Make Friends with Potential New Customers

Make Friends with Potential New Customers

What if you're doing everything right...but you just aren't growing like you think you should?

Then I'd say, you probably have ample competition, dividing your market into a lot of little slivers. Your plan of attack then, is to implement a long-term advertising strategy. Instead of all your potential new customers wondering WHO TO BUY FROM, make them think of you first. Help them get to know you in your ad campaign and feel most comfortable buying from you instead of someone else.

It's called LOCAL BRANDING. It's the best way to make the name of your business a household word in your market. And it takes patience. This isn't going to be a "slam bam thank you ma'am" advertising plan. This is relationship building with a group of people who you can afford to advertise to, day in and day out...forever. Or as long as you plan on being in business anyway.

Why a long-term strategy? Because not everyone needs what you offer right now. Most of your prospects probably won't be ready for months or even years depending on the length of their purchase cycle. Grocery stores will see a faster return on a good ad campaign than an electrician or a mattress store because we all need groceries a heck of a lot sooner than a good electrician or a new bed.

The first step is to figure out what you can say to potential new customers to help them trust you and feel more confident in YOU versus their trust in your competitors.

Did my wife trust me enough to marry me the day after we met? No. There were a lot of long hours of talking and getting to know each other before we felt comfortable enough to consider marriage. Every day...for months and months. Do you still have friends from high school? They'll always be your friends. You'll never forget them. But that didn't happen quickly. You developed a deep relationship with them over a period of years.

It's the same thing when you're trying to "make friends" with new customers. If you're good at what you do, and treat your customers right...then start building relationships with your prospects. Start communicating things to them in your advertising that would move them closer to trusting you and doing business with you. It's a process. It takes patience. But when you finally get over that hump of branding the essence of who you are into people's brains, you'll start getting more of their business when they need what you offer.

Local branding isn't telling people who, what, when, and where...it's telling stories. When you tell stories in your advertising about a customer's great experience or about how you helped someone out or about someone with a specific problem that you provided a solution for...then people begin to trust you. This is not awareness advertising. That won't work for someone with a lot of competition. Putting up a billboard with your business name on it is not going to cut it. You're trying to build relationships.

So whether you're embarking on a Radio ad campaign or a Direct Mail campaign, you're going to need ads with emotion, that tell a story, and that make people want to be "your friend". It's a process that takes patience and persistence...but it also holds the key to GROWING more than you ever thought possible...and climbing the ladder of increased market share.

Have a great day!


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