What is Customer Acquisition?

The growth rate of a company is dependent upon customer acquisitions. Learn how to acquire new customers and grow your brand.

In order for a company to grow, there is a constant need to find and acquire new customers. For any business, customers are the single most important factor when it comes to success. Even the most well-made product or service will fall flat if there aren’t customers to receive it. Let’s explore how customer acquisition can help you to take grow your company one person at a time.

Defining Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition is exactly as the name implies—obtaining or gaining new customers. Customers need to be acquired, but customer acquisition can look different for every brand. The end goal is always the same: to acquire new customers and increase your acquisition rate. Ultimately, the number of customers that you can acquire can help you to increase your total sales.

How it Works

A focus on customer acquisition should be the goal for businesses of all sizes. Whether you are trying to land your first few clients, or you are passing your first hundred thousand sales, getting more customers should always be your core focus. A company that continuously gain new customers is more likely to generate monthly recurring revenue.

Embracing customer acquisition means taking active steps to win over more customers. This can be done in a variety of different ways depending on your industry. To succeed, companies need to learn about their audience and make a dedicated plan that can help them to catch customer attention, encourage customers to take action, and increase sales.

Common Customer Acquisition Strategies

Your company’s approach to customer acquisition is going to be unique to your audience and needs, but there are a few different ways to approach obtaining new customers. Success might include gaining new subscribers or increasing your number of sales, but the primary focus will always be on winning over more people. You need the right strategy to make it all possible.

Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaigns are one of the best ways to acquire customers. A good marketing campaign can generate interest in your brand, encourage people to visit your website, or influence customers to make a purchase after visiting one of your landing pages.

Every niche has their own approaches to marketing, whether it is with a large ad spend budget or a sales funnel that has been designed to market your specialty product. Pay-per-click ads, digital marketing, and upsell opportunities can all increase your total revenue. Your focus should always be on reaching more people and generating interest around your brand.

Word of Mouth

Second to traditional marketing campaigns, word of mouth can play a key role in new customer acquisitions. To use this strategy, you simply need to ensure that existing customers have a positive experience, then encourage them to tell their friends and family.

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs can be a wonderful opportunity when it comes to acquiring new customers. Customers expect loyalty programs, and if you offer benefits for them when they choose you over the competition, they will be more likely to do so. A good loyalty program should reward customers and encourage them to keep checking back. With simple messaging and sales offers, you can increase revenue and retain customers.

Referrals

A referral is an instance where one of your existing customers recommends your products or services to someone that they know, and it is a wonderful approach to acquiring a new customer—or customers. Referrals encourage existing customers to share your brand, and they generally come with incentives for the new customer as well.

Sales Funnels

Sales funnels are the most modern sales tactic available, and it is a great opportunity for you to find new customers and immediately turn them into conversions. New business owners and experienced business owners alike can benefit from these funnels. Their primary goal is to entice new customers, then immediately sell them on your product or service. Different funnels can be created to promote various products.

Freemium Offerings

The modern consumer is not willing to invest money into something when they can’t guarantee quality, particularly in the digital age. Freemium offerings give you an opportunity to draw in new customers with a sampling of your top services or products. This might mean a free trial to your pro-level services or even a small sample of a product. The average client will see these offerings as an opportunity to see what you can provide for them, a strategy which can create your ideal lifetime customer.

Affiliate Program

Paying customers are what every company needs, but client acquisition strategies are changing on a daily basis. Affiliate programs have grown in popularity during recent years, offering a chance to combine a traditional marketing strategy with something a little more personal. In the era of social media influencers and committed online communities, affiliate programs can allow you to let your best customers market on your behalf. This is a wonderful way to reach new customers in this new age of technology.

Customer Retention Strategies

When focusing on customer acquisition, companies tend to forget that the average client or subscriber is also a valuable tool. Too often, companies will focus entirely on bringing in new customers and overlook the fact that the best way to acquire clients is to focus on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction can help you to retain customers, making it more likely that you will gain new customers that have been recommended your brand by your existing customers. Retention strategies can help you to turn your existing customers into lifelong customers, and they will bring more people with them over time.

The Takeaway

Creating a sense of brand loyalty doesn’t happen overnight, but when you succeed, you will find that more customers start to choose you. By providing a positive experience for every customer, you can even benefit from passive customer acquisition that is based on reputation alone. Acquiring new customers is important, but retaining customers is important too for sustainable long-term growth. To take control of your customer experience and learn more about how you can better serve your customers, contact us directly.