Find the new and retain the old
How do I get more customers?
How do I drive more sales?
Age-old questions.
Longer answers.
The key to a successful business is customers. We all need them. We all want more of them.
So how do you find them? Better yet, once you have them, how do you keep them?
Retain and Re-engage Existing Customers
Sometimes the best way to grow your business is to look at what you have and pivot. You may have heard the word ‘pivot’ a lot throughout COVID. Businesses had to ‘pivot’ in order to survive.
Fine dining restaurants became takeaway outlets.
Gin distilleries became hand sanitiser factories.
Looking at ways you can build and diversify your business will help you to grow and upscale – sometimes with the customers you have right in front of you.
Some ways in which you can do this:
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Market research
Find out what your existing clients want. Is there a gap in your services that you are not filling? Is there a new product you can add to your stock? Asking your existing clients is the best way to receive honest and constructive feedback. You can even do so anonymously with free tools such as Survey Monkey.
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Expand your products and service offerings
Now you have some feedback from your customers, how can you put it into action? Can you add a new service offering? Can you source that new product? This may mean growing your business and taking on additional staff or equipment, but is a way to grow and expand your business in line with your customer needs.
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Reward loyalty
This is where some of the big companies go wrong. Every year the same ads are directed at new customers – join and receive your first month free. No waiting periods. A holiday. A house. (over-exaggerating but you get the drift). You sign, then BOOM! Nothing. They have you now, and that is where the loyalty ends. Rarely you will see an offer for existing customers. All we see is a yearly letter indicating a hefty price increase.
Do I feel loyalty towards my provider? No.
Would I jump ship if something better came along? Sure would.
Invest in your existing customers so they remain staunchly loyal when a better offer comes along.
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Communicate
Get onto social media and engage. Social media is a huge part of building a community with your customers, both current and potential. Post relevant and timely content, respond to enquiries, engage with your customers and other businesses. Investing the time in communicating through social media will help to build your business community and profile.
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Introduce incentives
If your business employs staff, consider introducing incentives to help drive more business and close more sales. Build a strong team that is jam-packed with product and service information that could sell ice to an Eskimo.
Find New Customers
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Utilise free marketing tools
Before you start paying for Google ads and social campaigns, look at the tools that are readily available to you already. And they are FREE. Our favourite of all time is Google My Business. This little beauty is a free tool (by Google) that will help promote your business. Build your reviews from existing clients. Target the location of your business to show up on Google maps. So many features that are free free free.
Did we mention free?
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Build word of mouth
The best way to build your word of mouth is to give the best service possible. Be the business that everyone talks about for the right reasons – not because they suffered terrible service. Get the basics right and your miles ahead of the rest. Always say hello. Be helpful. Deliver what you promise, be price competitive. Be unique!
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Focus on digital marketing and SEO
So this is a big one. Your online presence has never been so important (as was made clear to the world by the events of 2020). Get your business online. Invest in a quality website. Engage a professional website agency that knows what they are doing. Focus on your content. A pretty website is great and all but your clients will not find you if your content is not rich with keywords and engaging copy. If you don’t have the funds to invest in a professional website and need to DIY with the likes of Wix etc, do some online training in SEO and writing quality content first. As otherwise your efforts will be wasted.
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Blogs and vlogs
Blogs and vlogs are the ideal way to share engaging and real-time content with your customers. They assist with your SEO as well as driving readers to your site to receive authoritative, engaging content. Come up with a regular blogging/vlogging plan and stick to it. Dedicate this time to the promotion of your business. Share your posts on socials, your Google Business page and relevant group pages.
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Social media
We mentioned social media in our points above about engaging current clients. The same goes for finding new ones. When people see you engaging and building a community of loyal customers, they will tend to follow. Everyones loves a good thing! Look into influencers who may be a good fit for your company if this is the route you wish to take.
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Network
Get amongst your community. Join networking groups. Join facebook community groups. Go to events. Get your name out there as much as possible.
The end goal for your business is to not spend a cent on advertising. Focus on as much organic marketing as possible to avoid dishing out hundreds and thousands to Google, Facebook and Instagram. Let your business speak for itself.
For our business, the big change in our marketing came when we outsourced to a professional marketing agency. Vanessa at Chilli Frog Marketing is a Tweed Heads web design and marketing agency that worked with us to not only overhaul our existing website but to create an integrated marketing plan for our business.
A big focus is on SEO and delivering effective and engaging content for our clients. Our work together grows and evolves with our business needs. We can rest knowing the digital marketing side of our business is taken care of, leaving us time to work on business development and look after our existing clients. It’s a win-win investment.
If you’d like to chat to us about how our recent marketing activities have helped to boost our client base, give our friendly team a call.