There are a lot of criteria that a business needs to meet so it can be successful. You need to have a great product or service, amazing employees, but most importantly of all, you need customers. Without people who want to buy what you’re selling, all of the other aspects of your business are irrelevant.
The number of customers you have will depend on your market reach. Even if you don’t have a large marketing budget, you will end up on top if you know how to get your message across to enough people and the right audience.
Work on your brand reputation
There isn’t a marketing technique that works well if you don’t have a great brand reputation. First impressions matter and if a potential customer hears something bad about your business or brand before you even reach them with your marketing efforts, your ads will be useless.
To make sure your brand reputation is always spotless and that your new customers can feel like they can trust you, you need to:
- Avoid using any type of negative language when talking about your competitors.
- Choose your words in your marketing campaigns carefully and don’t be obnoxious or self-righteous.
- Highlight all of the things that make your brand or products compelling with attached proof in the form of case studies and reviews.
But the thing that gives your brand the best type of reputation is the feedback you get from satisfied customers. Good feedback shows your customers are satisfied with their experience, and as much as 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience.
If you want to gather customer feedback easier and faster, you can do so with remote user testing. This is a video-based user research platform that will help you collect, categorize, and share feedback which you can later use for improving your brand reputation but also for analytics and market research.
Work with social media influencers
By now, nearly every business has a social media presence on multiple platforms and there is a good reason for that. People of all ages, especially younger audiences, use social media to communicate with one another and entertain themselves, but also to shop and find out news from their favorite brands.
However, you need to realize that people who follow you on social media are already your customers. While you can do several things on these platforms to improve your market reach such as sharing useful content, organizing giveaways, or even paying for ads, that isn’t enough.
The best way to improve your market reach on social media is to use influencers. Influencers are people with a large social media following who sometimes work with brands and promote their products or services on their personal pages.
This type of market reach works best if you find micro-influencers (people who have between 5,000 and 20,000 followers) whose following consists mostly of your target audience. These influencers usually connect well with their followers and are seen as trustworthy in their community.
Not only will your brand be presented to the right type of people but you will also have a great ROI. After all, businesses that use influencer marketing make $5.20 for every $1 spent.
Focus on referral marketing
As we already explained, no one can make your brand look reliable and trustworthy more than your past and current customers. One way your customers can help is by leaving reviews, and the other is by becoming your referrals.
Referral marketing is when your customers spread the word about your brand, products, and services with people they know. This is one of the most effective types of marketing because people trust recommendations they get from their friends, family, and colleagues.
One of the easiest ways of getting customers to become your referrals is to give them the best possible experience. Nobody will recommend your brand if you don’t have a great product, if your website isn’t working, if you don’t know how to write awesome website content, or if your customer service is poor.
You can also start using a referral program software in which you’ll offer incentives to people who sign up to be referrals and bring new customers to your business. Moreover, you can set up a program where both the referral and the new customers get the incentive.
Final thoughts
In today’s digital age, marketers have more opportunities than ever before to increase their reach and find new customers. If you use the tools you have at your disposal right and work with dedication to improve your brand reputation, you will soon have a lot of new customers.
And don’t forget to use the customers you already have because they’re one of your most valuable assets.