The Ultimate Guide to Customer Acquisition

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The Ultimate Guide to Customer Acquisition

Setting up an online business is a great step, but the job doesn’t end there. For your business to thrive and grow, you need to have the right customer acquisition strategy to get new customers and retain them. Customers are vital because they bring revenue, enabling a business to grow. 

This guide helps you understand how to acquire new customers for your business.

What Is Customer Acquisition?

Customer acquisition is a business process to bring in new customers. A good customer acquisition strategy focuses on bringing in and retaining customers who will remain loyal and will continue to patronize your company for years to come.

The Six Steps of a Sales Funnel

The simplest way to understand customer acquisition marketing is through knowing the six stages of a sales funnel. A sales funnel a series of steps that you can use to turn leads into customers. Here are the steps:

Top of the funnel

The top of the funnel is where you get strangers to visit your page or see your ad.

  1. Awareness – You want to attract people who don’t know about your product or service through identity marketing. You can promote your content on social media, purchase ads, or use SEO strategies.
  2. Interest – Once they know who you are, they’ll want to see what you have to offer. The prospect may click your ads or fill in landing pages.

Middle of funnel

In the middle, you get your prospects to complete a form or download a white paper – something that gives you their contact information.

  1. Consideration – the prospect is interested in your product, but they’re not sure if the brand has the expertise to meet their needs. You can use case studies and blog posts to convince your prospects.
  2. Intent – the prospect needs proof of why they should consider your product and not your competitors. You can use FAQs to answer questions about your brand.
  3. Evaluation – the brand proves it is the best. You can utilize case studies and newsletters to convince your leads.

Bottom of funnel

At the bottom of the funnel, you get your prospects to buy your product.

  • Purchase – at this stage, the magic happens. The customer decides to buy your product. You can entice them to buy by giving out discounts or gifts.

How To Create a Customer Acquisition Plan

A successful e-commerce business requires a plan to acquire and retain customers.  Here is a surefire process of creating a customer acquisition plan that works:

Define your target audience

Who are you trying to attract? What are they like? The more specific you can be, the better. Considering age, gender, income level, education level, and geographic location are some possible characteristics. Create a customer profile for each segment of your target market.

Determine Your Goals

Once you have established your buyer persona, write down your goals and objectives. What do you intend to achieve with your customer acquisition strategy? The goals may include creating awareness through identity marketing or getting more phone calls.

Choose a Channel

Know what kind of marketing works best for your business. Marketing channels include social media, SEO content marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising.

Determine the Cost 

Customer acquisition cost is the money you spend to bring a new customer to your business. Therefore, you need a reasonable budget to implement a successful customer acquisition strategy. Without a budget, your marketing campaigns may be too expensive.

Optimize Your Strategy

Observe what works and what doesn’t as you implement your customer acquisition plan. Then, adjust your budget and use more resources on the channel that brings more customers.

The Bottom Line

Effective customer acquisition marketing is key to the success of any e-commerce business. To get the best from your plan, know your target customers and set the goals for your marketing efforts. Also, figure out the marketing channel that brings more customers to your sales funnel and put more money in it.

The Ultimate Guide to Customer Acquisition

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