Where To Find Customers
Quick Guide To Helping You On Your Path To Creating New Customers
Are you trying to find new customers and ways to reach them?
If you take a step back and look at your business. Think about your customers and what they did to find your business. Did they search a term and find you on Google that you rank for? Did they go to Google and look for a “how to” that you created content on?
Those are more obvious examples of how consumers find what they are looking for. What about the ambiguous ways in which your business is or can be discovered? People who understand Search features use Facebook to get recommendations or see if someone links to a product or service via Pinterest, linked-in, Google, and other social media platforms.
Many times an advertisement that a consumer sees or hears, whether on a billboard, TV, radio or online creates an interest. Consumers see products and services every day that they are interested in. Things they put into their memory bank for later when they know more about the product/service or can justify to themselves (weighing need and desire) making the next step and (a.) finding more info (b.) purchasing.
What happens when consumers remember the products/service but not the company they saw offering it? I have bought items from various categories that I originally had seen elsewhere but when it became time for me to buy I didn't remember the name or company.
In comes your favorite search engine (normally Google) and the research to find the product/service begins.
Sometimes you are successful, but usually, you search terms relevant to the product and or service, and they may not yield the exact results desired. Why does understanding this matter?
Content and advertisements can be tailored to these search terms to help consumers find your product/service. Its why we use keywords on content and why when we create advertisements we target interests related to our niche. We are always looking for the best product/service and of course price. Many times we forgo cost just for the quality, especially with the trend in current society on reusable products and sustainability.
How To Capitalize On The Internet To Find Customers
Go to google and search anything relevant to your niche. This can quickly turn into a “rabbit hole” which to me is a good thing. It's starting with an idea and then expanding on it until you create focus and then ultimately achieve your goal. In this case, that goal is to reach customers and then turn them into “your” customers.
Look at blogs and threads. I spend a large portion of my time going to local neighborhood apps such as Next Door or Round.io. Next door is where neighbors communicate. They ask questions about products and services. A quick CTRL+F, or the Mac equivalent and some search terms related to your niche such as “plumber” or “computer repair” or “kids clothes” and so forth can land you some results. Here you have the opportunity to leave a comment and recommend your service with a link to your website and reviews. Questions asked several months ago could still be relevant to a neighbor who takes the same steps. They look for someone asking about the best “landscape” company and then find your answer creating a potential lead for you.
Round.io associated pictures on Instagram and Flickr to a specific location, and if you are working on ranking locally, you can help customers find you by commenting on geotagged images near you.
Facebook groups are a great way to reach out to customers. You have to be careful because groups do not always appreciate you leaving your information on their threads, but if someone has asked a question specific to your niche and there has not been a solid answer by another group member you can leave your input. If you create the answer in the right way, you can avoid annoying the admins. These types of threads are also great for getting keyword ideas; this can be a gold mine if you are incognito and just observing how people are using keywords relevant to your niche.
Quora is a search engine where people ask questions and get answers from industry content creators. Or Joe Smo who knows a thing or two about the question being asked. It is useful to see if questions are being asked about your product/service and if correct answers have been given. It is also useful in creating traffic to your webpage. You can bookmark a question if you have a good answer but need to write content on it (content creation idea) then go back and post a link to your newly created content with a summary answer on the site.
How Competitors Can Land You Business
Simple answer. If you are trying to create traffic through paid advertising, you can target a competitors brand/website/content into your advertisement targeting. Targeting your competitors in your ads allows you to capitalize on the images of your competitors but helps direct their consumers to a local offering or cost leader product/service, i.e., you. Many huge brands are much greater than me when it comes to Internet Marketing services. However, I target those brands whose content ranks high in google and then direct consumers who find their content to my page and offer my service at a rate they can more readily afford with the same level of quality and possible a greater level of personal service.
This is where the power of content creation comes in handy. You can have the best advertisement on Facebook, Google, or any other advertising platform but if when consumers click through to your website you offer limited information or have a poor website lacking reviews from customers or information supporting your offering you turn traffic into high bounce rates instead of conversions. Ensure your content is relevant and of good quality, before you try to re-direct consumers from your competitors, otherwise your efforts will be wasted.
Conclusion
I can personally attest to being a small business owner and thumping my head on how I can generate more customers. Old school methods like cold calling businesses can be great but are time-consuming. In the same amount of time, I can write multiple pieces of content and reach out to hundreds of thousands of consumers online interested in my niche.
Use the power of the internet and the ability to access multiple places quickly and even at the same time. I have never spent even an hour researching online and felt my time was wasted. Start researching and if you have a questions leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to assist.