Successful business marketing generally takes a two-pronged approach. It is important to grow your business by being proactive, getting out there and finding new clients and there are a number of marketing strategies which can help you with that. While you are out there creating new opportunities and reaching new customers, don’t neglect your existing ones.
Those you already have are also an essential part of your business.
Although it takes work to find new customers, once you have them it also takes a certain amount of effort on your part to keep them. Having customers leave soon after they arrive means you continually have to find new business without a solid customer base behind you. You might end up feeling like you are running just to stay where you are. To have any chance of growing your business in a long term way you need to find new business as well as foster ongoing loyalty from existing customers.
Take advantage of your existing client base
Your existing customers could very well prove to be a mine of information. As you already know they are interested in your product or service, it makes sense to take advantage of that fact and also work on growing your sales from within. Make sure you are using your existing customers to their greatest potential by monitoring and keeping track of what they buy, how frequently they buy and keeping their contact details up to date.
By keeping an eye on the buying behaviour of your existing clients, you can gain valuable feedback on your business. Are your customers buying more, less or have they stagnated? What are they buying most? Is this an area of opportunity for your business? On the other hand if some of them have dropped off, it may be worth considering – or finding out – why this has happened.
There are a number of potential reasons your customers may no longer be using your product or service, including price, increased competition or decreased relevancy of your product or service to them. Monitoring and investigating these factors can give your business a great opportunity to refine and grow. If you are not sure, why not get in touch with previous customers and ask them why they are no longer using your service? Don’t be afraid of criticism, it is all valuable market research, which can help you build a sustainable business that will be around in the market for the long term.
Maintain relationships with existing clients
Building your relationships with both existing and prospective clients is important. Once you have developed an initial relationship with your clients, make sure you stay in regular communication and build on your existing relationship. It makes sense to try to keep the clients you have while you are out there finding new ones, rather than letting them go, if you want to build your business. Finding new clients is an important part of growing your business but if they don’t stay in the longer term you may find yourself on a frustrating treadmill. You would also be wasting valuable marketing dollars.
