When it comes to growing your business, reaching new customers is just as important as keeping your existing ones. Many loyal customers will stay with your business, but over time your customer base will naturally erode as customers move to new areas, outgrow your products, or are turned away by a bad experience. Our goal in this post is to give you a few marketing ideas to reach new customers so that you can keep your business growing faster than it shrinks. These basic fringe marketing techniques will allow you to place your brand in front of the potential customers that are most likely to do business with you.
Find Your Fringe Then Your New Customers
By knowing your “fringe” you can place yourself in the customer’s shoes and deliver the proper messaging. What is your “fringe”? Your fringe includes all the places that your customers go that are linked to your product or service, but are not a direct competitor. For example, if you’re a business that sells running shoes, then the health club, gym, and local running trails would be part of your fringe. Although the health club isn’t a direct competitor in your industry, it’s part of an industry that’s lateral to yours and you can be confident that anyone there is a potential customer for you.
Your fringe is a great place to deliver targeted marketing to interested potential customers.
Here are 5 of our of most popular industries and the corresponding places they should be advertising to reach new customers: (Insurance, Real Estate, Auto, Pharma and Travel)
img. via Yahoo Finance
New Customers For Insurance
Auto insurance and car buying typically go hand and hand. If you buy a car, you won’t even be able to leave the lot without car insurance. By geofencing car dealerships and then marketing directly to the devices of anyone that has been to one, you can get your message in front of potential customers right when auto insurance is top of mind for them. This even works with targeting those who have recently downloaded popular car shopping apps.
For the most part, health insurance is really only discussed once a year. But why not keep the conversation going throughout the year? There are lots of opportunities to generate awareness outside of open enrollment season. Get in front of small business owners all year by using a mailing list to either geofence or IP target potential customers. You should also be advertising your solutions and insurance plans to trade shows and conventions where the audience is rich with business owners. (see case studies here)
New Customers For Real Estate
Home builders and realtors share a fringe in the entertainment branch of home buying. There’s an entire industry based on people’s dreams of owning a new home. Home builders and realtors should place their brand in front of potential new customers by running ads on HGTV or DIY Network websites and delivering targeted messages to anyone that visits home design sites. (see case studies here)
New Customers For Auto Dealers
There’s a different fringe for just about every type of car. By understanding your audience, you can find the perfect fringe for your inventory. Selling minivans? Place ads geographically around schools and parks or use data to place ads in front of parents. The same concept applies for sports cars, trucks, and electric vehicles. Know who your buyers are and put your ads in front of them where they are. (see case studies here)
New Customers For Pharmaceutical Companies
The obvious fringe for pharmaceutical companies is the doctor’s office. Waiting rooms are a great place to provide messaging on the benefits of your products. This will help you inform potential customers and increase awareness on your product. (see case studies here)
New Customers For The Travel Industry
The travel industry is massive and includes tons of interconnecting fringes for all kinds of businesses. Airports, hotels, and tourist destinations are all fringes for any business in travel. Airlines and hotels can use time, location, and distances to create strategic plans for targeting everything from weekend getaways to extended vacations. (see case studies here)
What’s Yours?
Being able to understand your customers is key to finding your fringe. Businesses with a good understanding of their typical buyer persona will be able to put themselves in the mind of the customer and find out exactly where to market to them. By using geofencing technology and other digital marketing techniques, businesses can take advantage of fringe advertising to keep their customer base growing.