It can be quite frustrating when you feel as if your business is doing everything right and your sales either remain stagnant or begin to decline. You might be selling a fantastic product or service, hiring hard-working and passionate people, and offering a 24/7 service to help customers or potential customers. However, if you’re not marketing that product well, offering something unique that separates your service from all your competitors who offer an identical service, and professionally addressing complaints of your customers then you’re not going to beat the competition in your industry.
In answer to your question, the reason as to why customers don’t like your business is probably less of a personal attack against your brand and its services as a whole and more of a minor flaw with one or several aspects of your company and its current mode of operations. That’s good, however, because it means there’s room for improvement. It means there’s the potential for your business to paper over the cracks in order to better impress customers and increase its sales. If you’ve no idea where to begin on such a venture then here are some reasons as to why customers might not be sold on your business and how you can improve things.
You don’t know your target market.
You can scoff at that statement all you like but think about it for a second. Are you sure you’re targeting the right portion of the market for your industry? And even if you are reaching the consumers you want to target, are you really offering them what they need? You need to know your target audience if you want to market your goods to them appropriately. It’s not enough to simply tell people what they should want to buy, whether it’s “innovative” or a “great deal”.
People know their own minds, and a successful business is one which attempts to fit itself into the market rather than the other way around. Essentially, you’re looking for a gap that your competitors haven’t seen. You’re not looking to solve problems that don’t exist; you need to listen to customers, find out what they want that they’re not currently getting from your industry, and dive in with the answer to their problems.
You don’t use your existing client-base.
You shouldn’t just sit and twiddle your thumbs whilst you wait for customers to find you. You need to be a little proactive. Of course, the solution isn’t always to shove adverts in people’s faces and say “buy from our company”. Take the human approach and think about the clients you’ve already gained because these people are your business’ most useful resource.
Getting people to give referrals for your company is the best way to draw in new customers because people are likely to believe the word of somebody who says they were impressed by a product or service they bought from a specific company. Of course, you can find ways to incentivize customers to give referrals for rewards such as discounts but we’ll talk about that later.
You don’t work with other businesses.
This doesn’t mean you need to start working with your competitors; obviously, if you’re running a gym then you’re not going to help out nearby gyms in the area. However, collaborating with businesses who sell different goods but to the same target market as your company is a very smart way for businesses to help one another. For example, a hairdresser’s might work with a nearby clothing store so that customers who walk into either store get discounts for the other. Your business doesn’t have to steal customers from competitors; you can find them through companies in different industries who target the same market as you.
You’re not advertising your brand effectively.
It doesn’t matter how exciting your product is or how much you care about customers; if you’re not promoting your brand effectively then nobody’s going to know that your amazing company exists. You need to utilize the internet to your advantage in this modern, digital age. Use search engine optimization techniques to get your website to rank more highly on Google and Bing; you should use keywords, responsive layout, and concise design to impress not only visitors to your website but the algorithms that search engines use to rank websites. Of course, you might also want to check out companies such as Falcon Digital Marketing for help with marketing options such as PPC management services. This advertising method often involves directly placing your company website at the top of search engine result pages through adverts.
Essentially, you can cut out a little bit of work if you’re willing to spend some money. The point is that SEO is only one of many ways in which you advertise your brand online. The modern age offers many more marketing opportunities than the days of traditional media but the key thing to remember is that you’re trying to smartly place your business in places that will be seen by customers. You don’t want to force your brand in their faces; people like to search for goods and services they want and find businesses for themselves. Adverts can be useful, as mentioned above, but be smart about the places in which you put them.
You’re not giving customers an incentive to stick around.
Even the most ethical and high-quality companies won’t retain all their customers if they don’t have a hook. If a competitor comes along with a better deal then your clients will buy from them instead; you need to build loyalty and trust so that clients want to stick with your business rather than risking the competition. Your company should give its regulars the VIP treatment. Show them that it means something to your business that they choose to stick around and buy from your company repeatedly. That’s the way to build loyalty with your client-base.
If people feel that their purchase was nothing more to your company than a simple transaction then they’ll shrug their shoulders and simply buy those same goods or services from whichever competitor offers the best price. However, if you give your customers great deals and discounts for sticking around then they’ll know that there’s a real reason for them to continue to buy from you. Your brand will become more favorable to them than any competing brands because customers will know that they’ll keep on getting better and better offers by maintaining a long-term relationship with your business.
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