What Can a Company Do to Acquire & Retain New Customers?

Getting the Customer

To thrive, businesses must continually attract and retain new customers. Without a strategy for reaching likely prospects and a plan to keep them engaged, a business will lose customers to a competitor.

Target your audience

Who might want your products or services? Market directly to those people most likely to purchase what you're selling. If your target market is teens, start a Facebook fan page.

Spend for advertising

Do not assume potential customers know your business exists. Get your name out there consistently and aggressively. Businesses fail because they don't advertise.

Ask for referrals

Get referral business. There's no better advertising than a word-of-mouth recommendation. So ask your happy customers to bring you new ones.

Sell an experience

Only 20% of customers buy based on price alone. The majority want an experience. For example, you can eat fast food or a five-star meal; both satisfy your hunger, but the experience will be different.

Engage your customer

Keep the channels of communication open. With all the low-cost methods of reaching people, such as email and social networking sites, it can be easy and inexpensive to stay in touch with your customers and encourage their feedback.

References

• Microsoft Small Business Center

Resources

• Guerilla Marketing