How to gain new customers for free online

Customers are king in marketing and the key to every business's success, that is why many companies spend thousands of dollars in their marketing campaigns to gain new customers and maintain already existing customers. But if you are short on a marketing budget or your business is still new and you don’t know where to start. There are a few tips on how to acquire your first clients for free.

First, segments your market based on what your business can offer

What is your business about, what are your business goals and objectives, what does your company offers that competitors do not have, and also what makes you unique to a point where customers would prefer to do business with you rather than your competitors?. After you have answered these questions you will then need to make a list of your ideal customers and determine their needs and desires and see whether or not your products and services can satisfy those needs.

Second, determine your target market

One of the biggest mistakes some company makes is creating content to reach a wide audience who may not necessarily want what they offer instead of focalizing most of their efforts on their “ideal target audience” who are looking for exactly what the company can provide to them.

For example, you are an online business company that focalizes on service delivery like consulting. You segment your market and do not determine who your target audience is, and you focalize on “online business customers” but under online business, there are many niches like, how to get a job online, online freelancing, and make money online, online side hustles, etc.

By not targeting and focalizing your marketing offers on all customers who search for the term “online business” you will eventually reach customers who don’t want what you offer. As an example, a customer may want to find an online job or make money online but you are offering consulting services.

Hence, in order to target the right customers, ask yourself the following question;

• What is the purchasing power of those customers (if you focalize more on sales)

• What is their age range
• Which social media channels do they use the most
• What are their needs
• Where do they go to get information

You may consider using google analytics if you want to have a broad idea about your ideal customers and their preferences.

Focus on your niche industry

That means not going on every social media channel with the sole aim of getting known. It is very time-consuming and most of the time ineffective. I will give you tips on how to optimize your online presence to get the most number of clients.

Use Reddit and join a subreddit community relative to your niche: In Reddit there are niches for everything so you are almost sure about finding your audience however, it will be difficult for you to market yourself if you don’t use the right approach. That is, understand the rules on Reddit, know which contents are appreciated and those who are downvoted, and last but not least, find ways to connect with people instead of trying to sell them something.

Quora: Like Reddit, there are questions and topics on almost anything but there are a few things to keep in mind while signing up to ensure you get the most out of it. First, Make your profile as attractive as possible. Include links to your website and social media sites, as well as a brief description of who you are and what you do. In a nutshell, develop your online presence. Follow topics that are relevant to your industry and also well-known authors to see what makes you unique. This will ensure that you only see questions that you can respond to and also analyze the competitor's post to determine the type of strategy you will put in place to be successful and be able to compete with them.

Find relevant forums: Joining a forum is one sure way in finding audiences who desire what you offer. But of course, you can’t just start promoting your business and product you will surely get banned. First, interact with your audience to make them interested in you and it is after that you will start proposing to them your services and products.

Join a Facebook and LinkedIn group

Joining a group is ideal for finding the right target audience but like forums don’t start promoting yourself in the beginning cause you will surely get banned. It is also ideal for finding what your potential customers may need and what type of content to post to make them interested in your site.

You can also consider visiting other social media networks if you see that your potential customers seem to be more active in some networks than in others.

Give free giveaways

If you want to make a promotion of your products and offers consider giving your products for free. Either to potential customers, for them to make a review about your products and services offer which will, in turn, increase your brand notoriety and it will also give you free feedbacks on how you can improve your products offers. You can also give away free products to popular influencers in order for them to market your products which will, in turn, increase the visibility of your site.

Above are the few strategies that you can use to increase your number of audiences and potential customers to your site. It might take some time but with consistency you are sure to achieve results.