For any business in the 21st century, customer acquisition is of the utmost importance. So much so that it is usually the first phase of any sales funnel. Without it, conversions and sales cannot happen, and the business dies. So while it is important to focus on conversions, you should never take your eyes off leads.
In that light, here are some creative ways to expand your reach and gain more customers.
Influencers And Trends
Trends have never been known to last—that’s why they’re trends. But they can be used to acquire lasting customers.
A trend is characterized by a rapid increase in the popularity of a particular topic or product—the object of that trend. This popularity holds for a short period and then declines. The period when the popularity is high and holding steady is when you should act. It’s even better if you can predict a trend because you can prepare for it. But if not, you should always be on the lookout.
A trend doesn’t necessarily have to be centered around your product before you can ride its waves. You can combine influencer marketing with trends for maximum effect. Influencer marketing is making use of popular people. Influencers are usually on top of trends and trend related news, and some are able to start trends.
Promotions And Pop-Up Shops
Never underestimate a man’s love for all things free. The only thing people love more than great products and services are those same products and services given freely. Now, you don’t have to give out your products, but you should give something useful.
Businesses that give potential customers gifts in the form of ebooks, subscriptions and a slew of others usually see that potential customers stick around for longer because they feel they are getting something of value.
Also along the lines of promotion are fairs and pop-up shops. Pop-up shops are a great way to introduce your business to new customers and test new markets without the risk of going all in. At your pop-up shop, you can make customizable items and brand ‘swag’. These are usually inexpensive and can easily be done by companies like Mines Press.
Email Newsletters And Retargeting
Email marketing is still the most effective way to reach clients among other forms of online marketing. And it can be used alongside promotions when reaching new customers.
Usually when businesses run promotions and give out free stuff—especially online—they do it in exchange for something, usually email addresses. Ordinarily, people are reluctant to give out their email addresses, but by offering them a gift you gain a bit of their trust.
Once you have their email address you can reach out to them. Be careful not to sound ‘salesy’ as this is a turnoff. Instead, you can inform them about your new products or better yet carry out retargeting email campaigns.
Email retargeting enables you to interact with customers based on their browsing behavior on your website. This means that the email you send them is tailored to products they searched for or pages they visited on your site. This enables you to provide a more personalized service, identify customer pain points faster and onboard new customers seamlessly; all of which are recipes for winning over new customers.
Cold Calling Vs. Outbound Calling
The first thing to know about this is that people are no longer as open to cold calling as they once were. More and more businesses refuse to take calls from people who are not already contacts, asides the case of customer care.
Cold calling is like trying to shoot an arrow at a target blindfolded, without bothering to check where the target was before wearing the blindfold. Your best bet is to shoot as many arrows as possible in all directions. No prospecting, no data, nothing, just calling endlessly. Outbound calls, on the other hand, are like cold calls but based on data. There’s a method to it that if done correctly, yields results. And there are tools to help, like predictive dialers and other AI-powered tools only available on leading call center software like the one offered by Bright Pattern.
