One of the hardest tasks for a new home business owner is getting those first few clients or customers. The challenge is compounded by the fact that many new home-based entrepreneurs aren’t savvy marketers and the idea of “sales” scares them. In fact, even seasoned home business owners sometimes struggle with having enough clients or customers.
While generating business clients and customers takes time, you can speed up the process by learning how to prospect, and how to guide those would-be customers and clients toward a sale.
And since many potential customers or clients won’t buy on their first contact with you, you also need to develop a plan for staying in touch until they are ready to buy. This post from luminablog.co.uk will show you exactly how to do that.
Survey Customers
You won’t be able to connect effectively with your potential customers if you don’t have a customer in mind. Survey current customers, as well as members of your target market, to find out how you can better present your product or service, or what aspects might be missing from what you’re currently offering.
You can create video surveys as an effective form of surveys. If you’re in the UK, we suggest first looking through a few online video marketing services in the UK to know which one can help you create the right video and market it properly.
Research Your Competitors and Find Out Who Their Customers Are
An easy way to find out which kind of marketing campaign works and which don’t is by researching competitors in your industry.
Not only will this inexpensive effort give you some ideas to follow for your own campaigns, this research will also reveal dark spots in your competitor’s process and present new directions for you to take your own marketing strategy.
After all, just by going into business in the same industry, you’ll be going after some of your competitor’s target market — you might as well use their example to make your service and product better for their customers.
Target Ads
Far cheaper than most methods of advertising, Facebook and Google targeted ads prove that a little can go a long way.
While most advertising in the real world only reaches whoever comes across a billboard, bus stop or commercial, these targeted ads can locate the people who are most likely to need your service based on geographical location, demographics (including age, gender, education and relationship status), interests (based on what they’ve shared or “liked”) and browsing activity.
By investing in targeted ads and paying through their Pay Per Click or Pay Per Impression method, companies can see a significant bump in their user engagement, conversion and sales.
Smart Social Media
There’s having a presence on social media, and then there’s having a social media presence. When it comes to keeping customers, a little more effort on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram really go the distance.
Far too many businesses use their accounts to simply promote their own company, while smart social media managers strategize relevant posts, link to cool articles, answer customer questions as soon as they’re asked, and otherwise give online surfers the impression that there’s actually a human who cares.
Follow-Up
The fortune is in the follow-up. You’re going to hear “no” a lot. For some people, that “no” is firm. But for others, the “no” is only “no” for now. Many business owners hear “no” and give up. But 80{182290f621cc7e4c122d447100b175f49bc37950773329164239a1a784c5277b} of sales are not made on the first, second, or even a third contact! It can take five or more contacts to achieve a sale.
Finding customers and clients requires a thick skin and a strong belief in what you’re selling. Just because someone tells you “no” today doesn’t mean it will be a “no” tomorrow. The trick is to have a non-annoying system of follow-up such as an email list, or agreement to call again in six months.