8 Proven Ways to Attract More Customers

Improving the success and profitability of your business requires attracting more customers. But how can you achieve that?

Below are some proven strategies that will enable you to attract more customers to your small business right now:

1. SEO

If you want to attract new customers, the first thing you should do is ensure that your website is fully SEO optimised. What is SEO? It stands for search engine optimisation and it is basically the process of using keywords, content strategies and other web-based techniques to ensure that your company website ranks as highly as possible on Google, and other search engines so that people who are looking for the things you sell will find you. 

If you don’t know much about SEO, a good SEO company will be able to audit your website to find out what you are doing well and which areas of SEO you can improve in. The worst thing you can do is ignore SEO as it will mean that far fewer potential customers will be able to find you.

2. Discounts and Promotions

If you want to convince more people to become customers, something that can work very effectively is to offer them attractive discounts and promotions that will convince them to take the next step and buy something.

Obviously, the key is to think of discounts and promotions that will be attractive enough to convince someone to buy. So, you need to offer a decent discount of 25 percent or more for new customers or perhaps offer a buy one, get one free promotion. The more attractive the promotion, the more likely customers are to buy and the more likely, if you impress them with that first purchase, that they will buy from you again, so it really can e a great return on investment.

3. Customer Referrals

If you’re looking for a really effective way to attract more customers to your small business, then you should definitely focus on referrals. New customers are far more likely to make a purchase if they can see that other people have done so and have good things to say about the product and/or your company. That is why you should make a real effort to get your customers to leave reviews and offer referrals to their friends and family. This is a good way of bringing social proof to the table, making your business seem more trustworthy, and ultimately converting more people.

4. Trade Shows

Trade shows can be a really good way of attracting new customers, particularly if you have an interesting new product to sell. By attending trade shows, you can ensure that you get your product in front of a lot of people, and providing that you offer an interesting demonstration and do a good job of talking about your products in an engaging way, people are sure to buy. So, although it may seem like a lot of hassle to pack up your products and go on the road to exhibit at a trade show, it is almost definitely worth it if you have a cool new product you want to sell.

5. Networking

In a similar vein, you can also pick up a lot of new customs by simply networking with people in related companies or local chambers of commerce, especially if you run a B2B company. The more people you know, the more people you have a chance to market to either overtly or covertly and the more people you will have on hand to recommend your business to other people who they talk to who express a need for whatever it is you do. Being sociable is something every small business owner should make an effort to do, no matter how busy they may be.

6. Keep in Touch with Old Customers

It is many times cheaper to convince old customers to make a new purchase than it is to attract brand new customers. So, if you’re looking to make more sales, then you should also take the time to get back in touch with old customers via email, telephone or post, depending on their preferences. A well-timed special offer or letting them know about the cool new product you’ve launched could be more fruitful than you think.

7. A Partnership with a Complementary Company

One tactic for attracting new customers that is often overlooked and underused is that of teaming up with another small business that is complementary to your own. For example, if you run a jewellery company, you could team up with a fashion store to cross-promote each other’s stuff or if you run a healthy shake company you could team up with a gym to take advantage of each other’s existing customer bases. This is a really effective way of cheaply marketing your company to an audience who is likely to be within your target demographic and it can not only help your own business but the business of another up-and-coming entrepreneur too.

8. Becoming an Expert

If you want to attract more customers, a good way to do so is to build your authority within your niche and get your name out there as much as possible. You can do this by becoming an expert in your field.

How do you become an expert in your field? The easiest way is to start consistently blogging about issues in your niche, answering the most pressing questions your target audience may have. You can then write for magazines, guest post on other industry blogs, on the radio and podcasts, and so on until everyone knows your name and what you do. Then, they will naturally seek you out when they need the products and services that you sell as part of your main business.

As you can see, attracting customers to your small business is not as tricky as you might have thought, so what are you waiting for?