In the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams,” corn farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) hears a voice that says, “If you build it, he will come.”
“It” refers to a baseball diamond, while “He” means baseball legend, Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Building the baseball diamond represents Ray’s dream, while the arrival of Shoeless Joe and other legends symbolizes the opportunities created by pursuing a meaningful passion.
“Field of Dreams” is a movie that inspired countless entrepreneurs to pursue their dream of owning a business. They realized that opening for business didn’t guarantee customers.
People walk in, check out the products, and leave without making a purchase.
Today, advances in digital technology will enable you to open an online business that can easily be found by consumers seeking your products or services.
Compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing will yield a higher ROI. You have a better chance of converting visitors into paying customers.
10 Proven Ways To Find Customers For Your Online Business
Have a business idea. Find a good location. Set up the business.
Distribute flyers, posters, and streamers within a five-mile radius of the location.
Publish a press release in a local newspaper.
That’s how businesses were launched back in the 90s. The problem with traditional marketing methods is that those who see the flyers and posters might not be interested in what you’re selling.
Ask yourself: How many times have you thrown a flyer into a trash can?
Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing targets your customers. Digital marketing uses tools and platforms that identify consumers who fit the profile and exhibit behaviors of potential end-users of your products.
Your marketing content will be placed front and center in the eyes of consumers who are searching for your product.
That’s why number one in our list is a non-negotiable.
1. Build a Website
What do the numbers say about the importance of having a website for a business?
- 252,000 websites are built daily. Currently, 1.09 billion websites are operating on the Internet.
- A new website is built every three seconds.
- 71% of businesses have a website.
- 29% of transactions are done online.
- 43% of small businesses plan to allocate funds to improve website performance.
Here’s the most intriguing statistic:
71% of businesses in 2024 have websites. In 2017, only 45% of businesses had a website.
A website makes it easy to run an online business.
- Sell products as a reseller, affiliate marketer, or dropshipper.
- Process payments electronically.
- Publish content to promote your business, products, and services.
- Generate leads for your sales funnel and email list.
- Provide valuable information to customers through blogs, e-books, and product guides.
- Respond to customer inquiries with a chat plugin or contact forms.
- Highlight social proof to encourage visitors to buy your products.
- Utilize powerful and compelling Calls-to-Action (CTAs) to encourage visitors to explore your site, sign up for newsletter service, or buy products.
Likewise, a website makes it easy for customers to find a business.
- Create optimized content that can be found and indexed by search engines.
- Perform a technical audit to improve website optimization and help search engines better understand what it’s about.
- Share your website content on various social media and other online platforms.
- Include a backlink to your website on every social media post.
- Share website information on multiple online business directories to improve local SEO.
- Revise the existing content to enhance its relevance and appeal to a new demographic.
If you build one that’s properly optimized for search engines and supported by optimized content, your customers will come.
It takes only one click for customers to get there.
To learn more about optimized websites, contact us. Let’s book time for a free 30-minute consultation.
2. Create a Buyer’s Profile
Who are you targeting to buy your product?
If you’re selling frozen meats online, vegans and vegetarians won’t patronize your business.
You have to know who your potential buyers are so you can develop strategies to address their wants, needs, and demands.
You must create a buyer’s profile.
A buyer’s profile is an information sheet that summarizes characteristics of your ideal customer.
What types of information are essential for an effective buyer’s profile?
- Demographics: Age, sex, location, education, civil status, occupation, and pertinent family details.
- Financial Capability: Type of industry, designation, and average income.
- Online Behavior: Average time on page, most visited content, average purchase, number of visits per month, likes and dislikes, and types of items purchased.
An accurate buyer’s profile will guide you in designing a website, creating personalized content, and developing strategies that enhance how you communicate with your audience.
????Pro Tip: 27% of entrepreneurs don’t have a business plan. Don’t be part of the 27%. Prepare a business plan before doing anything else.
The business plan summarizes your approach to achieving success. It includes a Buyer’s Profile, which functions as a guide for your marketing plan.
3. Get Social Proof
Social proof validates your business idea. These are positive testimonials and favorable reviews from your customers.
What do the numbers say about the power of social proof?
Social proof can increase revenue by 62%.
- 92% of consumers won’t patronize businesses that can’t present social proof.
- 88% of consumers trust social proof.
- 68% of consumers become buyers after reading positive reviews about a product.
- 58% of consumers are willing to pay more for products that are supported by positive social proof.
It won’t take much to convince other parties to try out your product. Sometimes, three to five testimonials from happy customers are enough to get your checkout counter busy processing payments.
You must get social proof immediately.
How?
Before shoppers can complete a transaction on your e-commerce website, they must fill out a customer information sheet that requires them to provide details such as name, delivery address, email address, and mobile phone number.
After one week, email a survey form to the customer. Ask them about their experience with your product.
- Are they happy with its quality?
- How would they rate your product?
- Would they recommend your business to friends?
- Would they purchase again in the future?
- Can they offer suggestions to improve the quality of products and services?
If the feedback is positive, ask if you can post their review on your website and social media pages. In exchange for their approval, offer a special discount or free item.
4. Collaborate With Influencers
69% of consumers trust the recommendations of influencers.
An influencer is a person with the power to influence the purchasing decisions of a consumer because of their reputation, brand authority, industry recognition, and size of social media followers.
Collaborating with an influencer can be expensive. Popular influencers with massive social media followings can command a steep price.
However, the collaboration might be worth it.
The estimated ROI of influencer marketing is $6.50 for every $1 spent.
Can you still utilize influencer marketing if you have limited funds?
Yes.
Review your contacts list. Identify contacts who fit your buyer’s profile and have a large social media following.
Influencers are categorized according to the size of their following.
- Nano-influencers: 1,000 to 10,000 followers.
- Micro-influencers: 10,000 to 100,000 followers.
- Macro-influencers: 100,000 to 1 million followers.
- Mega-influencers: 1 million+ followers.
Reach out to friends who qualify as nano-influencers. It would be amazing if you could get five friends with 2,000 followers. You’ll have a market size of 10,000 to sell your products to.
If 1% of the 10,000 followers buy your product, you’ll sell 100 units.
100 customers to get testimonials from!
????Pro Tip: Some friends are willing to help you for free. However, take the initiative and present the arrangement as a business opportunity. Offer your friend an attractive commission for every purchase made by a follower.
5. Set Up Social Media Business Pages
Our first four tips are the cornerstones of a solid foundation for enhancing your online presence:
✅Website: Your online hub for running operations and a destination for inbound traffic.
✅Buyer’s Profile: A guide for creating personalized content.
✅Social Proof: Testimonials and positive feedback to substantiate the value of your products.
✅Nano-Influencers: Leverage the influence of personalities who can endorse your business while providing sources of potential buyers of your products.
With the cornerstones in place, you’re ready to actively market and promote your business online, beginning with social media.
Social media isn’t a ranking factor in Google’s search algorithm. However, social media is an effective channel for building your brand, acquiring followers, fostering customer relationships, and driving traffic to your website.
Here are seven valuable tips for setting up a social media business page:
- Upload a high-resolution image of your logo.
- Use a profile photo that’s relevant to your business. The image must be easily identifiable with your core business. It could be your main product or mascot.
- Provide complete and updated information about your business. Key information includes the trade name, current/registered business address, phone numbers, email address, and website URL.
- Write an “About Us” introduction that’s comprehensive, engaging, and compelling. Tell your followers why you started your business and how you can help them out.
- Upload high-quality images of your products.
- Invite your friends to “like” your business page. Prioritize friends who might be interested in your products. Ask your business partners and employees to do the same.
- Post frequently. Some agencies recommend only once or twice a week, but we see otherwise.
Posting frequently can help you gain favor with the social media algorithm. The important thing to remember is to post high-quality content: Relevant, accurate, unique, useful, informative, and engaging.
????Pro Tip: Start with only two to three social media pages so that it will be easier to track results. Choose the social media networks that are relevant to your business.
6. Open an Online Business Profile
You have a dinner party in two hours, but you forgot to buy the wine.
What would you do?
You pull out your mobile phone and type “wine shop near me.” Google’s SERP presents a list of wine shops near your current location. You take a few minutes to visit the Google Business Profile of the top three wine shops.
In a few minutes, one of the three wine shops with a Google Business Profile will have its cash register ringing.
If you owned the wine shop, you’d be happy you took the time to open a Google Business Profile, a tool that allows you to enhance and manage your business presence online.
Opening a Google Business Profile is an example of a local SEO strategy. The premise of local SEO is that your customers could be near your place of business. Therefore, it’s important to publish information
Customers who find you on Google Business Profile don’t have to go to your physical location. They could place an order via phone or on your website.
The bottom line is that local SEO creates another channel for customers to find you. Don’t underestimate the power of local SEO to acquire customers or clients for your business.
7. Incorporate Traditional Marketing Tactics
Traditional marketing strategies haven’t gone the way of fax machines, typewriters, and pagers.
Some traditional marketing tactics can still be effective and complementary to your digital marketing strategy.
- Network Like an OG: If there are trade shows or conventions that cater to your industry, sign up and present your products. If you get invited to a networking event, such as those organized by the local chamber of commerce, accept the invitation.
Networking remains an effective activity for finding customers or clients. The participants are people or companies that are currently engaged in the industry or have a need for your products and services. - Collaborate with Non-Competing Businesses: Leverage the market size of other businesses by finding synergy between your brands.
For example, if you sell sportswear, partner up with a gym. If you have a flower shop, collaborate with a bakery. - Include Paid-Advertising Strategies: Post ads in your local newspaper or newsletter.
In the digital space, spend on paid ads on popular social media platforms like Facebook or YouTube. Every person who clicks on your paid ad lands on your website. - Ask for Referrals: If clients or customers have expressed how happy they are with your products, ask them for referrals. It won’t hurt to ask, and if they’re happy, they would want you to succeed.
What about Point-of-Purchase materials?
POPs include flyers, standees, posters, and streamers. They’re expensive, unsustainable, and inefficient. However, you can get value from them if they’re kept within your physical location.
For example, if you have a restaurant, posters and streamers add color to the venue and might entice visitors to order food. Standees located near the cash registers can encourage customers to try special products, promos, or to get a loyalty card.
You can place flyers near the exit. Customers who loved your food will be persuaded to get a flyer for future delivery service.
????Pro Tip: Always include your website URL and social media information in your POP materials.
8. Outsource Digital Marketing
Digital marketing can be a massive undertaking.
Here’s a shortlist of tasks involved in running a digital marketing campaign:
- Research and planning
- Optimization of content and the website.
- Planning, scheduling, creating, and distributing content.
- Writing blogs.
- Producing videos, infographics, and other forms of image-based content.
- Engaging with followers.
- Generating leads.
- Collecting data and reviewing analytics.
- Building and segmenting the email list.
- Managing the email marketing campaign.
- Soliciting customer feedback.
How can you attend to the daily needs of your business while managing a digital marketing campaign?
You can’t.
Your best option is to outsource digital marketing to a qualified third-party agency.
Outsourcing digital marketing improves productivity because it allows you to allocate more time to manage the core functions of your business.
It’s also cost-efficient because outsourcing services offers flexible payment options. You can pay the agency per productive hour, per milestone, or upon completion of the project.
9. Offer Free Webinars
Webinars are a great way of introducing your product to potential customers, especially if it’s a niche product.
Ideally, a webinar should run between 30 to 90 minutes. The challenge is how you entice people to take some time off to attend your webinar.
- Use a strong, engaging, and compelling value proposition. How will the webinar benefit its participants? Discuss potential business opportunities for participants (More on this in the next section!)
- Be direct with your CTA: Sign up NOW! Limited attendance.
- Disclose the agenda. Summarize the minutes of the webinar so participants know what to expect.
- Invite reputable resource persons to share their knowledge and opinions on the webinar.
- Offer something tangible upon completing the webinar. For example, a certificate, a discount card, an e-book, or a free sample of the product.
Lastly, keep the webinar FREE to add immediate value. Remember, some participants might be taking paid time off work to attend your webinar.
10. Expand Your Business
“Expand my business while I’m still looking for customers? Really?”
It sounds counterintuitive, however, taking the necessary steps to grow your business this early can help you get more customers.
- Offer Affiliate Marketing Opportunities: Affiliate marketing involves having third parties promote your products and services to their communities and paying them a commission or a fee for every successful sale.
- Offer Dropshipping Arrangements: Find e-commerce retailers willing to sell your products on their websites. They’ll sell your products for a commission, while you handle delivery and inventory management.
- Get a Distributor: A distributor can help sell your products through a network of resellers within a specific location. Distributors can boost your local SEO efforts.
Affiliate marketers, dropshipping partners, and distributors will get customers to visit your website and social media pages. They’ll help increase brand awareness, generate leads, and grow your following.
????Pro Tip: Use the webinar to promote your affiliate marketing program, dropshipping arrangement, and to find potential distributors.
Conclusion
Pursue your dream and start an online business now. Follow our 10 tips and you’ll have customers keeping your checkout counter busy.
It all begins with a website – your baseball diamond on the Internet.
A website will have everything you need to manage your online business. It’s where potential customers go to learn more about your products. The website can collect information about your customers to help you create a buyer’s profile.
The buyer’s profile is your ready reference for creating personalized content that you can share on your website, social media, and with influencers.
A recommendation from an influencer can generate immediate sales for your business and traffic to your website. Solicit feedback from your initial buyers. Highlight positive reviews as social proof on your website and social media pages.
Social proof is a testimonial about the quality and effectiveness of your product. Buying is an emotional experience. If people love your product, they will willingly tell the world about it.
Showcasing social proof on your website and social media will hasten customers in their journey through the sales funnel.
Compared to the 90s, it’s easier to find customers for your business because digital marketing makes the promotional process more efficient.
However, it takes a lot of time to plan, create, publish content, and analyze performance. Your best option is to outsource digital marketing to a qualified marketing agency.
Lastly, traditional marketing still has its place in acquiring customers. Face-to-face tactics such as networking and collaborations with non-competing brands humanize the marketing process.
Are you ready to build your virtual field of dreams?
Contact us now!
