How to Attract Customers to Your Business

As a small business owner, attracting new customers is key to building new revenue streams, greater market share, and long-term growth. Attracting customers is more than advertising. You’ll need to understand your target market and their pain points, and possible adaptations to your products and services that can better fulfill their needs. If you have a fantastic product or service, read on for how to attract customers this year. 

14 Proven Strategies to Attract Customers

How to attract customers usually requires a multi-pronged approach. Whether you have a recruitment business, an Etsy shop, a cleaning business, or any other company, simple strategies, consistently applied, can help expand your company’s reach this year. You can try these strategies individually or use a multi-pronged approach to accelerate growth. 

1. Network, Network, Network

Networking is one of the more effective strategies for raising brand awareness. It gives you a chance to meet new people and talk about what your company offers. You can join a local trade association, the city’s chamber of commerce, and industry-specific online groups or networking organizations. From a plumbing business to a photography business, networking can be a powerful tool to drive growth. 

2. Offer Exclusive Discounts or Promotions

Exclusive offers and promotions can help attract customers looking for greater value. Consider specials like buy-2-get-1 or half-price, or using a loss leader on deep discounts to get customers into your shop. 

In order to maximize promotions for growth, you’ll need to track what they buy and which offers they redeem to generate the greatest growth. This information can also help you leverage the initial sale to reach out to customers and target them with future marketing messages to help cement their loyalty to your products and company. 

3. Create Engaging and Shareable Content on Social Media

Engaging and shareable social media content increases the chances of going viral. But more than that, using social media to interact directly with your target audience can help drive growth. Consider posting frequency, research target keywords, and respond to comments to reach a larger audience. 

In addition, competitor research is a powerful tool to understand what or who your target audience is engaging with. Check what your competitors post, and then consider what more you can offer. 

Moreover, when happy customers post on social media, repost and share it. Whether you get positive or negative comments, replying and offering support can help build engagement. 

4. Use Influencer Marketing

Influencers have a powerful pull on their followers. While an influencer with millions of followers might be too much for your company’s budget, a small company can work with smaller influencers for significant results. A micro-influencer with even a few thousand engaged followers can create increased sales and revenue.

5. Personalize Email Marketing Campaigns

Personalized email marketing campaigns can increase conversions. In addition to personalizing emails to specific needs, tracking and understanding customers’ needs can help you create personalized emails with information relevant to the customers. 

And the adage “out of sight, out of mind” holds. You can stay at the forefront of potential clients’ minds through regular email messages that include tips, company updates, or links to your website’s latest blog post. With personalized email marketing campaigns, most emails don’t need to sell anything. With consistent email campaigns and simple sales funnels, subscribers may become customers or repeat customers. 

6. Advertise on Targeted Platforms 

When available, targeted platforms related to your customers are more effective advertising opportunities than bulk advertising. If there aren’t marketing platforms related to your target audience, consider targeted marketing campaigns. Depending on your business offerings, consider location-specific marketing or additional parameters to target advertising at your target market.

7. Host Exciting Events or Contests

Events and contests can be a great way to build buzz around your products and services. Consider hosting online giveaways or in-store events. By engaging with your customers meaningfully and giving back to your community, you can effectively build a positive reputation while building customer loyalty. 

8. Collaborate With Complementary Businesses 

Working with complementary businesses to create a comprehensive offering for clients to drive growth. When you collaborate, both businesses can grow together. For example, if you offer massage therapy, consider working with a chiropractor, physical therapist, sports medicine doctor, or a local yoga studio. This strategy can also improve a law firm’s profitability by combining several highly skilled services in one place.  

9. Create a Google My Business Account

A Google My Business account is a free tool that allows you to control the way your business appears on Google Search and Maps. By setting up a Google business profile, you can list your products and services, share your menu or product offerings, connect with customers, post updates, and more, to engage with your target audience and attract new customers.

10. Implement Referral Programs 

Referral programs can be effective tools to build customer loyalty. These programs can utilize word of mouth as a powerful marketing tool while building client loyalty. Consider bonus points, loyalty rewards, or discounts for each referral. 

This can be as simple or as complex as your business dictates, from paper coupons to a computer program. You can also ask happy customers for referrals or online shares to create an organic buzz in exchange for additional bonuses. 

11. Utilize Search Engine Optimization 

Search engine optimization (SEO) strategies can increase the visibility of your website and social media posts to reach new clients. With consistent application, SEO can build organic reach. 

Consider posting a blog on your website and researching hashtags or keywords for the website and social media platforms. Then, implement basic strategies like keyword research and optimizing web page load timing. You can also work with an SEO professional to optimize site load times and ensure other SEO best practices, like meta and image descriptions. 

12. Implement User-Generated Campaigns

User-generated campaigns can help increase customer trust and engagement—share users’ content across social media and via email marketing. Consider highlighting user experiences and success stories or offering giveaways to select customers to increase trust and engagement. 

13. Share Your Expertise

Share your expertise through presentations, fairs, free consultations, assessments, YouTube videos, or other opportunities to educate your audience. Speaking engagements can be a powerful option to establish industry expertise and increase awareness of your company. 

Consider speaking at industry conferences and events attended by your target audience. You can also offer local presentations at community centers or events to give back to your community while offering valuable insight and business exposure.

14. Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Customer service is the foundation of any growth strategy. Implement the best practices for customer service, from treating customers with respect and providing prompt assistance to locating solutions that resolve customers’ issues. 

Whether customers are satisfied or dissatisfied, address their concerns with honesty. Educating employees about the business and customer care can help ensure that any customer-facing employee engages meaningfully with existing and new customers. 

Attract More Customers This Year

Expanding company reach to new clients requires a multi-pronged approach and consistency. Advertising, SEO, and email campaigns are the foundation of many marketing campaigns. But fundamentally, you’ll need to understand your target clients, their unique needs, and how your company can solve their problems better than competitors. 

While learning how to attract customers and build your business, make sure you have the legal structures in place to protect your company and personal assets. Get doola formation and compliance services to help with all aspects of formation and long-term compliance so you can focus on building your core business and improving client offerings. 

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