Where to get customers

For instance, if your business is more of a visual product like fashion — then Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook might just be where your customers are. Actively engage with them via those platforms to drive qualified customers to your website. When I started my first company, I was able to come up with a list of everyone I knew who owned a business and came up with a few names.

This was very discouraging. But I decided to grow my list by tapping my existing relationships, so I met with almost every person I knew who might have ties to the business community and asked people to introduce me to business owners.

I was surprised by how willing people were to help. I quickly grew my list of prospects and even snagged a few early customers. Some potential customers will always be totally out of your reach but might make incredible early adopters.

Find anyone who might have a connection to the person you want to meet and ask for an introductory email or a warmup call.

Next, send a letter of introduction and follow up with a call. Do research on potential problems in his or her business. Spend the first half of the meeting asking questions to locate possible pain points for that person and try to offer something of value independent of your business.

Then if you bring enough value to the table and awe this person, he or she will be a lot more interested in you and your company. How long have you been in business? I have years of experience in this market segment but recently opted to bring the same quality service that I offered through such and such big company but at a much lower rate. Some online stores offer a small discount for first time purchases, the key is to make it tangible and obvious what the customer will get if they purchase right now.

If you can get your early customers to trust you as a knowledgeable resource in your subject area, they will buy from you. The key here is not to fake it. Before you start to prove your expertise, you have to develop it.

Tweet, post on Facebook or your blog or write a guest blog to spread the message. Write a white paper and email it to target clients.

Fight the urge to spend all your communications trying to sell your company. Use your platforms to try to help people and your first customers will follow. The first customers will breathe life into your start-up. So to see what you are doing right and what you can improve on to attract more customers, you have to rely on your understanding of Google Analytics tool.

And this has been thoroughly covered in our digital marketing training course. Click here to find out about the course.

Discounting is not a long-term strategy but it can be highly effective in driving new customers to your business. Just be careful of attracting deal-hunters, since these customers may not be of long-term value to your business. These are a powerful form of content. Every business today should seek customer testimonials in multiple forms: written, audio, and video.

Write all this information down and look for patterns. Then, to get more customers, plan ways to put yourself and your information where the people in your target market can find it when they are ready to buy.

Instead, try to develop relationships with potential customers. Retweet or comment on their posts. Selling is a lot easier when you sell to people who feel like they know you. Even in the digital age, daily and weekly newspapers are still an incredible source of contact information and lead to potential new customers. Watch for names of people who have been promoted, who have won awards, who have opened new businesses , or who in any way may be potential customers.

Send those people personalized mailings congratulating them on their success or telling them how interesting the article about them was. Include your company name and slogan plus any appropriate product information with your signature.

Better yet, give them a reason to give you their contact information. An offer of a free newsletter, a free guide to something related to your industry, or a coupon can all be good devices to use for lead capture. Then follow up regularly on those leads. Everybody loves a bargain. Offer a discount to new customers on their first purchase. If you sell products or services that need to be purchased repeatedly, consider making that first discount contingent on the customer signing a contract for a year of service.

Events that may bring your potential market together. Look for fliers about the event at local networking group meetings. Or, call and ask the organizers if there are sponsorship opportunities available. Local events can be quite inexpensive to sponsor. Look in the newspapers to see what other organizations hold events that might attract your target market and attend some of those meetings.

To acquire new customers, you need to build trust. And one of the best ways to do that is to give away free samples of your product and ask the recipients to tell their friends if they are pleased. By offering to be that space, you can bring in a specified number of patrons who are part of the group. If you offer your coffee shop to a local book club for their monthly meetings, what do you think the odds are that most of them buy a cup? Pretty good, right?

Getting out into the community this way, and bringing the community to you, is a great way to get more business and start word of mouth circulating. People come in for the wine, stay for the food, and come back for the restaurant's tremendous quality. One option comes below with our 7 tip: partner up. Join forces with another company that has a space and co-host the event.

Another option is to host a virtual event. You can also have an outdoor event, like a marathon or race, or sponsor an existing event. If reaching your audience feels like a heavy load, find someone to help you carry it! Teaming up with another business opens up a whole new range of options for bringing in new customers. Cross-promotion helps you tap into their existing customer base. Just be sure to choose a company whose customers are in your target market. Events like this attract huge numbers of consumers right to your front step.

A reliable way to attract new customers is to show them how well you look after your current customers. We love the story of Mark the Insurance Guy.

Mark runs a little insurance agency in the middle of Ohio. He also grosses seven million dollars a year. Sound weird? Hold on. Starting a Business. Anna Johansson Nov 11, Latest on Entrepreneur.

Max Pecherskyi Nov 14, Alp Mimaroglu Nov 14, Julia Weikel Nov 13, Facebook Twitter LinkedIn.