As a startup, landing loyal customers when you’re just starting out is a difficult task. As you know, you can’t survive as a business without regular customers. Getting seen and attracting customers early in the process is integral to success.
The Worth of New Customers
Gaining new customers is more than most organizations realize. Of course, you know you wouldn’t be in business without paying consumers, but it’s more than that. Gaining and losing customers costs you money.
Calculating the worth of a customer will be different for every business. You have to look at the cost of marketing, the cost of acquisition, and your profits. What’s even more important is looking at the cost of acquisition versus the cost of retention. According to research, it costs between four and 10 times more to acquire a customer than it does to keep one. If you run your own calculations, you’ll define what your customer is worth and how important it is to retain that customer.
This contributes to understanding the average lifetime value (LTV) of a customer. You’ll look at retention, average customer lifespan, profit margin per customer, and similar metrics. Determinations using this formula will vary, but you’ll find that the worth of a new customer is far more valuable than anything else in your marketing ventures.
Gaining New Customers as a Business
Every business looks for ways to get new customers because they’ve discovered their worth, but the challenge is particularly difficult if you’re a brand new business with limited exposure.
Don’t let being unknown stop you from boosting your business, however. There are hundreds of ways to get new customers. Here are some of the methods that have proven their worth.
Solicit Customers Through Mail
Have greeting cards printed in bulk, and mail them to a purchased address list. Mail advertisements are among the most effective forms of solicitation because people tend to look through all of their mail and advertisements rather than just ignoring things, like they do with online ads.
Use greeting cards rather than flashy advertisements. They’re more personalized and look less like junk mail. You’re more likely to catch attention from those who actually need your services with this form of mail.
Invest in Digital Advertising
Advertisements can be purchased on social media, Google, and various websites. Though ad blockers are threatening the effectiveness of digital advertisements, you can still target customers and bring in business.
Carefully target your ads so that potential customers will see them. Don’t take out advertising space on a website that your customer base doesn’t visit. Likewise, use geo-targeting tools from Facebook and Google to get your ads in front of the right people. It may seem like an expensive investment, but the ROI is pretty much guaranteed.
Hit Up Social Media
It sounds heartless, but one of the best ways to find new customers is by looking through the customers of a competitor on a public business page.
Target listed customers to see if they’d be interested in a new service/product from a new company. You likely have something that sets you apart from your competitors, whether it’s pricing, quality, or customer service. You can use that to draw customers in.
Social media is also one of the best ways to generate word of mouth marketing, the most effective form of marketing available. When customers are pleased with your products or services, incentivize them to share it on social media. About 85 percent of people will use referrals from friends and family as a key part of their purchasing decision.
Generate Reviews Early On
Another great way to spread word of mouth marketing is through reviews. When potential customers read the words of those with experience, they’re more likely to make a purchase and tell their friends.
You can attract reviews organically by setting up profiles on multiple review sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, Google Local, Yahoo Local, LinkedIn, and more. Make it easy for people to leave reviews on your site with a comments section. People will often leave reviews just because it’s easy to do so on these sites.
Additionally, ask customers to leave reviews. Once they’ve made a purchase or done business with you, send a follow-up email soliciting a rating and a few sentences about their experience. You won’t get reviews from everyone, but the resulting responses will attract more customers.
Getting new customers is difficult, but being proactive in your search will move things along quickly. When you put forth the effort to promote a great product and/or service, people will come to you.
