How to find the right customers? And how to attract those customers to you?
How to find the right customers?
And how to attract those customers to you?
The 2 challenges entrepreneurs struggle with most
As part of my podcast for entrepreneurs, I interview successful entrepreneurs and opinion leaders. One of my first interviewees two and a half years ago was Chris Brogan. (For those of you who don’t know Chris yet, and you should - Chris is one of the fathers of social media marketing in the US, an American author, journalist, marketing consultant, speaker, and an outstanding person and thought leader). On his interview, Chris told me that:
“customers want to contact us however they want to contact us. Because all those channels require so much attention, what it calls is a lot more human to listen to the customer wherever they chose to contact us. You need all the tools that will allow you the best connect with people.”
Most entrepreneurs choose to address the customers they think would need their product most, and try to attract them to buy their product or service through the channels and campaigns they believe would work best.
This is, according to CBInsights research firm that interviewed entrepreneurs that failed, the number 1 reason for their failures: “there was no market need.”
But the truth is that in 98% of the cases, it isn’t a problem of a market need. Those entrepreneurs didn’t find who the customers that ready to adopt their product or service first are, or they don't know to describe the new product that they offer.
There are two main challenges more than 90% of entrepreneurs challenge with most:
- How to find the right customers?
- How to attract those customers to you?
The answers will help you find the barriers that hold you back from succeeding
How to find the right customers?
This is a critical question many entrepreneurs struggle with.
The good news – there is a clear way to discover which potential customers you should focus on at any stage of your business. Many entrepreneurs believe it’s a matter of trial and error or some kind of a chance they need to take. However, the issue of which customers to focus on has proven ways to research and find the right answer for your entrepreneurship.
The bad news – too many entrepreneurs get this wrong. Don’t be one of them.
In order to choose the right target audience for your entrepreneurship at a given time, you should find your biggest market opportunity; the one that your product specifically gives the best solution for. You should look for two main things:
You need to find who are trying the hardest to solve the problem your product solves. Not those who suffer from the problem most, because they might be too afraid to take a risk. Find people who are actively searching for an answer.
That means you need to understand your customers’ cares, needs, and wants regarding the product or service you sell.
But more than that, entrepreneurs have an uphill battle ahead of them because most of the time, they invented something new or slightly different from existing solutions that people don’t know about.
What will allow you to find your biggest market opportunity is to find who is doing what with the one dollar and one minute you want them to put into your product.
Thanks to the way search engines and social networks collect and track information today, there is a fast and reliable method to study today’s ever-changing markets.
The combined methods of searching for your right potential customers
In order to see an existing market from a bird’s eye, and objective view, and find good insights of the future market, use several different points of views from diversified resources.
The combined resources research includes three steps:
1st step – Internal interviews: The internal insights about the company and product from the company’s founders, owners, and other executives (optional).
2nd step – An online market overview: finding the main and secondary markets for your product or service.
3rd step – External interviews with potential customers, partners, or market leaders.
To learn more about how to use the combined method to find who the customers are that you should focus on right now to reach your entrepreneurial business success, read my post about
How to find your biggest market opportunity
How to bring in new customers?
Most entrepreneurs are trying to create something new that hadn’t been thought of yet.
That’s the nature and the beauty of entrepreneurship.
Most entrepreneurs I know are inventors. When you invent something new, people very rarely know to look for it. When they don’t know or think there is a solution, what’s the point of looking?
This is the current situation with many new products. When you launch a new, unfamiliar product or service, you need to create the awareness of its existence, provide knowledge, and build the trust with your customers.
You, presumably, will need to attract your first customers, however, there are tools and methods that can help you. Any entrepreneur can build awareness, preference, and trust among new customer
5 best tips for attracting customers to you
- Write and create relevant content that draws the attention of your potential customer!
Relevant content means anything regarding the field your product, service, or company focuses on, like articles, podcasts, or videos. The idea is to bring your potential customers value in the form of knowledge in your field of expert on the one hand, while building your credibility as an expert in your field on the other. - Focus on your customers
Talk to them through social media, ask questions and pay close attention to their responses, both what they say and how they say it. Use what you learn to perfect your content topics, to explain your product/service clearly, and to pro-actively address any possible concerns. - Don’t promote.Don’t promote. Do NOT promote!!! (Am I yelling loud enough?)
The whole idea about using social media as a marketing channel is providing value to your potential customers. You should build yourself as the go-to expert the customer will come to when they need help. - Be where your potential customers are
While planning your marketing and sales activities, you should ask: where your customers are? Who are they following? What do they read? What groups do they join? What kind of content are they looking for? Where would they look for new content? Etc.
These are the bloggers you should connect with, the groups you should join and be active in, the places to post content, etc. - Be on social media. Allthe time. I used to manage millions of dollars in traditional channels like TV, print, outdoor, and radio, and I think using social media as a marketing tool is the best thing that could happen to any business, especially entrepreneurs. It’s not only a much cheaper channel, it’s also the best way to interact and engage with your customers.Becoming the influencer of your field of expert
All the above should lead you to:
Becoming the influencer of your field of expert
The good news – it will happen. Your customers will look for you. Eventually.
I know that because it happened to me every time with the companies and brands I managed and worked with for the last 32 years. With Lipton tea, with Energizer, with Nokia (in 2005), with health food, with water, with unit testing software, with DevOPS for Database, with OTT video, with mobile software, with medical aids, just to name a few.
