How Will You Get More Customers Next Year?

[WillowOlder]

Every business relies on customers. In order to grow, you need more! 

What will you do differently in the coming year to grow your customer base more than ever before?

Tell us – and then click on this link to find out how to get free marketing and rave reviews.

[Anonymous]

I think for me next year the key is to frankly give away more.

But in a very specific way.

In the industry I serve, a quick win can mean exponentially more to them than just saving a few dollars or a few minutes.  And they are typically people pleasers, who hardly ever actually demand that some "small" problem be solved.

It's fantastic to solve a problem for someone that they didn't even know was a problem, let alone solveable.  Some people think some things are just the way things have to be.  But they aren't.

Being the person that gets that information out always comes back around, in my experience.

*kristen

[WillowOlder]

Hi @Anonymous! Thank you for such a thoughtful response. It can be daunting to find a balance between giving away too much vs. not enough (or any) information, services or even productss for free. You and Nick Leffler have similar thoughts on this important subject. You might enjoy this interview with Nick about how giving free information has helped him become a thought leader in his inudstry: Nick Leffler Gives Away Valuable Information for Free. Learn Why It's a Strategy He Swears By.

Thanks for sharing your insights!

[jessbru99568]

Next year, we plan to do more online marketing and sales. More focus on shipping orders. :)

[photosbydepuhl]

This sound counterintuitive at first, but I plan to get more customers next year, by spending a lot more time and attention on my current customers. 

The proof is in the pudding, I just finished a project last week and the customers parting words were "I'm going to recommend you to everyone I know, actually can my business feature your business as our local business of the month?"

[WillowOlder]

Thanks for sharing, @jessbru99568. I hope you'll keep us posted on your marketing strategies and progress in 2018!

[WillowOlder]

@photosbydepuhl What fantastic feedback! Congratulations. You're right -- it's easy to focus primarily on getting new customers and risk losing sight of the clients you already have. Here's a quote from one of our "Getting Customers" articles that totally supports your insight: 

"Fact: A repeat customer is your cheapest (and best!) customer

Did you know you’ll spend five times more money attracting a new customer than you would satisfying an existing one? It’s not rocket science to figure out customer retention is far more cost-effective than customer acquisition. Not only that, says Todd Eby, customer success expert and founder of SuccessHacker, marketing only to new customers is risky. “If you solely focus on acquisition, you’re going to find it harder and harder to acquire new business as you saturate your market and pluck all the low hanging fruit.”

Thanks for sharing!

[photosbydepuhl]

I'm gonna disagree with the 5x as expensive number to attract a new customer, at least in my experience. That may have rung true in the past, but once you build a good SEO based SalesFunnel, the cost of running it and staying on page one in search, where new customers find you, is not that great. 

In my business, I receive new leads from people who found me on a generic Google search every week. And they cost me $0.00 - although not all of them end up qualifying as new customers, those who do still cost me nothing and are worth anywhere between a few thousand dollars per project to 6 figures over the lifespan of the relationship.

Keeping an existing customer engaged will cost you a significant amount of time and attention and sometimes money - especially if you need to rectify a mistake that happened. And it doesn't matter if that mistake was your fault or not. 

However, the investment is well worth it and will pay off multiple times what you invest. I have customers that are so loyal, that a competitor can come in and underbid me by half, and the customer will not switch, because of the relationship we have build.