Six Tips for a Business to Grow its Customer Base

As the lifeblood of all businesses, having a strong customer base is essential for a business to thrive in an ever competitive world. The following six tips may help a business grow its customer base and ultimately grow their business.

Have a Personable Approach

This not only goes for potential customers but also for potential business partners and other stakeholders. By getting out there and being open with others, a business owner also opens up their business to potential opportunities for customer growth.

Networking events are a great way for owners of newly established businesses to meet other like-minded figures and spread the word about the business, which could lead to more customers in the future.

Look at Existing Customers

Sometimes the answer for a business’s customer growth is the most obvious – the existing customers. Word of mouth is initially often an effective way for a business to gain new customers and become better known in the wider community.

Perhaps the best thing about attracting new customers in this way is that it is extremely cost-effective and takes little extra effort. Just focus on taking care of your customers, and the rest should take care of itself.

Look at Other Businesses

For the most part, it will be virtually impossible and counterproductive to collaborate with competitors, but businesses in another area may have a customer base that could also use whatever it is your business has to offer.

Other businesses may also be able to directly offer your business’s product through them, such as by using your products at events they may hold. This can help a business grow its customer base and its bottom line without incurring too many extra costs.

Dedicate Time to Specifically Grow Your Base

Time is a valuable asset for a recently established business, its owners, and its employees, and it often seems like there is no time for anything but work. However, a business owner needs to dedicate some time purely for the purposes of growing its customer base and therefore its business.

A business obviously needs to focus on the customers it already has, but unless those customers end up spending more money, the business faces the risk of not growing further and not reaching its full potential.

Make Social Media Your Friend

Contrary to some people’s beliefs, social media is not only a tool for airing one’s thoughts or photos, but it is also an effective tool to market a business and attract new customers. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin can be a good way to advertise a business if it is done correctly and aimed at the right audience.

Besides advertising, businesses can also attract new customers via social media through providing customer service and gaining extra insights into the business’s existing and potential customer base.

Learn to Adapt Your Business

As times change, so do the ways a business can effectively reach out to and attract new customers to its brand. As previously stated, social media has become a relatively new way that businesses expose themselves to a wider audience, and businesses which have adapted to the social media phenomenon have benefitted considerably.

Other examples of new trends that are important for businesses are the growing presence of apps, as well as the resurgence of more grassroots events such as farmers’ markets and the like. Businesses have a much better chance of growing their customer base if they can adapt to these changing trends and use them to reach out to potential customers.