New customers are essential to long-term business growth. The more customers you attract, the easier it will be for your company to grow. But how to attract new customers every day? Here are some ideas for gaining new customers.
Understand your customers
To gain new clients, you must first understand who your ideal customers are. This allows you to target and nurture them into making a purchase. So, before you do anything else, make sure you have accurate information about the customers you want to reach. Creating a buyer persona is a great way to improve your targeting.
Find the best channels for attracting new customers
When you know your customers, it’s easier to find them in the places they frequent the most. This could be done on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Or at your physical store. Analyzing your current customers to understand where they came from is the best way to know where you are likely to gain more customers.
Wall mounted prisma-print makes for a perfect outdoor display sign.
If you got them through mail or social media, you’re likely to get more if you target the same channel. However, if most of your customers discovered you with your physical store, you should focus on an outdoor display sign for example.
While it is acceptable to focus on one channel, especially if it is promising, a multichannel marketing strategy is recommended. Keep in mind that one channel can backfire.
Set objectives for attracting new customers
Setting goals motivates you to stay on track. Consider the following for the best experience when and after setting goals:
Make a list of everything you want to accomplish.
Analyze and prioritize your objectives.
Set a time limit to meet those objectives.
Begin with short-term objectives.
Recognize the purchasing procedure
How do customers contact you to make a purchase? If you know the answer to this question, it will be much easier to make the necessary changes to attract new customers. For example, if you discover that the majority of your customers are completing purchases on your site (which is not mobile-friendly), you can speed up the improvement process to attract more people.
Create compelling content
There is no other way to put it. Simply ensure that every piece of content you publish or share with your prospects establishes you as an expert in your field. This will encourage more people to interact with your content. You can even hire someone to create content for you if you find the DIY route too difficult.
Nothing can stop you from gaining new customers if you create content that your target audience is looking for and do it well. Remember that people enjoy reading and sharing rich content.
When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took to Capitol Hill to explain user data retention almost four years ago, he essentially sat in the hot seat on behalf of every entity that has ever collected and used personal information to craft better products. If that sounds like a massive catch-all, that’s because it is. However, Systems America, Inc. President Adesh Tyagi says it’s not as nefarious as it may sound. As the head of a global information technology services company, Tyagi knows that “Big Data” can be collected, applied and benefit the general public all at the same time.
Big data is exactly what it sounds like, says Tyagi, who has more than two decades of experience in this sector and whose company was previously awarded for being one of the fastest-growing in America.
It’s a compilation of information broken out by software that makes sense of the traits and behavior of service users. With a background that includes cloud computing and analytics plus Mobil Oil and McDonald-Douglas (now Boeing) among former clients, Tyagi says that any company can request an in-depth study of customer information to better design upcoming offerings.
This is sheer advertising at its core and it’s exactly what companies that work with Facebook do when they buy ad space on the social media platform. Do not confuse this with the fact that a third party was able to get its hands on 87 million Facebook accounts and use it as part of presidential election subterfuge. This occurrence is prolific on a global level, recently the Indian government expressed a sincere concern that third parties may have influenced the country’s elections. Similar concerns have been expressed by the Kenyan & Nigerian governments.
Tyagi says that this is inexcusable and a result of either over-confidence and laid-back oversight and provides an illustration of how technology can be used against the greater good of mankind.
Why big businesses buy into big data. They believe insight gleaned from big data analysis offers:
Happier users and larger returns due to consistently in-tune goods and services.
Learning more about which goods and services are going to use while others are ignored and why.
Real numbers to pair with real-world efforts to show investors regarding current efforts.
Adesh Tyagi.
“You basically employ different analytical tools to come up with the best services or tools for that particular customer,” says Tyagi. An example he points to as it pertains to data-driven solutions are financial products being deployed by a bank such as insurance programs or a new credit card. By retaining Systems America before launch, an enormous amount of information about members can be broken down by geography, income history, account balances and more. In his view, this is no different from a grocery store looking at what people are buying and deciding which products to purchase when restocking the shelves. For the Silo, Greg Adomaitis.
Recent research has found that over 70% of people research a small business online before making a first purchase. The online space is therefore crucial in creating traction for a new business, product, or service since it is the place where a good first impression is made. Implementing a good website and marketing strategy is paramount here since they have the ability to create a presence within the desired market and communicate with potential customers. One particular activity that is evidently successful in creating visibility for a brand and its website is advertising. Developing an advertising strategy that not only promotes a brand but ensures a valued customer journey is essential, and we’ll take a look at why below.
Considering the consumer journey
Before even exploring advertisement options, a small business must first consider their potential customer, since they will essentially drive the business. Understanding the needs of an audience will be useful in deciding what advertisement options to pursue, as a business will gain an understanding of what platforms they can be found on, such as Facebook vs Instagram. In understanding their journey, a business will be more able to make customers’ experience with the brand more enjoyable and memorable, which means the customer will be more likely to consider and complete a purchase.
As a business, it’s also essential to safeguard customers on their journey, as this will prevent them from coming into any harm and consequently avoiding the brand. This can mainly be done by preventing harmful ads from reaching customers via anti-malvertising software found on Geoedge. This can be considered as a business investment for every organisation on the internet as it puts the customer first, in turn giving the company the potential to create more revenue via increased purchases. After all, it’s typical of most people to leave a site when they are bombarded with ads: prevention is better than cure in this instance.
When it comes to creating a business ad, there’s more than one option to choose from and you can select a few or implement them all. Among the most popular are PPC, Display and SEO, not to mention social media. Whereas PPC and Display are essentially visual advertisements like banners that are displayed on websites across the internet to create attention and create traffic, SEO is a bit more technical.
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and essentially makes a website more visible among an array of competitors on search engine platforms like Google. By utilising this as an advertisement opportunity, it will help a domain’s authority ranking to increase, making a brand more visible to its audience. Plus, advertisements are also trackable and software like Comscore enables a small business to trial what advertisements work for them in order to modify them in the future.
Since the internet is accessed by millions daily, it’s easy for a new independent business to disappear within the plethora of businesses. Yet, by implementing an advertisement strategy that caters to and safeguards potential customers while creatively and strategically placing ads online, small businesses will start to see an increase in traffic.
Technology, including online technology, never stands still. There’s always something new or at least a different way to use it. Making the most of technology does require an expert touch. When you choose to seek out help from some of the best SEOs in Toronto, like Mike Zhmudikov, you position your online presence to more easily connect with your target audience. Here are some examples of how current and emerging technology is enhancing how you make and maintain those connections.
You Have More Ways To Tell Your Story
The factors that you should include in all of your SEO campaign strategies are more varied than they were 10 or 15 years ago. These days, there are many more ways to tell your story online and attract people who really want to hear that story. Making use of all those approaches improves the odds of broadening your reach.
For example, the prudent use of social media allows you to reach more people. Images included with the posts make a difference. You’ll also find that embedding videos in posts, or at least linking to them, also attract attention. Don’t overlook the potential of using text advertising to go along with email campaigns. Look at each way to engage consumers and identify the ones that resonate with your target audience. You may be surprised at how many avenues are actually open to you.
Providing More Information In Less Time Has Never Been Easier
Information in any form must not only be accurate. It also needs to be delivered quickly and in forms that consumers readily digest. That means optimizing your mobile site so everything loads quickly. The same is true for your traditional website.
Remember that attention spans are not what they were a generation ago. Today’s audience requires quick and accurate returns to their queries. If your pages lag, some will move on in disgust and never come back. By contrast, if you offer relevant data that loads without a long wait time, you have a good chance of making a new connection.
Technology Makes Relationship Marketing Simpler
You want to make information easier for users to share. When they come across your great social media feed and especially like a specific post, ensure they can share it with ease. Use widgets to ensure site visitors can share your pages on the most popular social media sites. You want your text or email ad to be easy to share with others. Today’s technology makes sharing a task that requires no more than one or two steps. Tap into that and you’re poised to reach more people.
Enhanced Customer Support and Building Rapport
When people think of customer support, their minds rightly move toward taking care of existing customers. That’s certainly the primary focus. What is sometimes overlooked is that potential customers are likely to contact support teams before they reach out to sales and marketing personnel. You can benefit from this by using technology to acknowledge their queries and then move them over to those who can onboard them as customers.
In order to do this, use technology to make reaching your customer support team easy. Along with voice and email, do make use of real-time messaging. While it can be automated up to a point, auto-attendants can only accomplish so much. Ultimately, you want actual people who review queries and step into the conversation.
How would technology help increase your brand recognition, online reputation, and motivate more consumers to turn to you? Only an expert can provide specifics. Work with someone who understands technology, SEO, and other elements of contemporary online strategies. You can bet that the investment of time and resources will be worth it.
With this Saturday, July 1st marking the celebration of Canada’s 150th Anniversary, the country recently hired the renowned New York ad agency Juized (*satirical) to rebrand the nation as “The Greatest Country On Earth”. This phrase has typically been associated with the U.S., but America let the trademark slip and Canada has scooped it up and taken it as her own.
image concept- J. Barker
Juized is actively promoting the phrase and image for Canada, while redesigning the Canadian flag and revamping the national anthem to reflect this new status.
Juized has just released this short video on the challenges of rebranding Canada in anticipation of the campaign release on Canada Day.
While the rebranding of Canada may be a marketer’s dream it is actually the imaginary creation of Media-Corps,a dual-client sales agency and the largest Canadian Media Representative in the U.S. The company created the Juized video * about Americans not getting Canada with the help of 2 top funny men — CBC’s Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring as a tribute to the Canadian milestone and to show appreciation for Canada’s unique culture.
Robert Laplante
A native Canadian, Media-Corp’s founder Robert Laplante helps American advertisers understand that for a brand to be successful beyond its own borders, it’s critical to understand the different demographics and their behaviors. For the Silo, Susan Mackasey.
It’s an old story- at least in terms of internet “best before” dates. In 2010 sites began reporting on new Streetview Advertising patent applications submitted by Google. The complete details of the patents were not readily made available to the press but essentially it all boiled down to a new way for Google to generate advertising revenue by superimposing digital advertisements and billboards over top of existing “real world” advertising and structures. This was justified by Google by explaining that there is a need to update Streetview images that contained existing advertisements that are no longer current.
Fast forward to today and what we are seeing is this: not only are “real world” ads being updated but new digital ads are being superimposed over Streetview structures that do not contain advertisements in the “real world”. This is interesting. It is a form of AR (augmented reality). It is ethically questionable and here’s why……
See that fence? See those ads? Do they exist in the “real world”? It doesn’t matter to Google.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely-
As virtual realty becomes claimed for advertising space there will more incentive to place AR ads on spaces that are in the “real world” off limits to billboards and marquee signage. What will prevent Google from selling AR ads that will appear on the side of the Eiffel Tower? Since they own the imagery presented on Streetview existing municipal bylaws are non-applicable.
As head worn AR devices such as Google Glass and Sony SmartGlass begin to enter the consumer kingdom this year- the future of AR advertising is clear.
I was sitting in the drive-thru at the McDonald’s on Rymal Road and Upper James St South in Hamilton a few nights ago and I found myself drawn towards a large advertisement set up on the wall between the two drive-thru windows. (see below) The ad wasn’t radical in any way- it showed some French fries, a pop and ice cubes and a Big Mac along with a few menu items in graphic type fonts.
I was a bit confounded because at first, I couldn’t understand what was drawing me into the advertisement- then I remembered a well worn paperback book I have called Media Sexploitation by Wilson Bryan Key, sitting on a book shelf somewhere back home. That book is all about subliminal advertising and its photo section showing examples of ‘hidden words and symbols found in ice cubes’ has stayed with me. So I studied the McDonald’s ad again, this time paying special attention to the ice cubes and that’s when I saw it: “Sex”.
We’ve copied and enhanced a portion of the advertisement to help illustrate where the word “SEX” can be found. The left side of the image is unaltered and ‘as found’- this ad was much larger than can be shown here in our post and the ice cubes were easier to “read”. CP
Did you know? Subliminal advertising is banned in the UK and Australia but is legal for use anywhere except television and radio in the USA and Canada.
I turned to my 15 year old son- (the reason for the McDonald’s visit in the first place was to buy him an after- Summer Hockey root beer) and asked him if he could see the words “Sex” in the ice cubes. It didn’t take long for him to get excited because he saw it immediately.
That’s when the drive-thru line was getting ready to move ahead and I jumped out of the car, grabbed my iPhone and took the photograph you see above.
“On January 27 2007, viewers watching the Food Network’s Iron Chef America may have noticed a brief flash of red that appeared for a split second towards the end of a show when the challengers’ entries were being assessed and two men raised their glasses. What had audiences seen but barely been aware of – all but invisible to the naked eye? A McDonald’s logo that popped up for a single frame together with the hamburger giant’s slogan, ‘I’m lovin’ it.’ Following the revelation, accusations of subliminal advertising were met with claims that it was a “technical error” by the television network, but skeptics unsurprisingly weren’t convinced. How could such a thing occur accidentally? A McDonald’s spokesman said: “We don’t do subliminal advertising.” Sure, just an accidental glitch – a supersized one. ”
So you be the judge- these drive-thru advertisements are probably found in most Southern Ontario McDonald’s drive-thrus and you can take a look for yourself. We’d love to hear back from you on what you find. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker
It appears North American society has been desensitized to what childhood obesity ‘looks like’- what a difference a single generation can make. Here we see child obesity stricken Augustus Gloop characters from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory- (Left) 1971 (Right) 2005. Clearly, what was considered obese 42 years ago would not be considered obese today. As Society as a whole becomes more overweight and as media desensitizes our perspectives due to film and video characterizations, our opinions have been influenced. CP image: weknowmemes.com
October, 2013 Ontario will help parents and their children make healthier choices by putting calories on menus, following consultations with the fast-food industry and health care sector.
Legislation that would require large chain restaurants to include calories and other potential nutritional information on their menus will be introduced this winter. The government will also seek advice on how to reduce the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages aimed at kids.
Consultations on menu labeling will include parents and representatives from food and beverage manufacturing, agriculture, restaurant, food service, food retail and health sectors. Consultations on limiting the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children will also include the media and telecommunications industry.
Making it easier for Ontario families to choose healthy food is a key component of the Healthy Kids Panel report and helps deliver on our Action Plan for Health Care.
This is part of the Ontario government’s economic plan to invest in people, invest in infrastructure and support a dynamic and innovative business climate.
QUICK FACTS
* The consultations build on steps the government has already taken to implement recommendations from the Healthy Kids Panel, including a 24-hour support line for breastfeeding moms and expanding Ontario’s Student Nutrition Program.
* In 2009, the economic cost associated with physical inactivity and obesity in Ontario was $4.5 billion.
* More than 80 per cent of food ads in Canada are for food high in calories and low in nutritional value.
* A vast majority of Ontarians (95 per cent) support requiring fast food restaurants list nutritional information on their menus (Ipsos Reid, 2011).
Australia’s controversial “Break the Habit”- childhood obesity commercial
““We have to keep an enormous amount of paperwork, about serving sizes, food temperatures, labels, on and on,” our source says. “The new forms are more complex, ask for more information that’s just being duplicated on other forms. (Food service workers) are all collecting the same data for reports that sit in a file drawer and never get looked at.” Our source believes the new government-required paperwork consumes so much of the employees’ time that it is driving up labor costs for the school district, which serves a low-income community.” source/image: eagnews.org
