The ABC Of Growing Your Customer Base

September 12, 2019

The process of acquiring new customers is typically associated with marketing activities. Indeed, if you work in marketing, you know that your role is to devise impactful and measurable ad campaigns that, ultimately, drive growth, both in terms of customer base and profits. Therefore, it is only natural to assume that growing your customer base is a matter of cleverly designed advertising that can appeal to the right audience at the right audience. However, this fails to address the underlying question of the business world, namely: why would a customer want to buy from your company? 

The answer, as it happens, is not in your advertising campaign. Indeed, advertising only serves to maximise your brand visibility, ensuring that the market knows your name. However, it’s fair to say that unless you’re already a big market player, it’s unlikely that raising brand awareness drives new customers to you. Indeed, if you’re going to encourage acquisition through your strategy, you need to put yourself out there where it matters, aka where people can see and judge you. As daunting as it might be, this is the ABC of growing your customer base. 

Acquire new contracts 

It can be tricky to reach out to your audience on the market and convince them to work with you when you’re a relatively new and small company. Ultimately, you have to prove your worth first, and what better way than by answering etenders to gain new clients in a fair and open competition? Indeed, a tender is the opportunity for SMEs to support large organisations with their services and skills. More importantly, from a business perspective, it gives you the chance to expand your range outside of your local community. Additionally, you get something to boast about on your website. Being the supplier for brand X or Y makes up for a fantastic success story or a portfolio sample. 

Brand yourself like a boss 

As a small business, it’s fair to say that you need to develop a strong branding strategy from the start. You can’t afford to switch focus, trying to appeal to an audience that isn’t in sync with your services. Staying on course can be tricky, at first, as it might mean remove elements from your offer and tweaking your services. But it’s worth your efforts; a brand that lacks consistency and direction is unlikely to get noticed. Additionally, SMEs and solo-entrepreneurs can be tempted to save cost on their branding design, but even in the age of Fiverr, you want to stay away from readily available commodities and work with a professional to create something unique and meaningful to your business. 

Create content that matters

Your content is your best ally when it comes to opening doors. More importantly, your content has the potential to go viral, which means that smartly timed and tailored pieces can attract a broad audience. Viral content is challenging to produce as it requires thorough research and design. But, by tapping into emotional undertones, you can connect to your audience and build awareness and interest. 

Acquisition, Branding, and Content, the ABC of growing your customer base combines skills and strategic thinking to propel your brand ahead. More importantly, it replaces old-school advertising to put your audience in a position where they don’t have a choice but to listen to what your business has to say. 

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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