Potential Clients: Who They Are and Where to Find Them

A potential client is the “future buyer” for whom your product or service is created.

Simply put, a potential client is a person or organization that, under certain circumstances, could become your buyer. They already have a need (or are close to having one), resources, and at least a rudimentary desire to make a purchase. Unlike a merely interested user, a potential client meets key criteria: they have a problem that your product can solve and are ready to respond to your offer.

Types of potential clients

Potential clients vary in their level of readiness to make a purchase. Typically, three categories can be distinguished:

Cold clients. They have a need but are not yet familiar with your brand and do not fully understand the problem. The goal here is to engage and draw attention to the problem and your solution.
Warm clients. They are already aware of your product and respond to your offer, but are still hesitant and not ready to buy immediately. Here, you need to provide more information, overcome objections, and build trust through high-quality content, reviews, and case studies.
Hot clients. They have researched the product and are already eager to make a purchase. The seller's job is to simplify the final step for them: provide a convenient payment method, a discount, a limited offer, or a bonus to encourage immediate action.

The transition from cold to warm and hot clients is called "warming up" the customer base. This is a series of marketing steps, from initial touchpoints (advertising, SEO) to personalized messages and promotions, that engages the customer and gradually encourages them to make a purchase. Warm and hot clients are distinguished by their existing interest or clear need, and working with them is structured differently: answering questions and simplifying the transaction are paramount here.

Working with potential clients

The main goal is to be where your customers are. Today, this means combining both online and offline channels. You need to maximize your contact points: website, social media, messenger apps, blogs, offline events, etc.

How to be where your customers are without spending too much money? Learn more here.

Below are sources for finding and attracting potential clients:

Online advertising and promotion: contextual ads (for example, Google Ads) and social media targeting. For example, Google AdWords or Facebook* ads are targeted to reach people who are as similar as possible to your ideal customer profile.
SEO and content: website optimization for search queries, publishing useful content (articles, blogs, videos), and maintaining a website. When a potential buyer searches for information on the topic, your resource should appear in the search results: this is natural inbound marketing.

Here we explain how SEO works and what promotion methods exist.

Social networks and messenger apps: companies create pages and communities to interact with their audience. Promotion through bloggers and influencers also works — read here for more details. Social media makes it easy to attract the attention of warm customers with engaging content, as well as target cold audiences based on demographics and interests.
Affiliate marketing and communities: exchanging client databases and cross-promotions with companies in related industries. For example, non-competing companies can organize joint webinars or newsletter campaigns.
Directories and catalogs: traditional and online directories (banking, trade catalogs). Here, you can find companies or people with relevant contacts. It is also helpful to study competitors' websites: for example, in B2B, these may contain client lists (such as partners in case studies).
Exhibitions and offline events: exhibitor catalogs, booths at industry trade shows, and conferences allow you to connect with interested companies or buyers.

It is important not only to select channels but also to evaluate their effectiveness. Increase investment in traffic sources that generate sales and reduce spending on ineffective ones. This requires collecting data on where your leads are coming from and analyzing their quality.

Potential clients vs. target audiences and leads

These three terms are often confused. Target audience (TA) is a broader category that describes the entire group of people who might be interested in your offer. It includes current customers, potential customers, and even those who do not yet know about your product. For example, a coffee shop's TA might include regular customers, those who live nearby, and coffee enthusiasts from the city who have not yet visited your shop.

How to correctly define your target audience? Read here.

Potential clients are a more specific subset of your TA. These are people who have a need or desire to buy your product or service. For example, this could be everyone in your neighborhood who regularly buys coffee. Among this audience, you need to identify those who will enjoy your coffee and then pitch your coffee shop to them.

Leads are an even more narrow concept. A lead is a potential client who has already shown activity, expressed interest, and provided their contact information (for example, by submitting a request on a website or subscribing to a newsletter). In the sales funnel, a lead is positioned further than a potential client: a lead has contact information and a proven method of communication to convert them into a real buyer.

Thus, a potential client is always part of your target audience, but not every person in your target audience is a potential client for your specific business. A lead, on the other hand, is already a "potential client in action", since contact has already been established with them.

Data and description of potential clients

To effectively work with potential clients, you need to gather as much information about them as possible and build a "profile": a generalized image of the typical buyer. Such a profile includes:

Demographic characteristics: gender, age, location, education, profession, income.
Geographic characteristics: city or region of residence, district.
Psychographic and behavioral characteristics: interests, hobbies, lifestyle, values, goals, and purchasing motivations.
Pain points and needs: what problems the buyer can solve with your product.

The combination of these data shows what exactly the client is looking for and why. This makes it easier to identify their needs and lead them to purchase. Knowing where a person lives and how much they earn is not enough; you also need to understand their needs, motivations, and habits. For example, a beauty salon owner might consider the age and marital status of their clients, while an online equipment store might consider the industry of their potential buyers.

Various tools are used to collect and analyze this data. CRM or similar systems record contact information and interaction history. For a more advanced approach, businesses use a CDP (Customer Data Platform) that integrates customer data from all channels (website, email, social media, CRM, and offline locations) into a single database.

If you are looking for an easy-to-use CDP, try Altcraft. This is a platform where all data, segments, and channels are gathered in one place, and complex campaigns can be set up in a few clicks, without hassle. Learn more here.

A CDP forms a "unified profile" of each customer, reflecting their behavior and interests. Based on this, potential clients can be categorized by how many times they visited your website, what they viewed in your catalog, and which emails they opened. This makes it easier to segment your audience and personalize offers.

Segment analysis is another essential step. Potential clients are divided into groups by age, income, region, etc., and then a unique persona is created for each group. As an example, in B2B, a "potential client" could be an entire company; therefore, the profile will include the industry, sales volumes, decision-making structure, etc., and the "decision maker" becomes the most important element. All this data forms the customer base: a collection of information about existing and potential clients. Typically, the client base is stored in a CRM/CDP and is constantly updated using collected analytics.

Important: the quality of the data determines the effectiveness of work. The more complete the profile (the more characteristics are taken into account), the more accurate the ad targeting and the higher the conversion rate. For example, it would be useless for an online pet food store to advertise its product indiscriminately: it would be more profitable to target "women aged 30-45, living in the city, who have a pet". Without a clear profile of the target audience, the advertising budget risks being wasted.

How to convert cold clients to hot clients

Potential clients are the foundation for future sales, but their initial interest may not be enough. To encourage them to make a purchase, you need to nudge them towards that decision. Key tactics include:

Useful content and warm-up. Do not try to sell right away. At first, provide value through articles, webinars, helpful tips for solving a problem, and other content. This tactic gradually warms up a cold audience, building loyalty and trust.
Personalized offers. Tailor-made promotions can be created based on the collected data. For example, if a customer frequently visits your website and views the same product category, you can offer them a discount on that specific product via email or push notification. CDP platforms automatically suggest such connections and send relevant offers.
Promotions and discounts. An obvious yet effective method. Entice a potential client with an offer to buy at a discount or save money in the future: for example, "10% off your first order" or "Sign up to receive a promo code". A specific benefit increases motivation to move from simple browsing to completing the transaction.
Bonuses and gifts. One more option to motivate customers is to give away something valuable. For example, this could be a product sample, demo access to a service, a checklist, or anything else that provides value to the potential client. In return, they will be more willing to leave their contact information. It is also important to impose a time limit: "The gift is valid until the end of the week". Such scarcity increases engagement.
Calls to action (CTA). "Get a discount now", "Order a free sample", "Schedule a consultation". Specific calls to action are much more effective than vague phrases like "More info". When the customer sees what to do next and what benefit awaits them, conversion increases.
Social proof. Potential clients are reassured by the fact that other customers have already made a purchase and were satisfied with it. For this, reviews from real buyers, case studies, and ratings are used.

To learn more about social proof and how it works, read this article.

High-quality products and service. Always keep in mind that the best incentive is when your product solves the customer's problem. Satisfied customers themselves become a source of new leads and clients. If you exceed expectations, people will recommend you to their friends and write positive reviews, which will inevitably bring in additional traffic.
Testing and analytics. It is important to test different channels, ad variations, and registration forms. A/B tests and funnel analysis reveal which solutions best convert a cold user first into a lead, and then into a client. This gradually builds a clear system where every touchpoint leads to the next, from initial brand exposure to purchase.

Conclusion

A potential client is a person or company that has a chance of becoming a buyer because their needs, interests, or situation align with what the brand offers. This is not a guarantee of a sale, but the starting point on which marketing activities are built.

To turn interest into action, it is important to understand who these people are, what interests they have, and what barriers prevent them from taking the next step. The more precise the segments and the clearer the communication, the easier it is to build a path from first contact to purchase.

*Product of Meta, recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation.