5 Simple Ways to Find New Customers for Your Business

Customers are the lifeblood of businesses. Without them, we’d have no purpose, no reason to keep going and—perhaps more importantly—no money. But finding customers isn’t always easy. It can be tough to know where to look for consumers and even tougher to figure out how to get them to become one of your customers.

Here are five simple but effective methods to acquire new customers.

Social media has changed the way we communicate. Millions of everyday people are now interlinked through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These are your high street shoppers, your impulse buyers–an open market of consumers.

Engaging with people on social media is effective for almost every single industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re a local seaside shop selling knickknacks or a financial mobile app offering investment software. Since almost everyone is on social media, your market is out there somewhere–but you’ll have to find them.

Putting your business on social media isn’t going to attract customers overnight. You have to engage with the networks in order to reach them. To do this, you must locate your demographic—find what social media channels they use and then engage with them. This doesn’t just mean posting links to your shop; it means getting involved in conversations, starting interesting discussions, offering insights, and sharing news.

By becoming part of that social scene, and providing interesting content that draws people to your channels, you’ll open up an audience of potential customers.

Even in our digital, interconnected world, traditional advertising still has its place. Investing in marketing strategies that put your small business into the world of your target demographic is one of the most valuable methods of acquiring new customers—for any business.

Yet, while the old way is still one of the best ways, that doesn’t mean things haven’t changed. Placing your brand name on leaflets, on flyers, on signage, and in classifieds isn’t the only way for a small business to get its name out anymore.

The age of the internet has opened up a new world of advertising options. Sponsored blogs, podcasts, articles and videos, Google and Facebook ads, pay-per-click and website banner advertisements all offer valuable ways to reach and attract new customers.

Some methods of advertising will be more effective than others, depending on what sort of business you own. Using a combination of digital and traditional advertising strategies can also be effective; you don’t need to settle for just one format.Let’s say you run a local plumbing business. Using Facebook ads to target people in your local area while distributing flyers might be the perfect dual-marketing strategy to get consumer attention.

Using online advertising and social media is a great way of appealing to a wide audience, but you can also use the internet for a more finite method of customer acquisition. Individuals often use the web to look for services and products, and if you can locate those people, you could potentially make a sale.

For freelancers and those in the creative and tech industries, websites like UpWork and Elance are unparalleled platforms for finding new customers. People and other businesses put up jobs they need done by freelancers and you have the opportunity to offer your services for said jobs. This can be a great way to find one-off projects or secure long-term customers.

The business world is always looking to support up-and-coming new talent. Competitions are held throughout the year for small business startups, offering a variety of prizes: cash, expert advice, free advertising, and networking opportunities with other innovative and inspiring startups.

Competitions are not only an opportunity to gain a bit of extra financial backing; competitions also offer a way for you to gain a bit of notoriety. Your run-of-the-mill consumers probably aren’t paying close attention to who is winning startup competitions, but other influential customers are.

For example, if you are a small business working in fashion design and you win a fashion award for newcomers to the scene, you’ll open the door to a set of hugely influential customers who wouldn’t have given you a second look before. Big brands that may be interested in bulk purchases, purchases that could take your business to a whole new level, are on the lookout for fresh, upcoming talent–but they aren’t going to be trawling the web for your fashion website. You’ve got to do something big and bold to get their attention, and winning competitions is one of the best ways to do that.

For some small businesses, outreach to the local community matters very little; a software developer is unlikely to make lots of sales to Doris down the road. However, for many other small businesses, the locals are absolutely vital for your survival and the power of community should not be underestimated.

People like to get involved and help out small local businesses; they believe it adds value to their community. However, if you really want to gain the support of your community, you have to show you do indeed add value. Get involved with your local community whenever possible. Provide products for local meets, sponsor charity or community events, and get involved with street markets.

Also, make your presence known. If people know you care about the local community, they will care about you. For businesses supported predominantly by locals, this method of finding customers is absolutely vital.

Post by: Russell Smith

Russell Smith, Managing Director of Russell Smith Chartered Accountants in Leeds, is passionate about offering small business advice. An avid blogger, Russell uses his expert knowledge to give advice on everything from bookkeeping to branding.

Company: Russell Smith Chartered Accountants
Website: www.rsaccountancy.co.uk
Connect with me on Twitter.

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