Tapping into your Customer Base

At the heart of any business venture is its capacity to make money, and at the heart of achieving this goal is the business's ability to tap into a viable customer base.

Let's face it; customers make the business what it is.  If they have a good buying experience, they share it with their friends who in turn share it with other friends.  If on the other hand, they have a bad experience, they use both traditional and non-traditional methods to spread their experience far and wide. 

As an entrepreneur, you must take the necessary steps to ensure that your customer base i.e. that group of customers who repeatedly purchase your goods or services always have an awesome experience such that they will reference your company when the need arises.

Here are some ways that you can make your customer base work for you:

Turn them into believers – Have you ever heard of the ‘BeyHive’ or the ‘Beliebers’? These are fans of international pop stars, Beyonce and Justin Bieber.   These fans have one thing in common, they are strident and vocal and sometimes overenthusiastic in their support of these stars, why, because they believe in them and they can do no wrong. 

Adopt this same principle with your customer base.  Leverage the relationship with your customers and get them to do some of the work for you.  They will spread the word about the great services that you offer and give them incentives to do so.  Also, provide multiple outlets for them to share information about your business and use that information to improve the business and inform your marketing campaign.

Define your customer base – It’s not sufficient to only maintain the customer base that you currently have.  The success and growth of your business requires you to continuously look for new customers to grow your base therefore you must get very specific about your customers.  To say that your target audience is Black men is not enough.  The target group ‘black men’ exists everywhere. Get specific demographic information on the targeted customer – age, location, preferences, tastes, where do they shop for the same category products and how much are they paying for it?

Expand your reach – Tap into an entirely new segment of your customer type by employing more creative marketing strategies.  If you use traditional marketing methods only consider adding one or two non-traditional elements.  In so doing, you open the business to audiences that were not necessarily aware of your offerings but are now at the very least open to a message from you.