For any business, large or small, there is always the drive to have a larger and more loyal customer base. Regardless of your industry or market, whether you’re a dentist with a private practice or a retail business in the apparel field, you will always find more commercial success if you have a larger group of people working with you and taking advantage of your product or service.
But for many businesses, especially ones who have been around for a few years, it can be hard to know what you can do to reignite your company’s drive for growing your customer base. After the initial excitement of starting your business has worn off, are there still tactics you can successfully use to continue reaching out to larger and more diverse customer bases? To help on this front, here are three tips you can use this year to help grow your customer base beyond your current standings.
Build a Relationship, Don’t Just Get a Sale
To acquire a more loyal customer following, it’s now vital for businesses to really bring a company culture along with them. Consumers want to have a relationship with companies and brands now more than ever, making it necessary for you to focus your efforts more on creating meaningful relations with your customers rather than just looking to get a sale. A great strategy for accomplishing this in 2016, according to Melinda Emerson, a contributor to the Huffington Post, is to try to build up your presence on a new social media platform this year. By doing this, you will help create relationships with new customers that you haven’t yet reached out to.
Give First-Time Customers Extra Attention
When talking about a customer base, this often means the people who do rather frequent business with you or are return customers. While making one sale will help your bottom line, having a strong customer base that has worked with you multiple times will make your company even more successful. One tactic you can use to turn single-time customers into returning customers, according to Francesca Di Meglio of Business2Community.com, is to give those first-time customers extra attention at the beginning of your business relationship. This could include sending out more thank you emails or having a more focused communication strategy in place for those who have only recently been touched by your brand.
Offer Referral Rewards
Leveraging your current customers is another amazing way to continually grow your overall customer base. Christina Desmarais, a contributor to Inc.com, shares that by offering some kind of reward to current customers who refer their friends or family, you’ll be getting new customers while simultaneously making your current customers happier to do business with you. Killing these two birds with one stone can work wonders for ramping up your loyal customer base.
If your company is ready to breathe some new life into your customer acquisition this year, consider using some of the tips mentioned above to help grow your customer base and build a stronger, more loyal following.
Originally posted on January 8, 2016 @ 3:24 pm
