Clients or customers are the reason businesses exist. A business will not succeed without clients. When starting a new business, however, having a client base can be difficult. You are building your client base from scratch and with zero reputation for them to refer to unless you have been operating independently. So this dilemma begs the question, how do you build a client base from nothing? The answer is multi-faceted. It would be best if you first started by creating a plan to gain clients. Once you start generating a base, you will need a strong and strategic marketing plan to maintain and expand your client base. Here are five strategies to build a client base for your new business quickly to get you started.
Referrals and Endorsements
Even though you are a new business, you should still have the ability to get referrals and endorsements. Most new business owners think about the business and not their jobs before starting their business that built and utilized their skills. Just as you can get referrals and endorsements from previous employers if you were seeking a new job with another company, you can seek referrals and endorsements from previous employers in your new business. You are not asking them to endorse your business. You are asking them to endorse you. Once you build a client base that can refer and endorse your business, you can build on that to gain more clients.
Partnerships
If you know other business owners, who are well established in the community, you can partner on referrals, projects, and sales. Even if the business isn’t directly related to yours, you can still benefit one another by lending credibility to their reputation and lending credibility to yours. In some cases, whether the products or services are related, you can find ways to do discounts and giveaways for each other’s businesses or partners on packages. These collaborations and partnerships have proven to be highly effective in building credibility and gaining clients and customers to help build beyond your partnership.
Use Social Media
Regardless of its size or years in business, every business can gain quick recognition by simply using social media platforms to tell your connections and followers you have a business and what it has to offer. By building business pages, or interesting and engaging business accounts, you can quickly gain customers from your connections. Also, if you are clever with your hashtags, you can gain customers that are not connected to you who find you through your hashtags. Finding the trending hashtags of the day is easy, and if you can incorporate it into your posts, you will get new eyes on your business and what it has to offer. Also, having a business page is on social media platforms is easy and free!
Offer Incentives
Once you begin gaining clients, you should offer incentives to help retain their business, but you should also offer every new client special incentives for referrals and reviews. Potential customers searching for the product or service you offer will often ask friends or family for what they recommend. Make sure your clients always recommend you by incentivizing referrals. Also, offer something if they write you a positive review. Some companies will even offer free products for reviews.
Identify and Target Potential Clients
Most businesses have a target demographic, have a niche product or service, or focus on a specific geographical area. Knowing who your target audience is, you can focus efforts on targeting groups and certain areas for marketing your business. If you offer a service or product that can only be found or utilized locally, you will want to focus your advertising in your area. If you have a product or service that can be done online, but for use by a certain demographic or group, it would make sense for you to target advertising or marketing to groups that included your target client.
Conclusion
Building your new business may seem like a far too challenging endeavor. However, if you use these easy to implement strategies, you can quickly build a client base, you can continue to grow for years to come.
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