What is the 2nd most important challenge “pain point” for small business owners behind lack of cash flow? That would be customer acquisition and just getting more customers to patronize your business. If having a healthy supply of customers patronizing your business is happening, usually the lack of cash flow issue is resolved. Advertising, which as been around as long as business itself, was created specifically to address and solve the customer acquisition dilemma that many small business owners face each and every day. Finding the right type of advertising medium can be a trial and error process and can significantly affect the marketing budgets of small business owners, if they even have one. Not finding an affordable and effective way to drive more customers to your business can certainly affect your business viability. So here are the major types of advertising methods to bring more customers into your business:
- Newspaper
- Magazine
- Radio
- Television
- Directories
- Outdoor/Transit
- Direct Mail/Categories/Leaflets
- Online
So of the methods to advertise mentioned above, which has your business used in the past or currently to bring in more customers? All can be effective, if used properly, but none can be as effective and as cost saving as customer referrals. Since customer referrals are more of a promotion by “Word of Mouth” method, its results are harder to track unless you have a formalized system in place. Ninety-two (92%) of Small Business owners in the U.S. rely on referrals for new business but often rely heavily on the advertising methods mentioned above. So when a lack of customers is the key issue for your business, what is the best way to generate brand awareness and brand exposure for your business without blowing any marketing budget you may have? Customer referrals, of course! But how do you get customers to refer others to your business if your current customer count is low? According to GlobalWebIndex.com, 95% of the online population uses websites and social media to communicate with family and friends. Recent marketing studies and polls have shown the following:
Eight-nine percent (89%) of customers are more than willing to refer their family and friends to their favorite small businesses, but only 11% of small business owners actively ask for referrals.
According to Nielson Research, Ninety-two percent (92%) of consumers trust referrals from people they know. They are four times (4X) more likely to buy when referred by a friend.
According to the New York Times, sixty-five percent (65%) of new business comes from customer referrals.
So with from what has mentioned in the previous three (3) points, why aren’t more small businesses using customer referrals more to drive more customers to their business? A lot has to do with the lack of formalized, easy to use, trackable and integrated reward system options for customer referrals. In 2020 and 2021, the issue wasn’t a lack of customers but more of staffing issues and product shortages. But in a normal business environment, getting more customers to notice and patronize your business is a must solve problem for most small business owners. So a lack of regular customer patronage, from new and existing, customers can seem like major challenge for many of the millions of small business owners in the U.S. Not having enough customers buying your products and services can affect being able to keep your business afloat and viable. Providing the best possible customer experience will often get folks talking about your business and in turn seeking our your products and services, which is key to solving the customer acquisition problem that many small business owners face. But what if you had an app-based referral marketing platform that allowed customers to share your business referral campaign information and reward both the referrer and referee?
The purpose of the Virely/Dealium blog is to bring attention to and discuss the 2nd most common problem for the over 32 million small businesses in the U.S. and that is customer acquisition. Creating viral brand awareness and brand exposure can help solve the customer acquisition problem that small business owners face. That lack of customers can affect the viability of any business, no matter the size.
Dealium is a SaaS B2B Referral Marketing & Social Commerce Platform that connects small businesses with new customers through referrals from their existing customers using our proprietary algorithm-based referral code sharing technology incorporated with their customer’s SMS, Email & Social Media. Dealium creates brand awareness, brand exposure & new customer acquisition opportunities for our business subscribers while allowing their customers to save time & money searching for reputable local small businesses.
So if you are a small business owner where customer acquisition is a must solve problem then Dealium could be the answer to getting more customers through your door. Dealium will provide unlimited referral campaigns and marketing automation services for your customers for about $6.50 per day! Dealium will be launch in the 1st quarter of 2022 so stay tuned for more as we are preparing to launch in order to help more small businesses bring in more loyal customers at a lower cost!
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