As a small business owner, you probably have a desire to grow your business at a faster pace.

Although you have everything in place to more than satisfy the wants and needs of your target audience, your business may be growing at a slower rate than you had expected. 

If your business plan has failed to materialize into a thriving business, it may not be your fault. You are not doing anything wrong. You have not chosen the wrong market, nor are you running your business inefficiently.  

Your problem may be more elementary. There is nothing wrong with your business per se — you just don’t have enough customers.  

Rather than hoping more customers will eventually show up once you bump up your advertising budget, there are more cost-effective ways of acquiring new customers. 

Here are three tips to attract more customers so that you can build your business at a faster clip

1. Find Customers in Your Area

Work with a contractor locator service to get customers in your area. If you work as an affiliate for a contractor locator service like Networx, they will arrange and help you take advantage of Networx reviews for your services so that customers come directly to you based on positive things they have heard about your services.

2. Leverage the Power of Instagram

Many small businesses use Instagram with great success. 

You can benefit from the reach of Instagram to find your customers even if you run a brick-and-mortar company because you can use it to drive traffic to a website where customers can find out more about your offline business. 

Instagram is a social media platform that allows you to market your business by becoming an influencer in your niche.

By using strategies like optimizing your biography, hiring a professional writer to post unique content, and developing a posting schedule, you can quickly grow a following on this platform.

3. Master the Art of Networking

Despite its reputation as an excellent way to build a business faster, many business people are reluctant to network. 

Interestingly enough, the reason for this aversion has nothing to do with the efficacy of networking. Instead, it is due to a popular misconception about the nature of networking: a curious conviction that you need to be loud, boisterous, and pushy to succeed at networking.  

There is absolutely no truth to this idea. Introverts can do as well as extroverts at it. Networking is effective because people like to do business with people they get to know and whom they come to like and trust. Overbearing people are unlikely to earn referrals.  

It’s more realistic to think of networking as the art of getting along with people, cultivating skills like good listening and clear communication. It’s also the art of delivering your marketing message subtly, in a manner that doesn’t sound like you’re bragging or pitching a sale.

The easiest way to get started with networking is to attend networking events. Organizers encourage attendees to mingle, develop business relationships, share industry information, and establish professional credibility. 

Build Your Customer Base 

The secret to growing your business at a faster pace is to build your customer base. You can build this customer base in two ways. The first way is to look for effective ways to get new customers. The second way is to nurture existing customers so they become brand advocates.

While most businesses are fine with nurturing customers, they struggle with getting new customers. The good news is that you can grow your customer base rapidly by using just a few proven customer attraction strategies.