3 tips to focus your marketing efforts and attract more customers

As a business owner it’s so easy to be pulled in multiple directions and spend time doing things that don’t generate sales or accelerate the growth of your business.

One of the number one questions I get asked by small business owners and solopreneurs is; “how do I attract more customers to my business? Or “how do I generate more leads”

One of the first things I tell them to do is, focus their marketing efforts, don’t try and be all things to all men. Decide what direction you want to go and be relentless about pursuing it.

Direction is so much more important than speed. It’s so easy to go ‘nowhere’ fast!

3 tips to help you win more customers

1. Identify where your biggest opportunities are

Are your biggest opportunities on social media, within networking groups, strategic partnerships, events, your website or somewhere else? Wherever the biggest opportunity is, that’s where you start.

You’re likely to be very familiar with the business area that you’re operating in, so base this on past experience and your knowledge of the market. In addition, I advise that online marketing always be part of your marketing activity in various degrees, due to the wealth of opportunities that exist online. This might include developing your website, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), blogging or online advertising.

2. Limit your lead generation efforts to no more than 3 channels initially

There are infinite opportunities for you to explore in order to attract more customers, such as;

Content marketing and blogging
Events
Advertising
PR
Email marketing
And the list goes on…

However, if you pursue them all you’ll most likely spread yourself too thin and not do any of them particularly well. Better to start with a few, get a system in place for managing the activity, optimise the activity until it delivers results, and then add additional channels.

3. Refocus your efforts every so often

As your lead generation efforts progress you’ll want to venture into new marketing areas to attract more customers: This could be for a number of reasons, such as the following;

You’ve fully explored a particular path e.g. you’ve reached the end of a marketing partnership
You’re leads are at a different stage e.g. you’ve captured a lot of leads on social media and now you want to develop the relationship and get closer to a sale via email
Opportunities have started to appear elsewhere

The beauty of business is that it’s fluid and dynamic, you should be too. There are multiple routes to achieving your business goals so don’t be afraid to flip the script every now and again, just don’t lose focus.

One of the biggest strengths that small businesses have is agility, so be agile.