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How to Expand Your Customer Base

Guest post by: Stephen Feswick

Article Overview: Customers can only emerge from a sales funnel consistently filled with potential prospects.

How to Expand Your Customer Base

In the beginning, there was the customer. And the customer was good.

Unfortunately, as time goes on many business owners struggle to find new customers to generate sales and profits. Friends and family who once flocked to the new venture decide to try a competitor, individual needs change and the once steady supply of customers slows down to a trickle.

What to do?

Conventional wisdom tells us that, as small business owners we need to constantly fill the funnel with leads.

The goal is to fill the funnel with as many prospects as possible. As they exit the end of the funnel, they do so as clients or customers of the business.

But where can you find prospects in the first place that can be put in your business funnel?

Start first with you existing clients. Use a marketing tool to speak directly to them offering supporting services to gain a greater share of their loyalty. If, for example you are a chiropractor, send an offer for massage, or aromatherapy services. Find other related services that customers are spending money on somewhere else and offer to take care of them yourself.

Remember to market to customers no longer doing business with your company. Invite them to tell you why they left. Often you’ll find they’ve just forgotten about you. After all, as important as your business is to you, it’s NOT front and center with your old clients. They may simply need a reminder to come back and begin doing business again.

The old adage: “birds of a feather flock together” provides a clue as to where you can find new prospects. Consider your current customers and ask questions such as; what other services and products would they purchase if they were available from you? Where do they live? What age bracket would they fall into? What type of work are they involved in? How do they prefer to learn about new offers – email, regular mail service, text messages, etc.?

The answers to such questions will provide guidance as to where similar prospects exist and how best to reach out and connect with them through your marketing and advertising efforts.

Regardless of what advertising vehicle you choose (greeting cards, radio, tv, magazine, newspaper, online) your goal is to produce a message with a measurable call-to-action. Invite interested prospects to contact you and begin further marketing efforts to those who have voluntarily expressed an interest in your product or service.

Fill the funnel to capacity and the sheer volume of prospects will emerge willing and able to do business with you.

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Article Tags: customer base, marketing, prospects, sales



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Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Re: Paypal process $315 million in payments per day. - I agree with you David, their Customer relations suck. This mean other payment systems like 2CO and WORLDPAY should work on their customers relations to take more slice of the market.
Re: Welcome to Entrepreneur University! - Hi Evan and GT, Can you clarify? If you join the "Preferred Customer" you are not entitled to commission? Why? This is the the $79.95/month account, I don't understand why you are not getting commission from it?
Re: How can I promote my site? - Hey, Since your site is a video sharing site, I would suggest you to use Chill .com it will be really helpful I can assure if used effectively. Try to bookmark each of your video URL on top social bookmarking sites and share in social networks. Apart from that you can also write few articles related to the video say 2-3 and submit to top article sites like Ezine Articles, Articles Base. Make a guest post in a related niche blog and frame a interesting post with catchy title and in the end you can mention how will it be useful watching the video to understand and post the link.
Re: Email Marketing Benefits - Robert, Many lists consist of more prospects than customers. Customer lists are the best, but they are created because prospects successfully transform into customers.


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