How To Increase The Market Share Of Your Business

Congratulations! You have successfully launched a new business. You have made all the plans, and the future looks bright. While being optimistic is all right, you need to be realistic; understand that failure is also a possibility. Statistics reveal that one in every five new businesses fail within the first year of operation.

The ability to acquire new customers while maintaining the existing ones is one of the most critical skills successful companies and business owners have. If you know how to get customers and keep them, you can grow your market share and profits beyond your wildest dreams. Here are a few practical strategies to help you along the way:

Be Innovative and Creative

When it comes to business success, ideas are critical. Ideas precede all products and services. Even if you have a product that is phenomenally successful, do not rest on your laurels. If you want to grow your market share, you need to have the ability to recognize and take advantage of new trends before the competition does.

Be attentive; listen. Ideas can come from anyone at any time. Listen when having a conversation with friends or when watching the news. Pay attention when teens and kids are talking. What is the latest gossip about your competitor's strengths or weaknesses? Could you use such information to get ahead? Remain open to ideas.

Take Care of Your Customers

Customers are the reason any business exists. You will never grow your market share if your customers are unhappy and dissatisfied. They will stop spending their dollars on your product or service. What is more, they might start talking and telling their friends, colleagues, and family about the awful experience they had with you.

People are likely to become loyal customers to businesses that are responsive. They like it when you keep your promise to get back to them within 24 hours. Whenever you commit to something verbally or on social media, follow through. Resolve to address your customers' problems now rather than later. Your customers will notice how caring and prompt you are and will reward you with their loyalty — and dollars.

Listen to Your Customers

Customers use your product. They know what they like about it. And they also know where you need to improve. It does not matter how good you think your product is. What matters is what users think. So engage them. What are they complaining about? See customer complaints as opportunities to improve your product or service. Be open to their suggestions. Your customers will feel valued. And they might help you create the next product that flies off the shelves.

Public Relations Matters

Become an expert at what you do. Create a Help a Reporter Out account; it is free. Journalists are looking for expert opinion all the time. Become the person they seek. Understand how news works. What is in it for reporters? Will they get a great story to share with their audience?

Public relations is an opportunity to get noticed in today's crowded marketplace without spending much. It is, in a sense, like advertisement. Make "big" announcements about new products or services before launch to create advance buzz. Create awareness about an important discovery or an outstanding business result.

Press releases require specific skills and a certain level of expertise. You are a business owner, not a copywriter. You may want to hire an expert, someone who has been offering press release writing services for several years. There are professionals who can craft high-quality, optimized-for-search press releases.

Who will see your press releases? About 80 million people search for news online every day. And 100 million people conduct online searches every day. Additionally, 64 percent of journalists use Yahoo! or Google to follow the news. You now know why you need to have optimized press releases. PR is not advertising, but it is not uncommon for sales to increase after successful PR campaigns.

There are various ways you could grow your market share. Become an eternal student; continually learning while remaining receptive to new ideas. Offer outstanding customer service. Listen more. And do not forget to work on your public relations. Creating effective customer acquisition strategies and executing them increases your chances of growing your market share.