Gaining new customers is hard for all businesses. It's something you must continuously look to do, or else your company simply won't grow. At the same time, you need to establish some customer loyalty. Out of the new customers you receive, a percentage of them need to become loyal customers that keep returning. If you constantly earn loyalty from new customers, your business will grow as your customer base gets larger and larger. Below, you'll see some very simple strategies that can help you gain new customers, alongside some equally easy ideas on how to earn their loyalty.
By Team Savant
Image: Toa Heftiba
A lot of businesses struggle when they only manage to do one of these two things. They keep getting new customers, but they only provide one-time purchases. It's like you're trying to run a bath, but there's no plug, so the water just keeps on passing through. Yes, your business is making money, but you pretty much have to keep generating the same number of customers to match your sales figures each month — that's a lot to ask!
On the other hand, businesses can be really good at getting loyal customers, but they struggle to find any new ones. You see this with service-based businesses that might only have a dozen clients on their books. It's great because you get the repeat business and are earning money all the time. However, from a growth perspective, where can you go? You have the same people spending money all the time, and nothing new coming in. You need an influx of new customers and clients to help you earn more revenue.
Taking all of this onboard, how do you get the best of both worlds?
How To Gain New Customers
We'll start with a section that's devoted to bringing new eyes to your business, here are some strategies that have worked for many years and will continue to help you find new customers:
New Customer Incentives
It's the oldest trick in the book, and one that kind of infuriates your loyal customers. Businesses often offer new customer discounts to people that haven't shopped with them before. This means exclusive deals are available, enticing in some new people. It's such a simple way of getting people's attention, but don't forget to reward your loyal customers as well. We'll talk more about that when we get to the customer loyalty section!
Targeted Online Ads
Advertising is always a great way to find new consumers that could be turned into customers. However, online advertising has taken things to new levels. Here, you have a platform that's unlike any other advertising method around. Online ads let you target your specific audience based on their browsing history, interests, demographics, shopping choices, and so on. Thus, if you sell a particular product, you can show adverts for that product to people that have been looking for it — or something similar — online. The beauty of online ads is that it only takes one click for someone to end up on your site and within touching distance of becoming a customer.
Generate Reviews For Your Business
Getting people to review your business really helps you lure in new customers. Think about yourself for a second, what do you look for when choosing where to shop or which business to use? You want a company you can trust to provide the best product or service that you're looking for. As such, you depend on this trust to be conveyed to you through previous customers and fellow consumers. From a business owner's perspective, you can gain lots of new customers if you have plenty of positive reviews that show how great you are as a company. Try to get feedback and reviews from every customer you've ever had — follow-up emails are an easy way to do this, and you can sprinkle in some incentives as well, like a discount after they write a review.
Set Up A Referral Program
What is a referral program? Effectively, it's a program where you ask customers to refer you to people they know, rewarding the customer for each referral. Ironically, this is a great way to inspire customer loyalty as well as generate new customers. From the new customer perspective, the idea is that your current customers advertise your business for you and go out to actively bring people to you. You can reward them with referral points that can be cashed in as money, or you can give them money off their next purchase if they meet certain referral targets. Either way, new customers will find their way to you!
Create a strong SEO strategy
We mentioned your website when talking about online ads, but it's important for many reasons when finding customers. Your site is the online face of your business, and it is where people need to go to make purchases or inquiries. So, the emphasis should be on getting as much traffic to your website as possible. The best way to do this is via a strong SEO strategy. It will help you become more visible in search engines, delivering traffic to your website. Not only that, but the nature of a good SEO strategy is that it delivers targeted traffic — so, traffic that is actively interested in what you have to offer. Put another way, it brings your target market straight to you.
How To Earn Customer Loyalty
You've seen how to drive many new people to your business, but how do you keep as many of them here as possible? Firstly, get into the mindset that you will never retain every single customer you generate. It's impossible, but you should focus on keeping as many as you can. Here's what you can do:
Invent A Customer Loyalty Program
Again, an age-old trick that works to perfection. Here, you create a program that rewards people the more they stick around. A basic example would be people earning points for every dollar they spent. The points can eventually be used to earn coupons or discounts that help them save money on future purchases. To get a larger discount, they need to keep shopping and to spend more money. Or, your customer loyalty program could have perks that are unlocked after a certain amount of money has been spent. After spending $100 on your company, the customer now unlocks free next-day delivery forever. Another $100 could give them a 5% discount on all purchases, and so on. The idea is you have a system that encourages and rewards repeat purchases.
Implement Loyal Customer Offers And Discounts
We touched upon this when talking about new customer offers, and you need to have some for the loyal ones out there. Every now and then, send out an email or a text to current customers with a discount code or special offer. It's something they can only access if they have previously bought something from you, so none of the non-customers out there can take advantage of it. The discounts encourage people to return to your business and make more purchases, earning loyalty.
Establish A Brand Image People Can Relate To
One of the biggest ways to increase the likelihood of loyalty is by having a brand that people can relate to. A lot of consumers will exclusively shop with a certain brand because it holds values that they deem important. There are so many brand archetypes out there that your business can fall into, so be sure you select one that reflects your own views and thoughts. From here, you have a brand that appeals to a target demographic and is relatable. When people connect with a brand, they are more likely to be loyal customers as they agree with the messages you put out.
Create A Referral Program
We said that this featured in both sections, so let's see it from the loyalty perspective. The idea of the referral program is what inspires loyalty. People will stick around because they know that they can possibly make some money or get more discounts if they keep referring people to your business.
Keep Your Customers Engaged
The best businesses will know their customers inside and out. This doesn't mean knowing them on a personal level, but more in terms of their interests, dislikes, challenges, and so on. As a result, the best businesses know how to keep their customers engaged with content that targets all of their main interests, etc. This is crucial if you want people to stick around and continue interacting with your business. If they are engaged, they will be with you for the long run.
On that note, you have come to the end of this guide. There are two sections here, one of which that tells you how to get new customers, and the other that explains how to retain them. By combining your efforts and focusing on driving new people to your business while making the new customer loyal, your company will start earning more money and growing bigger than ever before.