9 Fastest and Most Creative Ways to Find New Customers

As a business owner, you're no doubt aware that your client base is the lifeblood of your company. A steady stream of new customers allows you to grow your business and fulfill your company vision.

You’re eager to expand and grow your business. But, growing your customer base is much easier said than done. Attracting new customers is actually a simple and relatively inexpensive process that will deliver solid results if you follow a few basic rules:

1. Define your target audience.

Create a detailed profile of your target customers. The more segments you can identify, the more potential hosts you can approach. For example, determined that their likely customers drove certain types of cars, patronized a certain class of hair salon, belonged to a health club.

Narrow down the focus of your ideal client and avoid making broad target market statements, such as every woman, every man or all baby boomers. Few products appeal to that vast of a group of people, and overstating your market will prevent you from developing viable targeted strategies for attracting clients.

2. Leverage your existing network

Your existing network may be the best place to reach out to, as their good word of mouth will help grow your customer base.

“I’d recommend that the business develop a core group of customers that can make referrals; referrals are strong leads,” says Tim Shoemaker, who heads up Channel Sales here at Palo Alto Software. “I’d recommend that they network as much as possible within their target market. For example, if they’re a bike shop, then they should try to join as many cycling related groups as possible.”

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3. Know Your Business

Thoroughly understanding your industry and having a firm knowledge of your product or service is critical to being able to attract interested clients.

When you know your product backward and forward, that fact comes through. The people who would be interested in your offerings can see how knowledgeable you are and will seek your assistance.

4. Building a “relationship map”

Tamara Nell of The Leading Niche recommends building a “relationship map,” which will match your strongest relationships with the areas where there is the greatest need for your product or service. This map will help point you in the direction of who you need to reach out to, in order to tap into potential customer bases.

“When I first started my company, I created [a relationship map] and found a partner who had the introduction to the client but not the resources to do the work,” she says. “We partnered, and The Leading Niche was founded. To this day, I continuously update my relationship map, which leads to new opportunities.”

5. Position Yourself as the Answer

Give potential clients you come into contact with a good reason to try your services, which is your first step to making them loyal customers, Provide value and establish yourself as having an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the problems they are looking to solve.

This takes the form of creating content via webinars, blog posts, guest blogging, and getting out there and physically networking with people. From all this you will start to attract a following, and as long as you have a structured sales funnel setup, you will be able to convert the followers/fans into paying customers.

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6. Continue expanding your network

While relying on your existing network to expand your customer base is great, you may eventually wind up out of new leads. When you find yourself in this situation, you may need to look to expanding your network.

You can have a great idea and a great business structure, but if you do not have contacts that might be interested in helping you, it’s impossible to succeed, Attend networking events, join organizations, form partnerships, and watch your network grow..

7. Identify local businesses in the same business as you

That way, you can not only bring people in the door for your initial offer, but also increase the likelihood that they'll return to give you repeat business.

 

8. Offering free trials to new customers

Another practical tactic to acquiring new customers? Offer them a free trial of your product. Free trials are a great way to market, since they attract new customers, good reviews and testimonials,  They also allow you to get more feedback on new products and then make improvements where needed.”

By offering free trials, you can show them the value of what you have to offer and convert them into paying returning customers. Offer great service, and you’ll likely be able to convert them into loyal customers.

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9. By Building Partnerships

Teaming up with businesses that offer complementary services offers you the opportunity to take advantage of synergy, which can be very effective in building a business. For instance, if you have a company that specializes in SEO, consider teaming up with a business that builds websites.

When all is said and done, nurturing relationships, either with other business owners or customers, helps you create a client base, Beckett suggests. “Focus on building human relationships. The stronger your relationships are, the more likely your customers will be to tell their friends about you. And, the more likely they'll be to come back.”