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How can I identify new customers to target?

Sales & Growth questions

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

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

Using research to understand the business landscape

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 unique selling point (USP)

Effort : Medium

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

Action plan

Growing sales with existing customers

Effort : Medium

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

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

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

Neil Currie, Netherton Foundry

Real business story

Use new product innovation as a marketing tool to engage customers

Handcrafted cookware company Netherton Foundry gets ideas from customers and turns experiments into marketing opportunities.

James Sharpe, Fabulosa

Real business story

Understanding what customers think you do can improve your messaging

Finding out what customers think they do best has been the key to making cleaning product manufacturer Fabulosa’s marketing work.

Barnaby Lashbrooke, Time etc

Real business story

Keeping loyal customers is the key to long-term success

A focus on retaining customers has improved customer retention at Birmingham-based Time etc and London-based Disciple Media.

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

Leadership & Strategy

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

People & Team

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

Planning

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

Sales & Growth

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