So, you’ve financed your business, you understand your company values, and you’ve created a website that represents your brand. Congratulations, you’re ready to start selling and take your first steps in the business world.
The question is, how do you find your first customer?
Finding customers can be difficult, especially in an oversaturated market. With so much competition out there, how do you distinguish yourself enough to get the clicks and sales?
Luckily for you, we know some amazing ways to put your business in front of potential customers. What’s more, we’ll tell all in this article. So, if you’re interested, read on for more!
How Do I Find My First Customer?
Here are some of the best ways you can flood your business with customers.
1. Develop A Customer Acquisition Plan
The most important factor in gaining your very first customer, and all of the customers after that, is research! You need to thoroughly research the types of people that are most likely to buy your service or product.
It is important to know their social circles, if they are active on social media, and the places they go to when they want to buy your service or product.
Search for patterns in this research and once you find them, you have found your target market. From here, you can make plans to reach your target market, and gain your first customer!
2. Build Your Presence Online
Having a website for customers to browse through is great. However, they first need to be able to find it.
To do this, you need to use search engine optimization, also known as SEO, to boost your domain authority on Google.
There are many ways you can do this. For example:
- Use relevant, strong keywords related to your niche on your website through high-quality content
- Include internal and external links
- Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
- Use specific, concise URLs
- Use headings and subheadings
- Make sure your navigation page is simple to optimize the user experience
3. Use Your Own Network
A helpful way to find your first customer is to use your own network.
With your research in mind, look through all of your social media profiles, like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok, for any connections that may fit into your target demographic.
For example, if you are selling products for homeowners, look through your network and see who is a homeowner. If you are selling fitness products, check out who in your network is into sports, exercise, yoga, etc.
As soon as you have made your list, you can reach out to these individuals and explain, briefly, what you are doing and how you would like their feedback.
Chances are, you already know these individuals on some form of personal level, and it should be easier to make early sales, or at least generate buzz around your new business.
4. Launch Advertising Campaigns
There are many different digital marketing strategies you can implement to gain your very first customer and all future customers after that. However, it can feel overwhelming when you first start.
So, here are the best steps you can take to get started in an (almost) stress-free way.
Create a marketing plan!
Start a blog - as before, use high-quality keywords, and try using affiliate links to earn a little side money!
Implement a social media marketing strategy, such as paid social media advertising and Google pay-per-click advertising.
Once you have these first steps covered, you can make further campaigns into a platform that your business performs well on.
In these early days of ad campaigns, try not to spend more than $100, as this should be enough to assess if your business is generating interest. If it is not, you can make adjustments to your copy or retarget your ad campaigns.
5. Use Other Outbound Prospecting Techniques
Outreach tactics are a great way of finding your first customer. Here are some great examples of outreach tactics and how to implement them.
Cold Outreach On LinkedIn
With this outreach tactic, an individual will send InMail messages to potential customers whom you have yet to connect with.
Cold Emailing
By using tools like Email Finder, you can find the business emails of many individuals and from there, send them an outreach email. In this email, you will pitch your service or product in a way that speaks to the pain points of your client.
Cold Calling
Cold calling is another outreach tactic you can use to gain customers. However, if you choose to use this method, make sure you use it sparingly because it is often considered to be unwelcome and disruptive.
However, you may find it useful if the above methods do not work.
It is important to note that the individuals targeted with your outreach tactics need to be interested in your product. That is to say, they need to be part of your potential target demographic.
This way, you are more likely to see responses.
6. Team Up With Business Owners And Influencers
Teaming up with other business owners who sell services or products complementary to your niche is a great way to gain your first customer!
This way, you will be able to ask for a referral and reach your potential customers.
Likewise with influencers! Influencers can reach many, many people with just one post. It is important to first build a good rapport with influencers in your niche, before requesting a collaboration.
You can do this by offering them a free product. Once a connection has been made, you can collaborate with an influencer and see how your business grows!
Final Thoughts
Getting your first customer can feel like a real challenge. However, by following these steps you should see your numbers grow in no time!
We hope this article taught you all you need to know about getting your first customer. Good luck!