How to get more customers for a small business in New Zealand

To get more customers, a small business in New Zealand needs to do three things in order: be easy to find when somebody is already looking, be recommended by the people who already buy from you, and be visible in the places your next customers already go. Most of the first two costs nothing but time. The third is where a modest advertising budget goes furthest, and it works best once the first two are done.

This guide goes through each of those in the order we would do them, with a rough idea of what each costs and how long it takes to show up in the till. It is written for a local business: a tradie, a cafe, a clinic, a salon, a shop. We run a marketplace for local advertising space, so one section below is about that, and it is one section.

First, be easy to find

Most new customers for a local business start with a search. Somebody types "plumber Pukekohe" or "cafe near me" into their phone and rings whoever looks credible in the first three results. If you are not there, none of the rest of this matters.

Google Business Profile. Free, and the single highest return on an hour of your time. Claim it, fill in every field, add a dozen photos from your phone, keep the hours right, and answer every review, including the bad ones. A profile with recent photos and reviews ranks above a bare one for "near me" searches, and it is what people read before they ring.

A website that answers the basics. One page will do. What you do, where you do it, how to get hold of you, and a rough idea of what it costs. If a stranger can find your phone number and your prices in ten seconds, it is working. If they cannot, they ring the next person.

A Facebook page that exists. Not daily posting. A page with the hours, a photo of the front of the shop, and a phone number, so that when somebody mentions you in a community group, the person reading can find you in one tap.

Timeframe: the profile starts working within a few weeks as reviews and photos build up. It keeps working for years.

Ask for reviews, every time

Reviews are the new word of mouth, and the difference between a business with four reviews and one with forty is the difference between a maybe and a phone call. Most happy customers will leave one if asked at the right moment, and almost none will if not asked.

The right moment is straight after the job is done or the meal is finished, while they are still pleased. Say it out loud, then send a text with the link. A card on the counter with a QR code to your review page works for a shop. Do this for a month and the numbers move.

Cost: nothing. Timeframe: immediate.

Ask for referrals, and make it easy

A referred customer costs nothing to get, is already half convinced, and tends to stay. Yet most small businesses never ask.

There are two ways to do it. The first is simply to say, at the end of a good job, "if you know anybody else who needs this, I would appreciate the name." The second is to give people a reason: a discount on their next visit for anybody they send you, or a small thank you when the referral turns into work. A tradie who leaves two business cards instead of one is asking for a referral without saying so.

Cost: nothing, or whatever you choose to give back. Timeframe: a few weeks to a few months, depending on how often your customers talk about you.

Get existing customers to come back

The cheapest new sale is a second sale to somebody who already trusts you. A customer who has not been back in six months has probably just forgotten, not left.

Keep a list. Names, phone numbers, emails, what they bought. A spreadsheet is fine. Every business that has one is glad it does.

Give them a reason to return. A text when the car is due for a service. A note when the seasonal stock comes in. A loyalty card if you sell coffee or haircuts. A follow up call a year after the roof went on to ask whether everything is still fine, which also happens to be when the neighbours are thinking about theirs.

Cost: nothing but a bit of discipline. Timeframe: immediate for anything you can prompt, like a service reminder.

Partner with businesses near you

The businesses around you already have your customers. The physio has the gym's members. The real estate office has the people about to need a painter, a mover and a mortgage. The cafe has everybody.

A partnership can be as simple as swapping a stack of flyers, mentioning each other to customers, or running a joint offer. It can be a formal arrangement where you pay to have your advertisement on their counter or in their window. Either way, the thinking is the same: go where the people who need you are already standing.

This is also the logic behind local sponsorship. A junior team's shirts or a fence sign at the home ground puts your name in front of the same few hundred local families every Saturday for a season. We wrote a separate guide to sponsoring a local sports club.

Cost: from nothing for a flyer swap, to a few hundred dollars for a junior sponsorship. Timeframe: a season.

Be visible where your customers already go

This is the section about what we do, so here is the honest version.

Every local business has surfaces its customers look at: the window, the counter where people wait to pay, a screen in the waiting room, the mirror in the gym changing room. Most of them are empty. Putting your advertisement on one puts you in front of a particular kind of person at a particular moment, which is the whole trick in local advertising. An electrician in a lighting store. A swim school on the cafe counter where parents wait. A mortgage adviser in a real estate office.

On Pritty Ghood you can see what is listed near you, with the price on the listing. Listings run from about $55 a week for a window poster or a counter display, the host approves every booking, and a campaign runs anywhere from two weeks to a year. We have also written a page for most kinds of business on where your customers already are, from electricians to cafes, so you can start with your own trade rather than a blank map.

Where it does not work: if the businesses listed near you are not the kind your customers walk into. Check first. We are still adding hosts in many areas, and the browse page says so rather than pretending.

Cost: from about $55 a week. Timeframe: a few weeks to see the first scans or enquiries; give it eight.

Paid online advertising, for the moment of need

Google Ads works when somebody is searching for exactly what you do at the moment they need it: a blocked drain, a broken window, an emergency dentist. You pay per click, and clicks for trades and professional services in New Zealand often cost several dollars each, so a few hundred dollars a month buys a few dozen visits. Track which clicks turn into jobs or you will never know if it is paying for itself.

Facebook and Instagram advertising is cheaper per person and better at putting a picture of your work in front of a particular suburb. It suits cafes, retail, events and anything visual. It is worse at catching somebody ready to buy today, and the reach number it reports is not a customer count.

For a fuller comparison of every channel and what each costs, see our guide to advertising for small businesses in New Zealand and what local advertising costs.

Cost: a few hundred dollars a month, more with an agency. Timeframe: clicks arrive within days; give it two months before judging it.

A rule for choosing between all of this

Pick one thing at a time and measure it. A different phone number on the poster, a "mention this ad" offer, a QR code that counts scans, a question at the till asking how they heard of you. If you cannot tell whether something brought anybody in, drop it and try the next one.

Most small businesses in New Zealand spend between one and five percent of revenue on getting customers. Start at the low end, do the free things properly first, and add one paid channel where your customers already are.

What to do this week

1. Claim or update your Google Business Profile and add ten photos.
2. Ask your next five happy customers for a review, and text them the link.
3. Start a customer list, even if it is a spreadsheet with twenty names.
4. Ring two businesses near you whose customers are your customers, and ask whether they would swap a stack of flyers or a mention.
5. Look at what advertising space is listed near you and whether the businesses hosting it are ones your customers visit.
6. Decide on one measurable thing to try for the next eight weeks, and how you will know if it worked.