How to Win New Customers For Your Online Business

When your online business is in its infancy, it can be difficult to gather new customers. Often people look for experienced companies to spend their hard-earned cash with, so immediately a new business has a disadvantage. However, you should not be discouraged. It is possible for a young online business to attract new customers, you just have to employ some clever marketing strategies. Here are some of the most successful.

 Introduce a Refer a Friend Scheme

 If you already have a core group of loyal customers, then there are even more techniques that you can use to grow your customer base. Think back to the last major purchase you made, or the last person that you employed, were you recommended them by a friend? Most of us take word-of-mouth recommendations very seriously, so a good way to garner new customers is to ask your customers to refer them to you. You can make this an appealing prospect to your existing customers by offering a discount on their next purchase for each person they refer to you. You can even extend that offer to the new customer so that both feel they have got their hands on a bargain. Many of the hugest companies today grew their business in exactly this way. Uber offered a free taxi ride to you when you referred a friend, it cost them a small amount in the beginning, but it helped them grow to be one of the largest transport providers in the world.

  Include A Sign-Up Incentive

 If there’s one thing that people love, it’s getting something for nothing, so give it to them! One industry that does this better than most others is the iGaming industry. If you don’t mind searching around you can usually find a casino that will give you no deposit free spins, so that you can play on their slot machines completely free. It’s legal and safe, but you feel as though you’ve somehow tricked the system.

 The important thing to look for here is the exchange that is being made outside of money. The casino company is willing to give you free spins in exchange for your time spent on their website. They know that their games are great fun, so if they can just convince you to play, then you should become a new sign-up. Therefore the transaction is simple, your new sign-up, for their free spins. Your sign-up incentive should work in exactly the same way. Offer 10% off your products if a customer signs up to your newsletter, offer a loyalty card for returning customers, or simply send out a free sample of your latest product in any new customer orders.

 Hold a Giveaway

 Although giveaways sound similar to new sign-up incentives, they are slightly different. Giveaways target your existing customers and are a great way to help your business grow. Many brands employ these sorts of giveaways via their social media channels.

 A simple way to host a giveaway is to decide on a prize, obviously, one of your products, take a beautiful photo of it, and share it on your social media channels. In your accompanying text, you should ask people to like the post, share it and tag a number of friends below. You can set a date that you’ll end the giveaway by, or a number of shares that the post has to reach before you’ll be announcing the lucky winner. Marketing in this way is incredibly low cost, and although not everyone who is tagged on the post will instantly become a new customer, you will be able to reach lots of people who are close to the demographic of your existing customers.

 Partner With Similar Websites

 If you already have contacts working in a similar field to you, then this marketing idea is simple. If you’re new to the industry and don’t yet have many contacts then it can be a great way to build up your network. One of the best examples of this kind of marketing is with Etsy. This company has brought together thousands of designers and created a platform where people can search through all of their products. This means that finances can be pooled together and you can reach a much larger percentage of your target demographic.

 You can do this on a smaller scale by partnering with complementary businesses and extending any of the marketing techniques between you. For example, if somebody signs up for your newsletter, they could earn 10% off their next purchase with any of your partners. In the same way, if one of your partner’s customers refers a friend to you, then you can extend your bonus between both businesses. Working in collaboration is not only a great way to win new customers, but truly the best way to develop strong connections within your industry.