Top 5 Ways to Bring More Customers Into Your Small Business

Starting a small business can be a daunting task. If you’ve made that leap, congratulations! Now that your business is up and running the next hurdle you need to jump over is maintaining a steady flow of customers.

Whether you’re just opening up or you’re already established, the concept of getting customers in your business remains the same. You want to bring in as many people as you can. Building relationships with your community and customers is key to attract customers and keep customers coming back, ensuring long-term success.

You can have a great product and be in a prime location but if you’re not actively taking steps to bring more customers in, you’re setting your small business up for failure. Remember, your current customers are valuable—studies show it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, so focusing on customer retention is crucial for growing your customer base.

To ensure you’re getting as many customers as possible into your small business. We’ve compiled a list of the top 5 ways you can get more customers into your small business. Attracting more customers requires a mix of local visibility, digital engagement, and relationship building to maximize your reach and impact.

1. Offer Discounts and Promotions

This strategy is a great way to entice people into your business. Offering discounts and promotions not only helps bring in more customers, but it can also help make slower business hours more profitable.

If your customer reach has maxed out, implementing a new customer discount can be a great way to bring in some fresh faces. This is equally effective in new businesses as well as established ones.

The discount doesn’t need to be giant, after all, you do still want to make a profit. Even offering a 10% discount to new customers can be enough to bring people in and have them come back. To create urgency and encourage quick action, be sure to specify when the sale ends in your promotional materials.

When planning promotions, it’s important to set clear, measurable, and achievable sales goals to provide direction and make tracking your progress easier.

Customer Loyalty

Having a loyalty program is also a great way to have people come back. Customers want to feel appreciated. Rewarding loyal customers is a great way to say thank you for their consistent business. Loyalty programs can be especially effective for current customers, as they encourage repeat visits and foster long-term relationships. If your loyalty program is set up right, the chances of your loyal customers referring your business to others is much greater.

One of my hobbies is maintaining fish tanks. One of the local pet stores has something called the “fish club” for loyal customers. If you’re a part of the “fish club” you get 25% off all fish as well as being notified if any other promotions are happening. Its a very well set up program and I always recommend them when anyone asks about pet stores. Using a customer relationship management (CRM) system can help manage and enhance relationships with existing customers, making it easier to track loyalty program participation and personalize offers.

Clover offers an array of POS systems that make offering these discounts incredibly easy. They have apps that you can download onto your device that do the work for you.

Generate Revenue Even During Slow Hours

Another way you can use discounts to your small businesses advantage, is figuring out when your slowest hours are. Say you have an ice cream shop. You may find out that mornings are very slow. With the Clover Happy Hour app, you can set up a discount program that runs from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday. Buy one scoop get the second free or 20% off all milkshakes, something like that. This creates incentive to go to your business during those times which in turns makes your slow times much more profitable. These targeted promotions can also improve your conversion rate by turning more visitors into paying customers. The app automatically applies the discount you set up, your employees won’t need to manually apply it.

You can set up the discount to run for as long or as short as you want, it automatically starts and stops without you needing to do anything. Going along with the ice cream shop example, cold months are probably much slower than warm ones. Many ice cream shops close during the winter. You can apply a discount for an entire season by using a cloud-based Clover POS system to schedule and automate your offers. 50% off all ice cream from January through February. If the competing ice cream shops completely shut down during those months, and you’re staying open as well as offering a sweet discount. Those customers will probably continue to come back. Offering personalized experiences through these apps can further increase customer satisfaction, and with over 60% of consumers now expecting such interactions, it helps meet rising customer expectations.

Large chains offer these discounts all the time. Olive Garden has a weekday lunch special starting at $7.99. Modeling your deals off ones that have had proven success with large chains is a smart idea.

2. Have Proper Online Presence

We live in a world of technology, and if your business doesn’t have an online presence, you are missing out on a huge chunk of customers. Establishing a robust digital “shop window” is essential for visibility, as most modern customer journeys begin with a google search or on search engines. Your small business should have a website, Facebook page, and Instagram page at minimum.

Your website should depict all of the information you want your customers to know. If you own a restaurant, your menu should be easily found along with your hours, and any deals you have going on. It’s also a good idea to set up online ordering. Many customers prefer placing orders online when they want to order takeout and tend to place bigger orders online. A fast-loading, mobile-friendly site prevents high bounce rates and improves your search rankings. According to Google Research, 59% of shoppers say that being able to shop on mobile is important when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from, highlighting the need for mobile optimization. In fact, 60% of customers visit a small business’s website for information such as business hours, making a strong online presence essential for attracting customers. An optimized website should include at least four types of pages: Home, Contact Us, About, and Services or Products, to effectively inform potential customers. Claiming and managing your company’s online profiles on review sites like Google and Yelp is crucial for maintaining accurate information and engaging with customers. Showcasing positive reviews and leveraging social proof on online platforms helps build trust and credibility with potential customers.

Social Media

Social media is a great catalyst to promote and advertise your business for free. Engaging with customers on social media platforms helps build a community of loyal customers and strengthens your online presence. Although, most social media platforms now a days offer options to run ads so if you’re willing to put some money towards social media advertisements, your business will get great exposure. 41% of local businesses depend on social media to drive revenue. When you set up an account, there is usually an option to make a business account. Having a business account gives you special features that focuses on advertisement and marketing efforts. If you advertise when you’re having deals or promotions, more people are going to see it compared to just having things posted around your physical business. This will drive more people to your business.

If you dedicate time and effort into your social media presence, you are guaranteed to see some kind of results. It’s important to focus your social media efforts on the platforms where your target market and ideal clients are most active, so you can effectively reach your target audience. Having a TikTok account may also be a smart move. TikTok is becoming one of the most popular social media platforms. Small businesses have found great success on the app in terms of marketing and advertising their business when they follow a small business TikTok strategy guide. Short videos and engaging social media posts are especially effective for reaching your target audience and ideal clients, as younger audiences are increasingly using platforms like TikTok and Instagram as search engines. Creating and sharing short videos can help showcase your services and connect with potential customers.

Engaging with customers on social media and responding to their feedback can strengthen relationships and improve customer loyalty. Sending a friendly reminder to your customers to engage with your social media posts or leave feedback can also help boost your online presence and attract new customers.

Online Reviews

Continuing on with having the right online presence. Online reviews are incredibly important. Review sites like Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor play a crucial role in establishing your online reputation and contribute significantly to social proof, which helps build trust and credibility with potential customers. In fact, 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses before making a purchase. Proactive review management is essential—actively ask satisfied customers to leave reviews on platforms like Google and Yelp to build social proof and attract more customers. Most people search online before buying or visiting a business. If you don’t have reviews or maybe you only have bad ones, your business is going to suffer greatly. You should be encouraging your customers to leave reviews when they have a positive experience.

Verbally telling customers to leave reviews is not the most effective way. Clover POS systems have a built in feature where you can customize the bottom of the receipt. With this feature you can have a little message asking customers to leave you a review on Google or Yelp. If you want to increase the effectiveness you can add a QR code that brings customers straight to the Google review page or Yelp page. If you have a QR code you should also post it around your business to maximize your results.

If you want to push your customers to leave reviews you need to make sure they are being given stellar customer service. Make sure you train you employees well and have them prioritize positive customer experience.

3. Research your Competition

If you want to beat your competition you need to know exactly how they are operating. Researching your competition not only reveals their strategies but also helps you better understand your target market and target audience, allowing you to identify gaps and opportunities for your own business.

You should be doing diligent research on the businesses you are in direct competition with, especially if they seem to be having more success. By analyzing your competitors, you can identify your ideal customers and create detailed customer personas based on their needs, interests, and pain points. This understanding enables you to tailor your marketing strategies and messaging to effectively attract and engage your target audience.

You should know what they are selling, how much they are selling it for and what kind of advertisement or deals they are running. When you are knowledgeable on the competition, you can better strategize and figure out how to beat them.

4. Participate in Community Events

Bringing your business outside into the public can be a great way to bring in more customers. Events like food drives, art shows, farmers markets, and other local events are excellent opportunities to engage with the local community. Participating in these activities helps increase your business’s visibility and fosters trust among local residents and businesses.

Going to events like these can also be a great networking opportunity. Attending networking events, industry events, and joining groups allows you to build relationships, connect with potential clients, and stay informed about market trends. If you’re going to an event that has other businesses close to yours, you can not only do some research on the competition but also link up with complementary businesses.

Teaming up to promote with a business that complements yours, but doesn’t directly compete can be beneficial to both parties. Say you run a dog daycare business, teaming up with a business that offers dog training or dog grooming can help you both. You can highlight each other’s deals and promotions and also recommend each other if customers inquire about either one. Forming strategic partnerships like these enables you to refer clients to one another and tap into new markets, expanding your reach to clients who might not have found you otherwise. Not only are you making a good business move by doing this, but you’re also making an ally. Participating in community events and networking can increase your visibility and lead to referrals, as people are more likely to remember businesses they have interacted with personally.

Joining your local chamber of commerce can be a great networking move. You can easily meet and connect with other local businesses. If you’re a new business, getting to know the business owners around you can bring new opportunities, they might even share some tips on how to bring customers in.

5. Omni Channel Payments

Being able to accept multiple forms of payment will ensure you don’t miss any sales. There are multiple forms of payments these days, card, cash and mobile. Clover offers POS systems that allow you to take them all, acting as an all-in-one POS solution that replaces multiple devices. Contactless payments are gaining popularity, being able to pay from a cellphone is very convenient and not every machine has the capabilities to do so. Having this feature alone will help bring more customers into you business.

Offering and accepting gift cards is also an important feature to have integrated into you POS system. Clovers newest product the kiosk, can also be a tool to bring more customers into your business. The kiosk can maximize efficiency within your business for face to face transactions. The kiosk can also improve customer experience, giving your customers more of a reason to leave you a good review.

Ensuring you are able to take online orders will increase revenue as well, especially when you choose from the best POS devices for small businesses that integrate seamlessly with online ordering. VMS can help you get a website set up and the Clover devices have an online ordering app that makes accepting online orders seamless.

If you decide to take your business to events, farmers markets, or pop-ups, you should make sure you are able to take mobile payments with one of the best POS systems for market vendors. VMS offers a selection of mobile card readers that makes taking orders outside of your business hassle free.

Understanding Existing Customers

For small business owners, understanding your existing customers is the foundation for long-term growth and increased sales. Your current customer base is often your most valuable asset—these are the people who already trust your business and are most likely to return or refer others. To truly connect with your existing customers, it’s important to conduct regular market research. This can be as simple as sending out surveys, collecting feedback forms, or having one-on-one conversations to learn about their needs, preferences, and pain points.

By gathering this information, you can tailor your marketing strategies to better serve your customers and address what matters most to them. For example, if you discover that your customers value quick service, you can streamline your sales process or offer express options. If they’re looking for new products, you can introduce items that fit their interests. Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat buyers and refer your small business to friends and family, helping you attract new customers and expand your customer base.

Focusing on customer retention through personalized service and targeted offers not only strengthens customer relationships but also sets your small business apart from the competition. When you understand your customers, you can create strategies that keep them coming back, ultimately driving sales and ensuring your business continues to thrive.

Taking Steps to Bring more Customers to your Business

If you’re a small business, having customers at your business is vital. No customers means no money. No money means no business. You want to make sure you are taking every step you can to get as many customers as possible.

By following these 5 tips on how to bring in more customers, you are setting your business up for success. VMS can help you set up your website for proper online presence, help educate you on Clovers apps and get you your own Clover device to have at your business, including guidance on choosing the best Clover POS plan for your needs. We believe in small business and will do everything we can to help your small business succeed! Fill out this form to learn more.