Three Types of Customers that You Can Attract to Your Business
Advertising your business is crucial to growth, that’s just the way it has. You can’t expect people to just walk in off the street anymore unless you are located in some sort of shopping complex where people are browsing anyway. Most of your traffic is going to come in online and then it will come from people who have already heard about your business, whether through advertising agencies or word of mouth and lastly it will be from walk ins off the street who have no idea what to do or sell. Let’s focus on these three groups a little more closely.
Online Traffic
From social media to search engine optimization to online ads and email marketing, advertising firms take full advantage of the size of the audience the Internet offers.
- Social Media– This includes Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and basically any other outlet that brings people together online. Advertising is done through setting up profiles for the businesses and linking them back to the website through ads, promotions and status updates. Keeping up with what’s trending is helpful to making sure you stay up to date in the online world.
- Search Engine Optimization– Almost everyone’s Internet usage begins with searching for something on Google, Bing, Yahoo or another search engine. Ranking high on these sites is important in order to gain attention and thus traffic.
- Online Ads– YouTube, Hulu and other sites will accept payment for ad space before and during their videos. Other ads can be placed on search engines and used in a pay per click format.
- Email Marketing– This has been done for awhile and is probably the oldest form of online advertising. Advertising agencies sometimes don’t offer this anymore because of how advanced junk filters are in emails these days, half the time your email ad doesn’t even get through. However, other ad agencies agree that it’s a free form of advertising so you might as well try it out.
Word of Mouth Traffic
These are the people who have been recommended by someone who has done business with you. Advertising agencies will tell you this is the best kind of advertising- it’s positive and it’s free! If you can offer great customer service and an excellent product, then the customer will do the advertising for you. People are much more likely to visit a new business because someone they know already had a good experience than to step into a new one. This also includes people who received a flyer or a brochure or saw a sign or billboard about your business. They may have received a discount for your store if you put one out and have come to redeem it. Discount shopper may not be back until they have another coupon but it’s a foot in the door and you should treat them like they are the best customer you have ever had the privilege of serving.
Off the Street Traffic
There are those who will still check out a business that they haven’t noticed before in order to find out what it is. Those will be few and far between and probably won’t buy anything during the first visit but first impressions are everything. If you can impress them enough, they will return at some point to make a purchase, now that they know you are there and what you do. These kinds of customers will have lots of great questions about your business that you should be prepared to answer. Patience and kindness is key during these encounters. Don’t brush them off as annoying, they are careful shoppers and don’t impulse buy; but when they do buy, it’s probably a very large purchase amount.
These are the three types of customers that advertising agencies say you will get depending on how you advertise. If you are not entirely familiar with how to market and promote your company, you may want to hire an ad agency to help you make the proper decision and take certain measures in order to gain more customers. If your client base is not growing then it is only a matter of time before your business dies out, especially if you are sales based business.