World Executives Digest | Grow Your Customer Base: A Guide for Business Owners | One of the major challenges of starting and running a business is achieving consistent revenue growth. Convincing those first customers to trust your business and purchase your product or service is no walk in the park. Even when you do get their nod, you’ll need to come up with an effective plan to retain them and get them to buy more of your goods.
The good news is that there are strategies to help business owners obtain a slight edge over other companies and get a stream of leads that will grow your company.
Here are some tactics you can implement to grow your customer base:
#1 Learn More About Your Customers
Knowing the needs of your customers from the inside out can help you formulate better insights about your target market and develop products or services that cater to their needs.
Get to know your customers better by:
- Asking customers directly
- Conducting surveys about your product, service or brand
- Studying the purchase behavior of previous customers
- Coming up with a buyer persona describing the ideal customer
- Obtaining reviews from customers
#2 Harness the Power of Social Media
Social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, aren’t simply used to communicate with friends and family. You can use these channels to do social media marketing for your business.
You can get started by sharing relevant and interesting content about your brand, emphasizing follower engagement over sales language. The organic posts you publish regularly will help you grow your audience and get more customers in your storefront.
If you have the budget, you could invest in paid social media advertising. Facebook allows you to run ads that target the ideal customers you want to reach.
#3 Deliver Excellent Customer Support
Excellent customer service is crucial to the success of your business. A report from PwC revealed that 73 percent of respondents say that customer experience plays a vital role in their buying decisions. They’re willing to pay more for greater convenience, as well as a welcoming and friendly experience. Your company, therefore, should allot enough resources to make sure that a majority of your customer interactions are positive.
You could begin by training your customer care or technical support staff and creating a system in place that will connect the customer to the appropriate team member. Then, create a knowledge base that contains common issues along with troubleshooting steps to fix the problem.
You could even take it a step further by making your knowledge library public. Publish helpful guides or FAQs on your website to help customers solve some common problems by themselves.
Here’s an example: Let’s say your customer buys a wifi extender from your store. A week later, they call in and ask about setting up the device in their home properly. Instead of merely providing the steps, your staff can instruct the customer to check your company’s FAQ page or hardware guide for future reference.
#4 Partner with Other Businesses
You’ll need all the help you get, especially if you’ve just started your business recently. You could team up with companies that could help you make more sales and improve your brand recognition.
When you partner with businesses, your company can compensate for the lack of authority in your field. Your business partner can vouch for you, allowing you to boost your brand awareness.
When screening for potential partners, make sure that the business meets the following criteria:
- The company must hold the same values as your business. If your company values punctuality, your future partner must have timeliness as one of its core values.
- The business should have an overlapping or similar target audience as yours
- The company should offer a related product that could work well together with your goods. If you’re selling SUV accessories, partner with a business that sells high profile vehicles.
#5 Offer Free Trials to New Customers
Another promising strategy for acquiring customers is by providing free trials of your product or service. Free trials are an opportunity to garner positive testimonials, which your business can use to get more customers.
Free trials also show the value of what your company has to offer. If your customers love the product or service, they’ll become a return customer and may recommend your brand to others.
These five suggestions will help you bump up your customer base and increase your bottom line along the way. Don’t hesitate to experiment with different strategies. Once you hit the right combination of tactics, you’ll see a new wave of customers entering your store.
