So you’ve started your own business. How do you gain customers? What do you need to grow and maintain these customers? The purpose of this article is to examine what a customer base is, how to grow one and why your business needs it.
What is a customer base?
A customer base is one of the most important things in a business. A customer base is all of the customer’s of your business who have continuously engaged with and purchased your business’ products. It determines who the target audience for your business is as well as who your consumers are. A customer base is essentially a group of customers who are consistently supporting your business by using the services and/or purchasing products.
Why is it important to have a customer base?
So why is it so important for a business to have one? Without a customer base, a business won’t have any reason for financial profit. Additionally, it is full of those people who do provide your business with financial gain. When your business gains a customer base it means that customers are overall happy with the customer experience your business provides them. Further, it also gives the business an opportunity to build brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is when a business recognises their customers loyalty to them by offering perks such as discounts or creating loyalty programs.
How do you build one?
How can you build a customer base for your own business? What are some of the most important steps you can take? Firstly, it is important that your business has a marketing plan. One of the key features of a marketing plan is knowing who your target audience is going to be. Without this knowledge, how do you know who you’re targeting and what methods of marketing will you use? For example, if your target audience consists of people aged over 65, using social media to build your customer base would not be as efficient as face-to-face marketing.
Once you know your target audience and who your business is created for, you can begin building your customer base. Here are some of the ways you can build your customer base:
Social media
Most businesses have turned to social media for expanding their customer base. Social media is used by mostly everyone these days. It is a great way to expand your target audience and ensure that your business is reaching more people. Further, it is probably a more cost-effective method to target a lot more people at once. Not only does social media allow users to comment, like and share your business, it also enables you to see whether people are actually engaging with the business.
Emails
Emails are another method of targeting customers. Usually businesses email their business catalogues for the month to their customers. This email usually includes any promotions that might be going on as well as newer products that have been recently introduced in the business. Customers who want to keep up to date will find this is an engaging method of communication. Emails are usually based upon whether the customer has subscribed to the service, so the business can track their customer growth through this as well.
Partnerships
Another way you can look at building your customer base is through partnering up with another business. You can partner with a business that is similar to yours or different. For example, if you are a private health insurance company you can look at partnering up with a car insurance company to promote both your products. This means both your business and the other business will reach two different types of target audiences, both with similar interests. It’s a great opportunity, especially if you are a smaller business partnering with a larger business who may already have a larger customer base.
How do you maintain it?
Now that you know how to build a customer base it is important that you maintain it. This can be done through a number of ways.
Customer experience
Ensuring that your current customers are having a positive customer experience is significant. Not only does this help in retaining customers, it also allows those customers to refer your business to other people. Customer service is one of the key features of a business that helps maintain your customer base. Without it, most businesses would fail to succeed and keep their customers satisfied. For more information on why customer service is so essential, click here. Customer service includes features such as how easy your website is to use, whether your phone service has a long wait time etc.
In order to maintain your customer base and continue to grow it, your business should look at ways to support and help existing customers. This can be done by posting step by step tutorials on how to use products, implementing loyalty programs that create a better sense of community as well as asking for customer feedback. These are some of the ways in which you can help maintain and further grow your businesses customer base. The Australian Government has implemented their own website dedicated to businesses for tips on maintaining customers.
Customer profiling
Another tactic is the use of customer profiling. Customer profiling is using existing customer’s data to create a profile that matches certain elements. These can include geographical areas, age bracket and even a customer’s budget. Make sure you are up to date on the relevant privacy principles when it comes to holding on to customer data.
Conclusion
Thus, there are many different ways you can build a customer base for your business. It is an important part of running your business. If you have any questions or need further help, visit the Australian Government’s website or alternatively contact Lawpath to speak to a lawyer today.
