At the age of nine, I became an entrepreneur by selling Christmas cards door-to-door during the summer. The more doors I knocked on, the more sales I made. Maybe it was because I grew up with Charles Chips and Fuller Brush men coming to our door and making sales, I just assumed people would always buy from me.
Thirty years later I began cold calling, but sales didn’t happen like they did when I was a kid. The reality is getting someone on the phone today is not the same as meeting someone at their front door yesterday.
The key to attracting new customers online revolves around three principles. You must:
- Provide great insight, knowledge and expertise
- Go where your customers will find you
- Get third party endorsements
Here are 10 simple ways to do just that:
- Know exactly who your customer is. For example, if you have two distinct types of customers, identify them as such. Perhaps there are customers that hire you for keynotes and trainings, while others may be independent retailers who buy your products.
- Be an expert in your field. Create quality content on a professionally designed blog or website aimed at your ideal customers. Write multiple pieces on your subject, discuss new ideas being used, share in multiple ways and have a clear point of view. Show that you are the authority. If you have to hire a Webmaster to make you look good, do it.
- Create and distribute an email list. Invite your visitors to join your email list; then use that list to send newsletters that answer the questions your customers are wrangling with every day. Talk to them like you are sharing a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Be yourself. Be natural. Be brief.
- Create a targeted Facebook ad. Develop the ad using those same customer questions. Target people who are likely to respond to the ad. Using specific words and interests guides Facebook to further target your potential customers.
- Create exclusive content. By creating content that can only be downloaded when visitors enter their contact information, you’ve provided those customers with something unique. Think white papers, special reports, or top 10 lists created just for your audience. Use a company such as Hubspot to track the path your contacts took to arrive at that special content.
- Ask for referrals. Don’t be afraid to ask your current customers if they know someone who could use your product or service. Here’s the gold that makes this hot – try to give them a lead to a business that might be interested in their service. Reciprocation means you both win.
- Make use of Easily to help gain customers. Easily is another great tool that allows you to share your business on Facebook, lets your friends easily endorse you, and leads their network of friends to discover you as well. Easily is an online social classifieds platform, which allows people to find a service or product, based off of referrals from within their social networking circles.
- Build separate landing pages for your social networks. Fill your landing page with links to your special reports, unique content and to your other social networks as well. This Twitter landing page is a great example. This gives customers another way to learn all about the multi-faceted you and, at the same time, allows you to collect valuable information on them as well.
- Get on video. Video a blog, or your white paper, or a list of FAQs about your business and upload it to YouTube. Make sure you use the Google Keyword Tool just like for your blog or website, and be sure to include a call to action on your end title card.
- Request brand endorsements. Don’t be afraid to request endorsements from every major brand, distributor or national account you know. Put them on your website; scatter them in your newsletter, and ask them to post on your LinkedIn profile. Put them wherever new customers are most likely to find you. Brand recognition can seal the deal for some customers and give you more credibility.
To attract customers without cold calling, you must be the authority, develop a variety of quality materials, and acquire testimonials. Don’t limit yourself to the old fashioned ways of the telephone when the keyboard has so much power.
Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor®, has helped thousands of businesses in hospitality, manufacturing, service, restaurant and retail since 1994. His clients have ranged from multi-national luxury brands to small business mom and pops. With over thirty years experience beginning in the trenches of retail and extending to senior management positions, Phibbs has been a corporate officer, franchisor and entrepreneur. His speaking presentations are designed to provide practical information in a fun and re-memorable format. His books include The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business (Wiley). No matter how long an employee works with your small business, if they can master the skills to build rapport and make a sale, they can go on to do just about anything.
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