Do you want to acquire your top ten customers? But don’t know how, let’s see then. Marketing is a new business is the most creative marketing challenge and no one will be able to understand if the offer will have value or not until a profit is generated, just as nobody can give a guide as a lifesaver to startups for the optimization of Google AdWords.
This is because the new activities really have so many variables to take into consideration for their product, such as the sector, the timing, the execution, the sense of greatness, the funds, the talent, the location, the luck, the quality of the offer and so on. However, I can share the basics with you starting from how to find a marketing agency, which will serve you as a start.
Here are the five priorities that I set for myself to win over the first top ten customers who will then take me to get 100 …
1. Define the offer
What do you market? Start with the value you think you can create for your potential customers: what part of the business do you satisfy? Define it in one word, in three words, in a sentence and in a paragraph: your offer will change over time, but you will always have to know what it is for you today.
When you don’t have many customers, it will be easy to promise the world, but learn to sell for tomorrow, remaining clear and firm about what you can give today. Once you have defined a potential offer, here are the next steps to take.
Search your network to find all those people, including your colleagues, who could provide relevant feedback, then talk to them about the offer. Then collect all the feedback as a product manager and remember that anyone could become a customer, in fact, a user can also spread the word with the people he knows and would need your product.
2. Maximize referrals
The most important channel for acquiring customers for a new business is referrals and eight of the top ten clients of my marketing agency came from here. The reason is very simple: the work done in the past generates interest in future initiatives.
In this way, both talent and experience of the founder and the team play a fundamental role in the customer’s decision-making process, as a novice startup does not have much to show in terms of “business records”.
3. Always market both you and your team
In a service company, time is a factor that you will need to know how to divide between satisfying your customers and increasing your business; while in one related to products, those who idealize them too often are led to think that the product itself will sell itself. However in almost all types of business, there is always a person from whom the customer buys: never forget your identity!
When you create a new business, there is a reason that drives you to do it and beyond the opportunities there will be a personal reason why you do it, whether it’s a passion, the evolution of a job or a dark desire of which I have never heard of.
Well, market that reason, market your team, and market that purpose. Don’t lose your identity and at the same time not abandon that empathy that makes you put in the shoes of your customers.
4. Learn to understand the value you create against marginal added value
It’s easy to tell a customer, “If you take everything I produce elsewhere, it will cost you more,” but by that I don’t mean that you have to lower your prices to ride the wave. In my humble opinion, it is only the quality of what you offer (not the price) that will allow your customer to have a lasting relationship with you and your brand.
The moral of all this is to maximize the probability that your offer will become a real advantage for your customers, which is why you will have to quantify the added value to their business. What organizations could improve if they chose to become your customers? You can even think of yourself as a CEO, but they are your real bosses.
5. Market the success of your customers
Without it, what is the use of acquiring millions of customers? The testimonials are the purest form of marketing: it is easy for a customer to say “this works” and at the beginning every satisfied user should be a testimonial for you.
Think of videos, guest posts, public relations stories, sales content and, above all, organic and unsolicited support. By creating a solid presence on social media, you will increase customers ‘desire to talk about you on Twitter and Facebook … but, aside from media, the question you have to ask is: how do you increase the audience of your customers’ stories?
Acquiring and serving a new customer is a milestone every time and in order to grow your business, you will have to be part of achieving the goals your customers want and to do so you will have to mix thousands of small steps in the right direction with hundreds in the wrong one, all with the willpower of your users.
Forget what is in fashion, money to spend on advertising and new media platforms, because all marketing focuses on word of mouth.