12
Sure Ways to Get More Customers!
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| by Abdillahi
Abdillahi |
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Whenever you start a new business
you ask yourself one of the most important question
"How can I get customers?" Or if you have some
customers already you say it like this "How can I get
more customers?" .
There are many ways which you can promote your services or
products but it seems not every company owner is utilizing
from them. I was on MSN messenger the other day and there
was a friend online who was reading some of the articles I
have written so far.
As he was telling me that he found them interesting etc I
suddenly asked him this question "What do you like to
read about?" And he answered the question like this
"I like to read about the internet and computers but
what I really want to read about these days is how to get
customers, a short article. I then said "Well you
know what you just gave me an idea of what to write about
my next article .
I will be telling you some tips which I think will work if
implemented well and bring customers to you .
This friend I'm talking about has recently started a web
hosting company and he is trying the best he can to make
it the best company and take his share from this industry.
So that is how I got the idea of writing this article.
It is really hard to promote a new company into a crowded
industry such as the web hosting industry where people
start new companies daily.
Like I said before there are many tactics which are
legitimate and as a company owner you are supposed to use
them for your company and see the outcome.
As you can see now, Today in this article I will explain
some tips which you can use to get customers or more
customers .There will be 12 tips as the title of the
article says and most of them will not cost anything if
you want to use them for your company.
But You know when you want to start a business you will
have to invest some cash into it and see how it goes so
that is why the tips which will cost you something worth
all the money you spend on them.
All the 12 tips I covered here can be used for any
business type even though I wrote them for the web hosting
companies. All right why don't we start explaining the 12
sure ways to get more customers ? Ok then here we start
doing so.
1.Referral Program.
This is one of the best ways to get customers or new
customers. You can setup a referral system which your
current customers can sign up to refer customers to you.
You give the customer a special tracking url which he can
then give it to any one he wants to sign up through his
special tracking url.
So whenever an existing customer's url is used then that
customer gets a commission like 15 % of the price .Also
you offer his is own account where he can track the
statistics of his campaign etc.
It is better to automatically sign up any new customer the
referral program so he or she can start referring
customers to you right away without having to go through
another sign up process than the first sign up process
which is when filling out the order form.
For that reason ask the person whether or not to sign up
for the referral program with the same information
provided with the order form .
And for the management and the tracking url which we I
mentioned above you can use many ready programs and
scripts which will just do that and more .Some billing
soft wares allow you to sign up affiliates and give them
that special tracking url .
That is the number of tip and it works well because I have
seen it and used it for my company and recently I made
some research and asked some hosting companies how they
got most of their customers and most of their answers were
through referral system. So start setting up a referral
system and see how it comes out.
2. Word of Mouth
This is very similar to the referral program except that
the existing customer doesn't get any commission and no
special tracking url.This one works very well too and I
saw companies got customers in that way. In order to make
an existing customer refer new customers to you ,you
should be providing good service to him and he should be
happy .
So make sure you do the best you can make your existing
customers happy because happy customers mean more business
is on the way and that they will not hesitate to refer new
customers to you.
Ask your current customers what they think of your service
and if they are happy or not and if they say that they are
happy then ask them to write a testimonial or a review
about your company etc.
So basically your existing customers will refer new
customers to you if they are happy with you .
3. Weekly and Monthly Special Offers.
This is another good one to get more customers. You can
offer special monthly offers and see how the sales will
soar. For example if you sell 100mb for $10 monthly then
you can make it a special weekly or monthly offer and sell
it for half of the price.
And as you can see if anyone orders that package from you
he will save $5 which is a good thing :) and that is why
most people would be interested in.
Of course to get a good profit you might need to set
special rules for those offers like saying applies to
monthly payments etc even though I don't think it is good
thing to do because this might make some potential clients
to say away because they might want to order that package
and prepay for six months or one year service and if they
make the payment for example one year in advance they will
save $60.
That may not be good for you but it is for them but
allowing them to make payment in advance like that will
get you more customers.
You can also set a date which the offer will expire and
won't be available anymore .So make weekly or monthly
special offers and watch your sales soaring .
4. Offer Huge Discounts.
Yes it is true .This one is like the weekly and monthly
offers as customer would save some money by ordering any
package with the discount on it except that it might be
only for monthly payments. Offering huge discounts will
get you more customers.
You can offer discounts in many ways like saying order for
six months service and get 30% discount etc.
Make sure you don't offer too many discounts as you would
always want to generate profit .You can start offering
discounts at the end of the month but why wait when you
can start now and observe the results ? :)
5. Give Bonus with every order.
Well this is a good one too and it is easy to use it for
your company . I have saw many companies giving out some
good bonus for just ordering anything and you can do the
same for your company . You can give a bonus to the client
whenever a customer makes an order .
There are many things that you can give out as a bonus to
for example sending a url where he can download a special
e-book , template etc for free . You can give anything you
want as a bonus but it is good to keep in mind that the
bonus should be something you think would be good for the
customer or he would interest in etc and not something
that will make him say what that is what they call a
bonus? :)
Also it is good to give the bonus after you receive the
payment and set up the account so you can feel you didn't
just give a bonus in case no payment is made. Start giving
out bonus and see how your business grows .
6. Join Forum Discussions.
You should join forum discussions where the kind of
services you provide are offered. For example if you have
a web hosting business you can join many good forums where
web hosting is discussed . In the forums you can post your
weekly or monthly special offers but don't just go to the
forums when you want to post an ad .
You should join the discussions and contribute and help
the other members in the same time get help and free
advertisement for your company with your signature.
Whenever you post an ad on such forum other members and
guests will see your offer and might just contact you for
business .
So go and join those forums and get free advertisement for
your company :) and remember don't just go there when you
want to post and ad but be active and make a part of the
community.
7. Offer Many Different Payment Options.
Sometimes not offering many different payment options so
your potential customers can choose the option that best
fits to them and they think is better for them or can make
the payment in that way will make you lose a lot of sales.
So that is why you should provide many different payment
options and make every potential customer feel that you
care about them and that you can accept payments from him
or her in the way he or she wants.
Because sometimes it happens to me when I want to buy
something online and I see they company doesn't accept the
way I want to make the payment and I just close the site
and search for another and that is what your potential
customers will do when they don't find the way they want
to make the payment.
Most of the time that happens when the company only
accepts credit cards or Paypal®. But it is ok because it
is possible to get a Paypal® account easily unlike credit
cards. For that reason You should provide many payment
options so you don't lose any sale any more because that
will help you get more customers :)
8. Make Your Web site Multilingual and International.
This helps a lot to reach a lot of people all around the
world. You should make your web site international and
have at least some of the most spoken languages or
international language. Well You know English is an
international language and you should also make your web
site in English. Also Arabic language is also too and you
should make a special for those who don't know English .
Just make versions of any language you think is important
to your business or you target the most .
I have seen some companies which offer their products and
services to certain countries only and even if you contact
with them and tell them that you are interested in there
services etc they will say to you that they offer there
services to only those countries in the order form so if
your country is not listed then we can't do business with
you .
But You shouldn't do that with your company and should
offer your services and products to everyone no matter
where he is in the world. By offering your services and
products to anyone no matter where he is in the world you
make sure that you are going to reach many different
people and also get more customers.
9. Sponsor Web sites.
You can sponsor web sites to get more customers. I think
you are saying what? That won't work. Well but it does
work You shouldn't just sponsor any site but you should
sponsor sites which are huge , I mean sites which get a
lot of traffic and are similar to your site like web
hosting discussion forums . That will help you get
customers because you are going to place your ads on the
site etc.
10. Paid Advertisement ---Only on the web.
Well here comes the advertising section. Of course this
will cost you money unlike other tips which I covered but
it works and it's worth every penny you spend on it. You
should advertise on sites which are similar to your site
and got a lot of traffic daily . Also you can use some pay
per click search engines or Google® adwords . I have
asked some companies which use that service how it works
and whether or not it works well for them and most of them
said that at least they get 1 customer through it and as
you can see it is a good thing. I mean if you get 1
customer daily through it then that will be 30 customers
per month and not bad.
Just make your own research and see the sites you like to
advertise on and the pay per click programs you want to
use and give them a try.
11. Paid Advertisement ---TVs, Radios, Magazines, News
Papers.
This is another one but the only problem one might have
with them is that they might cost a lot specially
advertising on some well known TVs, Radios, Magazines and
Newspapers because they are the best ways to advertise
your company and get more customers.
Advertising on TV is a great thing but costly like I said
before. And even though it might costs a lot but it pays
you back every penny you spend on it. Suppose you are
going to advertise on CNN® cable and your ad is aired
when for example there is live coverage of something and
they go to a commercial break and they air your ad. You
know millions of people watch it (including me:)) . So
think about the effect it will make .
And about the radios they are good too and might be a
little cheaper than the TV. There are things you should
consider when advertising on radios . If you have a domain
name with numbers it might confuse the radio listeners
e.g. if you have a domain name named john4host then how
will they understand that the 4 is a number and not like
for or four ? You see ? Really confusing but you can tell
the host to make it clear and tell the listeners.
International magazines are a good way to advertise on .
There are many great magazines which you can advertise
your company on .The great benefit of advertising on them
is that your ad will be seen by anyone who is subscribed
to that magazine and since it is international your add
will be seen by people from around the world.
And about the news papers , the local news papers will be
a good way to tell the local people about your business
because it is delivered to homes every morning .And as you
know there is a page just made for advertisements etc. So
you can use local news papers to get more local clients :)
12. Rent some place (Office) and get a sign with your
Logo.
Well renting some place down town is another good way to
get more customers. You can rent a small office down town
and make it the official head quarters . If you work from
home then you can make a small sign in front of your house
so people know about your company. But it is not that
necessary even though it can help your business a lot.
Conclusion
Those were the 12 ways which you can get more customers or
even customers. As you can see most of them don't require
money in order to do use them for your company . So try to
use the ones you find easy or that can be implemented
easily. Like I said there are many ways you can promote
your company and I couldn't list all of those ways . That
is it for the time being now I guess you have something to
do and that is trying out the tips covered here and
waiting for the results.
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| About
the Author: Abdillahi Abdillahi is a web designer, founder
and president of http://kooshin.com,
a company providing affordable web hosting and web design
solutions to small to medium sized businesses and
individuals. For more information, please visit http://kooshin.com |
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