Business growth is one of the high priority goals for a majority of companies wanting to boost sales and strengthen their market position.
To achieve the planned growth, businesses frequently decide to expand the network of brand ambassadors, and there is no better brand ambassador than a satisfied customer. Consequently, numerous companies invest in reaching out to new customers: According to Invest, 44% percent of them choose to invest in customer acquisition rather than retention.
In some cases, however, new customers don’t necessarily provoke the desired effect.
If you wonder how your new customers have no positive role in your growth chart, check out the common reasons for this type of stagnation. Read on.
#1 Mistaking website visitors for customers
The fact that your online presentation reaches an incredible number of visits every month doesn’t have to say a thing about the actual growth of your business.
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Maybe just 10% of your website visitors are your real customers. Maybe none of them is interested in your product, and you don’t realize it. According to Hubspot, more than 90% of the leads obtained from marketing had a poor quality or were inadequate.
Rather than spending time convincing yourself that half a million visits per month are something awesome, try to get some more detailed data about these visits. Generally speaking, the visits really can be something awesome for your business, but only if the visitors are actually spending money on your products. Unfortunately, too many times they just click on a website and leave it if they are not interested.
The best way to see if this is your case is to track the bounce rate, which will show you how many of your visitors leave your site practically a couple of seconds after loading it, without showing interest in what you offer.
#2 Not Focusing on Acquiring New Customers
In the largest number of cases, getting new customers and maintaining a successful relationship with the old ones are complex processes that require investments. If you’re constantly investing in any of these categories and you see no positive results, you should ask yourself are you dedicating your time and money to the right group.
If growth is one of your main goals, you may want to attract new customers, and you should be aware that this is not a cheap solution. It is particularly expensive if you don’t succeed in making these customers loyal. There are two main ways of making sure your money and energy won’t go to waste:
a. When attracting new customers, make them stay with you.
The worst thing that can happen to your business is to invest in customers who will visit your website once and then disappear. If you want to attract new customers, make sure to give them the value that will make them want to go back to your website. You can impress them by offering differentiated service, including:
- cheaper or free shipping on several purchases,
- offer special discounts for repeated purchases,
- gift vouchers and organize giveaways,
- bring your communication to a new level hiring top-notch operators and introducing a reliable live chat support software
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b. Reconsider growing by improving the relationship with old customers.
If it seems too painstaking for you to get new customers, you should know that you can make your business grow by improving the way you treat the existing customers.
Once you offer them premium conditions (such as discounts, loyalty programs, etc.), you can expect increased interest in your products, as well as some free mouth-to-mouth promotion, since happy customers like to share their experience with acquaintances. In accordance with this, at the same time, you’ll be both keeping your loyal customers happy and attracting new ones with a single investment.
#3 Making Unworthy Investments
It’s true that your business should be informed about new technology and social media trends, but it shouldn’t be their slave. You may want to have more conversions and create more leads, but it doesn’t mean you should spend your entire budget on a number of tools, add-ons, and ads that you can succeed without, too.
Instead of recklessly spending money on every tool that appears to be “the latest word of technology” and “the most efficient way of attracting clients”, invest wisely. Spend some time realizing what your business really needs and act accordingly. Every unnecessary investment will limit the financial benefits brought by new customers, taking you to the beginning of the path.
According to Invesp, customer experience is a key factor in driving customer loyalty for 89% of companies. Consequently, every business that counts on the increase of customers that will lead to growth should think about investing in:
- attractive visual identity,
- easily navigated products page,
- high-quality live chat support software,
- responsive and unique website design.
Chasing new customers or pleasing the old ones?
Whatever you decide to do, make sure to do it right; otherwise, your business will become another one that invested a lot and got nothing.
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On one hand, if you want to avoid risks and grow slowly but stable, you should base the growth on improving the loyal customer experience. On the other hand, if you’re up to challenging fast growth owed to the expansion of new customers, make sure to give them offers that will make them come back to you. Finally, no matter which option you choose, the key is to have a solid and justified strategy behind it to minimize the chances of failure.
