Franchise PowerUp 
The hardest thing when starting and growing a business, especially for small companies, is finding clients or getting customers. Customer acquisition can be really difficult if your marketing budget is relatively small.
Even if you are sure that you have a great product or service, it’s not a one hundred percent guarantee that customers will find your store, website, or social media page. The reason that people will need your product or service isn’t good enough. You have to go out and find your potential customers and clients. In fact, customer acquisition needs to be a continuous process for most businesses. Even successful companies will have customers or clients who stop buying for one reason or another. Those customers have to be replaced to keep your business alive and kicking. In this article, we’ve gathered 10 best ways how to find new clients for your business. Check it out!
Use your existing customers
No matter how big or small your company is, customers are always your number one biggest asset when it comes to bringing new people to your business. If you don’t have existing customers who love you, it will be harder to find new fans. Creating a customer base that will add tremendous value starts with going above and beyond— truly surprising and delighting the customers you’ve got. Maintaining high customer satisfaction doesn’t take an incredible marketing budget. You can achieve it by going out of your way for your customers and hiring people who will do the same. Some people will naturally talk about you online, some might need a little nudge. Treat them right, provide help, and you’ve got an invaluable resource at your disposal.
Develop a plan for customer acquisition
The secret to creating a successful acquisition plan is to know your ideal customer. If you are b2b, consider what department is most likely to buy your products or services and the specific purchase requirements. Determine how long the buying journey is. Is buying your product or service a decision that can be made quickly by a single person, or is it something that has a long buying cycle? Also, think about how people normally find your products or services. Are they active in social media? Who are they likely to listen to, or where do they look when they want to buy from your company? How can you get referrals and recommendations from those sources?
Try offering free trials
Another practical way for acquiring new customers is to offer them a free trial of your product. Free trials are a great way to grow your customer base as they attract new people and garner good reviews and testimonials. They also allow you to get more feedback on new products or services to make improvements. By offering free trials, you can show people the value of what you have to offer and convert them into paying returning customers later. Instill the value of your product, and make it clear that it’s truly exemplary. Do this, offer great service, and you’ll likely be able to convert customers into loyal brand advocates.
Use the power of Social Media
When it comes to social media, the benefits are too huge to ignore. Most of us can easily handle Facebook and Instagram, but how exactly reach your target audience? A surefire way to tap into a fresh new group of people is to explore new social media sites and apps. Joining anything from Twitter to Reddit to Tumblr will increase your brand’s online presence. The audiences on social media are very different from site to site. Do your research, find your market, and talk to your people!
Also, try websites like Groupon and Living Social to add a ton of value to your business. You can offer a discounted price while they promote it to their deal-loving audiences. Daily deals sites are great for getting first-timers and show them who you are. They are much more likely to try something new when it’s a steal, giving you the opportunity to turn one-timers into repeats.
Use giveaways
Nothing attracts consumers more than a freebie. Whether it’s a free trial of your product or service, branded merch, or something else creative, offer people something for free, and they’ll be banging down your door. Remember that your products and services are awesome, but you need to get people trying them. Free giveaways help to engage a lot of customers, create a sense of connection between people and the brand, and instill a feeling of indebtedness to the company.
Also, everybody loves good old contests. Ask your customers to do something for your brand better than the other customers with a contest, and it will work. For example, have them “Like” your Instagram post, follow your account, make a purchase, or even refer someone new. It is an amazing way to get all the benefits of free giveaways without financial compromises.
Build a relationship map
A relationship map will match your strongest relationships with the areas where there is the greatest need for your product or service. This map will lead you in the direction of who you need to reach out to tap into potential customer bases.
Find partners
If reaching your audience feels like a heavy load, find someone to help you. Teaming up with another business opens up a whole new range of options for finding new customers. Cross-promotion helps you dive into the existing customer base. Make sure to choose a company whose customers are in your target market.
Show that you care about your customers
In most industries, consumers want to know that you take care of them. They want to feel safe, valuable, cherished, and cool. A reliable way to attract new customers is to show them how much you love your current customers.
Remember that there is no one right way to build your customer base. Different customers can react differently to the same marketing campaign. The most important thing is to use a variety of channels and tactics to reach your target audience. Casting a wide net is the best way to find as many new customers as you can. The easiest way to combine different marketing tactics is to use both on- and off-line strategies. Experiment with email, social media, events, word-of-mouth. Find out which channels work best for you and use them. Make sure that you are consistent across platforms and use analytics & metrics to track your success on different media. That is the key. Good luck!
