Acquire New Customers & Boost Sales from Online Searches

While one of the best ways to boost business is getting recommended by your current customers, it is also possible to acquire a significant number of new ones and increase sales from people searching online for the services you provide in their area. These prospective new customers can then turn into satisfied and loyal who will happily refer you to their family and friends, thereby promoting the growth of your business. These contacts and conversions demonstrate the power of online marketing. Whether prospective customers searching online choose your business or your competitor's business depends on four key factors. Even though all four of these factors are common sense and relatively easy to accomplish, most businesses do not execute them properly.

1. Make sure that people who do not know you can find you on the internet

Of course, anyone getting referred to your business by its name can easily find you by Googling it. However, if someone does not know your business name and resorts to an online search by the type of business or the services you provide in your local area, getting them to visit your website is critical. Your business needs to appear on page one of search, or these potential customers will find a competitor. The bottom line is if they can't find you, they will not come.

Although SEO marketing is very important to move higher in search, guaranteeing your business appears on, or near the top of, page one in searches requires Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and endeavors like Google Ads (formally AdWords). This successful approach to online marketing is increasingly popular. In the last year or two, the number of businesses using Google Ads has significantly expanded.

In addition to Google Ads, Facebook Ads can also help get new potential customers to your website. Some businesses are naturally good fits for Facebook advertising. Did you ever notice that ads in your feed are often related to your interests? Facebook collects a vast amount of data on its users. Using Facebook, you can target potential new customers by zip code, gender, age, interests, purchasing history, annual salary, and more.

Another important online marketing tool is Ad Retargeting. Ad Retargeting allows you to continue to market your business even after online visitors have left your website. As everyone has noticed, once someone visits your website, they may then see your ads appearing as they visit other sites across the internet. It puts your ad in front of someone who has visited your website but has not yet made a purchase or booked an appointment for your services. Studies show that once a potential customer views these ads repeatedly, it increases conversions. A retargeted ad's click-through rate (CTR) is ten times higher than a typical display ad. The result of a retargeting campaign is to increase new customer phone contacts and sales from those who have already visited your website.

2. Make sure your website is INCREASING the likelihood of a potential customer calling your business

OK, now that a potential customer has found, clicked on your Google ad, and arrived at your website, you want to ensure your website INCREASES the likelihood of a sale.

To accomplish converting a prospective customer into a new one, you need to make sure of the following:

• Your website is modern and appears perfectly on all devices, such as smartphones and tablets, without being difficult to read or navigate. If your website looks like it is from 2012, it will turn off customers.
• You make a first-time website visitor feel well-informed about your business and its excellent products or services. Relevant content and images are always helpful.
• You have a contact form or contact information on your website for potential customers to request more information or book an appointment for your services. Ensure your staff has a system to contact or get back to these customers as soon as possible and in a friendly manner with the appropriate information.

3. Make sure that your online reputation is excellent

Nowadays, no potential new customer, even if family or friends referred them, will do business with you without first checking your reviews.

To maintain an excellent online reputation, you need to do the following:

• Have a regular system of getting reviews from loyal and satisfied customers. Have a system with a 3rd party company in place to help generate these reviews.
• Have a system with a 3rd party company to flag any bad reviews. If you don’t have a real-time system, a bad review can be online for weeks and weeks before it gets noticed. If you have a negative review, your 3rd party company can help you get the review removed, or at the very least, diluted.
• Train your staff and have very tight control over how they interact with customers. Believe it or not, many negative reviews are due to staff interactions. Do NOT stand for staff members who are rude, unfriendly, combative, or uninterested. If you put up with average or poor staff members who do not know how to interact with your customers correctly, you are hurting your business.

4. Make sure that when a new customer contacts your business, they have a great experience

OK, you did everything right. You invested money in Google Ads and reputation management. Your website is perfect, but your business falls short on customer service. While you may have the best online marketing strategies to bring new customers to your business, poor customer service can chase them away.

Here are some examples of ways to make a poor first impression:

• Keeping customers calling your business on hold for a long time. If a staff member is busy, they should apologize, take the potential customer’s cell # and call them back promptly.
• Not responding to an online contact form immediately. The prospective new customer has no idea if you have seen their request and will wonder why there is a delay. Put a system in place that all online contact forms or requests are carefully monitored and responded to immediately.
• Unprofessional staff members who are ill-equipped to provide information on your products or services and behave in a robotic, uninterested, or unfriendly manner. You need to train and continuously manage your staff on this. Do NOT underestimate the importance of customer service.

Summary

Acquiring new customers online helps promote business growth and can be accomplished relatively easily by following the simple, common-sense principles discussed above. Having a modern website, maintaining a stellar reputation, and training/monitoring your staff are all essential for your business as a whole, not just for new online customers. But, to acquire new customers from those searching online, these potential customers must first find you. Businesses will need to spend some money on SEO and/or Google Ads in order to come up well in search results. The amount spent is up to the business owner and can be scaled up or down depending on your success and marketing budget.

Joshua Gindea is one of the founders of https://pimm-usa.com/ a company that manages a business’s online persona and online marketing presence.

To read an article about how much a business should spend on marketing please visit: How Much Should I Spend On Marketing?