4 Tips for Growing Your Customer Base

Customer retention is a big deal because, as everyone and their mother knows at this point, retaining a customer is much cheaper than acquiring a new one. 

And yet, there are going to come points when a business needs to grow its customer base. This could be a startup building from scratch or a well-established enterprise looking to invest in a different market or court a new demographic of customers.

Whatever the reason, here are four things to consider each time you prepare to grow your customer base.

1. Set the Stage

Before you start any major marketing initiatives, you need to make sure you’re ready for customer growth internally. Can your team handle a larger workload? Can you scale your current business activities without compromising on your USPs (unique selling propositions)?

This isn’t the kind of thing you want to learn as you go along. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a nifty list of things that show a company is ready to grow. 

Start by making sure your enterprise is in a position to expand its market. From there, assess what you need to do to take things to the next level. Ensure that you have the personnel, tech, and procedures in place to scale your operation before you kick anything off.

2. Consider Third-Party Support

If you feel that growth may put a strain on your internal operations, take steps now to meet future demand with poise and professionalism. For example, if expanding your base into a new market is going to mean creating new offerings, how can you keep these on brand while targeting them for your new demographic?

Uber accomplished this by working with product agency Metalab when launching Uber Eats. The third-party product designer brought the outside expertise required to create a new motion design system that remained true to the Uber brand. 

If you’re trying to grow your customer base, make sure you have the support system in place to do so effectively. Consider your team’s strengths and weaknesses. Then look for partners that can help you shore up the latter while remaining true to your brand’s identity.

3. Curate Your Content

There are countless marketing factors to consider when you’re engaged in growth marketing, from establishing the right KPIs to prioritizing the customer lifecycle. If there’s one marketing element that is critical at every point, though, it has to be content.

As Neil Patel points out, there are many different kinds of content marketing. A good growth sales funnel is full of all different kinds of content. An insightful guest post or helpful article can create awareness. A thoughtful whitepaper or well-crafted trial can encourage activation. Follow-up emails can boost retention.

The importance of your content makes content curation an essential aspect of effective growth. Consider if each piece of content is for your existing audience, your new audience, or both. Keep high-performing pieces of content updated and fresh. Offer free content that targets your new customer’s pain points and proclivities.

4. Don’t Forget Data

It’s also important to consider data and analytics. Do you have tools in place to track activity on your e-commerce store, newsletter, and social accounts? Can you see how people find you? Do you know what they do on your platforms or how they patronize you when they’re on your site? 

You want data analytics in place both before and after you begin investing in growing your customer base. This helps you track what works — and enables you to use that to further inform future customer acquisition attempts.

Netflix, for instance, has famously used its algorithms and user data to inform its content development. This data-driven programming has turned the brand into an entertainment powerhouse over the years. If you’re going to grow your audience, make sure you know how to intimately track your successes and failures along the way. 

Growing your customer base can be a challenging proposition. It requires research, planning, and effective execution. Use the tips above to set the stage, create a support system, and leverage content and data to optimize your efforts as you grow your customer base and take your company to the next level.

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