What is the best way to get new customers?
That's the question that I'm asked most often. And for most businesses, it's the first question that comes to mind when they hear marketing or sales. So what is your best way to get more customers?
The straight answer is to use as many ways as you can. And there are lots of ways. But before you decide on which tactic or method, you should start to think through your strategy first.
Strategy... that sounds serious??
It isn't as scary as it sounds. Creating a strategy simply gets you to define who your target customer is, what message and offer you'd make that would be of interest to them and how you're going to get that message seen by your target customer.
Only when you've decided who you want to attract to your business, can you decide on the message that will best attract them. You want to attract as many of the right customers, but try not to attract the time wasters or 'tyre kickers'.
After that, it's a question of media. Will you use offline newspaper ads, leaflets, word-of-mouth? Or is online better with Google Adwords,Facebook Ads, or organic search (getting your website found in search). These are only a few examples, there's a much bigger list to choose from. But some methods will be better than others for you. You need to think through the "Who" and the "What" before you select the "How's".
Many of us are guilty of hopping around from one marketing method (tactic) to another. Always chasing the lowest cost way or the latest fad. So many times I've been told that "Google Adwords doesn't work" or "I tried Facebook ads and I didn't get anything".... That's because we can all be guilty of "throwing something together" without thinking through the whole process of getting an enquiry. It take more than just trying a few words on an advert and entering your credit card number.
Same applies to newspaper adverts. I'd hazard a guess that 90% of the people placing newspaper adverts don't get a return on them. With good reason. You can't attract a customer by putting your name, logo and a phone number in the paper and expect customers to fall from the sky. You have to give them a reason.
Lots of people who try Adwords fail to get enough business to cover the cost of their ads. They try it because it looks easy (which is kinda true but in Google's favour), they've been told that there is loads of business to be had on the internet (which is very true) but they don't generate much or any business from it.
Why your adverts don't work
Here's a few reasons why Adwords are not working for you: Poor or no geographic targeting; poor choice of search keywords; not using negative keywords; pointing your ad at a generic home page on your site; no dedicated landing page; poor copy on the landing page; no data capture; failing to use analytics; not tagging visitors; failing to make use of re-marketing... and there are many more reasons but these are the main.
There's no way that the average or even better than average business owner can do all of the above. Those that do, get all the best enquiries and leads. And with a good follow-up process, you'd suck up more business than you could manage.
So back to the original question.. what's the best way to get new customers? In my opinion, and I've tested this thoroughly over the past 15 plus years, the best way to get new customers is using online marketing. That goes for just about any business too. There are a few exceptions, but not many.
If you'd like more information or just to have a chat about what is the best way to get new customers for your business, you can email me directly at Adrian@Leading-Results.com or click here to fill out the contact form and book a free consultation to talk about your business