If you have recently launched your business, or are considering doing so in the near future, it is vital that you consider how you are going to generate a steady flow of customers interested in your product or service.
Acquiring new customers is one of the hardest parts of starting a new business. And with around 80% of new businesses failing in their first year, it's imperative that you work out how you are going to do this. Remember, yours won’t be the only business competing for their attention!
Customer Pipeline
In order to meet your business projections and reach that critical 12 month milestone, you need to have taken time to carefully plan which channels you will use to reach your new business prospects.
No business, as attractive as it may seem at first, benefits from a sudden influx of big orders and then nothing for six months. It is essential for a start up business, more than any other business, to have a steady flow of new business that allows the business to grow organically and safely. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a high risk strategy.
Lead Generation
It varies by industry and company, but a typical lead conversion rate is around 33%. This means that for every three leads generated, you will make around one sale. It also means you need to generate three times as many enquiries as your sales projections. The earlier you start thinking about how you are going to generate enough leads to meet your sales projections, the better.
Customer Profiling
In order to know who which prospects you should be targeting, you should understand your ideal customer profile. If you have some customers, look at their characteristics and identify what they have in common. Look at things such as type of business, size of business and business location. Pretty soon you should be able to build a profile for your 'ideal' customer or customers. If you haven't started trading yet, consider who you believe will be your ideal customer based on any previous experience you have.
Prospect Targeting
So you know who your ideal customer is and which group of prospects you need to target your product or service at. How many prospects do you have in your local area, in your county, in the country? Who are they and where are they? If you don’t know, consider using a direct marketing tool like Business Search PRO, which you can use to generate your ideal prospect data list.
Communication
When thinking about how you are going to communicate with prospective customers, you must think about ensuring you get a good return on your investment and choose the marketing channels that are best going to deliver this for you. For example, you could choose to mail shot or email a customer sample initially and then analyse the results.
Whichever kind of direct marketing you choose to undertake, it is essential you measure the results so you can determine the return on your investment. Understanding which type of direct marketing gives you the best return on your initial investment should then form the basis of your future lead generation activities.
Lead Generation Expectations
Any kind of success still comes down to hard work. Managing your direct mail campaign or telemarketing campaign effectively is crucial to its ability to generate new business for you.
And don't expect success overnight. Response rates for a mail shot of 1% are very good. Many prospects may become aware of your product because of your marketing, campaign but only finally decide to contact you after the third or fourth communication.
