Every business out there has to find a way to retain current, but also attract new customers. Offering a quality product or service is what matters the most, but what good will it do if no one knows about it?

Hence, having a well-defined strategy that will get you new customers, but also keep the ones you have satisfied, needs to be one of your top priorities. Of course, that strategy has a lot to do with smart marketing efforts.

Promoting your business is a must and this issue can be divided into a few segments:

• social media
• blog
• online ads
• email marketing
• affiliate marketing

Social media

It is common knowledge that social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn have never been more popular. Therefore, this online marketing channel can play a pivotal role in acquiring new customers and communicating with your existing customer base.

The biggest advantage of social media platforms is that almost every person out there uses at least one of them. That means that your business has to be present on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The first thing you should get right is finding the places where your audience gathers. This is crucial because you don’t want to push content in the wrong places.

Secondly, the content you post has to be useful and interesting since the goal here is to get more eyes on it. That is really going to boost your reach. The posts need to be highly attractive, informative, and they have to present your brand in a positive light.

Finally, it’s important to be active on social media as much as you can, and that can sometimes be a difficult task, especially if you don’t have enough time due to your everyday tasks.

In that case, you should seek help from the marketing tools that can help you by automating certain processes. One good example of such a tool is the LinkedIn automation tool that can help you automate quite a few tasks related to social media.

It’s fair to say that you shouldn’t bother with manually finding new connections (potential prospects) or sending personalized messages to dozens of people. Instead, make your life easier by using tools and dedicate more time to content creation.

Remember, investing in social media marketing is a great way to boost your business and its visibility, but every effort has to be wise – starting from the content, automation tools, interactions with the audience, and all the way to customer reviews.

Blog

Blogging is not an easy task. A lot of companies have their own blogs but fail to generate sales leads from them.

The goal with blogging is to make your readers fall head over heels in love with your company. This may sound like an exaggeration, but once you start seeing the figures increase, you will realize how powerful a blog can be.

Below are a few tips that you should consider if you want to publish great blog posts.

Do not send sales messages on your blog

You are writing your blog for the readers, not for your company. Not many people out there will be interested in your sales messages. Instead, people look for useful and insightful content that can provide value to them.

People want to know what’s in it for them, so to grow business with your blog, you should stop thinking like a salesperson and start acting like an educator. Why? Because a salesperson only cares about the money while an educator cares about their students.

Build your tone

Nobody likes talking to a robot and nobody develops a relationship with a call-center menu. That is why you should say goodbye to the corporate tone when you are blogging.

In order to engage your audience, you have to write as they speak and make your writing more conversational. Better engagement means that your customers will be there to stay.

Avoid long paragraphs, large chunks of text, and the passive voice. Instead, use contractions because they are more informal. Remember that a conversational tone will make your readers feel like you’re talking with them.

Write to improve customer experience

If you want to ensure loyalty and get your audience to spread the good word about you, you have to put emphasis on customer experience.

Write and try to solve their problems with your posts. However, also respond to the comments and ask for feedback when possible.

This is a great way to measure loyalty, so don’t be shy to conduct an NPS survey or something of that kind. In the survey, ask the right questions to measure your customers’ satisfaction, since their experience matters the most.

Online ads

Advertising can do wonders when it comes to retaining your existing customers and thus increasing ROI.

However, using ads the right way is sometimes a difficult task. Take a quick glance of the tips below and you will learn how to be more efficient when using ads to retain and attract customers.

Building brand awareness among existing customers

Your current customers have to be aware of every single new launch in your company. Therefore, it is smart to use paid ads to reach out to your existing customers and tell them about your new product.

A great way to do this is by using remarketing. This will help you display ads both to your existing and potential customers who have already visited your website or used your mobile app.

Understand their pain points

It is wise to use paid ads to increase cold outreach ROI, but you have to know something first. Once you’re done with the first step in the outreach process, you should continue adding fuel to the fire.

That means educating your audience to let them know who you are, what you do, but most importantly, what they can gain from your products. Do not expect fast conversions; instead, draw them in with cold outreach and then tailor your ads to address their pain points.

Create low-risk ads that direct users to case studies with the goal of educating them with cold facts. You can then do some remarketing and bring them back to your site for another video or webinar based on their behavior. Once that’s over, you can move in for the close.

Email marketing

Email marketing should be a part of your strategy to solidify your current customer base and acquire new ones.

When you fill your emails with interesting and useful content for your subscribers, you are offering something valuable to them. This way, you are not just advertising your products or services.

Creating a newsletter and sending important information via email, as well as offering an e-book from time to time, will provide them with rich materials. This is a great way to maintain communication with your current customers, but an even better way to reach your potential customers and engage them.

Affiliate marketing

This kind of marketing is also known as performance-based marketing. With affiliate marketing, you collaborate with other brands and get them to promote your products.

Of course, when a promotion by an affiliate leads to a sale, you pay them a commission. These payments are made for each sale, lead, or click.

With this kind of marketing, you can tap into new audiences easily. It can be a very effective way to fill your sales funnel with quality leads since you’ll be partnering up with businesses from your own industry.

Just be patient since this usually takes some time and effort. And also be careful when choosing your partner since you don’t want to get the wrong audience. If you are selling sports equipment, it won’t be wise to partner up with a business from another industry.

Final thoughts

Test and measure everything you do to make sure that your efforts don’t go to waste. If you don’t see an influx of new customers and start losing the current ones, reassess what you are doing.

Therefore, measure every effort and ensure that you are making a profit. Take advantage of apps and technology at your disposal and tailor your own strategy using the tips listed above, paying attention to every step along the way.