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How to calculate the increase in customer flow. Seven basic conditions for creating a flow of customers. Experience using the service

We talked about what a store's gravitational force is, what factors influence it, and how to objectively assess the attractiveness of a store in the eyes of a buyer. Today we will tell you how to increase the flow of customers to your store.

There are not many main criteria for a buyer to choose a store - there are only seven of them. To create a constant flow of buyers, you need to match at least one. And if your store meets all seven, then sales will definitely go up.

Keep your prices down

The main factor that influences the purchasing decision has always been and remains price. A store with cheap goods is more attractive to customers than a store with expensive ones. This rule applies to all categories of people - low, medium and high incomes. Read more about proper in-store pricing in this article.

If low-income people simply cannot afford big expenses, then for people with average incomes, buying goods at low prices is a kind of sport and psychotherapy: the opportunity to save gives the buyer a feeling of joy and satisfaction (“I made a good purchase,” “I’m running my household correctly”).

Wealthy shoppers also buy some of their everyday goods from inexpensive stores. Firstly, because they know how to count money (“why overpay if you can buy the same thing cheaper”). Secondly, because in very wealthy families the housekeeper often does the shopping. Thirdly, just because people can afford delicacies does not mean that they eat only them.

For the population from the low-income category, inexpensive stores with a large assortment are the most attractive. In order to save money, people will come to your store from afar and buy in full.

Expand your range

If finances and space do not allow you to expand your assortment to the desired scale, you can cooperate with other merchants who offer something that you do not have on sale. For example, move a store from a separate building to a large shopping center or rent space on a shopping street. The flow of customers from two closely located stores, which successfully complement each other, more than doubles (this is what tenants of space in shopping centers pay for). By the way, read this article about how to choose and rent a place in a shopping center.

Deepen your assortment

Deepening is the expansion of the range of one product category. The buyer is more willing to go to a store where, instead of three varieties of sausage, there are 30 in different price groups. The more diverse the choice, the higher the likelihood of purchase.

The simultaneous expansion and deepening of the assortment leads to the need to increase the retail space. Super- and hypermarkets with a huge and deep assortment create the largest possible flow of customers. We wrote earlier about how a small store can survive in the age of hypermarkets.

Remember any of the household appliance chains, which has thousands of product names and hundreds of models in each group. In those cities where their branches are open, smaller equipment dealers are forced to close or change their profile due to the outflow of customers.

The picture is the same in the trade of building materials: large stores, where everything for construction, finishing and repair is sold in one place, are pushing small ones out of the market.

To create a flow of customers in competition with the giant, you can take a closer look at one of the following solutions:

  • Open a highly specialized store of one product group and provide the most complete and deep assortment, including rare and unique types of goods. To increase the financial return from the thinning flow of customers, you should move to a higher price segment and attract customers with what the hypermarket cannot offer;
  • Develop the “Everything for the Home” or “A Thousand Little Things” direction, offering residents of the microdistrict various household items: light bulbs, clothespins, soap and other inexpensive small-sized goods;
  • Sell ​​products through catalogs and online stores. In this case, you can maintain a large assortment and save on trading space. For example, equip a sample showroom in the former store premises, and deliver goods to customers directly from the warehouse. Enterprises of this format successfully sell furniture, books, fashionable clothes, children's items, electronics and much more. You will learn how to properly organize and decorate a sales area in a store in this article.

Offer something special

Most Russian shopping centers have the same assortment, so, other things being equal, the flows of their customers are divided equally. As it turned out, there is only one way to stand out from the mass of monotony - to put up for sale something that is not available anywhere else.

Unique products create a special flow of buyers who are willing to travel many kilometers for them, sometimes from another district or even city. And it is these products that make the shopping center a sales leader in its territory.

Owners of large retail spaces in the United States are hunting for sellers of rarities, attracting them in every possible way with preferential conditions, because the unique offer of even one tenant brings profit to the entire store. Uniqueness is a powerful attractive factor and lack of competition.

Make your visit fun

A shopping trip can be a routine activity, or it can be a family holiday. The whole family often comes to stores that offer entertainment and spends more time there.

The tools for creating a customer flow in a shopping center will be theatrical performances on weekends, games and competitions with the participation of visitors, attractions, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, children's complexes, etc.

Entertainment and interesting things can be organized in a small store. For example, in a fish store you can put an aquarium with live fish, in a pet store you can create a living corner, in a children’s art or computer store you can organize a technology corner for children.

This approach will increase the attractiveness of the store even in the absence of unique products. Your assortment may be no different from the assortment of a neighboring retail outlet, but your sales will be better.

Increase your comfort and safety

The store where the buyer feels comfortable and safe has greater attractiveness. This applies to both the internal environment (friendly staff, cozy interior, wide aisles, no queues, reliable luggage storage) and external details (large parking, comfortable porch, clean and well-groomed area near the entrance).

Not having a ramp to take out carts or having to wait until a storage locker is free to drop off a bag will redirect some of your customer traffic to your competitors.

Be an expert in your field

Buyers trust a seller who knows the product well and can give qualified advice on it more. So to increase your store's appeal, be an expert in your field.

Many people like to ask questions about a product that has caught their attention, and their purchase decision often depends on their satisfaction with the answer. Therefore, work to improve the competence of your staff - conduct training seminars or hire those who have professional specialization in your field.

In addition to oral consultations, it is useful to provide customers with audiovisual information about the product - from text signs on the shelves to videos on large screens in the sales area.

19.07.2009 23:54

For a long time I worked as a confectioner and a pastry chef, and then as a manager in a network of coffee shops of an all-Russian scale. Today I own a coffee shop located in a small (25 thousand square meters) shopping center. When the institution first opened, it was not yet operating at full capacity (about 15% of the area was occupied), so there were few visitors. In addition, there is a strong competitor in the neighborhood - a huge operating shopping and entertainment complex.

At first, no more than ten people a day came to our cafe, the monthly revenue was about 150 thousand rubles. We puzzled over how to attract clients, tried a variety of methods, many of which did not produce any results. The departments in the shopping center that were created at the same time as ours began to close after some time. In the end, we managed to increase attendance to 50-60 people per day, and monthly turnover to 500 thousand rubles.

I'll tell you which marketing measures turned out to be a waste of money, and which made sense (see also: What factors influence the attendance of an establishment).

Ineffective measures

Advertising on city radio. We paid for the rotation of an advertising video on the Hit FM radio station, broadcasting to Nizhny Novgorod. Moreover, we sponsored various games on the radio, giving out a certificate (1,500 rubles) for visiting a cafe as a prize. About 40 thousand rubles were spent on the campaign, but the effect was zero.

Advertising in magazines. To begin with, we placed an advertisement on a whole page in the magazine “You and Your Child.” They also published my article about what desserts can be given to small children and how store-bought cakes can harm a child. Although the magazine is actively distributed to antenatal clinics, kindergartens and children's goods stores, these publications did not affect the attendance, and 20 thousand rubles. were wasted. Then I wrote two articles for the Nizhny Novgorod magazine “Love, Family, Home”. The first is about what a wedding cake should be like (not just what it looks like, but how to cut it beautifully, etc.), the second is about what desserts are appropriate at a wedding. The impact was very weak: the magazine contains a lot of advertising for similar services, and it is very difficult to stand out even with expert material.

Use of internal broadcasting of a shopping complex. Placing an advertisement did not cost us anything; it took about 3 thousand rubles to create the videos. I explain the absolute ineffectiveness of this measure by the fact that the shopping center is very noisy and visitors do not listen to advertising.

Advertising on rent receipts. Not far from our shopping center there is a new microdistrict “Bear Valley”; there are many young families with children there. It seemed to me that a coffee shop with desserts, where there is no smoking or selling alcohol, should have no end to such customers. I made an agreement with the local HOA to print advertisements on the back of rent receipts. The costs amounted to about 10 thousand rubles. (The HOA accounts for them as advertising revenue). However, I did not take into account that apartments in the microdistrict were mainly given to employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB and Ministry of Emergency Situations. When a local visitor with a child approached the window and saw the price tag “150 rubles”, one could often hear something like “What are you talking about! This is a bottle of vodka!”

Effective measures

Luckily, most of the methods we tried worked. Moreover, many of them turned out to be even less expensive than those that did not meet our expectations. Here are the steps that helped attract customers and increase revenue.

Business lunches. At first glance, it is not profitable for a coffee shop to feed guests lunch for 180 rubles. - at best, we just compensated for the costs. Therefore, we tried to sell the client something other than a business lunch. Unfortunately, only one or two people out of ten made an additional order. When the establishment was fully occupied per month, the margin from this service was about 50 thousand rubles. However, despite the economic ineffectiveness of the idea, we were able to attract the target audience. Daytime visitors, accustomed to the establishment, began to come in in the evening to drink coffee and eat dessert. After some time, we abandoned the business lunch, but left inexpensive hot dishes on the menu. There was no outflow of visitors.

Breakfasts. We offered three breakfast options - from light to very hearty - costing from 99 to 399 rubles. Typically, a guest has more time for breakfast than for lunch, and almost always he takes additional tea or coffee, not limiting himself to the drink that is included in the price. Breakfasts attracted new customers and taught the staff to be on their toes in the morning.

Tastings in a shopping center. This method only works if you can buy what you are trying to try somewhere nearby. We set a table in the shopping center and treated everyone to cake and a drink, inviting them to come into the coffee shop. On average, five out of 50 people came in - some just looked, others ordered something. The cost of one tasting is about 3 thousand rubles. Later, we began to present flyers with special offers and short-term discounts on certain products. In this case, the result was better: about half of those who received a coupon came to the cafe.

Inexpensive branded product. We are the only ones in Nizhny Novgorod who make handmade sweets. Although the labor costs are high (I make the caramel myself), they are worth it. We place a display case with candies in the shape of a cockerel, a pistol or a heart at the entrance to the cafe, and it works like a magnet for customers. When the cost of candy is about 2 rubles. we sell them for 50 rubles. And we give candy to regular guest card holders, regardless of the amount of the order. By the way, visitors who have collected checks from our establishment in the amount of 5,000 rubles receive a regular guest card; this card entitles them to a 10% discount.

Permission to bring your own alcohol. We do not sell alcohol, but we allow visitors to bring their own, paying 200 rubles for each bottle. “for the cork” (in other establishments this service is called renting glasses). This is beneficial for customers: for example, a bottle of popular rum in a store costs 900 rubles, but in another establishment they will ask for at least 3 thousand rubles.

Serving guests of a nearby hotel. The hotel does not have its own dining room, so we agreed to place our advertising there in the lobby with a menu and discount flyers. Hotel guests actually began to come to us.

Cooperation with neighboring cafes and restaurants. We have established a free cooperation with a restaurant, which is located in the same shopping complex and sends its clients planning a banquet to us for custom-made cakes (their chef does not prepare desserts). We offered our partner establishment 10% of the amount of each such order, but they refused: it is enough for them that their clients can receive from us a service that the restaurant does not provide. In this way, we receive up to ten orders for making a cake per month.

Free advertising on Channel One. There are regional advertising inserts on air on federal channels. Our shopping center bought time for a commercial and gave us the opportunity to talk about ourselves completely free of charge. Especially for this occasion, we began to prepare a megalatte and a megadessert weighing about 1 kg - a treat for the whole company. Guests who saw our advertisement immediately began asking about these special offers.

Banner on the fence. We printed a colorful banner with the appeal “Try it!” and a bright photograph of a dessert (the cost of the banner is about 500 rubles per 1 sq. m) and hung it on the fence next to the shopping center. And although it did not last long, the flow of customers in those days increased noticeably.

Summer terrace. I calculated that placing a sign on the facade of the shopping center would cost us almost the same as building a summer veranda, on which we could also hang our sign for free. So we did. Moreover, we only had to pay for the veranda itself (180 thousand rubles, plus the cost of equipment and a banner - only 300 thousand rubles), and the administration of the shopping center did not take money from us for permission to install it. The veranda with a beautiful sign attracted many new visitors to us.

The practitioner tells

Anastasia Gutkevich Marketing director for a coffee chain

Reference

Travelers Coffee LLC (Traveler’s Coffee)
Field of activity: restaurant business, coffee production
Territory: management company - in Novosibirsk, office - in Moscow, representative offices - in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, dealers - in the Volga region, Siberia, Central Russia, Kazakhstan; coffee shops - in 37 cities of Russia, as well as in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine
Number of staff: 70 (in coffee shops - 400)
Number of coffee shops in the network: 70

If the coffee shop is in a good location, it will be visited by 200 people a day without much promotional effort. For establishments in sparsely populated areas, additional measures are needed to attract guests. I'll tell you what we practice.

1. Map of the trading area. We are compiling a list of organizations (business centers, banks, beauty salons) that are located within a ten-minute walk from the coffee shop, that is, places from where clients can come to us. Coffee shop managers visit all these organizations, communicate with managers and employees, hand out bonus cards and sometimes coupons with a deposit. This attracts not only individual clients, but also entire companies.

2. Flyers. Experience has shown that the most effective coupons are for the second product for free (no matter what exactly is offered - a cup of coffee or dessert). The costs of these promotions (printing flyers, the work of promoters and sometimes a trainer) do not exceed 0.1% of the coffee shop’s revenue. The response when using such coupons is 2-7% (and in small cities, where such offers are still new, it reaches 70% - word of mouth works).

3. Announcements on social networks. The offer must be exclusive - this acts like a magnet on our page subscribers. For example: “We brought a rare type of coffee” or “Our Michelin-starred chef created a new dessert.”

4. Tastings in shopping and business centers. We arrange samples of our soft drinks or coffee and distribute discount coupons or bonus cards. This results in an influx of new customers. You can arrange a free tasting. The maximum payment to the center's management is a package of coffee as a gift or a bonus card with a small deposit for one or two cups of coffee. The cost of tasting is less than 2 thousand rubles. If at the same time coffee or syrups are sold, then the event fully pays off.

5. Master classes. Employees of our coffee shops conduct master classes on latte art, alternative methods of brewing coffee, and making desserts or sandwiches. We post the schedule of master classes on social networks, and send invitation cards to companies located nearby. The response to such invitations is up to 15%. In small towns not spoiled by such attention, managers hold such events every weekend.

6. Cross-promotion. In some cities (for example, in Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk) we agree on a partnership program with a local cinema: with a cinema ticket, a guest can get a 5-10% discount from us, and with our bonus card - a discount on a movie ticket.

7. Flash mob “Take it with you.” We are just planning this event, but we are counting on a good effect. We will involve 30-50 students in the event. They will walk through the city, take the subway, ride the tram, holding glasses, sandwich bags, cake boxes - all with our logo.

General Director speaks

Alexey Chukhlantsev Executive Director of the management company

Reference

LLC "Management Company "RestProfi"
Field of activity: confectionery production, restaurant business (chain of coffee shops “PitKofe”, signature establishments - cafe “Rafinad”, confectionery house “Bushe H.O.”, chain of Italian cafes “Mama Pizza”)
Number of staff: 700

In 2000-2003 I worked in a European-level restaurant, Fashioncafe. It was located in a sparsely populated area, and the main goal was not just to increase the flow of visitors, but to attract those who were ready to order a full dinner or business lunch, not limiting themselves to a cup of coffee on the go.

One of the methods of attracting such clients was events: tastings, fashion shows, presentations. For example, we agreed with an expensive lingerie store to hold a show in a restaurant, and the restaurant notified its regular guests about the upcoming event (as a rule, they were invited by telephone). Another example is tasting cognac from a famous cognac house. On the one hand, such events helped promote the relevant products, on the other hand, they gave the restaurant an additional reason to remind guests about itself, invite them to try cognac or watch a show. On the days when the events were held, the establishment was 100% full, and the number of regular customers grew due to those who were invited to the events by our visitors.


Text by Tatyana Blagovidova

Photo by Inna Ptitsyna

MangoStudio. Why is the project interesting?

My story is about how I tried with all my might to leave the field in which I worked for many years, and how I eventually managed to find huge business potential in it, fall in love again and launch my project MangoStudio.

Today my team creates turnkey websites. It’s not for nothing that I say “my team” and not “my company”. Because our interaction is more like a partnership, and not like “the boss said, the boss found the client - everyone else did.” Each employee can bring a customer himself and receive his own percentage of it. This work pattern allows us to work very harmoniously.

At the same time, clients often find us themselves - I just learned to attract their attention on the Internet. Customers also contact me through special exchanges - there are also interesting features here, which I will discuss below.

Disadvantages of office life

I created my first website in 10th grade. Then, after studying at the university, I got a job as a programmer in a bank, then in another. 7 years have passed. Outwardly, everything was fine - a stable salary, paid vacation, and so on - but every year some kind of discontent and resistance grew within me.

I was stressed by the office system - come at 9, leave after 6, sit these hours, even if there is no work at the moment. If you need to go somewhere, you have to ask for time off. There was no talk of personal or professional development.

I was so tired of everything that against this background I decided to do away with web programming altogether and started looking for options for what to do. I couldn’t go anywhere: I lived in Moscow without my family, I supported myself, and being left without money would be critical for me.

Reboot while on maternity leave

My boyfriend and I thought it would be cool to launch our own online store. And they began to think about the niche. We probably thought about it for a couple of years - everyone was afraid to take on something unfamiliar, to invest money in some unknown product. I even wanted to create a website for the future portal myself, but I didn’t know what products to count on. As a result, the idea came to naught.

At this time, everything at the bank began to really stress me out. Every day - stress, headache. We understood that I needed to leave such a job. And we decided, while I was standing at a crossroads, to bring to life what we had been thinking about together for a long time - starting a family and having a child. For some reason I was sure that I would find myself on maternity leave. I’ll take a break and catch my breath while my husband provides, since he doesn’t mind.

We organized our wedding ourselves. Everything turned out great, and I immediately wanted to start my own wedding agency. I thought I was interested in this, leafed through the beautiful blogs of the girls who organized it, admired their work and dreamed of the same beauty around me.

I didn’t have a portfolio, so first I organized a marketing forum for wedding specialists (franchise). Participants came to hear about how they could promote themselves. I also spoke there, but most of the questions I received were not about weddings, but about website creation. I have a lot of experience in this, and as it turned out, the meeting participants really needed someone who could explain everything to them.

It was that day that I realized that I didn’t need to go far from programming. I am a specialist and can really help people solve their problems. Apparently, this maternity break really became a good reboot for me.


Business course and launching your project

I decided to return to my field, working for myself. However, I didn’t quite understand what to do about it. I took orders on exchanges, but I earned little money, about 20-30 thousand rubles a month. But they spent a lot of time on them, and this worried me a lot - I could have been with my baby.

A girl I know told me about Galia Berdnikova’s business course - “Life. Business. Success" (now it has been expanded and is called "The Path of Dreams" - editor's note). She was delighted with the training she had received, and I decided that this was a sign for me to gain the missing knowledge about promoting myself and making money.

During the course I was still nervous about choosing a direction. But Galia then said something amazing in its simplicity: you don’t need to look for one niche for your whole life. Life changes, and today you can do one thing, and after some time open a new business. And I understood the root of my problems: I was always trying to find a life's work, so I thought for a long time, sorted it out, looked to see if it suits me exactly and whether I will live with it until old age.

It clicked in my head: I just need to move in some direction. It's time to act, not think. And since websites are what I do best, it makes sense to start with them.

I wanted to launch my own web studio with several specialists to provide different services. But during my training, I realized that I have a weak point: if in terms of programming I understand what prices are, what standards are, then I don’t know the other important part of the site - design. That is, even if I hire freelancers, I will not be able to manage them and evaluate the quality of their work.


And I decided to study design. I thought that if I liked it and it worked out well, I would take over this direction and start delegating the program part. Just because I wanted something new. And if it doesn’t work out, then at least I’ll learn everything about design, I’ll be able to distinguish good from bad in order to guide hiring specialists.

I learned, I figured it out. And I fell in love with this new field completely. At first I thought of providing only design services. But then I decided to talk to my target audience and find out what they actually need.

My clients are businessmen. I communicated with them in different business communities on social networks. And I realized that few of them just need design. They want to turn to a person who will solve their problems completely. That is, he will create a website and at the same time promote it.

So I hired programmers, a marketer and a copywriter, and started doing design myself. We started creating websites.

Not a company - but a team

I position myself not as a studio owner, but as a team manager. The guys and I have equal rights, everyone is just like self-employed. Any of us can refer a client and receive a reward for this - 10% of the total order. I only distribute the work and am responsible for the result.

And although each of the performers can work with third-party customers, our team turned out to be very well-coordinated. Moreover, we now have a constant flow of clients. We will be expanding even more soon, as I want to take on more projects.

As a result, after a year of work, we achieved a monthly turnover of 300-400 thousand rubles. We work with clients on a project-by-project basis, and each performer receives his share of the order.

My income now is 80-90 thousand rubles a month. This amount includes my salary and net profit, which I then use for further promotion and payment for domains, hosting and other expenses. I get paid for both design and project management.

I lay the price for management immediately in the cost of the project, because it really takes a lot of time - to coordinate everything with customers, distribute tasks to everyone, monitor their implementation, show everything to the customer, and so on.



2. Exchanges where you can find orders or leave your contacts so that the client can contact you.

I use two exchanges.

  • Upwork.com. Foreign clients come to this resource, with whom I really like to work! First, they demand a higher level of quality. To meet it, you have to constantly replenish your knowledge and skills. And due to this, my professionalism is growing very quickly.

Secondly, they are willing to pay a lot for this level, which, unfortunately, differs from domestic customers. Our people believe that creating a website is a matter of five minutes. And foreigners understand that quality work must be paid decently.

  • Behance.net. This is a website with a portfolio of designers. There you can put your tags, describe your skills, and the customer will find you. I have an unpromoted profile there, but at the same time large clients contact me.

The “secret” of my success is that I constantly read various paid articles and reports (mostly in English) on creating convenience for visitors to online stores and increasing conversions. There are many nuances: the main page, the cart, and the product card - if all this is taken into account, then the user will be pleased to use the resource, and the conversion will be higher.

So, in my profile I indicated which cool sources I get information from. The data is valuable because it is not publicly available and not every designer knows it. And this acts as a magnet for customers who want to improve the interaction of their users with the store and increase sales.



Features of the sphere and delegation

Website creation is a very large field. At the same time, some people think that they can create the entire turnkey website on their own. But programming, design, copywriting, promotion are very different areas. Positioning yourself as a one-man band is a mistake. So you will never be able to achieve high-quality results for the customer and good payment for yourself.

That is why I immediately counted on delegation. It was scary at first, of course. But I began to delegate programming - the part in which I myself am well versed. This way I knew that if the programmer made a mistake somewhere, I would do it myself. I delegate copywriting to performers whom I have known for a long time and whom I trust.

But with design it’s more difficult. I have already tried to outsource some of the work to another specialist, but the result did not satisfy me. However, I will look further to expand the team.

Where to get strength if you need to work a lot

Now my husband and I already have two children, and every day I try to spend time with them. But sometimes difficulties arise because it is not easy to combine motherhood and work.

For example, one day my one-and-a-half-year-old baby, who is now constantly with me, lets me work productively, and on another day he is capricious, and I do not have time to do anything. On days like these, I start to panic that I won’t be able to meet deadlines. Or, on the contrary, I feel guilty that I need to pay more attention to the child, and I’m thinking about work.

So sometimes I have to work at night when everyone is asleep. This is one of the most difficult conditions for me at work, because some kind of resentment kicks in - everyone is resting, and I’m plowing. And then doubt comes - maybe I don’t need to develop my project at all. Why do all this if it’s so hard?


1. Stop being afraid and thinking. We decided, which means we need to get down to business right away. The longer you think, the more you find some disadvantages and fears, and it becomes more difficult to start.

2. Prepare for the fact that at times it will be difficult, you will have to figure out many things on your own, but the result is worth it.

3. Work should bring pleasure, then it is easier to experience failures, get up and move on. You must first fall in love with your product or service, then your clients will fall in love with it.

This approach reminds me of the situation when you buy a technically complex household appliance, plug it into a power outlet, start pushing all the buttons, and try to start it. It won't start. Only then do you remember the instruction manual and start studying it. So, marketing and attracting clients have their own instructions, laws and rules. If you study them and then regularly put them into practice, you will become a successful marketer in your business.

Where does attracting clients begin?

The first question I ask entrepreneurs when they ask for help in promoting their business is: “Who are your customers?” And the majority answers differently, but all their answers boil down to one phrase: “That’s it! Everyone who can use our services." They can be understood because they strive to serve all customers in the market who are willing to pay. And at the same time they are afraid to refuse clients. This is the main mistake of small businesses. The first step to attracting clients is to focus on one group of clients, rather than all of them.

Conclusion: Due to money and time constraints, it is important for small businesses to focus their resources on one area in order to get maximum results at minimum costs.

Did you know that it takes 100 watts of energy to light a room with a light bulb? And the same 100 watts are needed for a laser to cut metal. Same energy, different results. The difference is how this energy is focused. The same difference in your marketing - either you focus or you spread out.

Focusing on attracting clients does not mean that you do not need to work with other types of clients or that you do not need to promote other services. But keep in mind the rule: for each group of clients/services there is a separate marketing campaign to promote them.

How to choose a group of clients for your promotion?

To do this, you need to divide your entire market - all real and potential customers into groups or segments based on certain criteria. And then choose the most preferable one to promote on it. This process is called segmentation. If you have several services, then for each of them you need to do separate segmentation.

I will share my algorithm for segmenting clients for small business services.

Step 1. Selecting segmentation criteria

At this step, it is important to understand on the basis of what parameters clients should be divided.

Each specific business has its own set of criteria. Therefore, I’ll tell you about the criteria that I use in my practice of segmenting clients for small business services:

  • Profitability;
  • Stage of demand formation;
  • Experience of use;
  • Reason for ordering;

Profitability

The simplest and most understandable criterion. Take a list of all your clients and rank it by profitability.

Example. Service - heating of cottages. We break down all completed projects by profitability. As a result, it turns out that the most profitable clients are those who build a cottage with an area of ​​200 sq.m. and order heating of the house on a turnkey basis, i.e. pay for all work: design, supply of equipment and related materials, installation, commissioning and maintenance.

Experience using the service

But one parameter for segmentation is not enough because within a segment, clients can be very different from each other. Often in services, customers who order for the first time differ from those who have already dealt with a similar type of service. Therefore, customers are often segmented according to their experience in using the service, for example, into “newbies” and “experienced”.

Example. Service - cottage heating.

Some of the most profitable clients quickly agree to cooperate because this is not their first home and they immediately see from you that you are a professional and a reliable company.

And someone demands that each stage be explained to him in a long and tedious manner, convinced, and agreed upon. The reason is that he is building a house for the first time and installing heating.

Reason for purchase

Example. Service - installation of suspended ceilings.

A woman is renovating her apartment and wants an unusual ceiling that will look beautiful and she can show off to her friends.

The daughter helps her parents make repairs. Therefore, it is important for her that they do it reliably, so that it lasts a long time and does not cause trouble for her parents.

A married couple is renovating an apartment that will be rented out. Therefore, it is important for them to have ceilings that are cheap but look expensive. It is also important for them to have official documents for reimbursement of costs in case the tenants ruin the repairs.

  • To a woman - that you have ceilings with which you can surprise your friends.
  • To my daughter, your ceilings are reliable and do not require any hassle.
  • Landlords - you have ceilings for rental apartments with official documents.

Frequency of use

Based on this criterion, I recommend segmenting services that are consumed on a regular basis. Typically this includes areas related to beauty, health, and nutrition: beauty salons, fitness, cafes and restaurants. This is because customers who use the service regularly are often different from those who use it infrequently.

Choose 2-3 criteria for segmentation. I recommend the following options:

  • User experience and profitability.
  • Order motive and profitability.
  • Frequency of use and profitability.

Step 2. Segmentation

Example. Service - heating of cottages.

We take criteria for segmentation:

  • Profitability.
  • Experience of use.

As a result, we get the following segments:

Step 3. Selecting a target segment

  1. Market volume;
  2. Competition and uniqueness;
  3. Potential for growth;
  4. Pleasure;
  5. Value;
  6. Convergence;
  7. Experience.

And now about each parameter in more detail using the example of a company that provides “turnkey heating of cottages” services.

Market volume

How many clients of this type are there in the market? Are they enough for you? The more clients, the higher the score.

There are more clients in the cottage heating market who want to save money. Such clients want to buy a boiler and heating pipes on their own, and are willing to pay only for design, installation and commissioning services. Also, there are more people in the market who are building a small house than those who are building a house over 200 sq.m. As a result, for this parameter in our example we can obtain the following estimates:

Competition and uniqueness

How many companies are there on the market that specialize in working with this segment? How easy will it be for you to stand out from them, make yourself known and start attracting clients? The smaller the number of competitors, the easier it is for you to stand out, the higher the score.

There are different types of competitors in the cottage heating market:

  • single plumbers - they are the most numerous in quantitative terms;
  • teams of two to four people are in second place after plumbers;
  • specialized companies with their own office and warehouse.

Each type of competitor has its own type of customer. For example, plumbers primarily work in the Low Profit Beginners segment. Such clients are building a small house for the first time and it is important for them to save a lot on heating services and, due to inexperience, they are ready to turn to single plumbers. The company in our example has experienced heating system design engineers with higher education in this field and extensive experience in creating reliable heating systems.

We receive the following estimates for the segments of the Turnkey Cottage Heating company:

Growth potential

What is the likelihood that the number of this type of customer will increase? The greater the probability, the higher the score.

The economy in the region is going through difficult times. The number of clients who build large turnkey houses is decreasing. The number of clients who want to improve their living conditions by building their own home is growing. They are doing this for the first time and with their last money, i.e. They strive to save on everything.

As a result, we obtain the following estimates:

Pleasure

How enjoyable are you to work with this group of clients? The more fun, the higher the score.

The company from our example most likes to work with clients who are not building for the first time and already know that they need to turn to professionals and listen to their advice. Plus, the company loves customers who are willing to pay a lot to get a modern and reliable heating system.