How to acquire new customers & market your small business

As one of the Sherpa co-founders, I speak to SMEs everyday but also as a sales & marketing professional who has worked with SMEs for over 12 years, I’ve realised they all face the same challenges: to acquire new customers and market their business.

The journey appears to unfold in a similar way for most; try this scenario:

Sally has a passion for clocks, decides to make a business selling clocks, realise that it’s not that easy to acquire new customers easily and then the treadmill of trying different marketing methods begins.

If only someone had warned Sally and informed her there are proven methods and there was no reason to reinvent the wheel.

Here are my top ways to market your business and acquire new customers:

1. Be very clear on your value proposition – what is it about your product/service that will benefit the customer in a unique fashion.
2. Identify who your customers are and know where they are.
3. Develop a plan to acquire new customers – use multiple mediums not just one and be persistent because nothing happens overnight.
4. Test, measure and refine – if something clearly isn’t working then kick it to the curb and try something else.
5. Branding is just important as measurable marketing so make sure you do both.
6. Marketing methods that can be measured are the best, especially when you have low budgets. Google, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc. can all provide measurable results
7. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – this is non-negotiable; if people can’t find you online, how do you expect them to buy from you?
8. Content – produce relevant content around your brand/product and communicate it. Use your own blog, contribute to others, be a specialist in your industry, network with other local businesses, offer free talks… basically anyway you can think of.
9. Referral campaigns – easiest way and cheapest way to acquire new customers. Just ask people to recommend you, you’ll be surprised how many people are willing to do it once they buy into your business. You can go one step further by incentivising them to do it.
10. Live up to your promise – your brand and your product must be what you claim them to be and they are, that will make make your marketing efforts A LOT easier.

It may take a while before you see significant results but if you stick to your plan and trust in the process, the customers will come and will keep coming. The rest is up to you. Now go get those customers!

One of Sherpa’s key markets are small to medium enterprises (SMES); the brick & mortar retailers scattered all over Australia and the new wave of entrepreneurs tackling E-commerce and mobile commerce. This is made up of florists, cake shops, retailers, etc. Our belief at Sherpa has always been that these businesses should have a better way to reach more customers and with a better experience. This is why SMEs are a key market for us but it’s also linked to a greater theme of ‘reaching more customers and driving more sales’.

Here at Sherpa, we can help your business acquire new customers by enabling you to offer on-demand delivery of your products. If you want to have a chat about how we can help your business, feel free to reach out at sales@sherpa.net.au or give us a buzz on 1800 841 660.