Attracting new customers might seem a bit daunting, especially right after creating a business in a world of ever-growing competition, but don’t let it intimidate you.
Attracting new customers online is the ultimate goal of any webshop, and it requires a well-thought-out marketing strategy, in order to strengthen the brand’s online reputation. The digital sphere is exposed to numerous changes, and the possibilities for expanding the business and attracting new customers are endless.
You are interested in attracting new customers but you are wondering if it is possible.
Of course, it is possible, it is easier than you think! If you want to know how to attract more customers online who just can’t wait to buy your products or services, you just need to follow the steps that we will present in the text. And best of all, as you work to increase your profits, you will actually serve your customers better.
Each webshop has its own methods for gaining the trust of customers, and here are 3 main and the most effective steps that can help you gain new customers online!
The 3 main steps to help you attract online customers are:
- Choose how to communicate with customers
- Choose a digital marketing strategy
- Other tactics to attract new customers online
1. Choose how to communicate with customers
If you decide to communicate with customers via a website, the first thing you should ask yourself is – Is my website attractive enough?
Trust us, website design is a crucial factor for success. If the website isn’t designed well, potential customers will turn around and slam the virtual door. It only takes 3 seconds for the client to bring the key decision after visiting your site so the first impression can easily be the last.
The website is, simply put, an ideal presentation of your brand.
If you are selling, let’s say, luxury dresses or fur coats and the store is messy, cluttered, of incompatible design with the brand, the chances are very high that the client will go to another store with pleasing aesthetics.
From a psychological point of view – if it’s nice, it means it’s reliable.
Remember to optimize the speed of your site for mobile browsing. Most searches nowadays are done via mobile phones, and over 50% of potential customers online give up a site that takes more than 5 seconds to load.
If you do decide to make a profile on one of the social networks to attract customers online, you should keep in mind that social networks are a training ground for the free promotion of your brand.
By using social networks it is possible to target potential customers online at fairly affordable prices according to age, location, and most importantly – various interests. Many brands and businesses on Facebook already have web stores as well as Facebook stores that can be integrated.
Advertising is certainly not free but by creating an account on Facebook or Instagram, you get the tools to present the brand and, more importantly, communicate with customers and fans and attract them.
The key to the brand’s success on social media is in the extraordinary content of the announcements. In order for people to follow you, you need to be interesting, authentic, and clearly present brand values, with a pinch of humor. If you do so, you may not even need to spend money on advertising.
Try to:
- Post every day but not at any cost. If you have nothing meaningful to offer, wait for a better moment because you can cause the opposite effect.
- Engage with customers, ask them questions, participate in conversations, and let your voice be heard!
- Posts that contain an image are usually 50% more popular than ones that contain only text.
How to develop an attractive website?
As more and more searches are performed on Google every day, the competition for business is becoming more intense. This is why it is necessary that your website has a strong impact on potential customers online and your goal is to “force” them to buy your services and products.
The best ways to make your website more attractive to customers and attract them are as follows:
- Choose a nice domain name
- Make navigation easy
- Do not use Stock Images
- Update your website conctantly
- Make your website optimized for mobile devices
- Provide details in the “About Us” section
- Improve the characteristics of the website
- Add a user experience section
- Take advantage of social networks
- Use search engine optimization (SEO)
1. Choose a nice domain name
Remember, your domain name does not have to be the full company name. It is recommended that you do not use the full name of your company, but instead use some interesting abbreviated name by which you will be recognizable.
2. Make navigation easier
When customers come to your site, they must be able to access the main products and services immediately. If instead, they have to spend an immense amount of time searching the web page to find what they are looking for, then it will be a very unpleasant experience for them.
Make your phone number, address, and calls to action clearly visible throughout the website.
3. Do not use Stock Images
Photos of your staff, premises, and anything else relevant to your services help to build a sense of trust with potential customers so only use your images.
4. Update your website
Whatever you do, visitors are most interested in what’s new. If they look at a section of your blog and find that your last post was posted 4 years ago, it tells them that your blog has been ignored and new online customers have no reason to visit your website again.
5. Make your website personalized for mobile devices
Since 2016, more people have used mobile devices to browse the web than desktops. That’s why your website needs to be mobile-friendly.
6. Provide details in the “About Us” section
The first thing we do when we visit a website – we go to the section “About us” because we want to learn more about the company and its employees, especially senior staff. What you have here helps to establish credibility and helps to remove any doubts that the customer may have about you.
7. Improve the characteristics of the website
If your site doesn’t already have a blog, create one. If you miss the gallery, add it! Think about what you can add to improve the user experience for visitors.
8. Add a user experience section
The best way to get others to get your services or buy products from you is to add a user experience section where previous customers can describe their experiences with your company. When adding statements, it is best to have ones that provide the appropriate level of detail.
9. Take advantage of social networks
Nowadays, everyone uses social networks. Social networks are therefore a great way to increase your customer base and bring more and more people back to your website.
10. Use search engine optimization (SEO)
Whatever your prospective customers need, they will look it up on Google. With SEO, your website will become visible to everyone.
Chose adequate social media platform and make a profile
You may be wondering how do you choose the best social media platform for your business. Should you have a profile on all of them or not?
In order to decide, you should pay attention to:
- Audience recognition
- Definition of goals
- Finding an audience
- Good CX and UX
1. Audience recognition
The first and most important step is recognizing the audience. You want to be as specific as possible, as this will make your decision easier, so pay attention to the following questions to see what your target audience is:
- Who are your typical customers?
- How old are they?
- Are they men or women?
- What is their level of education?
- What interests them outside of your product and service?
2. Definition of goals
The next step is to define the goals for the selected audience. Your primary goal is to urge sales by attracting customers. While some brands use social media to encourage brand recognition, others use social media for customer support.
3. Finding an audience
To find the audience, you determine which platform your audience uses the most. You will also want to consider how active your audience is on that platform. For example, although young people have profiles on Facebook, they are more active on Instagram or TikTok.
4. Good CX and UX
What should be noted as one of your goals is an excellent CX (customer experience). It is measured by customer loyalty and satisfaction and the likelihood of recommending products or services to others.
A narrower term than CX, but no less important, is UX (user experience), which is the experience that the user has in meeting their needs during a visit to the site. It is measured by success rate, error rate, abandonment rate, and time to completion of desired activities.
Tips to attract customers on different social media platforms
Below, you can find tips on how to attract customers on some of the major social media platforms.
It is important to remember how individuals use Facebook: to build relationships and keep in touch with old friends. This makes Facebook a good platform for building loyalty to your existing customer base. The downside is that it’s hard to reach a new audience.
If you’re trying to start a new business, Facebook may not be the best option to start, but if you need a way to keep in touch with old customers, this is a great option for your business.
Twitter is a great platform for building awareness about your brand. Twitter uses hashtags that organize conversations about words or phrases. By searching hashtags, you can learn what people are talking about so you can create your own tweets to participate in popular conversations.
Pinterest is used to store content by “pinning” photos or videos to a virtual bulletin board. Female users dominate the Pinterest demographic. Because the Pinterest platform is visually based, you will need powerful graphics to engage users. Pinterest’s successful business use is associated with strong retail sales.
- YOUTUBE
YouTube has become one of the largest search engine platforms. Many of the searches on it are for How-To videos. Service industry companies that can offer this type of content work can benefit from it, along with lifestyle and education videos.
LinkedIn is the most used platform for older audiences. Its users are mostly in the age group of 30-49. People use LinkedIn for job searches and professional networking.
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing platforms, especially among young audiences. This platform works really well for visually based businesses, such as art, food, retail, and beauty.
- TIKTOK
TikTok is known for short videos. TikTok is the best for visually based companies such as art, food, retail, beauty, and some service activities. TikTok has a very young demographic category. The platform is useful for targeting the 18-24 age group.
2. Choose a digital marketing strategy
In this section, we will look at the best internet marketing strategies and how you can use them to attract more customers online and earn more revenue.
Internet marketing strategies we recommend are:
- SEO
- Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
- Content marketing
- CRO
- Reputation management
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search engine optimization or SEO is a term used to describe a series of strategies that enhance your ranking in search results based on a keyword related to your business.
SEO can be divided into two categories: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO refers to the optimization you perform and control on your website.
On the other hand, off-site SEO refers to factors outside your website that you cannot control. An example of off-site SEO is backlinks from other sites.
This strategy can help you rank your site higher in search results and ultimately allow you to reach more customers and earn more revenue online.
SEO is an effective network marketing strategy that is critical to the success of any online business and can result in an extremely high return on investment.
2. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
The form of advertising in which the ad is paid only when there is a click on it refers to PPC marketing – Pay Per Click Advertising.
In addition to the fact that PPC ads can often be seen on Instagram and Facebook, they are still the most represented in Google search.
PPC advertising is one of the fastest ways through which you can bring new visitors to your site and thus realize greater sales of your services or products. For your site to appear at the top of search results, you need to create a good strategy for the keywords you are targeting and optimize it well.
With PPC ads, you can be above the top sites in organic search. The advantage of this way of advertising is that you can quickly rank very well in search results. Of course, that will cost you, but the price will also depend on your expertise in it.
In this model of advertising, you will only pay when someone clicks on your ad, and so people who are looking for what you offer will come to your site. If you manage to get them interested in your service or product, PPC marketing can be very cost-effective for you.
3. Content marketing
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content online that will attract and gain a clearly defined audience with the ultimate goal of conversion (buying products or services, gaining new newsletter subscribers, and most importantly, gaining loyal customers).
It comes down to giving information. On another hand, it is marketing through which businesses exchange educational, entertaining, and insightful information that will ultimately give readers some value and improve their lives.
Content marketing is not about forcing users to buy something, but about helping users (directing them) to the best possible path to solving their query. This will create trust and bring people back to your website ultimately resulting in conversion.
You can contact journalists, bloggers, and influential people in the industry to see if they will share your content on their websites. The more links your business earns from other reputable sites, the more powerful your site will become, which will eventually rank up higher in search engine results.
4. CRO
CRO or conversion rate optimization in digital marketing is the process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who become customers or perform the desired action on a website. This process involves knowing how users behave on the web, what actions they perform, and what prevents them from performing the action.
When it comes to CRO, the main focus is on conversions and actions that visitors perform on the website.
Conversions can be of different shapes and sizes and can be divided into micro and macro conversions.
Examples of macro conversions:
- purchase of a product or service on a website,
- request for an offer via the website,
- login to a specific service through a website.
Examples of micro-conversions:
- newsletter subscription,
- creating an account,
- adding products to the basket.
5. Reputation management
Reputation management services help your business look more reliable in the eyes of Internet browsers.
This is a great way to build trust with potential customers and let them know that your company cares about their needs, questions, and concerns.
3. Other tactics to attract new customers online
In this part we will talk about:
- Free offers and contests
- Customer reviews
- Customer testimonials
- Marketing campaigns
- Email marketing
- Partnerships
1. Free offers and contests
Social media can also be used for free offers and competitions. They present an excellent way to gain new customers and exposure and are advantageous for both your business and the customers.
Use your social media accounts to offer free samples of your product or even free shipping. The people that follow you will share your posts with other people, providing exposure and maybe even new loyal customers.
Contests can be found on all social media, are fun for your followers, and can potentially attract new ones as well. Make sure that the prize you offer is related to your brand because that’s the main reason people follow you. There are different kinds of contests: photo contests, caption contests, contests where a random person who comments or likes wins, voting contests, and many more.
2. Customer reviews
As previously mentioned, interaction with your customers is of significant importance. Respond to people on your blog, check your email regularly, and be in the comments of your social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).
Not only does it build trust, but it also motivates them to leave good reviews that other people can read and maybe even decide to give your business a shot.
GMB, or Google My Business, is a free service where you can provide information about your business, but also where customers can leave reviews. But an even better source of reviews and recommendations are social media.
Encourage customers to use hashtags and tag your brand after they receive your product or try your service. This way, when people search for your brand on those social media websites, they will see all these satisfied customers who might even provide pictures and videos of them using your brand. Nothing says ‘this business is to be trusted’ like good reviews.
3. Customer testimonials
Customer testimonials are basically good reviews that you can feature almost everywhere. Just claiming that you’re the best and that you have tons of satisfied customers means nothing if no one can confirm it.
If a customer is hesitant to give your business a try, a good experience and a sincere recommendation from a customer will show that your business is reliable. If their testimonial features emotion or a story, it is even more likely to convince a new customer to try your product. A testimonial from another business displays credibility, that you’re willing to partner up, and that you work well with others.
Getting testimonials is quite easy: just talk to a loyal customer or a business you’ve worked with and ask them if they would be willing to write a few sentences about their experience with your brand. You can put a testimonial on the front page of your website, the product page, a dedicated testimonial page, your blog, and even brochures.
4. Marketing campaigns
Especially effective when used on social media, marketing campaigns are guaranteed to attract new customers if done right.
Before starting a marketing campaign, make sure you know who your customers are and what are their interests. Identify keywords that are related to your business that people are looking up and which social media your target audience uses the most.
Why is social media the best place to advertise, you may wonder. That’s because they target audiences through demographic information so potential customers can see your brand in their feeds. When people use the internet and visit websites, they generate data that includes their gender, race, age, purchases, and websites they frequently visit. So, when you decide to buy ads on a social media site, they will show them to people who have similar interests.
5. Email marketing
Email marketing presents a super effective way to connect with customers. Even if people don’t have social media accounts, they have emails. And by using email, you can reach a large number of people for the cost of almost nothing. Email marketing campaigns can be used to notify your customers about special deals, sales, and new products.
Email marketing requires no revenue be spent on printing flyers and brochures and provides all the important information that your customers need: a link to your website, a phone number, an address, and also another means of communication.
But maybe the best perk of email marketing is that you can customize each email that you send and address people by their names. According to research, emails are 26% more likely to be opened if they contain the name of the recipient.
6. Partnerships
Remember when we mentioned that it is beneficial to have testimonials from other businesses and to have your links on other websites? Partnerships are what makes these possible.
By working with other businesses, you can learn about new techniques and methods, have access to new resources, capture the interest of new customers and reach new markets.
Partnerships are beneficial for both sides: the business you’re working with can reach your audience and vice versa. It also helps build brand awareness and credibility, as you will be featured on their website. The number of services you offer will expand, as well, so it is good to partner up with a business that offers a product similar to yours.
Conclusion
As you can see, you don’t need millions to attract customers online. There is a large number of ways to attract them. From the creation of the website for your business and its optimization, through social media accounts, to partnering up with other businesses, most of the mentioned ways to attract customers are free and all of them are beneficial.
The most important thing is to be creative, know which channels to use and follow the steps described in this blog in detail. Now that you have that knowledge, start promoting, be outstanding and you will rock it!
So, get organized and put your business out there for everyone to see!
Good luck!
