How to Gain More Customers in a Small Business

Member

By Patricia Gilliam
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating:

(4 Ratings)

As a home-based or small traditional business, how do you compete against larger companies with bigger advertising budgets?

Long-term, you need to develop a marketing plan that allows you to use your business size and your creativity to your advantage. In this article, I'll share a few ideas and concepts that I think are helpful.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A home-based or small traditional business that you want to increase in customers.

Step 1

Be appreciative of your existing customers.

Gaining new customers is not done by neglecting your existing customers and taking them for granted. When you treat people better than they expect, it's surprises them to the point they'll stick with you. The leads to repeat business. Long-term, word-of-mouth will also bring you more customers through their friends and relatives. This gives you an advantage over bigger (and often more impersonal) competitors.
Step 2

If you have employees, make sure they know the value of your customers as well.

Sometimes even in small business situations, employees don't realize the importance of a customer. Make sure they are trained to treat all your customers as being important and not as hassles. That's why personality is important to consider in hiring in addition to education and skills. Reward and praise employees for good customer service, and that will give them a greater incentive.
Step 3

Find a way to "teach" at your business.

People are curious about a lot of things, but sadly most of the time businesses take the attitude of "we'll handle it, and don't ask us how it works." If you take the time to explain some basic concepts, this will build trust between you and new customers.
Step 4

Remember the 80/20 Rule.

80% of your profits will come from 20% of your customers. Take note of this and be sure to nurture these relationships. From a profit standpoint, you may just need to do more business with the people you already know as opposed to just seeking out more customers.
Step 5

Be consistent in your marketing.

There's nothing wrong with changing your look and theme, but have a few things that stay the same long-term such as your logo. People want to deal with businesses that have familiarity to them, and the more they see of you the better they feel.
Step 6

Affiliate yourself with other small business owners.

Affiliate marketing is not just an online concept. Taking the time to meet other business owners in similar fields can help both you and the other owner. For example, if you're a still photographer, it would make sense to partner with wedding planners and videographers. You can then refer business to each other.
Step 7

Make good use of trade shows.

You stand out at these if you're actually greeting people as opposed to sitting down passively. Give-aways can draw people to your booth and provide you with a new customer base. A good thing to do is ask permission to contact people on give away forms. If someone says no, they're actually saving you time and money.
Step 8

Reward your customers.

Coupons and "punch cards" provide incentives for people to come back to your business again and again.

Comments

MidniteWriter said

Flag This Comment

on 6/4/2008 This fits in with my articles: (for affiliate)
http://www.ehow.com/how_2290729_sell-women.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2242017_build-customer-base.html