Project Senso Forums

Anyone has practical advice for attracting customers to a new outlet?

I've tried flyers, brochures, discount schemes, online advertising, print advertising in trade magazines, contest to win freebies, sms advertising, email advertising, tie-ups with various entities (passioncard, etc), but still, customers are slow in coming.

In the 6 months we're in operation we have developed a small, but very loyal group of customers, but I do not wish to depend on just this group.

It is imperative that I grow my customer base and cultivate more loyal customers.

If anyone has a new perspective, I would love to hear it.

Thanks guys!

Joint venture.... with pple with huge database that are actually your target audience.  yet they must not be your competitor.
Ex.   Coke Cola joint venture with iTunes.... Target Audience:  Teenager
Ex.   Alibaba joint venture with Yahoo ..... Target Audience: Internet Business User.

Grow your databse instantly.   Offer them some discount or some freebies.

This is known as 1P STRATEGY.
Cheers.


So who want to joint venture with me:   combine marketing leverage on the database of two totally different product and also bring more value to the same customer.

Sometimes 3 - 4 products combine marketing together.

Hi pingfan,

We are already doing that, with many large partners.

The issue is, when we do surveys, we know that they heard of us, they saw our ads.

But that does not translate into a sales lead i.e. they will pay you a visit.

Even if you offer, for example, 40% off, people will still not visit you because of that. Short of some massive offer, e.g. $1 for any item, there will not be an impetus to drive them over.

It is not so much customer awareness that I'm going after, but how to pique their interest enough to pay us a visit.

Hi wineco,

Do you mind telling us what product are you currently selling, so we could give you a better advice.

Hi win,

Wines of course :)

hey winco,

firstly the reason why your advertising is not bringing in a new stream of customers is probably because your copy isnt compelling enuf.

seeing that u advertise in a broad range of media, i suppose u have a big budget? if so, i recommend u hire a direct response copywriter (DRC)to rework your advertising copy. there're not many DRCs in S'pore, if any. but i've a good friend who is an expert in writing money-sucking advertising copy. his name is Sant Qiu and he's probably the one of the best, if not the best, around. u can reach him at www.maneuvermarketing.com his fees if i recall correctly are in the high 4 figures...

secondly, i tink u are sold on a totally flawed notion. u mentioned that u don't want to rely on a small loyal group of customers? well, u probably don't know this - but if u focus on building a really solid relationship with them, u can make good money without the need to attract new customers.

but if u really want new customers, the cheapest way to attract them would be thru pay per click advertising. I recommend Adwords as I am doing relatively well with it. :-)

good luck man!

tay

Hi firefly,

I'm not ignoring my current group of loyal customers. But I cannot depend just on this core group otherwise growth is slow, even with referrals.

My intention to keep expanding my base of loyal customers rapidly. If I am just content to slowly let my customer base expand on its own, I wouldn't have a headache now lol.

Just curiously, how well are you doing with adwords? As in, how large a percentage of your new customers are from adwords (on a monthly basis)?

And personally, I don't consider adwords a way of attracting customers. It's a way of attracting potential customers. Whether you can secure that customer, is outside of what adwords does.

My personal opinions:

- Tie up with the correct medium. As wine is targeted towards a crowd that is willing to spend, bank direct mailers (via monthly statements) is a good way of getting right into the hands of the right demographics. A one-month mailer goes around S$50k.

- Try-vertising campaigns with captive audiences. The SDU is doing their best to drive up dating, and with an onslaught of new dating agencies, having your outlet as a "wine appreciation" venue tie-up would be a good start; you get the crowd that is of age and willing to pay.

- Supply via unconventional channels. Did you consider putting some consignment goods at say, the Holland Village magazine shop of which heavy human traffic made of your target client demographics will frequent? This approach was executed by Success Books with rather good results.

Hi Nic,

Due to the saturation in sg, the market for wines is highly competitive. I'm not fully convinced of the merits of direct marketing. So far word of mouth has been our best friend, but then again it could be that our marketing hasn't been top notch either.

As for venue tie ups, we've about 16-20 partners. But as events are not consistent sources of revenue, I've been trying to make up for it with wholesale contracts.

But your last suggestion is really good though. Maybe not magazine shops, but cake shops would be excellent. I'll see what I can do about it.

Agreed the market is very saturated, perhaps direct marketing via samplings/private events to high net worth individuals might be worth a try?

You can try the new startups that received the Partner Connection Fund from SDU, I would guess working out a somewhat stable schedule with a number of them are workable; for example one of them have regular events at ArtHouse.

Yeah the magazine example was purely an example, the concept would be to be more of a point-of-sale effort in a highly targeted, relatively captive crowd.

Hi wineco,

like you said the market is very saturated so before you really start thinking about  marketing your business to whoever that you think you should and spend all you marketing budget, have you actually find out from your really loyal customers what your customers really like about your outlet that they come back and buy from you again and again?

We are really talking about your usp here (competitive advantage) because you probably want to focus your marketing to bring in the most loyal customers.

Like the old saying: you can't be everything to everybody

that is right... I have say more than 3 times.  what is the unique proposition that the current customer loves abt your wine.    even the most basic marketing technique if employed with a little tweak, you get massive result.  generic they might be.  But have you actually understand what is the thing that your customer want from you,

Marketing always come from the inside.  The culture of your enterprise, that makes you different from the rest of the competitor. the Service, the community, and the ultimate product.

Wine need not be wine that one sell.
It can be Wine + environment + service that increase the price and increase the demand.
Wine + fun that increase the demand.

Find out which wine or product that your customer really love. and focus on it.



But all it boils down to yourself. You have the answer to all your problem.