Borrow Customers to Build Your Business
When you are looking for new customers go where they already are--someone else’s business.
Whether your business is established or just starting out, you probably want to find more customers. One great way to get new customers is to borrow them.
Who would let your borrow their customers? Someone who would benefit from their customers doing business with you. Here are just a few examples:
Let someone else sell your products to their customers. I have sold thousands of books through Amazon.com. They have millions of customers, and some of them buy my books.
Amazon has a program called Advantage that almost anyone can use to sell books, audio CDs, DVDs and other products. Even if other retailers do not have programs as accessible as Advantage, you may be able to get your products into their stores, catalogs and web sites.
Don’t forget about eBay and other sites that put your products in front of their audience.
You can also use an affiliate program or other referral marketing to encourage other marketers to sell your products.
Joint ventures are another way to reach a broader audience. Create a product or service, or market your existing products and services, with someone who is not a direct competitor but sells to a similar market as you.
For example, an attorney and an accountant might team up to market their services to each other’s customers. They could each refer clients to the other, share the cost of a direct mail campaign or newsletter sent to all of their clients or a purchased list of prospects, co-sponsor an event, such as a seminar, etc.
You could create a joint venture with businesses in complementary fields that might be as simple as linking to each other’s web sites or including fliers for the other business in mailings to your customers.
Get someone else to promote your event to their audience. I have presented seminars and classes through colleges and other organizations. They provide a place, put my program in their catalog, and handle registrations. I show up, teach the class and get paid.
When you are looking for new customers go where they already are--someone else’s business.
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