If your best prospects are someone else’s customers, you better have a strategy for wooing them away.

Sadly, despite all the advances in the fields of manufacturing and DNA research, there is still no new client factory. It’s up to entrepreneurs to attract and retain customers, and all your most profitable future clients already exist. Many of them probably belong to your competitors, so it’s up to you to persuade them to do business with you instead.

This is a skill business owners can learn. At its base, it comes down to advertising, something successful entrepreneurs are doing anyway. Plus, if you’re going after your competitors’ clients, your chances for success increase for two reasons: You’re targeting only those prospects who have already purchased or are in the process of purchasing a product or service similar to yours, and you’re rewarding the competition’s best clients for taking immediate action while showing you proof of their purchasing intent.

To reach those prospects interested in making a purchase, here are five ideas you can use right now in your display or internet advertisements …read more at Entrepreneur.com. Flickr photo credit: Joseph Hoetzl