9 Free-Low-Cost Ways to Increase Customer Traffic to Your Business

By Joshua Black

Here is a quick list of 9 things that you can do right now to add customers and add additional sales to your profit line:

1. Ask for referrals from current clients and customers. Give them a reward for doing so.

2. Write articles and post them on-line and in various trade journals where your prospective customers will read them. This positions you as an expert, and will get you much publicity if you offer valuable information

3. Press Releases. Send press releases to various media outlets. Your release must look like news, and not just a sales pitch or no one will print it. Try to mold your release and product offering around a current hot news topic. It will be much more likely to get picked up.

4. Make the back side of your business card a mini sales letter or coupon to bring people into your business. Too many people leave this valuable space blank.

5. Always up-sell your customers at the moment of purchase. Approximately 60% of the people may say yes. That’s free money you didn’t have before.

6. Work to make your product “viral.” Buy giving it away to various people that may have a big impact on hip culture, or people that are large players in the industry, word of mouth can be the most amazing sales tool ever invented. People trust the opinions of their friends. Of course you can never force your product to be viral, but you sure can help it along in the right direction.

7. Overhaul your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Your USP is the entire backbone of your marketing efforts, and 95% of the USPs out there are not written to entice customers to buy from you.

8. Advertise your web site or business on your vehicle using a giant window sticker. If you drive all day, you are a moving advertisement for your business. Create a message that will make people curious to find out more.

9. Give advice on community message boards in your area of expertise. When you answer people’s questions professionally and give them honest help, this will put you in a trusted, expert position. Place a link to your website in your signature, so that it is present every time you answer a question. These message boards are often tagged by the search engines, and your good advice may stay on-line for years.