Customer acquisition is a key to running a successful marketing campaign. Without opted-in consumers who are willing to receive your promotional messages and material, all of your efforts will be for nothing. So it follows that you need to have a streamlined and detailed plan to build your base of subscribers.
How to acquire new customers
Whether you opt to use email, direct mail or SMS marketing, you need to have clear, consistent, and compelling marketing material to share with your subscribers. This is in order to promote your product or service.
Your promotional materials need to:
- Clearly explain what you offer and why target consumers should be interested in your product or service
- Show how your brand and business is unique
- Compel consumers to subscribe
- Offer some kind of added incentive for opting in
Messages need to be balanced and concise. In the case of email and direct mail marketing, you need to provide a captivating content ratio of text to image. With too much text, consumer interest will quickly wane in most cases. Yet don’t forget text is valuable both for communicating effectively and also for SEO purposes.
It’s helpful to remember that for optimal customer acquisition you need to showcase your brand and what you do quickly, succinctly, and in a way that is highly engaging. This will also help in converting of consumer prospects into paying customers. All content must be tailored to your target market.
Once you identify who your target audience is, you need to focus on how best to win their attention – and this is how your campaign strategy will deliver you results at the point of sale.
Retaining your customers
Focusing on customer acquisition is every bit as important as working towards customer retention. New customers are the key to growing your business – just as retaining existing customers helps you to maintain your current levels with repeat business.
Customer acquisition requires a solid and strategic plan. However you work towards this, and whatever form of advertising you choose to use, you need to be guided by these 3 major principles.
1. Foster engagement
To transform a first-time viewer of your brand into a paying customer, you need to trigger engagement between the consumer and your brand. This takes time, in most cases, and requires a strategy for building relationships.
Research by McKinsey showed that up to 70% of purchases are based on how the customer feels they are being viewed and treated by the brand. Building a relationship with consumers takes time and requires research and development of buyer personas.
One of the easiest ways to foster engagement with consumers and encourage them to opt into your marketing activities is to connect via social media.
2. Invest wisely
Spend wisely when it comes to your customer acquisition practices. You don’t need to spend a fortune. Develop your budget based on the amount the average customer will spend with your brand; what proportion of consumers who sign up will actually become paying customers; and what proportion of website visitors actually opt-in for your marketing messages. These guidelines help you ensure your financial investment is sound.
3. Educate your prospects
Consumers today predominantly look to the internet for information relating to products and services that interest them. Offer education to consumers without pushing the “hard sell”. This promotes trust and trust leads to loyalty. Very few modern consumers respond well to aggressive selling tactics; instead offer solutions, information, and cement your presence so that when the consumer needs to purchase, your brand is forefront in their mind. When your brand is an authority, you will win over consumers at the point of sale.
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