Digital MarketingGeneral
Marketing techniques to boost your customer base
In today’s day and age getting traffic to one’s business is both difficult and easier than it has ever been. With so many people having access to the internet there is so much outreach and customer targeting potential. But on the other hand, there are also many startups and other major companies competing for customer attention and competition has never been stiffer. And not to mention many global companies trying to make their way into local markets.
Here are some things you can do to beat the competition and reduce the impact of the negatives
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Asking for referrals
It can be uncomfortable asking for referrals. Most of the time if your product/service is good and your customers are happy they will be more then happy to do so. Adding incentives also encourage customers to do so.
Let’s say you have a service for which your customers pay a recurrent fee. Asking them to refer people by giving them the next month free could be seen as a good way to gain new customers and also keep the current ones happy.
The key is having a strategy that makes it easy and beneficial for your current customers to refer people they know.
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Audience Targeting
Places to find new customers are not unique and it’s a good bet that if you thought of a location to find new customers then its highly likely that your competition did as well. Try looking at other businesses who offer the same products/services as you do and see where they get their customers from. Once you’ve identified where your customer base lies you can move to the next step of creating creative and unique targeting strategies.
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Free Stuff
The easiest way to get more people familiar with your business is to offer free and valuable stuff. Offering something for free allows people to familiarize themselves with your business and see what you offer. If they are happy with what you offer you can convert them into a paying customer. One way to offer free stuff is to offer a free trial period if you have a product or service.
If you’re offering a free service you should let people know by posting on your website and on your social media channels. This can help by putting your name out there and expanding the number of people you reach.
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A ‘Spam-free’ website
When people visit your website they expect to find information on what makes your company tick. Having a website with several pop-ups, spammy newsletter links and advertisements can hurt the way people look at your business and also it negatively affects the way search engines like google rank your website in search results.
Make sure your website is clean and has relevant information pertaining to your business and your products/services. This will help keep customers on your page longer.
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Utilizing existing communities and creating your own
There are many existing online communities like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit etc. Each of these communities has people or groups that are centred around the topic your business or service is built upon. You should try to be an active member in such communities as they offer a good opportunity to introduce more people to your business and increase traffic.
Posting regularly in these communities will help you understand your customer base, offer advice to others and also build a trust relationship between you and your potential customers. Also interacting with your customers will help you understand what they really look for in the product you’re offering and will help you decide where you should focus your time and resources into, which in time will be good for customer retention.
Apart from the existing communities, you should try creating your own communities by interacting with your customers on your social media pages. Having a newsletter is also helpful as it gives you an opportunity to inform your loyal customers what’s happening in the business and also give them some special treating like discount codes, early access to products etc.
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Advertisements
Ad’s in online communities usually have a negative association with them. But if done right they can generate a load of traffic for your business. Ad’s on social communities should be economically balanced, ie the value of the ads should be more than the money invested in them.
A lot of the online social platforms have ways to target specific users with ads and also provide you with the metrics of your ad campaigns so you can make smart decisions with your ad strategies.
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Invest in customer experiences
Especially when you’re a new company, take the time to work on how your customers experience your business. You might not see this as something worth investing in but treating your customers properly will turn them into loyal customers and in turn will spread a good message about your company and bring in more people through referrals. This can be done in many ways such as prompt service when the customer is facing difficulties, listening to and answering all their queries.
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Listening to your customers
Whether you’re a startup or a global corporation, you still have to understand who your customers and their needs. You should try to understand what are the pain points the customer has with your service and you should try to make informed decisions in the future based on the feedback.No matter how much success you think you are having, understanding your users is always the most important and can help in creating a product that can drive traffic.