When I became a freelance writer, I was faced a quite common question: how to stand out among the crowd of specialists who offer similar products or services and how to get more customers online?
I bet each aspiring entrepreneur, freelancer or other specialist has faced this problem at least once, and it is not strange because knowing how to attract customers is a necessary base to start a successful business.
Some people underestimate the importance of marketing. But this is a fundamentally wrong approach! In this article, I will tell you more about the importance of promoting your services, main nuances and matters that you will have to keep in mind, and effective ways to make you stand out as a specialist and gain new clients.
Let’s start with basics!
What should you know about marketing? First of all, you must research and learn what the term “marketing” means because there is no way you can create a good campaign without knowing the basic concepts and essence of this process. and to help you we had gathered the 10 main precepts of successful strategy:
- Marketing is a necessity – if you are not investing your time, efforts, and money in marketing, sooner or later your competitors will displace you, it’s just a matter of time!
- You have to constantly devote enough time to it. Otherwise, you will never reach the desired result.
- You need to deal with the positioning of the company, its products, and services; otherwise, the customers will not see the fundamental differences between you and your competitors, thus, they will choose the best price and the choice may be not in your favor.
- You have to create the points of contact with customers. Also, make sure that all your content is oriented on their needs. If you can devote enough time to this matter, in the result you will be able to induce positive feelings from the buyer, and if you fail, the effectiveness of all your marketing campaigns may come to naught!
- You have to engage in customer retention. Knowing how to attract new client is important, but the ability to retain the loyalty of an old customer is even more important! After all, the cost of attracting a new customer is minimum 5 times higher than the expenses that are necessary to hold a previous buyer, not to mention that it is much easier to sell your product to the old customer because he is already familiar with you.
- You should regularly work on improvement of the quality of your products and services. No marketing can save the products and services of poor quality!
- You must know your buyer: his level of income, habits, buying motives, and so on; otherwise, all your marketing campaigns can fly past your target audience.
- Marketing must be measured.
- It is not always necessary to trust the market research; the research is a good and powerful tool, but never let its results to overshadow your common sense.
- There can be no marketing without funding, so you will have to invest not only your time but also money, and it is the key secret of marketing: the more you invest in effective marketing channels, the greater profit you can gain!
5 Effective Ways to Stand Out and Attract the Clients You Desire!
1. Know what category of consumers you are trying to reach!
This is an essential thing in any business because you must know your target audience and must base all your content so that it would meet their needs and desires. If you are a freelance writer like me, your blog is your business card. You must make it interesting for your targeted clients. For example, if you want to attract people who are having their own businesses – you should focus your articles on this topic. Your target clients are students? Write something useful and interesting for them! Or if you are hoping to attract people who are not single – consider topics like “Top 5 places to visit when you’re in love” or “How to arrange a perfect date”.
2. A personal website is a Must Have!
Today every company or specialist must have a personal website. Technologies are developing rapidly nowadays and you must keep up with the progress, so no matter what you do, you should think about creating a website, online store, accounts in social networks and blogs. And, apart from creating a personal website, another important thing is its promotion because if you want to grant yourself a steady stream of customersб you must make your brand recognizable.
3. Establish yourself as a reliable specialist!
Regardless of what direction in business you hold – you have to show your customers that you are a professional; they must be assured that no one else can provide a certain service better than you do! For example, if you are trying to promote a paper writing service, don’t just say that you have many cheap term paper writers, highlight that experts who work with you are professionals in their job.
4. Stay away from boring and “usual” content!
Boredom is your main enemy! Nowadays there are tons of businesses as well as individuals who are trying to promote themselves on the Internet, and due to such high competition, you can only get a chance to succeed if you are standing out from the crowd!
Your content and product must attract attention. Don’t be afraid to risk and experiment!
By using some unusual tricks to get more customers you will be able to see which strategies work better and use them to raise the clients’ interest to your product, service, blog, etc. And if it happened so that the traffic on your website had dropped, don’t waste any more time – look for effective ways to engage your audience and try to raise it!
5. Let your clients participate!
Of course, you must have a strong voice, and your readers (customers) must listen to it, but they also must feel like they are taking part in everything that happens – call them to action, ask about their opinion. Communicate and collaborate with them! If you will manage to make them a part of the action, your chances to succeed will increase!
Stand out!
As you know, the competition these days is enormous, especially if we are talking about numerous small businesses that are striving to compete with the industry giants. So what else can help you to make your business stand out?
Here are 5 important things to know about your customers. Knowing them will not only help you to stand out, but also will bring you more loyal clients who would want to come back to you over and over again!
- Buyers always choose good service instead of fast. This is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make; of course, it is good if you are trying to provide your services fast, but in no way don’t put the speed over quality! Remember that poor level of service is the most common reason that can make your buyers choose your competitors, while a good service will leave them loyal to you.
- Buyers love individual approach and they are ready to pay for it!
- Buyers love stories! The art of storytelling had always been a powerful tool for promoting anything and today, according to numerous studies and examples, it is a proven fact that the use of stories for a brand is an efficient way to increase sales. Many successful entrepreneurs and marketers explain it by a psychological phenomenon: a story can “transfer” a person into another space, which allows a brand to leave a strong (and memorable) mark in the memory of the buyer.
- Nothing causes such a stir as a pleasant trifle when buying. An unexpected surprise is one of the most memorable (and consequently discussed) moments in the experience of every consumer, so if you try to make your clients happy and pamper them – you can be confident that their feedback will be not less pleasant.
- The effect of complimentary things. We all know about the magical effect of the word “free” so it is not strange that giving complimentary things to your consumers is an effective tool to keep your customers loyal and attract new ones.
Final words
Many small business owners feel that they have no time or the budget for branding and marketing, and, as you now know, it is a wrong approach; after all, you do not need a degree in marketing or a huge sum of money to make your brand stand out among other companies. There are many effective tools nowadays. And you can use any of them!
Now you know more about the tools and tricks that can help you to get new clients, follow these simple guidelines and remember to never stop improving and developing! Good luck!
Author’s bio:
Robert Everett: I am a freelance writer currently based in Chicago. I’m engaged in solving student’s career and university problems. Having an interest in marketing and business.
My Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/roberteverett82
My Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/3/110029123750852456335
