It might seem like obvious advice, but in order to grow your company, you need to be able to attract new customers to your business. Even if you understand this simple fact, however, you may struggle to implement it in real life. Finding new customers is easier said than done, and without the right marketing plan and strategy, you’ll be hard-pressed to really do a good job of bringing in new customers or clients on a consistent basis. Thankfully, there are a variety of ways to attract new customers to your business—and all of them have merit.
When you’re thinking about how to best bring new customers to your business, it’s important to consider your “marketing mix.” Put simply, your marketing mix is the various advertisements, channels, and campaigns you’re planning on running in order to get the word out about your business. Due to lagging attention spans and the over-saturation of the ads market, most customers need to see the same advertisement multiple times before making a purchase. As such, having a variety of ways to speak to potential customers and remind them of your business is vital if you want to have your advertisements convert. Keep reading for a few different ideas of strategies to include in your company’s marketing mix.
Use direct mail to send special offers to potential customers.
Contrary to popular belief—and what social media giants would like you to believe—direct mail isn’t dead. In fact, at a time where email communications are inundating your customers, sending a special offer or coupon in the mail may have an even higher return on investment (ROI) than sending that same coupon or discount through email. This is because even if a customer is shopping for the best price on the types of products you offer, the tangibility of a piece of direct mail can give your coupon more weight.
For example, imagine that you’re a business offering prescription coupons to customers so that they can save on the cost of their prescription drugs. Obviously, if your customers care about wellness and taking the appropriate prescription medication, having coupons mailed to them will incentivize them even more. That being said, beyond saving on brand-name medicine, having the special offer or discount physicalized as a coupon can give them a reason to go into their local pharmacy. They may clip out the free coupon they got in the mail and put it in their wallet or on their fridge—increasing the number of times they see it each day and the likelihood that they head to the pharmacist to use the coupon on their prescription drugs in the first place. This is the reason even major players in the pharmacy business such as Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy send out coupons to their customers. In a nutshell, coupons work!
Go door-to-door with door hangers.
Another way to offer a tangible touchpoint with your customers is to use door hangers. While a printed door hanger may seem a bit old school, they’ve actually got a lot in common with direct mail. When a customer comes home to find a door hanger on their doorknob, they have to take it off and are more likely to read it when they do so. In this way, a door hanger may be even better in some ways than direct mail, since some mail can be perceived as junk and thrown out before it’s even opened. That being said, a combination of targeted door hangers that have been professionally printed and designed can really help with generating more local business. Just make sure that they go on front doors within walking distance and you may be surprised by how many new customers come in referencing your marketing tactic.
