What’s a business without its customers? Having a great product, building a strong marketing plan, cultivating an amazing customer experience, and all best business practices are aimed at acquiring customers and keeping them loyal.
The issue now is that acquiring customers can be super hard and expensive, especially if you are just starting and are in your experimentation phase. One thing I can tell you is, that when it comes to acquiring customers, you can not just keep throwing ideas on the wall hoping one sticks.
You need a concrete customer acquisition strategy if you ever want to grow business-wise. In the 10 -15 minutes you will spend reading this article, I will be sharing ten great strategies you can start using to attract customers to your business. Let’s get straight into it.
10 Strategies for Customer Acquisition
Get To Know Your Target Audience
Before starting your store, you likely did research to know who you want to sell to — your target audience. Now that your store is open, you need to go deeper into your target audience’s psyche.
You need to clearly understand what exactly are your customer’s preferences; their needs and wants and what they find annoying and exhausting.
You can do this through:
- Conducting surveys to acquire a better picture of what your target audience is interested in. Ask questions like what kind of shipping they are used to, the payment service they use, and what they did not like from previous sellers they have patronised.
- If you already have customers and want more, you can ask your current customers what drew them to you, and where you can do better.
Once you have this info, you can begin crafting a personalised marketing strategy and acquisition tactics for your target audience.
For instance, if your customers prefer fast and reliable delivery, you need to use a fulfillment service that can do that. Globallyfulfill can help with this thanks to their top-notch storage and delivery logistics. Check them out.
If you do not know how to understand your target audience better yet, use these questions to guide yourself:
- What do you want your product to provide the customer?
- What’s an average day from the perspective of an ideal customer using your products?
- What are your customers’ pain points?
- What are some reasons why customers will not buy this product?
- What time does your ideal customer open your emails, log into your site and buy your products?
Based on these questions, you will get a better look into your customers’ psyche.
Use A Lead Magnet That Will Intrigue Customers
A lead magnet is a gift, like an ebook, checklist, or webinar, which you provide in return for a potential customer’s contact details. It proves to be a great technique for seizing leads and guiding them toward becoming customers.
Crafting a compelling lead magnet involves recognizing the challenges faced by your intended audience and providing a solution. Develop content that is not only informative and actionable but also valuable.
Additionally, ensure that your lead magnet is prominently displayed on your website and across various marketing channels.
Designing a lead magnet that works effectively does not just involve hiring a designer, the lead magnet should fit into your overall marketing plan. It has to relate to your business and the things you sell or offer.
Another important thing to think about is how your lead magnet looks. It should be attractive and simple to understand. Put in amazing pictures and graphics to make it interesting. Also, make sure there’s a clear message telling people what to do next – that’s called a call to action.
Find Out Which Channels Your Audience Use
Knowing your target audience will also require knowing where they are and how to reach them effectively.
This means diving into your data and figuring out which channels are bringing in the most customers. A good rule of thumb is to concentrate on channels that are both cost-effective and bring in a lot of customers.
To find out where most of your audience engages with you and which sources refer to the most traffic, you can use a tool like Google Analytics.
Let’s say your analysis reveals that social media, particularly LinkedIn, is bringing in the most traffic, in that case, it makes sense to concentrate more on that specific channel.
By doing so, you can maximize your efforts where they’re most effective, potentially attracting more visitors and customers.
The Power Of Email Marketing
Email marketing can be a powerful way to get new customers. It lets you talk directly to people who might be interested in what you offer and build relationships with potential customers.
To get the best results, you should segment your subscriber’s list. That means organising your email list by dividing it into groups based on characteristics like age, interests, and what people do on your website.
Make your email subject lines interesting, and personalize your messages to make people more likely to open and click on them. Each email should give something valuable to your readers.
Ensure every email has at least one call to action. These are clear instructions on what you want them to do next, like making a purchase or signing up for something.
Regularly analyze and optimize your campaigns to figure out what works best for your audience. Use tests like A/B testing to try out different subject lines, messages, and calls to action to see what your audience responds to the most.
Keep an eye on important email metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to spot areas where you can make things better.
Also, remember that many people check their emails on their smartphones, so it’s important to make sure your emails are mobile-friendly.
By constantly improving and adjusting your email marketing strategy, you can make it as effective as possible in bringing in new customers and keeping them engaged.
Everyone Uses Social Media, Use It Too
Another fantastic channel to create leads is social media. It lets you connect with the people you want to reach in a more personal and interesting manner.
To make the most of this channel, figure out which social platforms your target audience uses the most. Make content that people want to share because it’s interesting, helpful, or entertaining.
Interact with your followers regularly, and be quick to respond to their comments and thoughts.
Also, keep an eye on social media analytics to see how well your strategies are working. This way, you can understand what’s effective and make improvements when needed.
Another key part of using social media to get new customers is teaming up with influencers in your industry. Influencers have a big following on social media, which means they can help you get noticed by a broader audience.
Look for influencers who share the same values as your brand and work together with them to create content that talks about your products or services. This collaboration can add authenticity and reach to your message, making it more likely to reach those people who would love to purchase from you.
Work On Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) involves customizing your website content to enhance its ranking on search engines like Google. It is a great tool for customer acquisition in online businesses since customers will use search engines to seek information.
Unlike paid ads SEO allows customers to organically find your website when actively searching for information.
The primary drawback of SEO is that it doesn’t bring immediate success. Building visibility for your website in search results takes time, requiring a long-term planning approach.
Optimise Your Website
Your website is a major customer touchpoint. It is where your customers will look for and purchase products from you. You do not want a new customer to get turned off when they visit your website so, ensure it looks good before beginning any customer acquisition plan.
Ensure it loads quickly, responds well on different devices, and is easy for visitors to use. Place clear Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons throughout your site to encourage visitors to take action, like making a purchase or signing up.
Offer valuable content that addresses the questions and concerns of your target audience. This could be blog posts, FAQs, or informative pages that help visitors understand what you offer.
You should also display proof of product satisfaction such as customer testimonials, reviews, and case studies on your site to highlight your credibility.
This approach is very important for businesses where trust is required, such as healthcare or finance.
By featuring real experiences and positive feedback from existing customers, you’re providing evidence that others have had a good experience with your products or services, which can instill confidence and encourage new customers to engage with your business.
Lastly, analyse. Regularly check how well your website is doing and make improvements. This might involve looking at things like how many people visit, what they do on your site, and how many of them turn into customers.
Work On A Customer Referral Program
Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family hold a special level of trust for people. An impressive 83% of individuals across 60 countries express trust in the recommendations that come from those close to them.
What’s even more promising is that referral programs tend to yield a high Return on Investment (ROI).
Offer your existing customers enticing rewards, discounts, or other perks to your customers to give them the motivation to recommend your products or services to their friends and family.
You can provide a variety of incentives, such as discounts or complimentary upgrades for your product or service. The key is to select rewards that align with your business and appeal to your customers.
For instance, if you operate a toy store, offering free storage space might not be relevant. Instead, discounts would likely pique your customers’ interest.
Invest in good referral program software. This step is important as it saves both time and development resources as you automate the entire referral process from the beginning to the end.
Partnerships With Existing Industries And Influencers
Teaming up with influencers and experts in your industry is a smart way to reach more people and boost your credibility. It’s like a win-win situation where your business benefits from their popularity and audience, and they get a chance to do the same through their association with you.
A fantastic strategy is teaming up with a well-known company to share customers, expand your brand’s reach, and establish a channel for exchanging customers that benefits both partners.
This approach has proven successful for major SaaS brands such as Zendesk and Hubspot, which launched partner programs early on and as a result scaled their businesses, accelerated growth, and increased revenue.
If you are a SaaS business, collaborating with another brand that also has SaaS products is a smart move. You can make your products work together seamlessly by allowing integration, and vice versa.
This not only enhances the user experience but also opens up new opportunities for both companies to grow together.
For the influencers part, you need to be careful when choosing one to partner with. The influencers you collaborate with should be prominent in their field, possess specific expertise in B2C products, and have some similarities and interests with your brand.
For instance, if you are an online store that sells fitness products, having it endorsed by a respected figure in the fitness industry can significantly enhance its appeal to your target audience.
Organise Events
Expanding your business and attracting new customers sometimes calls for more than traditional methods like blog posts and email campaigns. Another highly effective tactic for customer acquisition is organizing events, such as online webinars to conferences.
Hosting events provides a unique opportunity not just to showcase your product but also to engage in meaningful conversations with your target audience.
Event marketing serves as an excellent way to acquire new customers and strengthen relationships with existing ones.
To make the most of event marketing, it’s crucial to select the right type of event for your business.
For instance, if you have a fashion-oriented store, you could organize webinars discussing how the fashion industry has changed over the years and how your customers can change with it.
Alternatively, hosting a conference or seminar with influential figures from the fashion industry as speakers could also be a compelling way to connect with your audience.
Conclusion
The truth is, that bringing in new customers is one of the most challenging parts of business growth. To succeed, it’s crucial to leverage all available tools to enhance customer acquisition strategies.
Once you capture their attention, the rest becomes more straightforward. With an excellent product or service, there’s a multitude of customers eager to engage with your business—you just need to connect with them.
These customer acquisition strategies are designed to assist you in doing just that. Best of luck!
