Starting a small business can be a lot of fun, but challenging. Getting everything ready for opening day is stressful and demanding, but it is just the beginning. Once you are up and running, the hard work starts. Promoting your business and growing your customer base is one of the biggest challenges for a small business, and it is the key to long-term success. These simple steps can help you along the way from being a small start-up to a global conglomerate.
Use Merchandising To Build Brand Awareness
It’s important for businesses to get their name out there where people can see it. If potential customers do not know about your company and the goods and services it offers they will never walk through the door or visit your website.
T-shirts are a great way to build your brand and increase awareness. They can be worn by staff and by fans of your brand, and act as walking billboards that promote your company. Bolt Printing offers fast t-shirt printing at wholesale prices. You can use their cheap t-shirt printing service to get lots of shirts for staff. You could even purchase them for customers and give them as a free gift with large purchases. Their high-quality printing on cotton t-shirts could help promote your business and give potential customers something for nothing which is a technique that can help drive sales.
Invest Your Time In Finding New Customers
When running a small business, you should ensure you are spending time trying to find new customers as well as accommodating your existing ones. It can be easy to focus on your existing customers and their demands. Though this is an important part of customer care and service, your business will stop growing if you fail to invest some of your time in chasing down fresh sales leads. Make sure you are dividing your time appropriately between your taking care of your existing customers and getting new business.
If you want to increase your sales, getting more from your existing customer base is the quickest and simplest route to bigger profits. There is a ceiling to this growth, however. Customers will only have a limited amount of money they can spend on any given purchase. You can push sales and upsell as much as you like, but at some point, they will have to stop spending. Make sure you are spending time every week engaging with potential customers and promoting your business outside of your customer base to grow the business long-term.
Promote Customer Reviews And Testimonials
There is no better way to grow your customer base and generate new sales than with ‘word of mouth’. A good review from a real customer can convert an inquiry into a sale. This is used to great effect in eCommerce, where reviews of products and companies are often found on product pages to turn potential sales into full orders.
If you have an existing relationship with a regular customer, ask them for a review. They can do it anonymously through your website or social media presence, or they can do it in-person while you take notes. A strong customer testimonial in your promotional material, either online or off, can have a big effect on sales. Nothing beats word of mouth to boost sales, make sure you are making the most of your happy customers and are promoting their satisfaction.
Spend Time On Your Socials
Do not underestimate the power of social media. Even if you operate a locally-focused business, social media still has plenty to offer you. Instagram and Facebook, for example, are perfect for building a local customer base and generating interest in your business, which will lead to sales. It creates opportunities to converse and engage with potential customers and extoll the virtues of your company and the goods and services it offers one-to-one.
Social media is powerful, but it is a double-edged sword. This marketing weapon can be turned against you by disgruntled customers or members of the local community with an ax to grind. Managing social media accounts for a business can require a lot of patience and careful customer care or it could do more harm than good.
Don’t get stuck in the weeds of contentious comment sections and concentrate on using social media to do what it does best: self-promotion. Images are a powerful marketing tool, so make sure you are keeping your business socials up-to-date with pictures of the latest products and offers. Likes and shares will help your posts go viral, at least on a local level, and put your business on the phones of potential customers.
Follow these steps and your sales should see a boost. The best way to grow sales is with new customers, so see taking these steps as an investment and not a chore. With a bigger customer base, you will have the profit and confidence you need to grow your business further, perhaps even opening bigger premises or a second outlet.