Five Tips for Growing Your Customer Base in 2016

Three in four American small business owners increased their customer base in the first half of 2015, according to Hiscox’s annual DNA of an Entrepreneur study of more than 4,000 owners from around the world. While the first two months of 2016 have been tumultuous for the global economy, that doesn’t mean small businesses need to abandon their growth agendas for the year.

In fact, many small businesses may find that generating the same level of customer growth as they did in Q1/Q2 of 2015 is still very attainable. The key to continually enhancing and expanding your customer base is highly targeted marketing. The following are a few tips to consider as you reexamine your strategy for driving growth in 2016.

1. Be strategic about social media. Know your target audience and make sure that your social media presence caters to those who matter most. There are an infinite number of platforms available, from LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, to YouTube, Google Plus and Pinterest. It’s impossible to maintain a robust presence on each of these services, but by paying attention to which sites are most popular among your customers and which best enable you to promote your message, you can most effectively allocate marketing resources.

For example, Millennials are not only using Instagram for sharing photos with friends, but also for checking out products and brands to get an inside look. If they comprise a significant chunk of your target market, consider platforms like Instagram to tell your story.

2. Market yourself. Attend networking events to expand your contact list. Word-of-mouth and referrals are great ways to promote your business, and people will be more likely to remember someone they connected with in person versus something they read about online. The best case scenario is that one reinforces the other. Your target customer reads or views some relevant content you’ve provided and then you meet in person, or you follow up on a meeting with company-branded collateral.

In addition to building your personal network, leverage your customers. If a customer is happy, he’ll speak about your product with others. By incentivizing customer referrals, you let your work speak for itself to generate more client leads.

3. Produce content of value. Make sure that your website is easy to navigate, mobile-friendly and visibly appealing. If people can’t find something on your website or can’t access it on their mobile device, they’ll probably move on.

Beyond ensuring an enjoyable and intuitive user experience, consider creating a blog that you produce content for fairly often. This will give current and prospective clients a more personal connection to your company, all while providing relevant information. The added benefit of an effective blog is that it can further enhance your search engine optimization (SEO) and customer engagement.

4. Get creative with video. The average internet user spends more time on websites that have video versus those without. Engage current and prospective clients by incorporating visual elements into your web content. To boost brand awareness, try using video in a creative way that matches your brand promise but also entertains the audience.

For example, Hiscox has produced two branded entertainment series, Courageous Leaders and Leap Year, which have been extremely successful from both a return on investment and brand awareness perspective.

5. Get your small business on the map. Ensure that customers can find you easily by registering your business on Google My Business. This ensures customers searching for your business or similar businesses can easily find you on Google Maps and through basic Google searches. By monitoring publicly available information on your business that appears on search engines like Google for accuracy, you can make sure your customer experience is top-notch from start to finish.

Despite the turmoil in the stock market and the slower-than-expected U.S. economic recovery, small businesses appear to have not only found a niche, but are growing. The easier they can make it for people to interact positively with their brand, the more chance they have to influence their customers and prospects. The key is enhanced visibility and the right strategy to drive growth.