How can I identify new customers to target? | Be The Business | A more productive economy driven by inspired business leadership

In the first phase of your business, you’re likely to attract customers who are interested in trying your new product or service. Over time, however, you’ll need to target new customers so that your business continues to grow as well as retain a solid base of engaged consumers. But how do you identify potential customers in both new and different demographics? And what’s the best way to reach them in an economy where there are so many routes to market and ways to communicate?

Ways to help you deal with it:

Action plan

Identify a new target customer

Effort: Medium

Impact : High

Identifying new customers prevents an overreliance on existing clients and can connect you to valuable opportunities. Use our action plan to get started.

ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

We explain why each step is important
Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

Action plan

Leveraging research to understand the business landscape

Effort: Low

Impact : Medium

This action plan looks at how business leaders can use different types of research to build a better understanding of the business landscape.

Action plan

Defining your USP

Effort: Medium

Impact : High

It’s harder than ever for businesses to stand out. Defining your USP allows you to quickly communicate what makes you different.

Action plan

Identifying growth opportunities in your current customer base

Effort: Medium

Impact : High

Creating more value for existing customers provides a sustainable way to grow your business. Follow our five-step plan to figure out the opportunity.

Guide

An introduction to identifying new customers to target

Our guide shares what to consider when trying to identify new types of customers to target, including quick wins you can implement immediately.

GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
Filled with real-world stories
Achievable steps every business can take

Other support that's available

Understanding your customers

Getting to know your customer is key to the success of your business, and using demographics or psychographics can help you understand them better.

Targeting your social media audience

Hootsuite’s in-depth guide includes getting started with data, the basics of social listening, helpful tools and real-world examples.

How other businesses have tackled something similar

Real business story

The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

Select a topic

Digital

How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making?

Leadership & Strategy

As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth?

People & Team

How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How can I keep my best members of staff? How can I reduce employee turnover? How can I run a better appraisals process? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How should I performance manage my staff?

Planning

How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to invest in my business? How do I know when to scale up my business?

Sales & Growth

How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How can I identify new customers to target? How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How can we develop new products and services? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How do I benchmark my business against competitors? How do I build a network to support my business? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth?

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