3 Things to Consider When Trying to get More Customers for your Business!

As a marketing agency, one of the most common questions we get asked is how to get more customers or clients for your business. It’s a legitimate question too, as many businesses struggle to attract the numbers of client or customers they need to operate effectively. With a market that’s getting more and more saturated over time, it’s more vital than ever to attract more customers to safeguard the sustainability of your company.

In this article, we discuss three ways that you can attract more customers to your business. Let’s jump straight in!

If while reading this post you feel as though you’d like some help in gaining more customers, feel free to reach out to us. We’ve successfully helped lots of different businesses achieve a positive ROI on their marketing campaigns, and we’re sure we can do the same for you!

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#1: Give Customers What They Want

It may sound obvious, but this isn’t always the case. Giving customers what they want goes much deeper than just providing a service or product they’re happy with. In all marketing, consumer behaviour is the #1 driving factor to success. The better you understand your target audience, the better your results will be. A big part of the reason that this is the case, is because it allows you to better understand what your customers want. Only once you understand this, can you actually provide them with it.

Take your website for example. You may think that you’re providing all the information a customer or client might need, but is that really the case?

It’s common to see web pages that provide just a portion of the information potential buyers need, and then ask for the visitor to contact them for the rest of it. Although this is often the only option for custom service providers, most likely, you can give clients an indication which will allow them to get a better idea of what you offer.

Tip – reduce waste

Many people think that by trying to get as many people to contact them as possible, they will have more chance of getting clients. The fact of the matter is that all people that reach out to you which otherwise wouldn’t if you provided the right information, are not the right clients for you!

The vast majority of these clients will do no more than take up your time and leave you with nothing to show for it. The small percentage that you or one of your sales agents can convince are going to be poor clients anyway. They’ll either feel like they’re paying too much, think the quality is bad, or they’ll feel as though they’re not getting the right service. This takes up even more of your time than those that only call, and you’ll have even less to show for it!

Your website isn’t just a place for attracting customers, but it’s also a great way of keeping the wrong kinds of customers and clients at bay. Although it’s important to portray your products and/or services in a positive light, it’s also important to be transparent and provide the information that customers or clients need to make a decision.

This isn’t just limited to your website though. When running ads or creating social media posts, it’s important to consider what you want that post or ad to do for your business, and then think about what information you need to provide in order to achieve this.

Is it helpful to provide prices on social media, or is this something that will reduce engagement? Are you looking for sales, or do you want to increase your reach? Am I providing the right information in order to give my post/ad the best chances of achieving its results?

Most importantly: Are the services or products I’m advertising on social media or through PPC ads in line with those on my website, and the products themselves?

As you can see, there’s a lot to think about when running marketing campaigns.

Since your website is the most important part of your marketing when it comes to providing the right information, we’ll use that as an example throughout this part of the blog post. There are three important things to remember when judging whether or not your website is providing the right information. We’ll cover each one in detail below.

1. Do You Have What I Need?

This is the most important question to consider in all marketing campaigns. Your website should quickly show clients whether or not you have what they need. This doesn’t just mean that you should have a page about your services, but also means you need to make sure they can find that page easily, regardless of where on your website they enter.

Your product pages should be scannable and provide this information as quickly and easily as possible. They should also not only detail the great features and benefits of your product but if there are important limitations, these are important to mention too. This can be done without shedding a negative light on your product, and you can even turn these disadvantages into advantages to some extent.

This will prevent people that aren’t looking for a product like yours from taking up your time, but also helps you establish trust with those that are interested.

Extra Tip: Own your flaws

By also mentioning some of the downsides, you actually build a trustworthy reputation. People are used to companies lying to them, so it can be refreshing when a company is open and honest about their flaws. Are you the third-largest company in your niche in your area? Be proud of this and take ownership of it! Does your product function better than all others, but does it look hideous? No worries, just own it, even going as far as advertising it.

A great example of this was the marketing campaign that launched Volkswagon in the US. Think your up against it with your product? – Think again!

The American consumer market for cars was booming. Everyone wanted large, good-looking, American-made cars. Then, here comes Volkswagen, with a small eyesore whose brand image and reputation in the US was affected by WW2.

Volkswagen’s think small campaign didn’t just turn the company’s future in the US around, it changed the entire advertising industry!

In it, they talk about the cars faults and then proceed to mention just a few of the most important advantages of driving a Volkswagen. The ad campaigns ran for multiple decades, each one detailing flaws, while still portraying a positive vibe about it. Needless to say, these ads worked a teat, often named as the best advertising campaign ever!

If you’re looking for inspiration, it’s definitely recommended to read up on Volkswagen’s think small campaign.

This same concept applies to your advertising campaigns, your social media pages, and any other marketing you do. They all need to be consistent, and clearly provide the correct information necessary. If your ad campaigns are promising one thing and your website is promising another, then your clients or customers are just going to get confused. Make it clear whether or not you have what they need as soon as possible, this will save everyone time and improve your results!

2. Do I Trust You?

We’ve already covered trust to some extent in this post, but trust is one of the most important factors for someone to decide whether or not they want to buy from you. Without trust, no one is interested in doing business with you, and this can even extend to hiring new employees, or partnering up with other businesses.

There are a huge number of ways to promote trust in your business, but the important thing is to make it visible. Portraying trust on your website, and in your other marketing channels is essential to growing your customer base. There’s no use doing this somewhere at the bottom of a page where it is hidden though.

On your website, display your business’s reviews, testimonials, and even things like awards at the top of the page. Make sure they are easily seen by everyone and make sure to add them to the places that count most, like your product/services pages. Everything that might indicate competency works great, but adding things like reviews give a second opinion which people often value highly.

If you can add these trust factors to your advertising campaigns, social media channels, and other marketing channels, you can start building trust with your target audience sooner.

Trust is also improved through the services you provide, and by exceeding customer expectations. We have a post on how to exceed customer expectations using brand positioning, go and check it out if you feel you need to work on this aspect of your marketing!

In brief: You services or products should be how you say they are, or better. Your customer service should also be on-point. These things ensure the highest level of trust is reached with a client or customer.

This article by Entrepreneur Magazine goes deeper into why trust is so important in this day and age.

3. What is the Price?

Although customers and clients aren’t always after the cheapest price, it is important for them to know the price in most cases. Without it, they have no way of knowing if they can afford it, or if your products are worth the money. For extremely high-end products, not showing prices is sometimes preferred.

Do you offer a product or service that’s customised to their needs, and is it hard to give a set price? If so, give them an indication and try to provide as much info as possible, without overcomplicating things. You can also use “starting at” pricing, but watch out for customer expectation, as if you’re starting-at price is a lot lower than the price they will pay, then this may negatively affect how your brand is perceived. There’s nothing worse than being promised the world for cheap, only to have your expectations fall short by a long shot.

It’s important to provide your customers and clients with all the information they need to make an informed decision. However, make sure that the information can be accessed easily, that it is scannable, and that you make it easy for them to understand. 

#2: Communicate Benefits, not Features

When it comes to showing your products in their best light, the benefits are much more important than the features. When selling anything, you sell to emotions and not logic. Your product or service solves a problem, and it’s important that you show this to your target audience.

By first understanding the emotional problem your product or service solves, you’re in a much better position to market from. This all starts with understanding your audience.

For example, say you’re selling roofing services, then this marketing copy won’t be very effective:

“Our roofing services provide you with the perfect roofing tiles that are three inches thick and help to insulate your home. They also prevent rodents from biting through them and will prevent water from leaking through. All without you having to do it yourself.”

In all marketing, it’s important to list the benefits. So, let’s improve this marketing copy, but without changing the information given. A better alternative might be:

“Our roofing services keep your home warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. They keep your home dry all year round and prevent rodents from getting in. They also save you time that you can spend doing more important things.”

In this example, we’ve listed benefits, but are these the right benefits? (ignore the fact that they’re written like robots for now, we’re getting to that bit…)

Let’s take a step back and question each feature and benefit we’ve listed.

What Does the Customer Really Want?

Do people want a warmer home in the winter and a cooler home in the summer?

Not really. The temperature doesn’t bother them, it’s the way it makes them feel. The problem here is comfort, not the number on the thermometer. Another problem might be expenses, but it would depend on the target audience you’re going after. 

Do people want a dry home?

Well, yes. However, all roofing services should provide this. It’s like a computer manufacturer saying their computer allows for people to use the internet, or a local bar advertising the fact that they serve beer. Again, the benefit itself is also comfort.

Do people want to keep rodents out of their home?

Yes, and this might be a great benefit if you’re selling to a niche that has difficulties with rats or mice. The real benefit is that they take back control of their home. For “normal” roofers, this probably wouldn’t be a great selling point though.

Do people want to save time?

Probably, but how many of your clients are considering climbing up onto the roof and doing it themselves? We’re guessing not many of them. 

So, aside from comfort, what are people really looking for in a roofer?

Here are some questions we would ask ourselves:

What are the issues in the industry at the moment?

Why do people hire a roofing company, and where does it often go wrong?

What do I offer that others don’t? (This can be a small gesture like tidying up after yourself or something as niche as the rodent example)

What do people really want?

In the case of a roofing company, trust and service are most likely going to be two major concerns.

If you’re a dentist, it’s great to list all the features your services include, but what’s the true benefit? – You give your clients the confidence to smile!

As a marketing agency, we generate more customers for your business.

As you can see, benefits can be portrayed effectively in just a few words, and they hit the root of the emotional problem.

#3: Be Patient and be Prepared to Change Strategy

Thirdly, being patient is extremely important in your marketing. We don’t mean just sitting around and hoping that a customer will magically appear, but giving your marketing campaigns the time to work their magic and take effect.

Not only do most forms of marketing take a while to take effect, but you also have a buying cycle that your potential customers have to follow before the results are seen in your figures. As a real estate agent, or a company selling kitchens, this buying cycle may take multiple months, even years!

Make sure you understand your business and the buying cycle that your customers go through. Then, make sure to give your marketing campaigns the time to take effect, and give your customers the time to go through the buying cycle.

When running ads on Google, for example, you always start with a low quality score which leads to slightly worse performance. Only after a few months will this score start to improve, and will you start getting a better price per click. When you include the testing period before each ad that we spoke about in our article on the two times you should use PPC in your marketing strategy, you might be talking three to five months before you even start seeing results. If you pair that with a long buying cycle, then it may take a year or more before you start seeing the results of a marketing campaign.

The same holds true for SEO and social media, where it may take up to a year to start reaching the right people at the right time, in order for them to turn into leads.

Although some forms of marketing are quicker to take effect than others, all require time before you start seeing their effects. However, the other part of this tip is that you should be willing to change strategy…

Learning when it’s time to switch things up is important, and also very difficult. Luckily, many forms of marketing allow you to test various different ads or page designs at the same time. This helps narrow down your search, but it doesn’t solve the whole problem.

Most businesses can generate leads and sales through most marketing channels, however, it’s important to know when it’s time to give up on one and try something else. It’s best to discuss this with a marketing agency or freelancer as there can be a huge number of factors at play. It might be that you’re just not doing something right, or it might be that the platform just isn’t right for you.

Conclusion

When you are business, getting more customers is an issue that evolves, develops and is ever changing during the life of your company. It's great to bring it back to basics, as often businesses we consult skip these basic things when they are considering how to grow their business.

Hopefully, after reading this article, you’re in a better position to market your business successfully and increase the number of customers that come in on a monthly basis. 

If you are still struggling, feel free to get in touch to see how we can help you out. We increase the number of customers coming into your business and are known for generating a positive ROI on the marketing campaigns we run.

No Risk. Just Reward. Guaranteed!