If you’re a business owner, you know customers are the lifeblood of your company. The more clients you get, the faster you grow and fulfill your vision. So how do you expand your customer base and attract new clients?
15 Simple, Creative Ways to Attract More Customers
1. Ask For Referrals, Don’t Just Wait For Them
Referrals are a great way to reach new customers. But one of the most common errors is waiting for your clients to reach out to you or spread the word about your company.
Your clients may be satisfied with your service, but not many of them will go out of their way to recommend you to others if you don’t remind them. So, pick a couple of happy clients who haven’t sent you referrals yet and ask them to connect you with people and companies in their network.
Better yet, come up with a system to actively get referrals from all of your happy clients.
2. Agencies Can Be Great Partners
Bigger agencies usually pass on new clients if they’re not interested or don’t have enough resources or skills to deal with them. In such cases, they will often refer them to another company in their network.
That could be you.
So find an agency bigger than yours and propose a partnership. As long as you’re not a competitor, they’re likely to welcome a mutually beneficial partnership.
3. Stay in Touch With Lost Clients
You probably have a list of past clients that, for some reason, left or didn’t buy your service at one point.
It’s time to put that list to good use.
Contact lost clients and let them know of any product updates or service upgrades that may serve their needs better. Ask if there’s a current need you can help them with. Reopening a conversation after some time show them you value their business and care about fulfilling their needs.
Even if they have nothing for you at the moment, staying in touch, keeps you on their radar.
4. Follow Up With Your Contacts
Reach out to former colleagues, connections, and people with similar interests to what your company provides. Ask if there’s something you can help them with like contributing to their blog, offering advice, or providing feedback. Your goal is to build trust and show them you care.
You can also reach out to customers and check-in to see if they have anyone who might be interested in your products or services.
5. Consider Ad Campaigns on Social Media
Social media ad campaigns can be a great way to target prospective clients. Consider that the average Facebook user has 338 friends and Google is the number one tool for online searches.
Have something new to promote? Why not try Facebook Ads or Google Adwords? Start with a minimal investment to test out different ads. Here are some Facebook ad benchmarks and Google Ad benchmarks listed by industry to help you set expectations.
6. Create a Blog
Writing blog posts about topics related to your service is a fantastic way to increase your client pool. Blog posts make you feel more real to customers, help you build better relationships, and make you look like an expert in your field.
To make your articles more visible, publish them on Reddit. Then share them on your social media channels.
7. Use the Advantages of Guest Blogging
Tap into someone else’s audience by writing guest posts. There’s a huge list of blogs that let other companies publish their content. Find blogs that cover similar topics or have an audience similar to yours and write a blog post relevant to your product or service. Guest blogging is a way of sharing your expertise while exposing others to your brand without being salesy.
8. Do the Necessary Networking
If you want a new stream of clients, you have to put yourself out there. Mingle online and offline. Go to meetups and conferences where you anticipate many potential clients will attend.
And take advantage of networking sites like LinkedIn. On your LinkedIn page, you can post samples of your work, blog posts and any updates regarding your products or business.
Moreover, you can find groups for every industry there. Join the ones relative to your industry and answer questions, participate in group discussions, and offer advice to make your brand visible to a whole new pool of customers. The more active you are, the more people will associate your brand with expertise.
9. Give Something For Free
Give people a taste of your services free of charge for a limited time. Temporary free trials and consultations help entice customers to try your product or service risk-free. This builds trust and increases brand loyalty.
Another great way to give some things for free is to send out text messages through your business provider. This a great way to engage and add something that’ll help your customers all around.
10. Share Your Wisdom
There’s a way you can earn money, spread the information about your company, and give back to society all at the same time — create a course on your particular expertise. Online course platforms like Udemy are a terrific way to generate brand awareness while building your voice of authority.
Up to 5000 questions get posted each day on Quora — and you can use this to your advantage. Answer questions related to your industry as often as you can. Be insightful but not spammy, and make sure you put all relevant links and info on your profile to increase traffic on your website.
11. Generate More Emails with Gated Content
In most instances, people who visit your website just read the content and leave without contacting you. So, to build trust and establish a connection, offer visitors something in exchange for their email address. It can be a free E-book, newsletter subscription, free consultation, or recently published White Paper.
Also, remember people love giving their opinions, so why not put a survey on your website? Ask thought-provoking questions to learn more about your visitors and let them submit their answers by providing their email address.
12. Be Ready to Help
Every business has something it can offer its community. Investing your time and resources to help others is a long-term, but effective strategy. You may not acquire many new clients immediately, but the overall positive image your business leaves behind is priceless. Oftentimes the payback comes in the form of positive online reviews and referrals you couldn’t get any other way.
13. Create Quality Content
To reach a broader audience, create various types of quality content. For example, make a guide or helpful presentation on a specific topic related to your industry. Case studies and Customer Success Stories are also excellent ways to show potential clients the benefits of using your products or service.
14. Be Personal
When replying to a job ad or sending a cold email, people try to sound as professional as possible. Although there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be professional, this tactic won’t make you stand out among your competitors.
Writing in a more personal, informal way while providing assistance right off the bat on the other hand, most certainly will. This approach might take some editing, but that extra effort will give you an edge.
15. The Importance of SEO and Calls to Action
Search engine optimization is a long-term strategy designed to drive traffic to your company’s web page. Pair your SEO strategy with thoughtful calls to action. Calls to action have to be everywhere, but they don’t have to be flashy or annoying, just enough to engage your customers and encourage participation.
Expanding Your Customer Base
Finding your ideal client and growing your customer base is never an easy task. It requires patience, careful planning, and creativity. As you can see, there are many ways to make your brand more visible and attract potential customers. Some of them include creating fresh and insightful web content, sharing them on different social networks and offering your help and advice to those who need it.
In the end, it’s all about building a trustworthy and ongoing relationship with people. So, use these tips to tap into a fresh pool of potential clients, while securing the ones you already have for the long term.
What techniques have you tried to make your business more visible? Let us know in the comments. And if you have any ideas for future articles, write us at feedback@dyl.com. We’re always looking for new ideas!
