Regardless of whether you are running a small business or a huge company, you are certainly aware of how important customers are to you. In order for your business endeavor to keep running and thrive, you need an audience that is interested in what you are offering and willing to spend money on your products/services. How you market your company is vital here and you need to look for the best ways to attract customers to your business. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the entrepreneurship world or simply looking for a method that will help you reach a whole new audience, take a look below for the top techniques when it comes to promoting your business and intriguing new clients.
Understand your audience
The first step toward attracting a certain audience is better understanding it. What you have to do is develop a buyer persona, which will help you research what your potential customers need. Once you have an idea of how you can help them, you should look into the market in order to find the best way how you can provide your audience with what they require. While doing this, you will also see which channels they prefer and the best way how you can reach out to them.
Use various channels to your advantage
After you’ve done your homework when it comes to having a better idea of who your audience is and the best channel to approach them, you can start developing various strategies. For instance, email marketing works extremely well on a great number of individuals and has higher conversion rates than any other channel. On the other hand, social media marketing is another good option at your disposal. Social networks give you a chance to easily share a link to your web store while you can also encourage people to leave you a review, follow you, use a specific hashtag, or share your content for others to see. What is more, you should also get your business listed on various local directories, such as Google My Business, Yelp, and Yahoo! Local. These platforms provide potential customers with your name, address, phone number, and web address, which makes finding you much quicker.
Start a blog
Something else you can do to attract customers is start a blog. By adding a blog to your website, you get a chance to talk about various topics while subtly promoting your products or services. What is more, you will build authority in your niche and the people reading your blog will tend to trust you and follow your advice, which will also translate to buying from you or hiring your company. Finally, you can also collaborate with other people from a complimentary niche and post articles on their blog and vice versa. This means that their audience, which was not aware of your existence, might start relying on you as well.
Attend trade shows in your niche
Another way to build trust and authority is by attending trade shows in your niche. Both people interested in your products and companies you can work with will be in attendance as well, so this is a great way to spread the word about your business. In order to attract attention, you should look into Display Me portable counters, banners, and fabric flags that will all have your name and logo on them. Once this helps you catch the eye of potential customers, make sure you have plenty of brochures and business cards that will ensure the visitors to your booth don’t forget you and know what to search for once they get home and want to look you up online.
Take part in local events
Besides trade shows, you should also take part in various local events and look for chances to volunteer. Not only will you be getting involved with your community and doing something good, you will also get to enjoy free publicity. You can sponsor the event or offer your services for free to anyone else who takes part.
Start a referral program
While word-of-mouth can work wonders in terms of reaching new customers, you should think about starting a referral program as well. Sure, people are happy to tell their friends about an amazing new product they’ve found but being incentivized works even better. Look for a way to implement dual-sided rewards, which will be great both for your existing customer and the friend they refer. That way, your loyal clients get a reward for every successful referral and the new customers receive a certain discount.
Offer promotional or discounted items
It’s no secret that people like free stuff. Well, it’s time to use this to your advantage. For instance, if you offer a service, you can allow people to use it for free for a month to see whether they like it – no strings attached. If you are confident that your services are top-notch, you can rest assured they will have no problem paying once the trial is over. On the other hand, you can gift them with a certain product when they purchase something in your store. You can give them a free tote bag, which shows that you care both about your customers and the environment. Of course, you can also create branded merchandise like caps, shirts and pens which people can buy or you can give out once they spend a certain amount in your shop. Alternatively, you can also offer items with a discount if you can’t afford to hand out products for free.
Partner up with the right people
We mentioned already how teaming up with people in different niches can give you access to a whole new audience. However, in addition to bloggers, you can also reach out to influencers that have a significant online following. If you strike up a partnership with them, they could be promoting your products/services on a regular basis, thus inspiring their followers to check you out.
By doing research and better understanding your potential clients, you will be aware of the best ways to reach them. From attending local events and trade shows to offering promotional products and having a referral program, there are many methods you can use to attract customers.