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From community-driven marketing and customer education to personalized service and product-led growth, business leaders are finding new ways to earn customer trust and build lasting relationships.
In a challenging economy, attracting customers takes more than competitive pricing or a good product. Businesses must demonstrate value, establish credibility, and give customers compelling reasons to choose them. Across industries, company leaders are rethinking customer acquisition through education, community engagement, transparency, and personalized service. Five business leaders share their strategies for winning customers and sustaining growth.
Building Trust Through Community-First Philanthropy
Andy Choi, Founder and CEO of DoGood, is making philanthropy more accessible through Nonprofit as a Service (NAS). The platform lets anyone launch a nonprofit for $25 per month. Instead of relying on conventional advertising, the company builds its audience by sharing its journey publicly, including its challenges and failures.
Choi believes authentic communication can turn content into a powerful growth tool.
“As a startup, building in public solves so many of our needs at once; it’s marketing, communication, product announcements; it hits on every level. And ultimately, at the end of the day, it comes down to trust and relationships.”
Choi sees trust as central to customer acquisition, particularly in philanthropy.
“Relationships move at the speed of trust, and that is everything. You talk about sales: it’s all about relationships. Building trust, especially in the philanthropy and nonprofit space, is critical; it’s everything to all of our go-to-market.”
Content also allows the company to reach audiences beyond individual conversations.
“I can only talk to so many people in a day. If I can create content that reaches 1,000 people instead of 100, that’s a 10x. But to ask for their time, I need to be authentic and vulnerable; people can sniff out inauthenticity so easily, especially with AI now.”
Making Legal Knowledge a Customer Acquisition Tool
For Seann Malloy, Managing Partner of Malloy Law Offices, education is more effective than aggressive selling. His 10-lawyer personal injury firm serves Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia, using informative content to address common legal concerns.
Its Gen Z marketing team also creates humorous, engaging material, while sponsorships of schools, charities, and D.C. United strengthened its local presence.
Malloy says, “What I’ve gotten away from is sales. I’m not selling myself. I’m not saying hire me. I’m educating and entertaining. I almost feel like I’ve been waiting around for something like social media.”
Explaining legal processes also helps potential clients make informed decisions.
“A lot of people get nervous when they think about lawyers. But most people in the United States would not be able to afford a lawyer if we didn’t have contingency fees. So just explaining how it works, how they’re still in the driver’s seat; that’s how you demystify it.”
Local engagement gives the firm another advantage over larger competitors.
Malloy adds, “We have these big national firms that move in, but they’re never going to be able to do what I do. They’re never going to know the local charities to get involved in, the regional colleges, the minor league sports teams, but I’ll be there, year after year.”
Converting Customer Research Into Sales
At Welsh family business Cherry Tree Country Clothing, customer education has become an important sales strategy. Part Owner Bethan Bithell explains that customers increasingly research products before visiting stores, though their information isn’t always accurate.
The company responds with practical online content that addresses specific needs, including a blog about boots designed to relieve tendinitis.
“We’ve written a blog about our anti-tendinitis relief system boots. A lot of people phone up saying they’ve seen the blog and want more information. We even had a couple drive up from Norfolk, about three or four hours away, just to try the boots on.”
However, showrooming remains a challenge, prompting targeted discounts and free returns to encourage online purchases directly from the business.
Bithell adds, “We have found that a lot of people tend to come, get the information, and then go elsewhere to buy, which is a challenge. Without discounting, that’s the only thing we’ve been able to do to encourage them to buy from us rather than going elsewhere after they’ve got all the information here.”
Bithell also believes personal interaction sets smaller retailers apart.
“If you’re going on the website and the only person you can speak to is a robot, it’s very frustrating. We try to do as much as possible over the phone; that human touch is genuinely a competitive advantage now.”
Winning Contracts Through Personalized Service and Transparent Pricing
CRISALIS, LLC, a 10-person medical software company specializing in clinical trial tools, competes against larger providers by offering personalized development and support. Co-Owner and Project Manager Adriane Meeus says keeping all operations in-house ensures clients work with people who understand their systems.
“We keep everything in-house; that is part of our big pitch. Whatever team builds a client’s system is their customer support team. Even though we’re a small company, it allows us to have that personal touch. In our last meeting, a new client said they feel very lucky to have us because we’re just agile and we go with the flow.”
Transparent pricing further strengthens customer confidence.
Meeus adds, “We don’t nickel and dime. We count in about 20 hours of little tweaks they didn’t think of upfront and include that as one flat fee, so clients aren’t getting charged every time they want something small adjusted. Once we go live, bug fixes and basic support are built in.”
Continuity within the development team also supports long-term relationships.
“We haven’t had a developer quit ever. When you have the same team throughout, you’re not having handover after handover. I’m fairly confident almost any developer on our team could get on the phone with a client and advise them because they know the system inside and out.”
Letting Customer Demand Shape Growth
Jason Richardson, Founder and CEO of Bad Birdie, has grown a golf apparel side hustle that began with 100 shirts into an omnichannel business with over 2,000 wholesale partners and three owned retail stores. His approach centers on listening to customers and letting sales data guide business decisions.
“The customer is always evolving, always changing, and finding ways to just adapt with them and serve them in the best possible way. They’ll tell you very clearly with their dollars what’s working and what’s not. The customer is our boss.”
Delivering product quality is equally important to retaining customers and generating recommendations.
Richardson adds, “Once we have a new customer, we have to make sure that we deliver on what they’re buying. The quality has to be amazing. When they put the shirt on, they have to be like, man, that was a great purchase, and then they go tell their friends, and that’s how you grow.”
The brand also seeks to make golf more accessible.
“It’s core to our vision: make golf fun for anyone who wants to play. We believe in growing the game, not shrinking the game. If we can be a brand that welcomes people in, that’s just inherently who we are. It’s been that way since day one.”
Trust Remains the Strongest Competitive Advantage
These five businesses demonstrate that winning customers in a difficult economy requires a clear understanding of what people value. Whether through transparent communication, useful information, local relationships, dependable service, or quality products, their strategies put customer needs at the center of business growth.
For them, attracting customers is only the beginning. Businesses that consistently deliver on their promises earn loyalty, generate recommendations, and build lasting relationships.
Written in partnership with Tom White
