Do you have enough customers? There are many ways you can acquire customers, but which of them bring in profitable sales and customers? Various acquisition avenues are listed below, and further below are some short observations of each. Perhaps this list will spark some ideas, while considering which could bring a ‘profitable’ increase in customers and sales.
Customer Referrals | Email | Fax | Flyers, Brochures, Handouts, Inserts, Door Hangers, Printed Catalogs, Electronic Catalogs, Video Brochures | Industry Partners | Industry Directories | Media Advertisements | Media Appearances | Networking (offline/online), Volunteering | Newsletters, Email Subscriptions, Blog Posts, Articles, Columns | Personalized Letters, Postcards, Reply Cards | Public Relations | Specialty Promotional Items, Samples, Giveaways | Speeches, Seminars, Webinars, Workshops, Demonstrations | Sponsorships, Donations, Charity Events | Telephone Prospecting | Testimonials | Trade Shows and Conventions, Specialty Exhibits | Visits | Website |
Customer Referrals
Studies tend to show that few companies train and proactively pursue referrals from their current customers, friends or associates who know them well enough. But, new customers that come from referrals are often the easiest to win over.
Email
Email contact has become the most common way to reach out to prospective new customers. For this reason, it’s increasingly more difficult to connect with them as company email servers are configured to treat any email address not previously Sent to from within the company as SPAM immediately directed to a JUNK folder or deleted.
Fax
Today’s governmental regulations don’t allow for-profit companies and organizations solicit new customers via fax machine, although non-profits are exempt. So, this avenue of contact is best reserved for present or former customers or anyone who has asked or given you permission to fax them.
Flyers, Brochures, Handouts, Inserts, Door Hangers, Printed Catalogs, Electronic Catalogs, Video Brochures
These can be relatively easy to create and are reusable over the long haul.
Industry Partners
Too often, industry partners … also known as complementary, non-competitive vendors … are overlooked as sources of customers. If you can develop referral relationships with as many people as come into contact with your prospective customer, you can have a good stream of customers. For example, a wedding makeup artist has a number of potential industry partners, including wedding planners, caterers, tuxedo shops, ministers, hotels, limo companies, bridal shops, florists, disc jockeys, and more.Better yet, if you can integrate your marketing with theirs so that what they sell contains some sort of reference to you and what you sell, customers may come to you easily.
Industry Directories
Directories are often a source of steady customers, especially if you are visible and easy to find. Otherwise, you might just be buried in a great number of similar businesses similarly listed.
Media Advertisements
Media advertisements have their place. Given the typical higher associated costs and lower return-on–investment, advertisers need to more carefully consider their medium and their message.
Media Appearances
If you have something newsworthy to a broad range of people on the subject matter, the more attractive you will be.
Networking (offline/online), Volunteering
Although these tend to have a bit more of a social focus, they are good for building connections that can turn into referral business.
Newsletters, Email Subscriptions, Blog Posts, Articles, Columns
Although this typically is an inexpensive avenue, it requires more time to maintain. Some companies will need to hire staff to focus on the upkeep.
Open Houses, Special Occasion Events
A little bit more effort, but can be worth it if you can get a good invitation list out on nicely done invitation cards and envelopes.
Personalized Letters, Postcards, Reply Cards
Personalized direct mail letters and post cards are among the relatively cost-effective ways to build awareness of your offering(s) among selected prospective customers. In some situations, you may want to have your initial mailings contain content that focuses merely on building awareness, increasing their familiarity with you, and then follow up with more sales-oriented content at an appropriate time, or phone calls, if appropriate.
Publicity
Gaining free press can be a real asset when you can offer newsworthy content to share with various media outlets.
Specialty Promotional Items, Samples, Giveaways
Just be sure your selected promotional item(s) are not seen as cheap or cheesy, which ends up detracting from your image and turning off potential customers. The evergreen notepad may be effective, or quality pens.
Speeches, Seminars, Webinars, Workshops, Demonstrations
Although this avenue takes much more initial preparation, once it is developed, it’s repeatable and can leveraged time and time again at a variety of venues.
Sponsorships, Donations, Charity Events
If you decide to go this route, be absolutely sure you understand the organization and cause you are supporting. You want to avoid any seeming or real conflict in values between your product or service and theirs.
Telephone Prospecting
Although voice mail technology allows people to screen phone calls and messages, the telephone is still one of the many effective ways to reach prospects. If you use the telephone as a relationship-building tool, you’ll increase your chances of getting responses.
Testimonials
These are helpful in at least warming up prospects to the idea that you are a good fit for them. But although it’s nice to hear from others, they will want to know what you can do for them and their specific and unique need(s).
Three-dimensional Mailing Pieces
In contract to personalized letters, postcards and reply cards, three-dimensional mailers cost more but are a suitable alternative when your profit margin per sale can justify the additional cost.
Trade Shows and Conventions, Specialty Exhibits
If you’re doing a trade show booth, you’re probably spending a lot of money and not getting a lot of customers. At least that’s the most common complaint about trade shows. But it only takes one good customer to make it all worthwhile.
Visits While ‘in the neighborhood’
Should you plan your route so you can ‘drop by’ a number of prospective customers place of business and aim only to leave your card and a little bit of informative literature, you just might find they’ll take a meeting with unscheduled. At the least, you may impress them with your initiative.
Website
If your Website is content-rich and customer-centric, while making it very easy to get an education on possible solutions that you offer to various problems, and making it very easy to get in touch with you or your sales people, a low-maintenance Website can be a real treasure.