Top Ways To Help Your Business Reach New Customers
As a small business or startup, it can be challenging to reach new customers. There is a lot of competition out there, and it can sometimes feel like you’re shouting into the abyss. Fortunately, there are tons of things you can do to open yourself up to new markets. One of the first tasks, though, is to make sure you don’t waste any effort on things that aren’t relevant to you or your business.
It can be tricky to know where to start, especially if you have very few connections or experience in your niche. Building your brand up will take some time, however, if you use the best methods, you will reap the rewards in the long term. Take a look at some of the ways to stand out and reach new people to grow your business.
Go to local and regional networking events to reach new customers
Some people say that attending lots of networking events is really beneficial for small business. However, if they are filled with tons of people that don’t have an interest in your niche or don’t quite mesh with your business, then you could be wasting valuable time.
If you are providing a service for local people and businesses, then there’s no point in attending a huge networking event on a national scale, as these people won’t have an immediate need for your ideas.
However, local people will. Chat to everyone, get a feel for what they do, and over time, you should be able to strike up a cord with relevant business partners and potential clients.
It’s also worth noting that networking shouldn’t be used as a sales tool from the outset. The people that attend, want to meet likeminded people and not come up against a hard sell. Just let the conversation flow, and good things will happen.
While networking events can be great to make new connections, a downside is that there isn’t much leverage with it. You have to physically be there and these relationships take time to develop.
You may consider focusing a majority of your efforts at the beginning towards online marketing and setting up systems that can work for you 24/7. I put together a free video training on lead generation that can help point your in the right direction. You can access it below.
Hold a workshop or business event
A great way to tell people about your services and brand is to hold a workshop that will benefit other business owners. Again, this shouldn’t be a straight-up selling technique, as you need to give people value for money and their time.
Whether you opt for a paid for or free event, organizing it can be challenging if you don’t have the relevant network. Past networking events can help you to have connections that you can reach out to businesses owners. However, advertising on business forums and local/regional media will also bring others into the fold.
Social media marketing is another great way to promote workshops and business events you may put on as well. You might want to check out my post on social media marketing, to learn more.
To get everything organized, it’s also best to get help with the registration of attendees. This could be with scheduling sessions and marketing your event with resources such as convention registration software. By using this type of software, you’ll have everything ready for your big event without having to worry about the details.
Create a user-friendly website to attract new customers to you
Most of your customers will be on the Internet in some form. Whether that’s liking posts on social media or searching for services via well-known search engines.
And if you’re not there, they won’t find you! Even if your doesn’t business sells physical products, people still like to find out about companies by looking online.
So to get in front of this audience, you need to create a user-friendly website that offers them a practical guide to your brand. In the first instance, it doesn’t have to be a massive website with hundreds of pages.
However, it does have to include all the relevant information that people will want to know, yes, including your contact details! It’s surprising just how many companies get the fundamentals wrong when it comes to designing a website, so it could be a great idea to get a professional to do the hard work for you.
By working alongside others to get a user perspective, you’ll be able to showcase the best impression of your business online. At the same time, even if you have an amazing website you’ll still need to have a strategy to drive traffic to your website.
Contribute to industry media and events
Another helpful way to get your name out there is to contribute your expertise to media publications. There are tons of general news sites and industry forums that require up to date information and comments from people who work in the thick of it.
By contributing to articles and conversation within these areas, you are showing that you are an expert or leader in the sector. This not only helps bring more customers to your business, but it will also boost your reputation both online and in person.
One cool resource for this strategy is with a site called helpareporter.com. You can sign up for their service for free and start contributing your expertise as a source. This can help you build awareness for your business as well as increase valuable backlinks to your site.
This is another strategy you can use to optimize SEO or search engine optimization on your site. I’ll include a video below that describes this strategy for getting free backlinks to your website.
You could also look at speaking roles at events and running workshops at larger industry forums to offer your expertise in specific topics.
Build your email marketing database to acquire new customers
Your marketing strategy should include a plethora of things, including social media marketing, direct advertising, and search engine optimization. Regardless of those strategies you may use, one thing to start from the get-go is email marketing.
Building a customer database which includes permissions to send them offers, products launches, and relevant information is essential to target customers that have already purchased from you.
Email marketing is said to be one of the best ways to convert people as they’ve already been looking at your services previously. By giving people the option to join, they are choosing to support your business and keep in contact without feeling obliged.
However, creating a good strategy is key to implementing your emails to customers, as too many will put them off, and not enough and they’ll forget about you. Emails should be concise and informative too, as waffling on will lead to people trashing it before they’ve got to the good bit.
You may also enjoy the video below and my post on How to grow your email list fast.
Set up a sales funnel system to market your business
Another helpful tool to market your business and generate email leads, is a sales funnel system. Basically, this allows you to make lead magnets and capture pages, and even sell digital products without having to code or have a website.
Obviously, you should have a website, but if you are just getting started in your business, a sales funnel system could be a quick way to get your online marketing up and running quickly.
If you’d like to check out a sales funnel system I recommend click here for a free 14-day trial! A couple of other resources I’d recommend in regards to lead generation and sales funnels are a couple of my recent posts. 9 Online Marketing Investments I Wish I Made Sooner and 5 Online Marketing Books You Need To Read As A Business Owner.
Stay consistent throughout the journey
In some cases, people who start businesses get frustrated quite quickly that it isn’t going as smoothly as planned. Very rarely, you’ll have plain sailing throughout your startup journey, so remaining consistent in your efforts is key to getting your name out there.
Branding and your company message are essential to keep consistent too, as you’ll want people to recognize your name and logo and immediately know what you do, and what you sell. By utilizing the above points and remaining positive in the early stages, you’ll start to reap the rewards and enjoy a successful business venture.
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