Business is changing.
With technology increasingly developing every day, there is no more door to door sales.
There is less negotiation, more fast delivery; fewer TV commercials, more social media ads.
Although business is a practice approximately as old as human civilization, there are no definitive rules to acquire customers, especially with our daily lives changing constantly.
Yet there is one thing that never changes: the customer.
Here are 6 customer acquisition strategies:
1- Know Your Customer
First things first: Who is your customer?
There are 3 things to ask yourself to know your customer.
What is your product?
Is it a service? An object? Is it online, or do you need to deliver an item? Once you know your product, it is not hard to imagine the range of customers in your market.
For example, let’s say your product is an English learning app, this brings us to the second question.
What kind of people are your customers?
Are they young? What are their walks of life? How much do they earn?
You can find out by hosting events, doing surveys and going through your sales history.
If you have an Instagram business account, you can actually display who sees your posts, how many of them are women or men, their age range, their locations and even when they tend to be online.
What kind of people would need an English learning app?
Many people would need such an app, but we could say that it would mainly be used by teens and adults. Since you will be selling to teens as well, the app shouldn’t be too expensive.
Now we know about how much we can price our product, but how do we sell it?
Where are your customers?
It is important to know where your customers are because if you don’t, you can’t advertise the product.
This does not mean physically where, but where they frequent and which social media platforms they use.
Since our customers are teens and adults, it is likely that they have social lives. For example, they may frequent cafés, bars, and bookstores, and they may be using social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Now that we know our product and the kind of customer we will likely have; we know how to price our product. The third question, knowing where your customers are, will help us advertise it easily.
2- Advertise Efficiently
No business succeeds without advertising. Now that we know all about our customers, we can start to advertise.
Website
Modern problems require modern solutions. First, you will need a website. Even though you are a small business, no need to worry. There are dozens of third-party tools you can use to create one.
Post-click Landing Page
A post-click landing page is a page that is linked to your ad and the first thing your customer will see. It is very important to direct your customers well before they decide they are not interested in your product. It must be minimal, easy to use, ready to go. For example, take a look at Spotify’s landing page.
Here are our tips for creating great landing pages.
Social Media
Any business attracts attention before advertising, but once you get the money to advertise, you give it to social media.
Without even noticing, we all click on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media app there is on our phones. With a good ad, it is impossible for your business to not get the attention it deserves.
According to Instagram, 60% of people say that they discover new products on Instagram, and more than 200 million people visit at least one business profile daily.
Events
Events are great advertisements; you get the chance to sell your product and get to talk about your business all day.
You can invite your existing customers and they can invite their friends. According to WASP State of Small Business Report, word of mouth is the 4th most used tool in marketing.
For example as UserGuiding, we attended the TechCrunch Berlin 2019 with our own stand, met a lot of people and distributed plenty of merch to increase brand awareness.
3- Improve Your SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which optimizes search engine search results according to what is relevant.
It is tough work to appear on the first page of Google search results, but if your SEO is good enough, you can.
A basic trick to have a good SEO is to decide on a keyword, put it in the page title, header, URL, image descriptions and truly, just anywhere you can.
4- Offer Deals & Promotions
Referrals
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to acquire customers, but what if it rewarded the mouth?
Many brands offer discounts or freebies to their existing customers if they invite their friends to use the product. For example, a popular shopping site Aliexpress offers you $5 each time your invited friends make a purchase.
Discounts
No one says no to a good deal.
Many companies have deals annually, monthly, or even daily. A good way to decide your discount strategy, is again, to know your product.
If your product is technological, it is best to have a bigger discount during Black Friday, but if your product is, say, clothing, then it is best to have a spring sale.
Giveaways
What is better than a discount?
A free giveaway.
It is common for businesses to host giveaways, for example, when Starbucks puts a new coffee in their menu, they host a free coffee day to advertise the product. Some other coffee shops, such as Dunkin Donuts, give out free coffee on National Coffee Day.
There are other ways of giveaways too, such as loyalty cards. With those, you can get a free product after purchasing a number of products. Whatever method you choose, giveaways are ultimate advertisements.
5- Partner with the Right Company
Partnering with brands that complement your brand can save your business.
For example, in 2016 Apple collaborated with Nike and released an Apple Watch that you can use the Nike+ app on. This was an exceptionally good collaboration that resulted in an outburst of sales in Apple Watches and Nike+ app, as well as Apple and Nike products.
6- Come Up with Quality Content
The business world has such a fast pace these days.
If you are no longer relevant, you are no longer in the market. Because of that, brands are coming up with something new every day to keep up with the competition and stay prominent in the market.
It is also important to make sure you come up with quality content regularly. By doing so, you build a certain trust in your customers, and this leads to something better than acquiring customers: keeping them.
Conclusion
There are many ways to acquire customers; some of them are simple and apply to every business, while others are fit for different types of businesses.
These strategies include:
- learning more about your customer base,
- advertising accordingly
- enhancing your SEO efforts,
- offering deals and promos,
- finding good partnerships,
- and putting more focus on content quality.
Let me remind you that there is no guarantee for success in business; however, once you start using these strategies, there is a guarantee of a good head-start.
Frequently Asked Questions
👤 What is Customer Acquisition?
Customer Acquisition means turning individuals from your audience into your customers by selling your product to them.
❓ Why is Customer Acquisition important?
In order to grow your business and increase your revenue, being able to constantly acquire new customers is vital.
🚀 How can I acquire new customers?
There are multiple ways to acquire new customers. Being active in the channels your audience regularly uses is an effective way to customer acquisition.
