connections.

Just keep in mind that you'll need to have a clear plan and approach for how to handle these in-person interactions. It may take some trial and error to find the right strategy, but it can be a powerful way to acquire new clients for your AI agency.

Cold email is a well-established method for getting in touch with people and letting them know about your services. The key things to consider with cold email are:

1. Getting High-Quality Leads: Ensuring you're sending emails to people who could genuinely benefit from your services is crucial. This is a whole problem in itself.

2. Crafting the Offer: What you say in these emails is important. You have a few options:

   a. Free AI Audit: Offer a free AI audit and say something like "We do free AI audits for [industry]. If you're interested, reply 'yes' and I'll send you more info on how to book a slot."

   b. Lead Magnet: Offer a free ebook, guide, or other valuable resource related to AI and your target industry. Ask them to reply if they'd like you to send it over.

   c. Free Service/Product: Offer to build a free chatbot, AI-powered tool, or other service to get your foot in the door. This can help overcome the lack of social proof when starting out.

The key is to create interest and get them to reply, rather than sending links or hard-selling in the initial email. Once they express interest, you can follow up with more details.

Many people in my accelerator have had success with this approach, using a $3 "wallet check" to see if the prospect is willing to pay before inviting them to a webinar. This has led to $10,000+ sales.

The resources on the School Community will cover how to set up effective cold email campaigns, find the right leads, and craft compelling offers. The key is to pick one method and master it, rather than trying to do too many at once.

This is an exciting method that has emerged from the accelerator program. Some participants have experimented with this approach and seen success.

The basic idea is to run ads to a webinar sign-up, where users have to pay a small fee (e.g. $3) as a micro-commitment to access the webinar.

During the live webinar, you have the opportunity to build trust, authority and credibility by showcasing your expertise on how AI can benefit businesses.

One person from the accelerator was able to convert this into a $10,000 sale after running ads to the $3 webinar sign-up and delivering the live presentation.

Webinars are a powerful way to sell online, as they allow you to demonstrate your knowledge and build a relationship with potential clients. Coupling this with a paid sign-up and targeted ads can be a highly effective client acquisition strategy.

However, setting up an effective webinar funnel requires some specific knowledge and skills. I'll provide resources in the community on how webinars work and how to implement this approach successfully.

The key is to focus on one or two of these methods, master them, and then potentially expand to others. Trying to do too many at once will likely lead to suboptimal results. Pick the ones that align best with your strengths and resources, and go all-in on executing them well.

In summary, here are the 23 methods for acquiring clients for an AI agency:

1. Fiverr
2. Upwork
3. Referrals
4. Warm Outreach
5. LinkedIn Content and DM
6. LinkedIn Connect and DM
7. Twitter Content
8. Twitter Cold DM
9. YouTube
10. Medium Articles
11. Charities and Nonprofits
12. Google Ads
13. YouTube Ads
14. LinkedIn Ads
15. Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp)
16. School Communities
17. Facebook Groups
18. LinkedIn Groups
19. Cold Calling
20. Expos and Events
21. Walk-ins
22. Cold Email
23. Webinar Funnel + Ads

The key is to pick one or two methods and focus on mastering them, rather than trying to implement all 23 at once. Start with the ones that align best with your skills and resources. Consistently execute on the chosen method(s) for 3-6 months before considering adding another. This will give you the best chance of seeing meaningful results and building momentum for your AI agency.