Customers are the bedrock of any business, your business cannot survive without them. This makes it necessary for you to increase your number of customers by generating new ones and keeping your existing customers.
How to go about this is a concern for businesses, especially SMEs. We’ve put together some tips to guide you on how to overcome this bottleneck.
The Steps to Increase Your Number of Customers
1. Understand Your Customers and Target Market.
I cannot overemphasize this enough. This is because you can’t increase your number of customers without really understanding who they are, what they want, how to reach them, and so on.
Understanding your customer’s preferences will allow you to personalize and develop services and/or products that address your customer needs.
In all, it is a win-win for both the business and the customers. The business concentrates on what the customers need while customers get what they want.
2. Retain Existing Customers While You Look for New Ones.
Like I said in my introduction, the two ways to increase your number of customers are by retaining existing customers and getting new ones.
When you retain existing customers, you’re certain of getting the following:
- Repeat business from them.
- They give more insights into understanding your target market, that can be used to generate more customers.
However, in a bid to retain current customers, do not forget to get new ones. Both approaches are very important for your business. “Leave no stone unturned”.
3. Offering Great Customer Service.
As a follow-up to the previous point, to keep your customers coming back, it is pertinent you offer great customer service.
According to a report by Microsoft, 96% of customers said customer service is important when deciding their loyalty to a brand.
Another report by HubSpot shows that 83% of companies that believe in making customers happy, experienced growing revenue.
This shows that great customer service has a positive impact on your business and the customers.
4. Utilizing Your Network
Leveraging your network’s word of mouth to increase your number of customers is very valuable. If I’m friends with you, and you know someone in need of my services, there is an implied trust.
For example, I am friends with Mike and he knows his friend Josh is in need of ERP (business management software), Mike can link me up with Josh.
To understand more about networking, you read this article.
On the flipside, networking shouldn’t be about selling alone. It should about what you can do for people.
5. Partnerships with Other Businesses
Your target customers will already have relationships with other businesses that offer services that complement your offerings.
Let me use my organization as a good example. SOFTCODES a provider of ERP (business management solutions) for over 23 years, we don’t offer cloud services setup services. We partnered with a business that offers the services, and we both offer customers to each other.
Adopting this method allows you to offer more to your customers, reach a new audience, and increase your number of customers. “Keep your eyes peeled for opportunities”.
6. Utilizing Social Media
The advent of social media has changed businesses and customers relate.
You can reach out to your customers online to get more insights about your audience, provide better customer service and increase your number of customers by marketing.
Many businesses are now using social media marketing to acquire more customers. If you desire to use it for your business, contact Intel Parrot (a digital marketing agency) here.
There are different social mediums out there. Utilize the one that works for you.
7. Adapting and Tweaking as Your Business Grows.
As your business becomes established, you might discover your customers come from various sources. This is where analytics and segmentation come into play.
It’s certainly worth testing different marketing efforts to see what works for you. This is because every industry is different.
8. Measuring What Works For You
From the previous point, I encourage the testing of different marketing approaches. As you try them out, do not fail to evaluate the different approaches and discover where your customers are coming from.
Discovering and harnessing the marketing channel is the sweet spot to help increase your number of customers.
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