Attracting new customers has always been a challenge for small businesses. That’s because most customers already have their favorite companies they collaborate with, and trusting a new organization is difficult since there’s no solid client base that recommends it. Therefore, small businesses have to do more than regular companies to attract new customers.
However, since almost half of US employees work in small businesses, their importance is crucial for the economy because they’re adding plenty of jobs, especially in the education and business service industries. But their activities must be improved, and investments are necessary for the business to flourish and the SME sector to offer more employment opportunities. This can be done by attracting new customers and pursuing customer retention strategies.
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Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is one of the best strategies for ecommerce shops, and it’s also more effective than outbound. Inbound marketing focuses primarily on blogging, SEO optimization, social media and giveaways. Such an approach helps form and maintain meaningful relationships with your current audience, which means you can get new customers now and then through your loyalist recommendations.
If you don’t have a website, the easiest way to make inbound marketing is to use social media as much as you can and be creative. Most social platforms have special features for businesses, and they’re affordable, so if you’re just starting one, social media is the best thing you can do to build a community. Approaching newsletters is also a good strategy if you want to offer information that people might find valuable.
Some of the benefits of inbound marketing are:
- Reduced expenses that help you experience higher ROI in time;
- Higher trust and credibility by leveraging social proof;
- Quality traffic and leads;
- Opportunities to learn and evolve as a business;
Event marketing
Even marketing can help your business stand out from the crowd by approaching a more personal and face-to-face strategy. Of course, these events can take place offline or online, but they can bring people together faster and provide the brand recognition you need. This also creates new opportunities for being seen and acknowledged as a business, and it can even help you get new collaborations. Some examples of event marketing include:
- Webinars. They are usually interactive and last up to an hour, just enough for a presentation, discussion or workshop;
- Live stream events. Using platforms such as Google Meet, you can stream, record and engage with your audience;
- Trade shows. These events usually gather more people from a particular industry that show off their products and network;
- Lunches. Although having lunch or dinner with an associate is already a connected relationship, these intimate events help maintain a healthy alliance;
Paying options
Nothing’s better for a customer than having multiple payment options that allow them to get their product in a preferred way. It’s best to already provide the most known forms of cash debit cards and credit cards, but if you want to have more favorable circumstances, you could try cryptocurrency payments and even BNPL ―buy now, pay later. The last one is especially beneficial for products such as electronics or furniture, which can be quite expensive to spend the whole price at the moment. Cryptocurrencies are also pretty convenient if your target audience consists mostly of entrepreneurs and young business people who are inclined to invest in crypto.
Other popular payment options include:
- Mobile wallets that include Apple Pay or Google Pay;
- Bank transfers are especially popular in real estate;
- Autopay is mostly used for monthly subscriptions or utility payments;
Accepting multiple payment methods not only attracts a vast array of customers but also improves trust since you are considering your customers’ needs. At the same time, you also reduce card abandonment because customers usually leave their products when faced with a payment option they’re not happy with.
Affiliate marketing
This strategy is also beneficial for small businesses since it doesn’t require a lot of financial or timely investments. With affiliate marketing, you get someone to recommend your product, forming an entire affiliations network. As a reward for the recommendation, people can get incentives or bonuses. There are three types of affiliate marketing that you could try:
- Unattached, which means the marketer has no connection with the promoted product, so they will use a pay-per-click strategy;
- Related means the marketer has the expertise to generate traffic since the audience is quite associated with what the product is;
- Involved marketing means the marketer has already tried the product and is recommending it from their own experience;
Depending on the type of affiliate involved, marketers can use various strategies, such as pay-per-lead, pay-per-sale or pay-per-instal. Regardless, this strategy is cost-effective and doesn’t require any customer support.
Paid online advertising
PPC or pay-per-click advertising might be more challenging since you have to invest a few financial resources and make research based on demographics, keywords or search intent to properly assess your target audience. This is usually the solution when organic content stops producing leads. Still, it’s also a strategy that businesses approach when they change their goals and are looking for a profit increase.
Some of the essential programs to start PPC with include the following:
- Google Ads provides the marketplace you need to begin testing paid ads;
- Social media paid advertising is slowly becoming the preferred strategy since it allows you to combine social platforms and PPC to attract customers. Facebook and Instagram are the most efficient in advertising, but other platforms, such as TikTok, are also starting to get recognition;
- Podcast sponsorships are perfect if your business is approaching inbound marketing. By collaborating with podcasters who already have a strong audience base, you can advertise your brand easily and fast;
Bottom line
If you want to attract new customers to your new small business, you must be open to multiple approaches, strategies and trends. Given that not all companies are the same, you need to discover what works for you and implement new methods as you change your business.
