8 Tips To Find New Customers
   By B.J. Addington

Whether you’re a new business owner or an old pro, finding customers is always at the top of your to-do list. Without customers, you’re sunk.

There’s no single, sure-fire way to attract new customers. Prospects might see your newspaper ad. They might stumble onto your Web site. They might receive your direct mail postcard on the very day they need your product or service.

The lesson, then, is to position your small business in front of appropriate prospects in as many ways as you can afford. Here are eight ways to do just that.

1. Network like a pro
Carry a pocket full of business cards and hand them out like hotcakes. Leave a stack on the counters at dry cleaning shops. Post them on bulletin boards at the local coffee house. Give them to friends, family, business associates, neighbors, your plumber and anyone else you can think of.

2. Get organized
Create a handwritten list or a computer database of individuals and other businesses that you think might need your products or services. Expand that list by constantly looking for new names to add. Where do you find those names? Try these places:

• New members in your trade or professional organization

• New chamber of commerce members

• Referrals from existing customers and business associates

• Local newspapers; watch for names of people promoted or hired

• Online networking groups

• People you meet through volunteer and community organizations

3. Make contact
Find ways to make contact with every person on your list. Try telephone calls. Try direct mail postcards. Try sales letters. Try an e-mail campaign. Try flyers. Try inviting them to lunch. Try sending a free sample of your product. Keep trying.

4. Get out of the office
Seminars, workshops, trade shows, special events, association meetings and volunteer groups are full of people. Some of them might be hot prospects for your small business. Go to the places where people in your target market gather. Get out there amongst them. Shake hands. Introduce yourself. Hand them a business card. Invite them to try your product or service.

5. Advertise smartly
Don’t blow your marketing budget on a big splashy ad. Build name recognition for your business by running small ads for a number of weeks or months. Use ads with different headlines, benefits and calls to action to appeal to more prospects. Run small ads in the Yellow Pages, and put them in multiple categories.

6. Search the Internet
Do you sell party supplies? Pet products? Translation services? Get online to find new prospects. Join discussion groups. Look up companies that might need what you offer. Firms with a Web page often post the names of their executives and top staff on the “About Us” page. Sometimes you can even find a direct telephone number or e-mail address.

7. Give free advice
Get customers to come to you by offering them something for free – your expertise. Consultants can offer a free 30-minute consultation for prospects. A landscaping service could offer free tips on fighting lawn pests. A graphic designer could offer to give prospects three free ideas for jazzing up their Web sites.

8. Get creative
Don’t get stuck on traditional marketing methods. Try new things if you think they might work. A residential cleaning service could give every house in a neighborhood a promotional refrigerator magnet. A printing shop could drop a small promotional notepad in every neighborhood mailbox. A handyman (or woman) could leave a small, inexpensive, promotional screwdriver on the front porch of neighborhood homes. You never know what might work to attract new customers – until you try.

(Posted December 2004)

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