It’s important to always be innovating, actively thinking & growing your business. Customers are a BIG part of any business, so coming up with new ways to excite them is vital to your business’s continued success!
If you want to really impress your customers, then you have to give them more than what they usually get from other businesses. It’s not necessarily grand gestures that will get their attention.. it’s the little things that usually make much more of an lasting impression.
Here we provide 15 innovative ways to help you excite your customers in 2024:
1. Organize giveaways
Giveaways are a great way to get customers to try your products as well as promote them for a small gift or voucher. Use social media to announce a contest where you can get customers to post, like, tag, or promote your product and offer complete product sets as prizes for the winning contenders. You can also ask them to use your product & post reviews or photos with the product for a chance to win product gifts. This is a low-cost way to reach the most potential customers.
2. Host VIP Access
Everyone likes to feel special. Compile a mailing list and add even your one-time customers to the list of VIP customers. Organize a sale or host an event and send them exclusive invites to these occasions. Put your best products on display & offer special or additional discounts to your VIP customers. This is a great promotion strategy as well as a customer care tactic where customers feel distinctive and appreciated. You can also announce this program on social, digital, as well as print media to showcase your customer-centricity to prospective buyers.
3. Sending Personalized Well Wishes
No one feels more special than on a special occasion such as birthdays and anniversaries. Dig into the customer database and send some personalized notes or cards to wish them well on their special days. You can also send a small gift, a memento, or a gift voucher related to your new launches or exclusive products to spread the word about them. Most buyers feel compelled to share such gestures on social media, highlighting it as their something of attainment.
4. Assemble a Contest
As the adage goes, “Old is Gold” and so what better way to attract customers than by getting them to participate in a contest. The crucial part here is the massive marketing of the contest and attractive prizes as well as an assured gift for everyone. The contest or quiz can be based on the product highlighting its features in the form of questions. You can also host a jingle contest where you can get the customers to get creative and think on your company lines. Air the contest on television for maximum impact.
5. Educate your Customers
Teach something new to your customers about the product or its uses via Facebook posts or tweets as well as in the form of trivia on your website and App. Encourage users to contribute with their posts as well. A YouTube channel highlighting product usage as well as alternative utilization of the same product can be developed and marketed to showcase the product as multi-faceted. Also, for assembled products, how-to-videos and guides can be posted with tips and tricks for better assembly and usage. For cosmetics, correct usage practices, as well as hacks, can be floated on social media and beauty websites.
6. Loyalty Benefits
Loyalty programs have existed as one of the best promotional tactics since time immemorial. Equipped online as well as in brick-and-mortar stores with loyalty programs and schemes. Highlight the benefits of being your customer while comparing it to other leading brands to show them how they can earn points and receive discounts at your store or with any of your affiliate companies. Make the program more attractive by offering double or triple the points on special day purchases or when they make a specified minimum purchase. Loyalty points programs are highly effective as they encourage customers by offering them incentives and keeping them motivated to buy more frequently.
7. Feature your Customers Success Stories
This is an upcoming trend that cashes in on the “Try and Highlight” aspect. Several companies encourage users to try their products and share their success stories. They can be given several incentives in the form of cash prizes or vouchers for doing so. You can feature their success stories on YouTube channels, product blogs as well as your website and ads. This stratagem works best for concern-oriented cosmetics, health equipment, products, electronics items, etc. Include a before and after scenario for maximum impact as this has been proven to be highly successful in catching the pulse of potential buyers.
8. Provide Exceptional Customer Service
It may sound unusual, but excellent customer service goes a long way in retaining customers as well as encouraging them to buy more. Repeat purchases and customer loyalty is the most tangible matrix of measuring your success in customer service. Also, helpful and efficient customer support will ensure a great word of mouth from satisfied customers. Customer service is also an effective way of getting customer feedback and gaining insight into their expectations and their impression of your company.
9. Free Trials
Be it phone systems or beauty products, customers are excited to get that free trial & this is mutually beneficial as it helps customers gain the first-hand experience of your products, and you can create a significant impact with minimum costs. Many cosmetic e-tailers send mini packs or trial packs of newly launched products along with customer orders to get them into trying these products for free. This is a great option to convince those hesitant buyers who are unwilling to take companies at their word about their product benefits. If your product is remarkable, you can be sure of hooking new customers with this strategy.
10. Create a Brand Value
Just engaging in social media marketing and ads will not get you the needed hook. Your ad will be drowned in a sea of other such promotions and stratagems. Customers are hungry for newer and better benefits as well as value. For instance, Amazon Prime offers much more than shopping. For nominal additional charges, it provides a host of benefits such as expedited shipping and delivery, video streaming for popular movies and series, music streaming as well as early access to sales and discounts.
11. Shopping through Social Media
This is the latest trend in shopping that is proving to be affordable as well as effective in terms of cost and sales. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are being used to promote shoppable posts, which enable one-click shopping for promoted products. These posts are extremely cost-effective as they help eliminate the steps of awareness and physical inventory. Social media shopping also offers massive discounts on bulk orders and, as such, encourages people to buy in groups. You can also build and target niche groups over social media to promote and sell exclusive or niche products.
12. Rewards and Incentives
Who can refuse a reward or offer on top of great shopping experience. It is a great idea to reward your customers or incentivize them with discounts and coupons for providing their feedback on products. Users can also be encouraged to share their experiences in the form of reviews and posts by recommending them with incentives or cash rewards. Offers and discounts are a great way to have them coming back to you and getting a glimpse of those irresistible products you offer and also keeps the door open for a steady stream of revenue.
13. Incentivize Referrals
Referrals are yet another great trick to hook new customers while keeping the existing ones happy and excited. Asking your customers to provide referrals of genuine and potential buyers can help you land new customers. You can repay your customers for these referrals by offering them cash rewards or discounts. Also, when these referrals convert to actual buyers, you can further reward your customer by providing a meatier incentive. Not only this, you can welcome the referred customers onboard by providing them with welcome offers or discounts and further ask them for referrals by highlighting the benefits of doing so.
14. Surveys and Polls
While this is not much of an attractive option for customers, it can be made so by providing cash and discount benefits for filling up surveys or participating in polls regarding their product or brand. The surveys can include anything from feedback to emphasizing their interests, behavior, or needs. Customers can be approached in malls or stores when they shop, and politely asked for filling up surveys or participating in polls. This is a great way to gain insight into what is being perceived about your brand and how you can adjust your products to benefit your customers better.
15. Sale, Sale, and Sale
Nothing attracts buyers more than substantial discounts, sales, and offers. This is a marketing tactic that hardly fails as it will ensure that your loyal customers keep coming back to you, and you will get a huge pool of new and potentially loyal customers. Organize sales on important days such as Valentines Day, New Years, Christmas Holidays, and other important or culturally significant festivals to lure customers into stores. Occasions and festivals also entail that people would be shopping and will be on the lookout for better or cheaper prices. This is the time when malls have heavy footfalls, and online shopping sites go in a tizzy. Make the most of it!
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.