Marketing trends come and go. Customer preferences and shopping behavior change all the time. Marketers come up with new and innovative campaigns every now and then. Businesses seek ways of standing out from the crowd and resonate with target audiences. The world of business doesn’t seem to take a break- ever! But maybe you should pause a little and instead of chasing new trends and new customers, focus more on your own existing customers. Studies show that making your name within your current customer base can help you secure new leads and expand your business. How is that?

For starters, word of mouth advertising is one of the oldest and still among the most effective marketing techniques in the world. If your customers are happy, they will advertise your business for free within their social circles through word-of-mouth referrals. Those who use social media and other online platforms will post positive reviews about your brand online, giving you a solid base to launch your online campaigns. Besides, customer feedback is invaluable when it comes to addressing your pain points and positioning your company for success. When they aren’t helping you generate new leads and improve your services or products, they are there offering you room for growth within their shopping culture.

In a nutshell, ensuring that your current fan base is satisfied gives you upsell and cross-sell opportunities. All you need to do in order to leverage your customers for expansion is to mobilize all the needed resources and to be psychologically ready to lead your company to greater heights. Speaking of resources, you need to prepare your human resource and motivate them to grow with the company. That means better terms of the contract and better leadership on your part. When expanding overseas, it is best that you source help from an international PEO, such as NH Global Partners,  instead of managing foreign employees on your own. You already have a lot on your plate- handling HR issues might derail your expansion process.

So, are you ready for expansion? Here are 3 pointers to leveraging customers for business expansion:

1. Referral marketing

This is a type of marketing whereby you reward your customers for referring friends and family to your brand. It is arguably one of the cheapest and most effective ways of growing your customer base. You start by creating a strong rapport with customers through calls to action in emails, direct messages on social media, and calling them in person. You make them feel like an integral part of your brand story. That is the rapport that you then leverage to grow your audience and market your products for almost nothing. You can give the customers some sort of affiliate links which when new customers click and then buy something from your website, the customer who made the referral earns points. These points can then be redeemed at your store, probably in the form of discounts. The marketing ROI for this form of marketing is insanely high.

2. Testimonials and case studies

 Don’t wait for customers to share reviews online. Influence those reviews by asking them to send you testimonials. In this era of social media and visual consumerism, you can influence sales leads by sharing videos of customers using and/reviewing your products. Ensure that the customers you post are authentic and the products they claim to have bought from you are verifiable. If you post ghost customers and inauthentic products, someone will catch you in the lie and shame you online. Case studies are as powerful as testimonials in attracting new clients. They tell potential clients that you have solved problems like theirs before and that you are the best among all available options to solve their prevailing problem.

3. Growing with the existing customer base

In this case, you don’t expand by reaching out to new markets. You grow by leveraging the room for growth that your customers create as their shopping behaviors change. Read their reviews and suggestions and see where their needs are shifting to, and then invest in that direction. Maybe they need new products and/or services for new problems in their lives. Or maybe their income has grown and they now need more luxurious products and services for the same problem you have been solving for them. Whichever the case, don’t allow competitors to poach them from you. Step up and expand your product offering!

Conclusion

It is evident that how you relate to customers can influence the financial health of your brand. So, in everything you do, if at all you wish to grow through your existing customers, every strategy must be directed to improving customer experience.