How Do I Find Customers Online?

Are you wondering how you can find customers online?
Do you have a new business and you need more customers to make ends meet?
Have you tried posting on social media, but you still don’t get as many customers as you’d like?

Here are two things you need to do to find customers online.

You find customers online the same way you find customers in real life: through marketing and building relationships.

By marketing, I mean letting people know that you are in business and have a product or service that could benefit your ideal customers.

By relationships, I mean you have built the know, like, and trust factor with people, whether that’s online or in real life.

Let’s dig a little deeper into each of these ideas.

Marketing Means Letting Potential Customers Know You Exist

People have to know you exist before they can become a customer.

How do you let them know about your business?

First, you must have a website and a presence on social media.

While it unfortunately doesn’t hold true that, “If you build it (a website), they will come,” the opposite IS true, 
“If you don’t build it, they won’t come.”

A website brings credibility to a business.

Without a professional looking website, potential customers won’t believe you are a credible business.

It also really helps to have a blog on your website that you update regularly with relevant content.

Content is king when it comes to becoming an authority in your field. 

Second, you also need to be on at least one social media platform and you need to update that platform on at least a monthly basis.

Posting more often is much better, but don't let more than a month go by without an update.

When someone visits your business on a social media platform, if the last post is from 5 months ago, they might wonder if you’re still in business.

Pick at least one of these social media platforms:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Pinterest

Then decide how often you’ll update the platform.

Don’t create a business account on a social media platform unless you commit to updating it at least once a month.

It’s better to not be on a social media platform at all than to appear out of business on it.

So once you have your website and are on at least one social media platform, it’s time to build relationships.

Build Authentic Relationships with Potential Customers

I’m sure you’ve heard that people only buy from people they “know, like, and trust.”

It’s true! Think about it from your own experience.

If you are looking for a new car and the salesman seems to be manipulating and misleading you, you run the other way, right?

It’s the same in the online space.

Some people come across so salesy that it repulses people.

No one wants to be treated as a dollar sign instead of the human being that they are.

Your job is to allow people to get to know you and for you to get to know people.

The only way a customer can get to know you is if you are authentic online.

• Put pictures of yourself on your website and on your social media platforms.
• Write the way you speak.
• Be HONEST with your potential customers.
• Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
• Take the time to get to know others. 

Be careful about limiting growing relationships only with people who you think could become customers. 

I have been guilty of this in the past. 

When I first started my business, I was so focused on who I thought my “ideal customer” was that I wasn’t paying attention to the relationships forming right in front of me. 

Some people that I originally saw as competition became friends that referred clients to me that they couldn’t support. 

I turned down working on stores in the beginning because my ideal customer owns a service-based business. 

Now I just form relationships with the people that are drawn towards me. 

I don’t know why they’ve been invited into my life (yet!), but they have and I see each relationship as a blessing. 

Here are a few thoughts about building relationships:

• Relationships take time
  
• Don’t be in a relationship to see what you can get out of it
  
• Develop relationships and see how you can help and bless others
  

The blessings will come back to you! 

So to summarize, two key ways to find customers online is to use marketing to let people know what products or services you have to offer and develop authentic relationships with the people that are drawn to you. 

If you’d like to discuss this further or find out how you can get a website for your business, send me an email or schedule a Zoom call today.

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Email Elaine