How to attract customers
The success of any business directly depends on the number of buyers of your products and services. If you have no one to sell what you offer, this is the path to bankruptcy. Therefore, most companies, even at the launch stage, are looking for options to attract customers and analyze the market to make sure that the product will be in demand.
The main mistakes of novice entrepreneurs who do not know how to attract customers:
Basic Mistakes
Not an actual offer or goods/services of poor quality. If you are inferior to competitors or the offer is in principle not interesting for people, they will not buy anything from you.
Misunderstanding the pains and needs of clients. Your offer does not fully cover the needs of the client, the potential buyer is not sure that he needs it.
The company does not know how to attract customers – where to look for them, which advertising channels will work best. There is no promotion strategy. These problems have two sides. The first side is product problems. It is extremely difficult to sell people what they do not need and are not interested in. In this case, you need to change The second side concerns precisely the difficulties of promotion.
It happens that a company produces a good, high-quality and sought-after product or service. At the same time, she experiences difficulties in conveying information about this product to her potential customers. As a rule, professional marketers are hired for this. They test the target audience, look for the best channels of interaction with these people, and draw up a marketing plan. No wonder they say that advertising is the engine of progress. You can not advertise only essential goods located in places within walking distance.
For example, if you sell bread in a stall that is located in a conspicuous place in a residential area, your potential customers will see and find you. In all other cases promotion is required.
Read an overview of the craziest business ideas.
The main ways to attract customers
The main ways to attract customers
All ways to attract customers are divided into offline and online. Offline methods include:
flyers and leaflets;
outdoor advertising on billboards, banners;
exhibitions, trainings, any events;
publication in the media (magazines and newspapers);
newspaper ads;
advertising in elevators;
car advertising;
promotional items with logo.
Online ways:
advertising on television and radio;
e-mail marketing (e-mails);
maintaining and promoting your site;
maintaining their pages in social networks;
Internet advertising (buying advertising space on other people’s sites, contextual advertising, targeted advertising in social networks, advertising from bloggers);
promotion through video (advertising on YouTube, ordering videos).
The best and also free way is considered “word of mouth”. But for this you need to earn a name and reputation.
4 channels to attract customers
Let’s take a closer look at the most popular customer acquisition channels.
Word of mouth radio.
A method that does not require huge budgets. Its essence lies in the fact that other people recommend you for free. Works great for almost all business niches. If someone you know and is not personally interested in the financial results of your company is “advertising” you, this is always valued higher.
Online promotion.
More and more people are looking for goods and services on the Internet. As a rule, for online promotion, people create a website where they post all the information about the company, prices, conditions, as well as informational articles on the topic.
The site is usually sharpened for SEO in order to get customers from Google and Yandex searches. You can also set up contextual advertising here. Another direction is pages on social networks, advertising with bloggers or on other people’s sites. If you have an office, be sure to add it to Google Maps, to online directories.
Another way of online promotion is e-mail newsletter. A person subscribes to you and regularly receives letters – informational, expert, with advertising or with offers for free events. This creates a customer base, and from there you can receive orders.
Offline advertising.
Not all products make sense to advertise on the Internet. If you are targeting a specific area of the city (for example, you have a store in this area, a private kindergarten, etc.), offline advertising in the same area works best.
You can distribute advertising flyers, advertise on the radio, in transport, hang out billboards. This advertisement has a rather narrow coverage, but your offer is guaranteed to be seen and heard by all residents of the area, that is, your target audience. It is especially difficult not to notice outdoor advertising.
Other ways to promote.
This includes the distribution of souvenirs with your logo. It can be T-shirts, mugs, notebooks, magnets. Some companies offer bonuses for holidays (birthday, New Year, March 8)
