One of the biggest hurdles a start-up will have to overcome is achieving consistent customer base growth. Getting clients to trust your brand is not easy, especially now that competition is tough. And even if you do get customers to buy or try your services, keeping these clients is another challenge. Indeed, carving a niche in any industry is hard. This is why every start-up needs to invest in an enterprise SEO company to assist in adopting the right marketing strategies. Knowing the fundamental principles, setting goals, and employing an approach that best suits your needs will help in gaining market visibility.
If you’re a start-up learning the ropes of gaining customers, here’s how you can build brand reputation and grow your customer base at the same time.
Devise a marketing plan that details your objectives
Before you begin to decide which marketing methods to use, you need to create a detailed map based on your objectives. Driving results isn’t always about which methods other companies are using. It depends on the unique needs of your business as well as industry practices. And since it’s a start-up, you can’t underestimate the need to focus on spending resources wisely.
In growing your customer base, the first step is identifying your target market. From here, you can develop your branding and create a voice that suits your values. With these two basic pieces of information, you can proceed with mapping out others details of how you plan to market your brand.
Work with an enterprise SEO company
Nowadays, even start-up companies need to focus on digital marketing to increase their reach. And if you want to ensure that you get measurable results, SEO is a vital component of any marketing strategy. Anyone new to it will realize that it’s highly dynamic. Fortunately, you can choose to hire a professional agency that can help you achieve your goals. But if this isn’t within the budget, you can still conduct SEO with the help of online tools and applications.
What’s great about SEO is that the results are long-term. If you’re consistently on top of your site’s performance, you can also continuously improve and attract site visitors. Since your decisions are data-driven, the results are also more aligned with the goals you’ve set.
Launch a referral program
One classic strategy that many start-ups swear by is a referral program. Instead of spending money on advertisements, you can funnel the resources into a program that will reward your customers. Recommending products and services work because people are more likely to trust a recommendation from someone they know. There’s a lot of ways you can build on this method to make it work for your niche. Some common examples include giving cash rewards, discount coupons, and access to premium features. Any of these are excellent ways of attracting new customers to try your products or services.
Social media marketing
These days, it’s impossible to ignore the importance of social media marketing. For start-up companies, these platforms offer much potential in achieving a wide reach. Not only that, but you can also engage with customers, and achieve sustainable customer base growth.
But because these platforms have reached significant prominence as a marketing tool, it’s now more challenging to get your posts noticed. This is why you need to augment your efforts by paying for social media ads. When used wisely, these paid ads can have a high ROI and are cost-effective.
One reason why it’s worth it to pay for social media ads is that there’s a range of options available to make the advertising highly targeted. For example, you can set details about your intended customers such as their age range, location, and many more. Social media platforms such as Facebook also use machine learning and AI to predict customer behavior. So, you’ll know that your ads are reaching the right audience.
Improve customer support
Almost every industry today is saturated with companies that offer some of the best products and services. How can you ensure that you have a competitive edge? By focusing on providing excellent customer support. There are many instances when customer service becomes the deciding factor for customers who are on the fence about several brands. And, happy customers are also more likely to become repeat and loyal clients.
Realistically, you can prevent issues from happening. But, how you respond to these concerns makes a big difference. Both in-person and online customer service should be consistent, and top quality at all times. If your services are mostly accessible online, you can add several support channels. Aside from an FAQ section, you can also add a database for self-help options. Chatbots are also popular today, along with click-to-call features and phone support.
Building a customer base for a start-up company is a long-term process. It will involve diligence and at times a bit of experimentation with marketing methods. But if you begin with a solid plan, and a good understanding of your target market and niche, success will be within reach.