What’s the hardest thing about starting and growing a business? For many small businesses, the answer is finding clients or getting customers. Customer acquisition is complicated if your marketing budget is limited. Here are marketing strategies to attract customers.
Newbie entrepreneurs often ask how to get more customers for my business. We all agree that finding customers is one of the most difficult challenges for startups and established small businesses.
A great product or service you’re sure many people will need isn’t good enough. Customers won’t find your store, website, or Facebook page just because you start a business. You have to go out and find potential customers and clients. For this, you need to have innovative ways to reach customers.
One of the best examples of customer acquisition would be email automation by Sephora. In an automated effort to engage their email list, cosmetics company Sephora brand reroutes sweepstakes offer through their Instagram. Who wouldn’t want a free trip to Paris with a pal? Pulling viewers from the email into IG is smart, increasing engagement across platforms and helping promote the brand.
Sephora Email Automation
A nod of the head for making this email very actionable, including a bold, pink CTA for easy access and fun, playful visuals that communicate the playful possibilities and brand messaging.
Customer acquisition needs to be an ongoing focus for most businesses. Even successful businesses will have customers or clients who stop buying for one reason or another. Those customers must be replaced to keep your business on an even keel.
How To Get Customers For Your Product?
Finding ways to bring in business usually falls on the business owner’s shoulders when a business is small. But business owners often have little experience in marketing or selling. If you’re a startup or an existing business looking for more ways to grow your customer base, these strategies could help. Below are seven robust methods of attracting customers to your product.
Develop a plan for customer acquisition
The secret to creating a successful acquisition plan is to know who would make the ideal customer. If you sell to businesses, consider what department is most likely to buy your products or services and what individual would be the one to determine the specific purchase requirements.
Determine how long the buying cycle is. Is buying your product a decision that can be made quickly by a single person? Or are you selling something with a long buying cycle, possibly involving multiple individuals?
Next, consider how the typical buyer typically finds products or services like yours. What circles do they travel in? Are they active in social media? Who are they likely to listen to? Where do they look when they want to buy your type of product or service? What could you do to get referrals and recommendations from those sources? Write all this information down and look for patterns.
Then, to get more customers, plan to put yourself and your information where the people in your target market can find it when they’re ready to buy.
Look for and follow industry prospects on social media.
Don’t try to sell to them on their social media feeds. Instead, try to develop relationships with potential customers. Retweet or comment on their posts. Mention them if appropriate in your own social media posts.
Your goal is to get known and seen as a friend. Selling is easier when you sell to people who feel like they know you.
Work your local newspapers.
Even in the digital age, daily and weekly newspapers are still an incredible source of contact information and lead to potential new customers. Watch for names of people who have been promoted, who have won awards, who have opened new businesses, or who in any way may be potential customers.
Send those people personalized mailings congratulating them on their success or telling them how interesting the article about them was. Include your company name, slogan, and appropriate product information with your signature.
Use coupons and special offers to attract customers.
Everybody loves a bargain. Offer a discount to new customers on their first purchase. If you sell products or services that need to be purchased repeatedly, consider making that first discount contingent on the customer signing a contract for a year of service.
Related post: 5 Ways to Market Your Physical Product.
Sponsor Events.
Seek events that may bring your potential market together. Look for flyers about the event at local networking group meetings. Or, call and ask the organizers if there are sponsorship opportunities available. Local events can be pretty inexpensive to sponsor. Or, if the sponsorship cost is high, they may have a “friends” of the event option that will give you the right to have flyers at the event for a minimal fee.
Put your business name, phone number, and website address on anything you can.
If you’re in a service business that uses vans or trucks, your name should be on all your vehicles so that people who see you servicing others in their neighborhood can quickly spot how to contact you.
It should be on any products and/or labels on your products. Have magnets made up with your name and phone number and attach them to appliances your repair, or hand them out to customers and prospects. The more people with your name and contact, the more customers you can acquire.
Test pay-per-click (PPC) and other online advertising.
To keep costs down, target your ads so they reach people who are similar to your most likely prospects, and target them so they only show up in the geographic region you service. Set daily and monthly budgets, and check your account frequently the first few days you set it up.
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