Even those newly acquainted with marketing literature can simply evaluate the concept of "Customer Acquisition." I'm sure there are methods applied to acquire customers in every business, from the pastry shop owner to SMEs and large-scale companies.
Well, let's proceed a bit more professionally. The process aimed at convincing customers to purchase a product is called customer acquisition. Many new entrepreneurs tend to believe that customer acquisition depends on three simple factors:
- Setting up a website
- Collecting contact information
- Maintaining an active presence on social media
Wrong! To achieve high customer acquisition and success in tactics that enable this acquisition, much more is needed. If you want to catch rapid and solid growth, you need to step outside the methods everyone tries.
In this article, we will share some effective tactics for customer acquisition.
Create Awareness by Sharing Publications
I might have mentioned this many times before, but let me say it again! Content marketing holds great importance in the marketing strategies of the 21st century. Having content that is consistent, frequent, and yet creative will create a multiplier effect for other areas you produce.
Because people are in need of information. Information helps us escape ambiguities and feel safe. The digitalization process we have experienced in the last quarter of the century allows those seeking information to face countless options. Therefore, do not hesitate to create and share online presences that belong to you.
Publish Comprehensive Guides for Beginners
People look for two basic qualities in the things they buy: Advanced Functionality (meeting the need) and Simplicity (saving time). Isn't there a contradiction here? When you think about it, every new invention or product should contain functions different from the previous one. This inevitably brings some complexity. However, people have very limited time to escape from this complexity, understand your product, and make a purchase decision. It's certainly not easy to make the right decision within this paradigm 🙂
Try to explain your work, your product, and the benefits you offer in the most comprehensive way but with simple language. The methods you can use will vary depending on the sector and the job. It's up to you to find the suitable one! However, I can give a few examples. For an e-commerce site, practical site tours, shopping tours; for a mobile application, short but interactive videos are proven methods.
Conduct Research Offering Unique Data
Anyone or any organization that can create literature on any subject is considered an expert in that field. You too can prove that you are an expert in your field by revealing some unique research and findings that only belong to you. The best way to do this is to uncover unique data, in other words, data that is not known by everyone.
As an example of unique data, we can show Searchmetrics' 2014 research, which revealed the top 30 ranking factors for search engines.
This company gains significant leverage with these widely followed publications. They achieve heavy traffic to their websites, increase their prestige by winning numerous awards, and advertise their products in dozens of countries without incurring costs. They have a Knowledge Base page where you can find all their work. It's an extremely valuable source of information for almost everyone connected to the industry.
Work on Your Keywords
Have you determined your keywords? Then run to Adwords. Pay the money and let your ads be published. If you share a few articles containing these keywords for SEO, you have done your job well!
If you are not a Digital Marketing Expert, this is generally the scenario you will encounter as an entrepreneur. When you go to a random agency or consultant, you become part of a similar story. Advertising, which is a job that everyone can learn in 15 minutes, is not as efficient as you think in this scenario. The real skill is to increase ROI.
Keyword management is a more serious issue that you need to focus on. The efficiency of your advertising budgets, organic traffic, content circulation, prestige gain, and conversion rates are affected by the success you achieve on your keywords.
There is no single and simple way to success. Using keywords frequently in content development and SEO / overusing them is a wrong method. Instead, you should conduct semantic keyword research and attract traffic based on them. Again, you should work on your long-tail keywords. As a content strategy, produce original, interesting, read, and preferably shared content structures.
On the advertising side, you should determine keywords with high click-through rates and high conversion rates. The general opinion is in favor of using keywords with high conversion rates. If you are working with low budgets, this is what you need to do. However, if you have the opportunity to use a slightly larger budget, continue to use keywords with high click-through rates but low conversion rates. You can be more effective on a wider audience by remarketing to the large number of visitors you bring to the site later. Conversion or purchase usually does not happen with just one visit. As someone who does cookie tracking and examines Cohort analysis data, I have witnessed a visitor who entered the site 14 times and made the conversion on the 14th visit 🙂
Create Your Customer Persona – Define Your Customers
Customer persona is defined by HubSpot as follows:
"A fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers."
To create a successful marketing campaign and achieve maximum ROI, you need to capture the right audience. You are the best at defining your target audience, right? Don't be so sure. Sometimes you may witness that a group you think is the right target audience is not interested in your products or services. You wouldn't want to discover this after wasting a lot of budget. Therefore, you need to act with data.
Create several customer profiles and create personas for them. This way, you can more easily think about which tactics you can apply for which customers. You can do this with a tool like https://xtensio.com/.
Create Free Tools That Appeal to Potential Customers
People love free stuff. Their liking free things does not mean they will not buy your product.
Sharing a free and useful product will attract potential customers to you like a magnet. People unknowingly start to have sympathy for your brand.
For example, Shopify helps you create a useful online store. The company has also launched a free logo creation tool and a business name generator that allows you to check the availability of a domain name.
Get References from Existing Customers
According to a study by Nielsen, 92% of people use recommendations from their families and friends when making decisions.
These statistics prove that your existing customers can be a great source for acquiring new customers. Therefore, the way of working, customer management process, and the overall customer experience created are elements that every company wanting to grow should focus on.
If you are fully meeting the needs of your existing customers, don't hesitate to reach out to them for recommendations. You can also ask for advice on issues within their expertise to improve your own business. You might be surprised by the number of recommendations you receive when you ask a question.
This sudden role change provides an opportunity for the person in front of you to prove their competence and adequacy to you. Subconsciously, they will feel a high motivation to help you. Of course, you cannot resort to this method all the time. Use your gunpowder wisely!
Use Blogger and Influencer Marketing
I don't like influencer marketing, the use of celebrities to this extent, or them polluting social media. As painful as it is for me to say, using social media influencers for your brand is an extremely effective method. 🙂
There are accounts on social media with many active followers. Cosmetics, makeup, sports, fashion... You can find someone in almost every field you can think of. When people receive advertising messages from people they like and idolize, they tend to make purchases.
Brands seem satisfied with the efficiency they get from influencers, and as long as influencers are content with the big money they earn, we can say that the industry will continue in this way.
Use Gamification and Benefit from the Power of Competition
"Game is the first language of humanity," says Johan Huizinga.
Gamification may seem like one of today's leading trends, but when we look at its history, we see that it is a method that has been used for centuries. The basic logic is to use the game to make a behavior happen and turn this behavior into a habit. The element of "competition" used with the game will also help you achieve better results.
You can check out applications like BJ Fogg's ‘’Tiny Habits’’ method, which has done significant work on turning behaviors into habits, and Yukai Cho's ‘’Octalysis’’ Gamification model. Rest assured, they will open new horizons for you. We will also be sharing a separate article on gamification.
Take care 🙂
“Writing is seeing the future.” Paul Valéry