Generating new customers is an important part of continuing to grow as a business. Although retaining the customers you already have is no doubt a critical part of staying afloat, you’ll also need to continue bringing in new ones if you hope to expand. However, finding new customers for your business can be a challenge depending on many factors.

Whether it’s the time of year, your location, or maybe you’re getting crushed by the competition, you may find yourself struggling to create more business. To help you, here are some of the most practical ways to increase your customer base.

Leverage Social Media

Smart businesses know that social media is one of the best places to find customers is on social media. Whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram, social media platforms are one of the best places to make an impact on your target audience. Yet, creating social media accounts for business alone isn’t enough. You’ll need to interact with your customers, share the right kind of content, and get involved in conversations. Stay active and you’ll create a social media following in no time.

Offer Incentive

Sometimes asking people to try out your product or service alone isn’t enough to convince them. It helps to offer an incentive for them to try out your business over the competition. Perhaps you can give them a free trial, or even a reduction as a new customer bonus. More often than not, offering new customers a perk will result in them coming back for more business.

Always Include Calls to Action

Having a website and sending out marketing emails are important parts of attracting new customers. However, you have to make sure that they know the next steps to take. Including a call to action is a critical part of boosting your customer engagement.

Whether it’s a button that invites them to read your blog, or you offer a free consultation, always provide your potential customers with the invitation to take further steps with your brand.

Encourage Reviews

Reviews are one of the best ways to attract customers online. When people see a five-star review attached to a business’s name, it establishes trust and credibility. The more you can encourage your current customers to leave your review, the more it will breed future customers. Don’t make the mistake of letting the fear of a negative review hold you back from asking for people to leave reviews. Even so-called “negative” reviews can be a wonderful opportunity for constructive criticism. Sometimes customers may have insight to offer us that we may not have been aware of otherwise.

Ask For Referrals

Referrals can be one of the most powerful forms of marketing. One of the best ways to ask for referrals is to offer a referral program. For example, you can offer a discount to new customers and the people that referred them. Ultimately, the more you can encourage people to recommend your business to others, the better.