What is the hardest part of starting a business and undoubtedly you will say, finding the customer!!! Especially if you’re an Internet based business the customer base feels so huge that you might get lost in it. Having a good website and produce quality products is good but won’t do any good if you have no one to sell them for.
Customers don’t find us – We have to find the customer! In focusing on this theory, where or better yet HOW to find my customer?
There is no one simple way of doing this. Trying several ways of tapping into customers can be the trick to increasing your chances of expanding your customer list. So see if the following will give you some ideas.
Have a plan. Who will buy your products? What age group, educational levels or social groups do your customers fall under? Answering these critical questions could be the make or brake of your business as you want to use the correct language, words and phrasing to address these people. You can’t communicate to an 8 year old the way you would to an 18 year old or 80 year old, so learn about your customer first.
Work with your local newspaper to advertise your business, products and services. If you want to publish an advertisement instead of going for one big add try to put several small ads at different pages of the paper. People will remember a name or a sign only if they see it repeatedly several times. That is what you want to achieve.
Look out for social events or gatherings of your town or city where your potential market will attend. This is an excellent opportunity for you to introduce and promote your product. Attending other business workshops where similar entrepreneurs will be attending so that you can share ideas, best practices, networking and make your business known.
Give a little to gain a lot. Giving out free samples to customers is a great way of promoting your product. If they like the product they will definitely buy it once it is on the market. Try to keep an open mind about your products and services so that at an initial stage if your customers prefer your product or service to be customized differently, give it some thought. It could be the idea you never thought of but might work wonders.
Finally but most importantly, be open to feedback! Criticism and Compliments – BOTH! Remember at the end of the day, the more people talk about you and your business the higher the chance of succeeding.
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