To build your brand, you need to decide how you want your customers to perceive your business. You then want to make sure that they get the same impression in all parts of your business.

If your advertising promise a very high service level, but you don't answer the phone, the customers trust in your business will disappear. If you say that the food in your restaurant is top quality, but your customers give bad reviews or tell their friends they didn´t like the food, the same thing will happen. Make sure that your offer to the customers is attractive, and then make sure that every part of your business communicates the same thing.

Never let go of the customer perspective. When in doubt, always ask potential or existing customers. Understand as much as possible about where you can reach your customers. Understanding their habits will help. Where does she shop? What magasines does he read? Who does she listen to? What social media channels does he follow? Be where your customers are.

Marketing is also about moving customers up the stairs, from not knowing your busines at all to being regular customers that come back. The different steps are:

• Knowledge – you need people to know your business exists
  
• Attitude – once they know your business, they need to have the right attitude towards it, to appreciate it and to think that it could probably fill a need of theirs.
  
• Action – If your potential customers know your business, and have the right attitude, the next step is to make them buy it.
  
• Relationship – If you get your customers to com back again and again, you are on top of the stairs. 

You can have different customer groups at different levels of the steps. Use them to create a plan for each step.

• Knowledge – How can you get your target group to know that your business exists?
• Attitude – Once they know your business, how will you make them think that it is great?
• Action – How can you get your customers to make their first purchase?
• Relationship – How do you get them to come back, once they have made a purchase?

When starting a new business, you must work hard to find customers. But in that hard work, don't forget to do everything you can to keep the customers you get happy.

Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.

The success rate of selling to a customer you arleady have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%.

• What are your thoughts and reflections on this section?
• What do you need to do now?
• When are you planning to do it?
• Who can help you doing it?