Every business needs new customers. Print and pay per click ads can be expensive and offer mediocre results. How can a small business get new customers fairly quickly and inexpensively?
In this article, I outline 9 tips to find new customers using social media and email techniques.
How to Find New Customers with Social Media
Referral Traffic
Invites from current page fans can dramatically boost social media referrals. People who have already liked your page are likely to refer relatives and friends who will become your customers. The key here is to give your current fans something valuable, an article or download, that they want to share with their friends.
LinkedIn Discussion Groups
LinkedIn is my preferred social media network. I get frequent inquiries about my services, and most importantly I get new customers from LinkedIn.
LinkedIn groups are gold. Use the search field to find groups in your industry or your target audience. If you don’t find a group, then create one for your industry. Invite your connections to the group, and LinkedIn users can request to be in the group.
Prove that you’re an asset to the group by answering questions and solving problems. The group members will come to see you as a subject matter expert and come to you when they’re ready to pay for help.
Showcase Your Customers
Showcase one of your customers on social media every week, and watch the fan numbers skyrocket. This is a great way to gain your customer’s loyalty.
Use a Landing Page
Landing pages help generate website traffic, as well as find new customers. Create a catchy, interesting sentence to grab attention and the reader’s interest will entice them to click on your link. I often link to landing pages for my webinars to get more email registrations.
Include Call to Actions
Call to actions are another important piece of the new customer puzzle. I use call to actions on my YouTube videos and at the end of my content. The call to action will attract people to your website where they can download a product, sign up to learn more about your business offers, or become familiar with your services.
How to Find New Customers Using Email
Start Local
Sounds basic, but I can’t tell you how many restaurants and small businesses don’t do this. If you have a brick and mortar, ask customers to sign up for your email list. MailChimp has a great app made just for this purpose. MailChimp Subscribe can be used online and offline.
Website Invitation
When potential customers visit my site, a pop-up window appears with a subscription form. (I know this is super annoying, but my form only pops up when the reader is about to exit my website. Still annoying, but amazingly effective.)
My monthly newsletter provides tips and other beneficial advice about WordPress and MailChimp. Your newsletter should provide beneficial information to the reader about your services, products, or anything else your business offers. You can lose subscribers at any time, so you have to keep them engaged at all times.
Be Consistent
One of the best things you can do for your customers and your business is to remain consistent. Being consistent shows that you take your brand serious, as well as care about your customer’s challenges. Customers that trust you will become loyal customers. Your logo and slogan should stay the same to avoid confusion.
Be Concise
Avoid creating long emails. People don’t have the time to read long emails from a business. If you include your blog posts, add in an image and the first paragraph and link back to the article on your site. I keep it as short and simple as possible. They want the information they need immediately.
I add pictures to my newsletters and blog posts to avoid a wall of text. It’s hard enough to read on a computer or device, so a wall of text will turn them off and they’ll close or even worse delete the email.
Customers enjoy visual images whether an infographic, photos, or animated drawings. I sometimes include videos to provide helpful information that’s easily and quickly accessible.
Using social media and email to find new customers can be a challenging task if you don’t have a strategy. Hopefully, these 9 tips will get your creative juices flowing and help your business climb the success ladder and get your brand recognized.
What ways have you used to get more customers with email and social media? What’s been successful for you? Please share below in the comments.
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