12. I’m worried about getting new customers.
16 things keeping SME owners awake.
Attracting new customers can seem like a daunting challenge. It would be lovely if they just appeared at your door with wallets open but that is seldom the case. You might try some of these things to help build your customer base.
The first thing to do is define who your customer is. As the clever marketing people might say “build a persona”. In other words, define and refine everything that makes them a good fit for you. It could be age, or gender, or any kind of demographic factor. Work out what they need, what they value, what their preferences are and what particular pain points you are able to resolve for them. By doing this you’ll be able to undertake sales and marketing activity in the right places so you aren’t wasting money on people who will never be customers.
Like it or not, we live in a very on-line world. Even if it seems alien to you, it will be worth the effort to develop an on-line presence. A simple, interesting and compelling web site. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter (or whatever it’s called currently), or if you’re brave enough TikTok. There are so many ways to make yourself heard and the best thing is, a lot of it can be done for free. If you want to spend a modest amount as a trial, have a go at spending with Google on getting your page ranking up. Even paid Google is very inexpensive when compared to radio, TV or newspaper/magazine advertising.
Just like I’m doing here, create interesting and informative content that resonates with your target market. You may find my content doesn’t fit that bill, but if you’ve read this far you there must be something keeping you around. You don’t have to be a pest and over-share. Just keep enough interesting things coming out to get and hold people’s attention.
Depending on what type of business you have, running promotions and offering time-bound discounts can make an immediate difference to sales numbers.
There is no better (or cheaper) way to generate sales than by word-of-mouth. If you’ve put the time and effort into making your existing customers happy and satisfied, they will have no problem with you encouraging them to recommend you to people they know.
Again with the networking. I’ve already expressed how much I loath this but the fact remains, it puts you in front of people you wouldn’t normally see. They may not be potential customers, but they will know people who are.
Find businesses that are in sectors adjacent to yours but not in direct competition. Cross-pollination is a cheap and easy way to grow sales. The beauty is that you promote each other’s businesses and it costs neither of you anything but can bring handsome rewards for all.
If you’re in a business that lends itself to it, have a go at putting on some seminars or workshops. You can charge or not charge. It depends what you want out of it. If you’re wanting to make money for the event itself, put a price on it, but if you really just want to get exposure to new people to convert to customers, don’t charge. Just spread the word and see who comes. A word of caution though. A bad seminar is far worse than no seminar at all, so do your homework and make it worthwhile.
It’s not uncommon that we only get customer testimonials if we ask for them. Word of mouth recommendation is excellent, but if you actually ask customers to put pen to paper, it can be quite humbling to discover what they think of you. With permission (or by anonymising) use these to lend credibility to what you say about yourself. Obviously if they are all terrible, there’s a whole other conversation required.
One of the things that make customers and potential customers feel positive about you and your business is if you are engaged with the community. Not in a showy or flashy way. Sponsor a kids netball/rugby/football team. Advertise in the local school newsletters. Attend community events. It’s not exactly advertising the business by turning up to things that are designed to strengthen communities, but it tells a story about who you are and that reflects on your business.
This is above my pay grade, but my people tell me that SEO optimisation is critical. In a nutshell, it’s about getting your company web site to the top of the rankings and the holy grail is being on Page 1 of any Google search. I’m not going to try and explain how because frankly I don’t know, but I have people who do and I trust them.
Email marketing is part art and part science. The best starting place is by identifying the people who have bought from you in the past. It doesn’t matter whether they are customers currently. The fact is that you have their contact details legitimately and it is perfectly acceptable to reach out to them with an offer, a check-in, or with something you’ve created as content that may be interesting to them. If they don’t want to hear from you, that’s ok. As long as you’ve given them a way to unsubscribe, they have the option to do so. This isn’t about hounding them. It’s about sharing what you’re up to. You never know. You might rekindle something that has value for both parties.
“Customer experience” sounds like some kind of marketing bollocks. Let me assure you, it isn’t. I can personally think of multiple occasions where I have chosen to buy from someone other than the cheapest supplier for no other reason than I have been offended by the way I was treated. The most recent experience was buying a car. I spent $70,000.00 and love the car I’ve got. There was a servicing issue where I was treated shabbily and made to feel like I was trying to “pull a swifty” on them. Without revealing what type of car or who the dealership was, I will never darken their doorway again. Please learn this lesson.
Whatever sales and marketing activity you undertake, from organic to investment heavy, track the outcomes. A couple of really good example of this are the Home Show or National Fieldays. You make a massive investment and you simply cannot judge success on sales made during the event. Most “exhibitors” can confidently declare that they didn’t get back a fraction of what they paid to be there. That’s not the end of the story though. Look at the activity that happens in the following months. What you might find is that you’ve hoovered up a bucket load of interested parties who would like to know more. Where you will fail is if you don’t respond to them in a timely matter. They are open to being talked to, but that only lasts so long. Every lead is potential gold. Don’t waste it.
If at any stage you would like to reach out and talk in more detail about any or all these issues, or even ones that aren’t mentioned, please call me on +64 275 665 682, email me at john.luxton@regenerationhq.co.nz or book a time to talk, either face to face or by Zoom. Any call will be free, confidential and with no obligation to do anything else.