17 November 2011
WWDC asks Hannah Mattinson, Marketing Manager of Urban River to rank the 6 most important ways to generate new customers.

1. Use your old ones.

If your firm maintains its current income levels through Word of Mouth and referrals, make sure you thank your customers. It sounds simple but even asking new customers how they heard about you will let you know who to reward. Make your customer feel valued so they will continue driving new customers through your doors.

2. Direct Mail.

Gone are the days of ‘junk mail’; in the last decade, email has taken over as the new way to contact with personalisation capabilities being the supposed golden ticket to new business. In light of this, what do you do when everyone’s following a trend? Go the other way! This will differentiate you from competitors and sending some fun post will show off what you can do and give a positive impression. If you are willing to spend some time and effort to contact potential customers, they will be more inclined to listen to your message.

3. Introduce a loyalty scheme.

If you sell a range of products and services which people buy regularly, why not incentivise repurchase behaviour. People are happy when a purchase decision is as easy as possible so offering them the 5thsandwich/coffee/etc free every month will ensure you have their custom approximately one day per week if not more.

4. Get out there and network.

Wherever your business is located there will be regional business events which are a great way to meet people. Your face and attitude are much more memorable than your logo and advert in the newspaper. Your next business deal could be literally just around the corner so make the most of what’s on your doorstop.

5. Do the media know you’re in business?

PR is essential if you want to get in the press on a limited budget. Sharing a story or how you solved a client/customer problem is a great way to tell people about your firm and will encourage them to consider you for future purchases.

6. Sale, deal, offer!

And all the similar words which are used to grab your attention are a great way to increase awareness. If you have a shop window a sale poster will drive people inside. Even if they don’t buy, they will have visited your store and are more inclined to return and tell others what they saw. If you don’t have a shop-front, simply giving people a leaflet to drive them online will help; you could put a discount code on it to make results of your efforts easily traceable too.

I hope you found these tips useful and find success when you implement these techniques yourself!

Hannah