3 Customer Engagement Strategies for Frugal Entrepreneurs
Being frugal in business is a good indication that you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. While many people argue that being frugal is another way of saying you’re cheap, there are actually plenty of differences that separate the two.
Frugality is all about getting the most value out of something and it’s a lifestyle choice that some famous entrepreneurs such as Warren Buffet follow.
You might be surprised at just how frugal people like Buffet are. From his McDonalds diet to his inexpensive home, he’s managed to make huge savings throughout his entire life and he applies that mentality to the way he invests and makes his fortune.
While you might not be on the level of Buffet (yet!) you can still learn from his ways and create frugal strategies to help you grow your company and reach more customers.
To help you out, we’ve put together a couple of customer engagement strategies that won’t cost you much to utilize.
If you want to grow your audience and sell your products to more people, then you’ll want to carefully study the points made in this article to help you expand your reach.
#1 Encouraging Reviews and Recommendations
While you can’t necessarily buy positive feedback, you can certainly encourage reviews with things like discount coupons and small extras that will add up over time and reward their loyalty to your business.
Making reviews stand out and having them appear in more obvious locations is also a great way to encourage customers to leave reviews on your product pages or blog.
You’d be surprised at how effective a customer review is and having a star rating system is also a great added bonus to make it easier for your new customers to visualize just how good a product is at a glance.
However, reviews and recommendations don’t just need to come from customers typing up reviews. If you’re able to network and spread your wings a little, then it’s also possible to encourage reviews and recommendations by connecting with influencers on social media.
There are plenty of bloggers and YouTubers out there that would be more than willing to receive a review product that they can create content with. They’ll make videos, write up a review and potentially even talk about it on social media to help spread your business’s reach.
It’s a mutually beneficial relationship that can greatly improve your chances of success, but it does require you to network with influencers and this can be fairly difficult depending on your current reputation.
Asking for reviews and recommendations might cost you a bit of capital if you offer discounts, but if you’re able to connect with influencers then simply asking for a review and sending over a copy won’t cost you much and will give you a lot of exposure.
#2 Learning to Spread Your News and Updates
Before the internet, people used traditional methods of advertising in order to market their businesses. They used to print, networking with locals and even attended trade shows in order to get a wider reach.
Spreading your news and updates is important if you want to engage your customers, and it’s crucial that you learn how to do this in a variety of different ways.
Print mediums are still useful despite how much money we pour into digital platforms now, and they can be especially useful if you’re a business that offers its services in a local area (such as private transportation or a repairs service), so make sure you learn to mix different methods.
In terms of digital exposure, you may want to consider a customer service blog to help you engage your audience. A customer service blog is a fantastic way for your audience to ask questions, check out the latest updates from your company and even seek advice from other users.
You could spread your news on social media which, for many companies, is considered their main platform for exposure. Social media trends an news can spread like wildfire and if you’ve got something enticing, then it’s important to use the right hashtags and mentions in order for your exposure to completely blow up and help people find your business in a sea of competitors.
Spreading news via social media doesn’t cost anything as long as you don’t use advertising campaigns. Instead, use natural methods of growing your exposure such as interacting and engaging with people on social media and creating fun and original content.
#3 Creating a Community Around Your Product
In the past, people used forums in order to build up their community. This is still a valid strategy, but hosting a community does require you to spend some money and you might end up investing more money than you originally hoped on things like upkeeping the forum, paying moderators and so on.
Instead of doing this, you could simply use Reddit or another public community space in order to create a community.
Reddit is one of the largest online communities on the internet and it’s a great place to build up exposure. Most people will look towards Reddit if they want to find a community for something they enjoy and your business is no different. It’s free and it’s a great place to look for feedback, answer questions and even give your customers support.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of cheap and effective ways to connect with your customers.
As long as you’re willing to put yourself out there and invest some time and resources into monitoring all the different kinds of feedback you’ll be getting, it’s actually relatively easy to take on suggestions and comments and apply them to your business to create a more attractive company that is efficient at drawing in a wider audience.
While these aren’t the only frugal methods to help you engage customers, they are certainly among the most effective and will do your company wonders.
