How to get the first clients for your new business

Introduction

Starting a new business is an experience both exciting, but also terribly challenging, especially when it comes to acquiring your first customers. In this guide, we’ll show you a few techniques that can help you to get started, and grow your starting business into a flourishing company.

Know your ideal target

Whatever you’d like to do in terms of marketing efforts, it is crucial to know who your ideal customer is. This knowledge will help you to tailor all the strategies and techniques you’ll put in place, so, you don’t waste resources in contacting people who won’t be interested in your business.

In order to define this, you’ll have to ask yourself the good questions:

What do I have to offer? Who can be interested in this?

Those two questions need to stay on top of your mind whatever you’ll do next. But, they are not always easy to answer. In order to get information that will help you to have a clear view:

• Look at your product
• Check what makes you unique
• Think about your customers
• Check what are their pain points

There is probably also a high chance that you’re not alone in solving a specific problem or offering a specific service. In that case, don’t hesitate to look at your competitors, and what they are doing.

A sample answer to this point could be:

• You are a woodcutting company
• You aim to target mostly individuals (not companies)
• Their concern is about having a tree falling in their neighbor’s garden
• They are looking for a professional service that could help to cut their trees with lower prices, but also, with a lot of safety.

Reach out to your network

Now that you have perfected your offering, and identified who can be interested in your company, don’t hesitate to start with your network.

Connect with family, friends, neighbors, relatives, previous colleagues, … Reach out to them, and don’t hesitate to ask for feedback, or directly try to make sales.

There is a high chance that if those people are in your network, they already know you well, and have some kind of trust that will help you to either get honest feedback or direct your first customers.

Don’t be pushy, but don’t hesitate to try different techniques. Depending on who you’d like to contact, you can use different ways:

• SMS
• Emails
• Direct messages on social network
• Or, even a face-to-face visit

Most of the small companies started that way, and it proved to give significant results.

You can also extend your network by trying to get involved in local communities. It can be anything: neighbors’ gatherings, professional fairs, meetups, offline or online. They can also be a good source of valuable leads.

Build an online presence

Getting in touch with your network is good, but it can also quickly be quite limited. If you want to grow beyond that, you can go online. And, it doesn’t have to cost you a dime.

• You can build a website for free using tools such as Wix or WordPress.
• You can build content on social networks
• You can post on forums and online communities
• You can even appear on some local directories (like in Google Maps for instance), entirely for free

What’s important is to share valuable content. And, if you have no idea, no problem! No need to hire a professional or think too far. Your product is often the best thing to show.

Are you crafting something, or offering some specific services? Show them. Take pictures, videos, customer testimonials. They are easy to make, and, are likely to invite people to get a call with you.

Double down on promotions and discounts

People love it when you have things to offer, especially if it’s cheap or free.

You can offer trials, demos, or, even free quotes.

What’s important is to lower what we call the “barrier to entry”. It should be easy for people to try your offering. Later on, they will be much more likely to purchase again from you if they are satisfied with what you have to offer.

Build partnerships

The easiest way to get customers is probably when someone else is doing it for you. Don’t neglect to partner with other businesses. Try to get mutual agreements with complementary businesses that could ultimately refer you to some of their customers.

You can build partnerships with other companies doing different businesses (imagine a plumber recommending an electrician to all their customers building new homes), or, online marketplaces that have the goal of referring local businesses.

Try advertising

If none of the techniques stated above work for you, you can also try to run an advertising campaign. Nowadays, there are so many different techniques, that you’ll find for sure something that will work for you.

It could be traditional billboard/radio / TV ads, or, even online (such as advertising on search engines).

What’s important to note is that it can easily be fairly expensive. The results you’ll get from your advertising campaign will also depend a lot on what your customer is listening to.

Don’t suppose that because you spent a lot of money means that it will work. Your goal here will be to put the right ad in front of the right people.

Conclusion

Getting your first customers can be frightening and challenging. But, there are many ways to get started with it. With the different approaches listed in this document, we tried to give you some ideas of things you can experiment with next. Combine the right approach with the right product, shown in front of the right customer, and your success will be guaranteed.