Every firm depends on its customers. It’s therefore important to develop a plan to consistently attract new clients. However, the cost of customer acquisition has increased by 50% over the previous five years. A key area of concern is the lack of a clear plan, on the part of many firms, for acquiring customers.
It’s simple to keep doing what you believe to be effective but doing so frequently results in underinvesting in high-performing channels or, on the other hand, missing out on channels where potential customers are present. Developing a personalized approach is the best way to improve customer acquisition. In this article, we explain how to create demand, keep tabs on your expenses, and turn leads into paying clients.
What is customer acquisition?
Customer acquisition or lead generation is a marketing strategy used to generate interest in your products or services among potential customers. This includes activities like advertising on search engines, social media sites, etc.
When assessing how much value consumers add to their operations, companies and organizations look at the cost of client acquisition as a key indicator. Management of customer prospects and inquiries that are brought about by various marketing strategies is referred to as customer acquisition management.
Telemarketing, loyal customer incentives, and similar tactics are examples of effective customer acquisition methods. One way to look at customer acquisition management is as a bridge between advertising and customer relationship management.
Grow your business with a strong telemarketing strategy
Why is customer acquisition important?
Customer acquisition is an essential part of any business strategy as it helps companies identify potential customers who are interested in what they offer. Once they become customers, you businesses are then able to track their behavior and find out how they use their products or services.
Businesses of all sizes need to acquire new customers regularly as it enables them to:
- Make enough money to cover expenses, pay workers, and invest in expansion strategies
- Provide proof of traction to attract investors, partners, and influencers
- Keeps investors satisfied
What does customer acquisition aim to do?
Customer acquisition strives to draw customers to your firm. You can wait for clients to find you spontaneously but doing so won’t ensure that your profits will grow or even keep you afloat. Specialists in customer acquisition devise personalized strategies to persuade potential customers to buy a brand’s products or services.
What is a customer acquisition funnel?
Customer acquisition funnel (CAF) refers to the path that leads customers from awareness of your product/service to becoming loyal repeat buyers. Lead generation normally takes place at the top of the funnel, followed by lead acquisition in the middle, and lead conversion at the bottom.
In certain businesses, lead generation and customer acquisition are merged at the top and middle of the marketing funnel. This is because converting customers often involves tailored strategies such as lead scoring and closing techniques. Nevertheless, the term “client acquisition” usually refers to the entire funnel.
Start ups and lead generation: a match made in heaven
What are the most common customer acquisition strategies?
Investing in marketing initiatives doesn’t guarantee a great return on your money. You should leverage the appropriate customer acquisition channels, while developing a lucrative customer acquisition strategy. Let’s look at three different customer acquisition tactics you can use to grow your business.
1. Telemarketing
The practice through which a business attempts to sell its goods and services over the phone is known as telemarketing. Cold calling, customer service, or calls based on marketing data, such as previous telemarketing outreach are all part of telemarketing services.
Telemarketing companies assist other businesses with their direct marketing tactics, by offering value propositions to prospects on behalf of the company that they represent. It’s critical to distinguish between outbound telemarketing services and inbound marketing strategies.
When comparing the results of outbound and inbound telesales or telemarketing strategies, there is a noticeable discrepancy between them. In general, acquisition costs are higher and ROI is lower when marketing to cold clients; in contrast, acquisition costs are lower and ROI is higher when customers approach a company themselves.
2. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO helps businesses in different sectors rank higher in organic searches and increase traffic to their websites. It involves optimizing content for keywords, creating backlinks from high quality sites to yours, and using social media to drive traffic to your site. The creation of indexable content — content that search engines can read, understand, and index within a search engine results page (SERP) — is a component of SEO best practices.
The indexability of your content can be improved by:
- Using a title (H1) that includes your main keyword
- Including ALT text in your image files
- Adding keyword variations to your content
- Uploading transcripts of audio and video content
- Adding internal links to other services pages on your website
SEO is a popular strategy for gaining new clients since it’s more economical than advertising and it’s very effective. It helps you get found online when people are searching for information about your business or product so you can reach potential customers who may not be aware of your existence yet.
3. Content Marketing
Content marketing is an effective means of acquiring new customers. Creating fresh, unique, and relevant content can go a long way towards capturing your audience’s attention and directing them to your website. Additionally, content marketing offers a helping hand through straightforward communication in a world where deceptive advertising abounds and customer confidence is on the decline. It’s important for each piece of content you create to be pertinent to your viewers and drive user action.
13 modern ways to gain new clients
How do you create a customer acquisition funnel?
In order to effectively grow your business, you must first identify your target audience and find a way to reach out to them. Once you’ve identified your target audience, you’ll need to build a sales funnel so that you can convert prospects into customers.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a customer acquisition funnel:
Identify Your Target Audience
Before you begin building your customer acquisition funnel, you need to identify your target audience. Who is your ideal client? What problems does he/she face? How much money are they willing to spend? These questions will help you narrow down your focus and provide you with a clear idea of whom you’re trying to attract.
Create a Customer Acquisition Funnel
Once you’ve identified your target market, you’ll need to create a customer acquisition funnel that converts leads into buyers. A customer acquisition funnel is simply a series of stages that lead potential clients toward becoming customers. Each stage of the funnel represents a different type of interaction between your company and its customers.
For example, the first stage might involve sending emails to current customers asking them to share feedback about your product. The next stage might involve calling these same customers to ask them to buy additional products. And finally, the last stage might involve setting up a phone call with the customer to sell him/her on buying your product.
Test Different Types of Content
After identifying your target audience, you need to figure out which content works best for reaching them. There are different types of content that you can use throughout your customer acquisition funnel. Some examples include:
- Email newsletters
- Social media posts
- Infographics
- Video testimonials
- Case studies
- Online ads
The goal here is to test different types of content until you find something that resonates well with your audience.
How to measure customer acquisition
Here basic metrics that you can track to measure your efforts:
Traffic
Traffic is the number of visitors to your website over a specific period of time. There are several different tools that you can use to measure traffic, but Google Analytics is probably the easiest to set up and use.
Conversion rate
The conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors who convert into leads or sales. For example, let’s say that you sell products online and you want to know how successful your ads were in driving traffic to your site. You’d look at the number of clicks on your ad versus the number of conversions.
Cost per acquisition (CPA)
Cost per acquisition (CPA) is similar to cost per lead (CPL), except CPA focuses on revenue rather than leads. Revenue is calculated by multiplying the price of your product or service by the number of times that visitor converted into a sale.
How to improve your customer acquisition strategy
Customer acquisition strategies are among the most important aspects of running a successful business. Without customers, you won’t make money but attracting customers is easier said than done. Here are some tips for getting started:
Create a unique value proposition
Your value proposition is the reason why customers choose you over competitors. It tells customers why they should buy from you instead of another company. It also explains how you’re different from other businesses.
Focus on customer experience
Customers’ experiences with your brand matter just as much as your products and services. They’ll judge your entire organization based on your ability to provide excellent service so make sure you focus on providing exceptional customer service.
Build trust with customers
Trust is the foundation of every relationship and trust is earned by delivering quality products and services. When customers feel like your brand is trustworthy, they’ll be more likely to purchase from you.
Be consistent across channels
Consistency across all touchpoints is key when creating a strong customer experience. Whether it’s your website, mobile app, or social media presence, consistency makes everything run smoothly.
Use personalization technology
Personalization technology allows you to tailor content and messages to individual users. For instance, if you notice that a particular product is popular with a specific demographic, you can target ads to that group.
Test different strategies
You can test out different customer acquisition strategies to find the ones that work best for your business. There are several tools available to help you figure out which methods produce the highest conversion rates. Some of these options include Google Analytics and Facebook Ads Manager.
Telemarketing services
At TELUP, we provide telemarketing services to help companies of all sizes with prospecting, appointment-setting, sales, customer loyalty, and front office outsourcing. As a business process outsourcing (BPO) and appointment-setting company, our services include:
- Inbound telemarketing: The best way to speed up the growth of your company is through inbound telemarketing, which involves working with a skilled group of telemarketers who are highly motivated and results-oriented.
- Outbound telemarketing: Your business can increase revenue and streamline operations by using call center services including lead generation, customer acquisition, and appointment scheduling.
- E-Business: Our staff can fully deploy your HubSpot platform and set you on the path to marketing magic with a few simple clicks.
