Member Article

Top Ten Customer Acquisition Tips

Acquiring new customers is essential for any business to succeed. Bearing this in mind Newcastle Marketing Agency Urban River offers 10 handy customer acquisition tips to help you reach your customer acquisition goals

1. Know who you are targeting

You need to identify where your potential customers are and decide how you will reach or market to them. A quality over quantity approach often works best. Focusing on targeting and segmentation, researching clients and tailoring you messages and offers to individuals or clusters of customers can work well and help to increase response rates.

2. Seek referrals

A great way to find new clients is by asking your existing clients, who can already vouch for your company, whether they have any business contacts who would be interested in your offerings. It’s better (and easier) to approach a potential new customer who you have some sort of connection with. They are likely to be much more open to a new business opportunity from a company that they know a colleague is already working with. Don’t forget to thank and/or reward your clients for giving you a lead.

3. Testimonials

Following on from tip number 3, if you have done a fantastic job for a client or sold someone a product they’re really pleased with make sure you get a testimonial from them. Positive testimonials from satisfied customers really help to sell your company and can be the persuading factor over whether someone chooses to put business your way or not. Remember to use testimonials on your promotional materials and on your website. You should also encourage current clients to Tweet about you or mention you on Facebook so that their followers will be exposed to the updates – be sure to return the favour.

4. It’s all about people

How you present yourself and your company plays a massive part in customer acquisition. You never know where your next customer is going to come from; it could be at an event, exhibition or even in the street! You can sometimes find customers at the places you would least expect to so think about how you would like to be perceived and make sure you and your staff always display a positive image and come across well at all times.

5. Get straight to the point

People are busy and don’t have the time to read what you are sending or listen to what you are saying so you need to get straight to the point! Prepare sharp phrases and practice them and write concise messages that highlight key benefits of whatever you are offering. If you get to the point quickly, it will show that you’re focused on your proposition.

6. Stop talking start listening

After making an initial proposition to a potential client take a step back and let them take the lead. Allow then to verbalise their needs, really listen to what they say and then give them time to think. Look for clues about what is important to them and then use these pointers to help steer your reply.

7. Make notes

Make notes about potential clients you speak to and use the notes the next time you make contact. Your target client may realise you’ve taken notes from a conversation weeks or months previous but it shows that you have taken an interest them and that you would be attentive if they decide to do business with you. It’s also advisable to research current market situations that may affect your business or your prospects and make notes on this too.

8. Create content

Creating and sharing valuable content is a great way to win customers and make sales. You’re an expert in your field so use your knowledge to write emails, articles, blogs and e-books based on things you think your customers want to know and what they would find useful. This takes the focus away from “selling” and puts onto delivering beneficial information to build trust, engagement and loyalty.

9. Use persuasive power words.

Try to think like a tabloid by adopting a less is more method. Summarise your message, use persuasive words and don’t bombard. Powerful words can persuade and inspire people to take action. Research carried out has shown that words like free, new, you and instantly encourage customers to buy and help to form a persuasive pitch.

10. Review

It’s essential to monitor and review your customer acquisitions efforts regularly. Take a moment now to think about what techniques are working and which ones are not. Stick with the ones that are successful and tweak and improve any that aren’t. Keep a record of how you acquired any new clients as this will help to identify the avenues that are best for you.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Urban River .