Engage Your Customers and Improve Your Small Business Sales

Important Tips for Engaging Your Target Market

One aspect of business that some smaller organizations struggle with is engaging and connecting with their customers. The relationship between engaged customers and sales is not a secret – customers who feel they are important to a business and who are communicated with regularly tend to make more purchases and have more interactions. Some small business owners may find it difficult to make this connections simply because they lack the resources that some, larger organizations have. Luckily there are some great ways for small businesses to truly engage with customers and help grow sales.

Offer Customer Something in Return for their Attention

Customers like to know that they matter and that their business is important. A great way to show customers that a business cares about them is to engage them in contests and giveaways. This concept may seem overwhelming – not many small businesses have it in their budget to give away big ticket items – but there are ways to use contests and giveaways on a smaller scale that yield the same results. Consider giving away a service or product from within the business instead of purchasing an item. Doing this helps to keep the contest firmly tied to your business and instead of something unrelated.

Additionally, use the giveaway to gather more information about the target audience. For example, customers who sign up to receive the business’s email newsletter are entered to win a product or service. This helps to engage customers in two ways – drawing them in with an offer and then using the information they themselves provide to interact with them again in the future. This approach is a creative way to build a strong email list for a newsletter and any other promotional messages. Doing something of this nature on a regular basis will have customers coming back again and again.

Make the Business’s Website Interactive

Many small businesses have the resources to develop their own website, whether it is professionally designed and sustained or created in-house. It is important to use this vital marketing tool to its utmost potential. An interesting way to engage customers through the business’s website is by making it interactive. Include online voting tools, polls and comment areas in your website to help encourage customers to interact with you. This will also work for building your email contact list – customers who wish to comment or vote will generally need to register or login to the website in order to participate.

Some of the most successful businesses have mastered the art of engaging their customers. While most of these businesses use professional services to do so, it is completely possible for small businesses to make the same, or possibly a larger, impact. By interacting with consumers and making them feel important to the business, it will help to drive their confidence and even sales margins. Using contests and interactive features on the business’s website will help to make consumers feel included and also help the business to build a solid contact list as well as strong relationships with their customers.

If you are just starting out with your own legitimate home business, you may need some addition help to get the sales rolling. Whether you already have an opportunity or are looking for one, Stacy O'Quinn can help! To find out how, click here.