9 customer acquisition hacks for businesses with zero sales

(Last Updated On: May 30, 2023)

What if we told you, you can get your first customer without any proven record of sales? Customer acquisition can be a challenging task to overcome as a newbie entrepreneur.

While most acquisition strategies focus on businesses which already have a customer base, starting off from scratch is a task.

The first thing a customer does before buying a product is – check online reviews, ratings, and testimonials to get an understanding of your business and product offerings.

What if you are a brand new business with zero sales, reviews or ratings to showcase? If you are one such business, then this blog post will help understand the nuances of getting your first customers.

9 customer acquisition strategies for businesses with zero sales:

Develop a human connection:

We live in a time when everything is automated.  A crucial mistake most businesses do is focusing only on the business aspect and often ignoring the human side of it.

As a business with no track records to showcase, this connection plays a crucial role in customer acquisition. Forging a deeper connection with your potential customers may just be the trick to converting them into paying customers.

For example: If you are in the jewellery-making industry, showcase your artisans and designers. Create stories about where you source your raw materials and the potential impact your business has in empowering these artisans.

This will help customers, see your human side. This will help them develop a stronger bond with you.

Related read: Branding for small businesses: Tips and practical examples

Art of storytelling with compelling content

With the power of content, you get the unique opportunity to directly engage with multiple customers at the same time. The best practices include showing off your content on social media. Also, blogging regularly about topics in your industry, and addressing challenges can help you gain customers in the most organic way possible.

It is crucial to define the way you want to portray your business, via content. Hence, have a consistent brand image, brand tonality, and personality to help customers associate with you better. Encourage discussions, and market research and hear the voices of real people to better understand the problem you are solving.

Easy return policy

The one thing that customers love is a hassle-free return policy. This is particularly important if you belong in the FMCG industry.

Good return policies indicate how much you value your customer’s happiness. It also shows that you take your products seriously. Having a good return policy can help assure your customers that they will either have a product replacement or their money refunded. This will help them develop better trust in transacting with you.

Some of the common practices endorsed are:

1. No questions asked return policy
2. Free returns and shipping
3. Instant refunds

Be there to answer your customer’s queries

Your customers may have a million questions to ask you and you must prioritize them. Be sure to be present on multiple social media platforms and make it a mode of establishing engagement and conversations with your customers.

Use features like live chats that help the customer feel their queries are getting resolved in the fastest manner possible.

Related read: How to increase Customer Lifetime Value in eCommerce: 5 smart hacks by Mezchip

Provide the best product descriptions

You have more to prove to your customer than an already established brand. Hence, it is up to you to answer most of your customer queries about the product in the product description.

Depending on the tonality and brand image you wish to portray, you can also make your product descriptions straight-up or quirky.

Some of the must-haves for a good product description:

1. Measurements and dimensions of the item
2. The weight of the item
3. Ingredients or manufacturing materials used
4. Warranty information
5. Product features of specifications
6. Images or videos of the product you are selling

Introductory offers and discounts

If you are new in the market, you need to provide your customers with some incentive to shop with you.

This can be done either in the form of discounts or introductory offers. Here, you can have a special discount for first-time customers. This will encourage them to view your products and get a sense of your brand.

You can offer coupons for first-time customers on your eCommerce website in exchange for their email addresses. This has two benefits: they are encouraged to purchase because of the discount and you can use the email id given for marketing campaigns in the future.

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Giveaways

Who doesn’t like to be pampered with gifts and free samples? An ideal way of customer acquisition is by sending your customers samples of your products. This can either be a completely free giveaway or free samples which can be given after your customer shops for a particular amount.

This will not only help them get a sneak peek into your new products but also help them build a connection with you. This will also be an ideal strategy for customer retention, where you can use this technique to help convert a one-time paying customer into a repeat customer.

Have a detailed FAQs page

This is where your customers will go when they want to know more about you. Hence, make sure you have a detailed FAQ page.

Here are some of the elements that have to be present on your FAQ page:

• “About Me”: This can either be a separate tab or a section in the FAQ. This will help your customers get a fair understanding of your business and its offerings.
• General product information: This can information about the ingredients you use, whether you sell vegan products or don’t endorse animal cruelty. These pointers will help customers get a deeper sense of your products.
• Build trust: Add your information about your licenses or certifications. This will help them trust you better. Read our FREE report on eCommerce trust in 2022.
• Answers to questions: You will already have a fair idea about the possible questions your customers have for you. Be sure to have them documented and answered here in the simplest way possible.

Let them know you value their security

As a new business on the block, you have a lot more to prove as compared to the already established businesses. Hence, to start with, it is essential you let your customers know how much you value their security. This can be in terms of a safe website and a safer payment gateway.

Pick payment gateways which are PCI-DSS compliant and follow the required norms. Instamojo promises the utmost security with PCI-DSS compliance, and 128-bit encryption and is compliant with the RBI regulations.

The secret to getting repeat customers is simple. This starts with your website and ends with making payments and getting your products shipped.

Instamojo covers all these crucial pain points for you.

If you are looking for a safe place to showcase and sell your products, you can use the Instamojo online store. Here, you can not only sell your products but also collect seamless and secure payments.

Additionally, you can use our eCommerce shipping services, to complete the entire cycle within just a few clicks. Lastly, you can also track business insights to help you make better decisions with our pre-built tools custom-made to suit your business needs.

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