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12 Ways to Get More Customers |
"How can I get more customers?"
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 rigth 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
set up 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 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 get a
commission of like 15% of the price. Also you offer his 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 I mentioned
above you can use many ready programs and scripts which will just do
that and more. Some billing softwares 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 systems. 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 to and I have seen companies get 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 to 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 Monthy 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 what 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 thought I
don't think its a good ting to do because this might make some
potential clients to stay 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 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 soar.
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 seen 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 cangive 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 be interested in, etc and not something that will make him say "what is that? is that what tehy 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 bonuses 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 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 memebers in the same time to get help and free advertisement for your company with a signature on your profile. Whenever you post an ad on such forums, 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. Remember, don't just go there when you want to post and ad but be active and be 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 its better for them or can make the payment in theat way will make you lose alot 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 the 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 the way your potential customers will do things 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 paypal account easily unlike credit cards. For that reason you should provide many payment options so you don't lose any sale or more pecause that will help you get more customers.
8. Make Your Web site Multilingual and International.
This helps a lot of people all around the world. You should make your website international and have atleast some of the most spoken languages or international language. Well you know english is an international language and you should also make your website 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 their 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 tor each 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 alot of traffic and are similar to your site like web hosting discussions 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 unline other tips which I covered but it works and its worth any penny you spend on it. You should advertise on the 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 andmmost of them said they get atleast 1 cusomter throught it and as you can see its a good thing. I mean if you get 1 customer daily throguht it then that will be 30 customers a 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 -- TV's, 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 know TVs, Radios, Magazines, News Papers because tehy 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 cost 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 or something and they go to a commercial break and they air your ad. You know millions of people watch it. 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's. There are things you should consider when advertising on radios. If you have a domain name with numbers it might confuse the radio listeners. eg. if you have a domain name john4host then how will they understand that the 4 is a number and not a word. 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 ad will be seen by people from around the world.
And about the new papers, the local news papers will be a good way to tell the local people about your business because it is deleivered to homes every morning. And as you know there is a page made just for advertisements etc. So you can use local newspapers to get more local clients.
12. Rent some place and get a sign up 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 its not that necessary even though it can help your business a lot.
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CBS Group Inc.
