Marketing tips to grow your customer base

Here are 5 fundamental marketing practices to help you grow a strong customer base:

1. Know your Target Audience

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make is trying to promote to everyone. Every business has a specific market or ideal target audience/customer.  Really understanding and identifying your ideal customers will enable you to target them more effectively. Customers are more likely to respond positively to your marketing efforts and convert into a sale or enquiry if you understand their unique needs. So, write down and detail your target audience(s). It is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on the information you already know about them. And if you don't know, start paying attention and make an educated guess.

You should know 'demographics':

• Age/Generation
• Gender
• Language
• Location
• Job/career path
• Family

And 'psychographics' (behavioural information) such as:

• Hobbies/Interests
• Communication channels
• Spending pattern
• Where they shop
• What they read/watch
• Motivations
• Pain points

Finding out this information will help you to communicate with them effectively and efficiently.

2. Advertising Channels

Knowing your audience will allow you to easily decide on what advertising 'channels' your business should be actively using to attract new customers or enquiries. A 'channel' could be a traditional or offline tactic (e.g. radio, print, TV) or digital (social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn, website, email marketing, blog etc).

Keep in mind - you do not need to be everywhere. To ensure for effective marketing, focus your efforts on channels that your customers are exposed to and interacting with. Research your customer first, and write down which advertising channels that you think your customers are engaging with.

3. What is your unique selling point? 

A great marketing strategy is to establish yourself as the best in your market or industry. What makes you stand out from your competition? What do you do differently? Be sure to understand this, and champion it through your brand story and marketing efforts. And make sure your team knows what it is too!

4. Communicate with your customer regularly 

Marketers often talk about 'top of mind' awareness. Basically, you're looking to own a small piece of real estate in someone's mind, so when they come to look for your product or service, they think of you first. This takes time, and ongoing effort. Just because you have a website or Facebook page it does not mean anyone will find it. Communicate often, at the right times, in the right places and ensure that it is consistently on brand.

5. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is an optimisation process that helps increase the quality and quantity of traffic to your website. If you have a website, we recommend that SEO it is reviewed and optimised on a regular basis. This includes keyword research, building key search terms into your on-page and meta data and ensuring the content for the end user is relative to their search term. 

By performing this, you are more likely to appear higher in organic search results on search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo etc.), which in turn will help potential customers find you. This is a simplified explanation, so at the very least, login to your website back end and ensure that every website page includes titles, keywords and descriptions and every image is named (as this too helps with SEO).

If you would like help with these 5 fundamental marketing practices and could use some practical support to create a marketing plan, contact Nicole Colless for a no-obligation meeting to discuss your options. Email: nicole.colless@bakertillysr.nz

DISCLAIMER No liability is assumed by Baker Tilly Staples Rodway for any losses suffered by any person relying directly or indirectly upon any article within this website. It is recommended that you consult your advisor before acting on this information.