Finding more Business
Three Ways You can Grow Your Customer Base
Need more customers? Most small businesses do, but they don’t have a plan for making it happen. Here are three ways you can grow your customer base.
-
Study and develop your website
Today, your website is the display window of your shop. It needs to clearly communicate what makes you special to your customers. How do you know if your site is working? Do a Google search and find out where your name is found in comparison to other shops. If your shop name appears below the third one listed, you need to develop a plan to make your site more searchable. A variety of factors influence these local search results, including site content, your browsing location, and site structure & security. Take advantage of targeted local searches!
It’s also important to study your site analytics & statistics to see if visits are increasing and what kind of content is most popular. The key is to stop publishing content which causes viewers to “bounce away” from your site and start building more content that they want. Here is a tip: popular content almost always focuses on the customer – not your business. If you need some ideas for customer-focused content, read my article to learn more.
-
Find out where your best customers live and reach out to those neighborhoods
Run a point-of-sale report for the customers who spend the most with you. Then get a local map and record the addresses of these customers. Chances are good that you will find common areas where your best customers live. Chances are also good that others who live in that area share the same lifestyle and demographics. Create 6 postcards featuring the things your customers love most about you and send them to the routes that cover your new target customers. Send one card per month for six months in a row and then record how many times you make a sale. The expense will be low because you will be sending out less than 500 post cards each time using the post office bulk rate mailing program called EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail).
-
Develop more services
- Create an in-house consultation service where you provide ideas for art and framing at a client’s place of residence or office.
- Develop a delivery service so that you can pick up or bring finished pieces to your clients.
- Add an installation service for large pieces and multiple frame orders.
These services get your company into the homes of your customers and open the door for more framing opportunities and better relationships.
Come see me speak in Ohio, Pennsylvania & New York
I will be conducting seminars on how to better understand the needs of your customers. Learn how the human brain makes buying decisions and how you can relate to people with different personalities. These skills will help you and your team improve your ability to really understand what every customer wants. I hope to see you there!
