21 Ways To Acquire New Customers For Your Small Business

As an entrepreneur, it is important that you know how to acquire new customers for your business. Many business owners are clueless on how to go about acquiring new customers for their business.

See Also: 10 ways to increase sales and win more customers for your business

To illustrate, you want to start a business, you register the business with Corporate Affairs Commission, you rent a beautiful office space and you set everything in place. Finally, your dream of owning a business has finally come through. Yes! I know that feeling of satisfaction.

What next? How will you acquire customers for your business? How will you make money? Of course, you may have an idea of who your target audience is, but, how will you attract them? Remember that the money in the bank or investor money is running out.

See Also: Qualities a business owner should possess to succeed in business

You need not worry anymore. This article comprises 21 ways to acquire new customers for your small business. Surely, this is going to be an eye-opener for you. Stay glued.

Watch the full video of the different ways to get more customers of your business here. Also, subscribe to our channel to get more business ideas and insights.

21 Ways To Acquire New Customers For Your Business

1. Identify Your Target Audience

The first step to acquiring new customers for your small business is to identify the audience you want to attract. As much as you are in dire need of customers, keep in mind that not everybody is your target audience. When you understand this, you will be able to channel your energy in the right direction.

Business is about solving problems. Hence, knowing your target audience will help you identify their problem and see things from their perspective.

See Also: Customer is key. Yes, but do you know your customer?

2. Present Your Business As The Solution

Show your target audience their problems. Then, present your product/service as the solution they need to solve that problem.

How do you do that? After identifying your target audience and the problem they have, you have to find a way to magnify the problem. Educate them on the impact of the problem and how your product or service will help relieve their pain.

It’s that simple. This is a very important step in acquiring new customers and should be taken seriously.

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3. Offer Quality Product/Service

A good product will require little effort to sell. Some customers only go for quality products regardless of price. Quality products contributes greatly to your long-term revenue and profitability.

In addition, it gives you the opportunity to charge higher prices. So, set yourself apart from your competitors by offering durable and valuable products. Also, when you have a quality product or offer value, you will have the confidence to sell to any calibre of person.

See Also: 100 Profitable business ideas to start now for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors.

4. Offer Freebies / Promo Price

When you offer freebies to your existing customers, it encourages them to try out other complementary products or service you offer. Also, it helps you improve on your customer relationship.

Equally, offering freebies to prospective customers encourages them to patronise you if they are satisfied with the product.

Everyone loves freebies, so offering freebies will create awareness for your business. Friends will tell their friends and love ones about the product if they love it.

The same goes for promo pricing. It is an age long marketing and sales strategy. It will help you retain customers and attract new ones.

See Also: How to develop growth strategies for your business

5 Profiling On Entrepreneurs.ng

Profiling your business on Entrepreneurs.ng puts you on the world map and gives you global exposure.

Imagine having your business seen by prospective clients from all over the world. You get the following when you profile on Entrepreneurs.ng:

1. You appear on first page of Google when searched.
2. Your business information not just social media handles is put on the world map and can easily be seen when searched.
3. Brand awareness for you as a person and as a business.
4. Brand visibility that generates leads.
5. Leads that you can convert to revenue.
6. Graphic designs of your quotes that you can post to show yourself as an authority in your industry.

The profiles of famous entrepreneurs we have profiled on Entrepreneurs.ng will inspire you to give your business the needed exposure. Nothing, absolutely nothing should stop you from joining the league of enterprising entrepreneurs.

See Also: 10 Ways to increase sales and win more customers for your business.

6. Explore Social Media

There are billions of people on social media every minute. Features on these social media platforms keeps evolving everyday. You pick the platforms with features that support business activities and have your target audience and maximize it to your advantage. Also, you can run sponsored ads on facebook, instagram, twitter and so on.

On social media, you have access to real customer insights from your posts. These insights will inform how you develop your content such that it will attracts your target audience. Meanwhile, when you are using social media to grow your customer base, ensure you maintain a consistent presence. By doing so, you will encourage repeat sales and get across to more customers.

See Also: How to optimise your customer experience using social media

7. Partnership

Another way to acquire new customers for your small business is to partner with other business. Collaboration is now the new competition.

If you notice that a particular business is serving your target audience and you have complimentary services that can serve the same audience, you can reach out to them and discuss partnership options.

Interestingly, this approach produce fast result because you are leveraging the trust people already have on the companies you are partnering with.

8. Branding

Branding is the way people perceive your business. When you brand right, you will improve your company’s reputation and cut off unnecessary extras.

For instance, if you think toothpaste, you will probably think ‘close up’. Unilever got it right with the branding of Close-up. As your business grow, you will have add-on services and products. You should be able to brand each product and your company right.

Branding extends to the way you communicate as a company, your packaging, your company’s logo, your colours and the type of social activities you are involved with. Let your brand make a statement.

See Also: Using branding to commoditise a product/service

9. Word Of Mouth Marketing

Even though this may sound old fashioned, it is still one of the trusted ways to acquire new customers for your business. The result may not be as fast as going the paid ad route, but people will rather buy based on recommendation from someone they trust than from a random advertisement.

How does word of mouth helps you acquire new customer? Sell a good product that delivers what it promises to a customer. The buyer will share his/her experience with friends and family. Moreover, word of mouth
marketing gives you more loyal and repeat customers because they were acquired organically.

10. Contest Marketing

Yes! contest marketing works. And, here is why:

• Social media is crowded with advert from several brands
• Customers have options to pick from.
• Most times your ad will not deliver the desired result
• Most people don’t really want to be sold to.

Therefore, you need to do things differently to get that needed attention and have your customers eyes fixed on you.

On another note, people love to win. Sometimes, not because of the prize but because of the feeling and satisfaction of just winning. A contestant will go extra mile to tell people about it so he/she can be voted for. This will in turn make them research about you and if they love your product / service, they can patronise you in the process.

To do this, you can develop a selection criteria for your contest and ensure you have the capacity to give out the slated prize. You don’t want to be involve in an activity that will hurt your revenue. So, do your math and be sure that the contest will deliver value to your business. No business owner want to just waste money.

See Also: 10 practical ways to reduce business expenses and increase your revenue.

11. Explore Influencer Marketing

An influencer is anyone that has the ability to encourage people to make a decision. An influencer can be a YouTuber, blogger, social media guru, industry professionals and the likes. Usually, these people have
been able to build an audience or followership by talking about specific topics. Their chosen topics or sphere determines the kind of audience they attract.

So, you can get an influencer to be an ambassador for your brand. You can either pay the influencer or exchange value with them. Whichever works for you. But, ensure the influencer you choose attends to your target audience.

See Also: 10 practical tips on how to sell anything online and make profit.

12. Share Flyers / Brochures

Practically, if a flyer or brochure is beautifully designed and distributed properly, it can attract new customers to your business. You can design the flyer yourself or get a graphic designer to do it for you.

In addition, use a thick paper for your flyer or brochure. Doing that will limit the chances of your flyer being thrown away. Also, communicate your value offering clearly in the flyer with simple English. Go straight to the point in a way that a layman will comprehend.

For distribution, there are companies that deals solely on the distribution of printed materials. You can contract the distribution of your flyers to them or do it yourself.

See Also: Top 12 digital marketing agencies for small businesses in Nigeria.

13. Use The Referral Program Tactic

Referral program is a way of acquiring new customers through existing customers. People tend to do things when there is something in it for them

Most people need to know what’s in it for them before going the extra mile for you or your business. So, you can leverage this by offering a bonus or commission for any successful referral from them.

It’s a simple tactic: Refer your friend to buy from us and we’ll give you something in exchange. The bonus can be: free use of your service, commission, cash or material prizes as you deem fit.

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14. Create A Website

It’s 21st century so, your business needs a website. Usually the first place people search for you when they hear about you is on Google. What are the results that come up. Are they lead to your website?

A website will help you acquire new customers and customers see a brand that has a website as credible and trustworthy. So, creating a website will not only help acquire customers, it will also help you retain them.

That said, your website should have a good user experience, make it attractive and always keep it updated. Another important thing to do is to implement a good SEO (Search Engine Optimization). When your website
is well optimised, you appear on the first page of google when searched for.

Usually, most people don’t go beyond the first page of google when searching for something online. And, when you consider the amount of content that goes online daily, you know you need to continuously put in the work to appear on the first page of Google.

See Also: How small businesses can leverage technology for their business

15. Cold Call

Cold calling is a very good approach to acquire new customers. Usually, when you cold call, you either want to book an appointment for a longer conversation or close the deal on the phone once and for all. However, cold
calling requires good selling skills before you can close that deal.

You will get a ‘NO’ most times if all you do is call prospective clients out of the blues and start telling them about your company. Really, what’s their business with what you do?

The best approach to follow is to research the company or person you want to call, get their name and details. Do they need your product or service? Then, come up with how your product/service will benefit them. What will it do for them; will it save them money or relieve any pain for them? That is what you will be selling.

When you call, ask if ‘now’ is a good time to talk. If you get a go ahead, then introduce yourself, and point out the challenges you observed in their business and how your product/service will help them.

See Also: Is good customer service a favour or due. How should you approach your customer service?_

16. Get Listed On Online Business Directories

Online business directories is a low-cost way of attracting new customers to your website. With online business directories, you will reach audiences who are browsing through that directory. Moreover, listing on business directories will help improve your SEO rankings.

Nevertheless, it is advisable you go for a directory that enable customers to post the reviews of your business or that allow simple rating systems.

See Also: 15 Free business directories and business listing websites in Nigeria.

17. Improve Your Customer Engagement

There are many ways to reach customers these days especially, with the advent of social media. But, acquiring these customers have a lot to do with your ability to engage them. Do you answer when they make enquiries. Not just answering, do you answer on time? Remember, a happy customer will become an evangelist for your business.

Another way to improve your customer engagement is by providing real time benefits to them and sharing knowledge about your industry with them. Customer engagement can be physical and can be online as well.

See Also: 4 Sure ways to increase sales and win more customers

18. Choose A Location

When your service or product is known to concentrate in a particular location, it is best you locate your businesses in that vicinity. For instance, if you live in Lagos, Nigeria and you need a printing job done, the first two places that comes to mind is Mushin and Somolu.

So, choosing a location that revolves around your type of business will help in cutting down your advertising cost. Also, it will help you acquire new customer for your business. It could be expensive to find the right location for location bound businesses but it is always worth it in the end.

In addition to that, your location has to be accessible such that customers are not thinking twice when they think of patronising you.

See Also: How to build a brand and not just a business

19. E-mail Marketing Campaign

You can use email marketing to acquire new customers for your business. Actually, email marketing works because business minded people check their mails regularly. Your emails should not just be about sales, sometimes, you can send opportunities that are relevant to your audience.

Always craft your message well and resist the temptation to generalise your mail. Of course, you may be sending to a list but, always personalise your message. And, ensure its relevant to your audience.

20. TV, Radio, Newspaper And Magazine Advert

One of the oldest means to acquire new customers is by advertising on TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. Business owners actually think this approach is expensive and old fashioned. But this is not the case.

Advertising on local stations can be quite affordable depending on the station. According to the Television Bureau, TV reaches nearly 90 percent of adults daily. And TV commercials influence consumer buying decisions more when compared to other advertising channels.

Newspapers and magazines still have their audience and it will be unwise to rule them out.

See Also: Top 12 Digital Marketing Agencies for small businesses in Nigeria

21. Follow Up Regularly

The end goal of acquiring new customers is to make sales and generate profit. The truth is, you may follow all the 20 listed steps and the customers will not make up their mind to buy immediately.

Without closing a deal and making a sale, there is no point acquiring the customer in the first place. This is where following up comes in. Follow up with the clients you have established a conversation with until you convert them. In fact, follow up can help you convert someone who initially was not interested in your product or service.

In conclusion, we are in business to make sales and become profitable as a business. We have outlined all the steps you need to acquire new customers for your business. Get to work immediately and go get those clients.

Sales is the life blood of any businesses and without paying customers, you won’t be in business for you.

So, keep building!

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