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Where Do All Your Customers Come From?

by Rich Lazzara

Where do most of your customers come from?

It’s a question you should obviously know and I’m sure you do. However have you ever sat down and looked at all the ways in which customers reach your business?  You should list all the ways, then see which ones come to the top as being the best for providing new customers.

If the Internet is not in your top two then something is wrong. Over the next 12 months you need to develop a plan to increase your Internet leads to the point of being your #1 source. I wrote a two part article on Internet marketing for small business that addresses some of the reasons why.

Internet Leads Jumped to #1

Recently website inquires surpassed trade shows as our #1 source of leads.  This is a trend that’s been 10 years in the making.  Slowly, year after year, our Internet leads increased and its now to the point where our website will provide more leads this year than trade shows.  It’s not just an “economy” issue either.

How about you what are you top sources of leads? Leave a comment below, I would love to hear about them.

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Tagged as: blog, business, digital marketing, future, online marketing, small business, social media, strategy, using social media for business, website

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Why Now is the Best Time

  • Since I'm a blogger the business I get is all from the internet.That being said I Think you still make a good point because it's important to segment where your customers come from. It turns out some of my stickiest traffic was coming from smaller blogs. As a result I reached out to the owners and asked for a regular guest posting spot.
  • Srini, guest posting is a great way to build traffic/customers. I need to do more of it. Thanks for reminding me and thanks for the comments.
  • It's incredible that there are businesses, I don't care how big or small they are, that DON'T have a website.

    There needs to be increased awareness of how easy it is to set up a simple wordpress site (for example) that can be used for businesses. At the very least - a place to put contact details of businesses. Just something so it's out there.

    Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
  • Sarge, "incredible" is putting it nicely. Ridiculous would probably be more appropriate. Small business put a site up with directions, contact numbers, testimonials, story about why you are worth doing business with, pictures of your staff, locations, etc etc. There are tons of ways to utilize a website, even for small, local businesses. Good point Sarge, thanks for the comments.
  • HI Rich,

    About 97% of our customers are now from the internet. When I started this business (marine electronics/boat outfitting) in 2002, it was split pretty evenly with the internet, trade shows and b2b sales (face-to-face).

    While sometimes I miss the personal contact, I have really enjoyed the freedom gained with the ability to "work" from wherever I happen to be - as long as there is internet access. And now I go to trade shows for fun!

    Happy Holidays to you and your family,

    Todd
  • Todd, thats really cool that most of your business comes from the Internet. So here is my challenge/advice to you for 2010. Get face to face with more customers. Find out what else you can provide, find out better ways to service them, find out ways to improve.
    Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. Thanks for the comments.
  • Noticing as you, that more and more come from Internet. Our physical location is still a strong draw even for first timers, boat shows running 3rd and print media hard to see in the distance. We are definitely cultivating relationships with our existing customer over the internet.
  • John, physical location is a great one. probably #1 for most small businesses. certainly for small biz retail it should be #1. Good to hear that your Internet leads are increasing. Agree with you, print continues to fall off. thx for the comments.
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