Customer Acquisition Strategy: Proven Tactics and Best Practices

Growth can be a thrilling yet arduous challenge for both business proprietors and marketers alike.

There are a couple of things that make this process tedious, including:

• Changing consumer behavior
• Budget constraints
• High competition

But why is this important to you?

Without new customers, your organization might as well be a speakeasy during Prohibition—hidden and hard to find.

Capturing your audience's attention should be the primary focus of your client acquisition strategy.

A small business customer acquisition strategy has multiple nuances, and this article is here to help you understand each one. From SEO and PPC to market research and budget allocation, this customer acquisition guide will give you the appropriate tools to perform the client acquisition process and begin attracting new customers.

Because acquiring new customers shouldn't be just a pipe dream for you—it's the primary way you keep your business moving forward!

Strategies for New Customer Acquisition

We know what you're thinking: "What strategies for customer acquisition deliver results?"

Methods of attracting new clients come in all shapes and forms.

New client acquisition requires a multi-faceted approach to adding more prospective buyers to your sales pipeline. You can showcase your business to more prospects through digital marketing, traditional outreach methods, and referral programs while ensuring the leads pour in like a fine wine.

Let's explore these customer acquisition strategies in detail.

Digital Marketing

This form of customer acquisition strategy involves numerous methods that help you track and engage prospects.

Here are a few digital marketing tactics to guide the best customer acquisition strategy and attract clients to your business like bees to honey:

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Optimized websites perform better in search ranking engines, and that's a fact. By performing SEO on and off-page, you make it easier for potential customers to find you.
2. PPC (Pay-Per-Click): If you want fast results, targeted ads on search engines and social media are a great way to get them. With this method, you'll almost immediately attract traffic and leads to your website. A word of warning: this method requires tweaking to get the most value out of your dollar.
3. Social Media Marketing: Depending on your business niche, deciding which social media platform is best for your customer acquisition strategy becomes imperative. If you're a B2B or SaaS business utilizing LinkedIn may be your top option for building brand awareness and driving conversions, while if you focus on a B2C audience, Facebook or Instagram may assist you in reaching your goals.
4. Content Marketing: Content is king! Valuable content not only addresses your audience's needs but also helps establish your brand as a trusted authority in your industry.

Understanding your audience is an important part of this process. Remember, customer acquisition is not a linear process, especially digitally. Take the time to carefully analyze the data from your chosen marketing methods to determine the ROI and success of each campaign.

Traditional Marketing

Old is gold. Dismissing classic marketing methods can allow customers to slip through the cracks. A customer acquisition strategy would not be complete without traditional outreach.

Let's look a three ways you can use traditional marketing in your customer acquisition strategy:

1. Direct Mail: With the advent of email addresses, you'd think potential customers' mailboxes may become redundant. Think again! You can communicate with your target audience directly by delivering newsletters, promotional material, and personalized offers, which can all be highly effective in meeting the recipients' needs while attracting them into your sales prospecting funnel.
2. Print Advertising: For those with larger budgets, newspapers and magazines are excellent ways to reach audiences who favor traditional media. Do you want to know a little secret? Brochures work just as well, too! Print ads are particularly effective for niche or local markets because they reinforce your brand's presence.
3. Events: Industry events, networking gatherings, and trade shows are fantastic places to engage and connect with potential customers. Not only do you get the opportunity to meet potential prospects face-to-face and demonstrate your product or service, but also this customer acquisition strategy allows for building solid business relationships.

If your budget allows, blending these traditional marketing methods with a digital customer acquisition strategy ensures a full-blown approach to reaching potential clients who drive your bottom line.

Referral Programs

Word of mouth is the best form of marketing, with 92% of consumers trusting recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of marketing. You can utilize referral programs to harness your current customer base's enthusiasm to attract new leads, effectively turning them into brand advocates.

One of the best ways to do this is to motivate your existing customers to refer new potential customers and offer them rewards or discounts for successful conversions. Through trusted recommendations, your reach will dilate, and brand credibility skyrocket.

Tools and Technologies for Customer Acquisition

Although differing in nature, B2B and B2C customer acquisition both require tools and technologies to streamline processes while maintaining productivity standards. Leveraging the appropriate lead generation software can make a massive difference in your customer acquisition strategy.

CRM Systems

A CRM platform is like a digital assistant who never forgets your clients' details.

Imagine that!

Well, Ringy, our CRM sales software, does just that.

It records customer data while offering comprehensive insights into consumer behavior and interactions, helping you manage and nurture these relationships with precision.

With Ringy's CRM features, you can:

• Set up email and SMS DRIP campaigns
• Automate tasks
• Call using local ID
• Organize your contacts
• Track communication

CRM software is an integral part of any customer acquisition strategy because of the up-to-date information it provides you. Never miss a beat in understanding your customers' needs and preferences again!

Marketing Automation

Need a tireless marketing partner? We've got you covered. Ringy's marketing automation features allow you to streamline your campaigns. You can set up triggers and workflows that engage prospects at every stage of the buyer's journey without the need for constant manual intervention.

From automating mundane, routine tasks to sending personalized follow-ups through DRIP campaigns, our solution ensures your marketing efforts are both efficient and effective, freeing you to concentrate on developing your customer acquisition strategy.

AI Tools

Attracting prospective customers with the help of AI lead generation is quickly becoming the new norm.

Implementing AI in your customer acquisition strategy can:

• Save time
• Reduce expenses
• Improve productivity

For example, Ringy's AI tools can suggest replies, improve your writing, and help you keep customer information with a built-in chatbot that utilizes our artificial intelligence technology.

By leveraging these AI tools, Ringy helps you stay ahead of the competition and maximize your customer acquisition strategy.

Customer Acquisition Management

Imagine having a steady stream of eager customers, all perfectly suited to what you offer. Effective customer acquisition management is your gateway to this ideal scenario. It's about understanding who your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is and how to attract these individuals in a way that feels natural and engaging (without being too salesy, of course.)

A new customer acquisition strategy isn't just about numbers, it's about implementing best practices and processes to ensure your organization's long-term success.

Identifying Your Target Audience

Segmentation is an incredible tool for assisting in the categorization of potential clients. Once you've identified your ICPs, segment them by:

• Buying habits
• Interests
• Demographics

You can utilize these insights to help you personalize marketing campaigns and reach those entities most likely to convert into loyal customers.

Lead Generation

The question, "How to generate leads?" is always in the minds of company owners and marketers.

Why?

Because lead generation is at the forefront of customer acquisition strategies.

Here are a few tips to improve customer acquisition and lead generation efforts:

1. Understand your ICPs or buyer personas
2. Create engaging, compelling content that drives action
3. Attract the correct audience
4. Obtain their information through gated content or lead forms
5. Put your leads through a qualification process

The goal here is to pique interest and capture potential buyers who are already inclined toward what you're offering.

Lead Nurturing

What's the point of acquiring new customers without developing a relationship with them? Lead nurturing is the art of maintaining and deepening your connections with the clients who matter most.

You can help them through the buyer's journey by using customized communication, such as:

• Personalized emails
• Targeted content
• Prompt responses to questions

When your prospective customers feel understood and valued through this personal touch, they can convert into devoted brand advocates who support you every step of the way.

Customer Acquisition Tacticts

Now that you've gained a deeper understanding of building a customer acquisition strategy, it's time to get into the good stuff.

Whether you're a large corporation or startup, utilizing customer acquisition tactics across multiple channels with a mix of techniques and methods can help you:

• Attract
• Engage
• Convert

While your basic goal is to acquire clients, this doesn't always go as planned.

Taking an omnichannel approach allows your potential clients to utilize various touch points to help guide them along the buyer's journey.

Check out this informative table highlighting different customer acquisition techniques you can add to your strategy.

A good tip for diversifying your content and distribution channels is to find your target audience. For example, there's no point in investing in a Facebook campaign if you own a SaaS business and want to sell your product to corporate company proprietors who need software to manage their projects.

Facebook and Instagram are social networks, and most of their audiences are not focused on building a business; they're purely there for leisure. Hence, more light-hearted products like gifts, niche toys, or even apparel could work well for marketers who use these platforms.

LinkedIn or other similar business networks will be perfect for marketing your SaaS product to the right audience. Analyze each customer acquisition tactic to determine its compatibility with your strategy.

And voila, you're one step closer to attracting more customers.

Innovative Approaches

With the proliferation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the customer acquisition strategy game has been kicked up a notch. AI has made it easier than ever to measure analytical data.

You can use a data-driven targeted approach and map out your entire customer journey, from first touch to last touch and beyond.

To provide you with a few illustrative examples of AI and machine learning in action, it's good to look at two of the largest corporations today: Amazon and Netflix. Both these organizations utilize machine learning algorithms in their recommendation systems.

One suggests new series and movies, while the other recommends products. These platforms analyze user data using algorithms and recommend products or movies to their audience based on the information they receive. Netflix alone has 1,300 recommendation clusters based on viewing preferences!

We wonder what Amazon's figure is.

On the other hand, due to their cost efficiency and multi-tasking capabilities, chatbots are an innovative tactic to add to your customer acquisition strategy. An excellent example is Bank of America, which introduced its AI-powered virtual financial assistant, Erica, way back in 2018.

Since "her" inception, she has had over 1,5 billion interactions!

Creating a Customer Acquisition Plan

It's time to put all this knowledge into action and begin creating your customer acquisition strategy. But what should you focus on first?

Let's have a look.

Market Research

Knowing who you're selling to is key to finding the right leads for your business.

We get it, you want to get the word out, but trust us, without asking a few questions including the following, your efforts will be in vain:

1. Are they decision-makers, freelancers, or employees?
2. What social platforms do they use?
3. How can your product solve the issues they are facing?
4. What is their research process for finding products like yours?

Of course, if you already have an existing customer base, this process would be much easier. You can use various methods during your market research, including surveys, website forms, competitions, analytics, insights and reports, interviews, and more.

Setting Goals and Objectives

Goal setting is essential! Without a goal or objective, you'll be putting in effort without knowing if you're getting anywhere.

Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART.)

For example, you could set a SMART goal of wanting to gain 20 new conversions within the next six months or learn how to increase your customer acquisition by 50% to attract 1400 leads in the next four months.

Setting up revenue goals first can help you better decide what SMART goals to include in your customer acquisition strategy.

Budgeting

Once you've established your goals, it's time to put your money where your mouth is (figuratively, of course).

Allocating your financial resources effectively for different acquisition channels maximizes your ROI. Based on research, you should prioritize channels that offer the best customer engagement for your product or service.

Remember to assign a larger portion of your budget to channels with a high potential return. For instance, if Google ads have historically driven more traffic and sales, allocate more funds there.

However, don't hesitate to explore platforms where your audience may be hanging out. You could discover some untapped opportunities waiting to be nurtured.

Implementation

Now that all your ducks are in a row, it's time to implement your customer acquisition plan. Steps to launch acquisition campaigns include developing your marketing plan, creating reader-focused messages and content, deciding on the right touch point to use, executing your strategy systematically, and converting your target audience into loyal, paying customers.

Tracking and Analysis

Once your campaigns are in operation, measuring your cost of acquisition (CAC) becomes pivotal in determining your return on investment.

To calculate your CAC use the following formula: Sales Cost + Marketing Costs / # of customers acquired.

Knowing how much it costs to convert clients on specific channels allows you to predict each individual's Lifetime Value (LTV) to your organization. With this information, you can make a data-driven decision of whether or not you should invest in using that specific touch point long term.

Customer Acquisition Challenges (and Solutions)

Not every B2B customer acquisition strategy is sunshine and rainbows. They come with their own set of challenges and hurdles to overcome.

Luckily, we have a few simple customer acquisition solutions to the most common challenges you may encounter while trying to fill your sales pipeline.

Have a look at this table.

Using a strategic, adaptable approach, you can circumvent these challenges and keep your customer acquisition strategy moving forward. A robust plan to tackle problems as they arise is a great way to stay on top of things while giving you a competitive edge.

Perfect Your Customer Acquisition Process

With the constant evolution of consumer behavior, budgetary constraints, and fierce competition in today's marketplace, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. But don't let these challenges discourage your efforts.

Growth is often not a linear process, so embrace these hurdles as part of it and turn them into opportunities with the right attitude.

Your approach to customer acquisition should be as bespoke as your business and as dynamic as the market itself.

To succeed, you must:

• Understand your audience deeply
• Set clear goals
• Leverage an omnichannel marketing approach

However, don't forget to use tools and technologies, like Ringy to streamline your workflows, automate marketing, and extract the insights you need to make data-driven decisions.

Customer acquisition isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. That's why Ringy is here to be your all-in-one solution for managing the many nuances of attracting new clients. From sales pipeline management to outbound calling features and customer interaction tracking to SMS/email DRIP campaigns, allow Ringy to be your right-hand man in all things marketing and customer relationship management.

The key to a successful customer acquisition strategy lies in your ability to evolve with a changing vertical while keeping your core values and goals in focus—With Ringy, you can do just that!

Request a demo to find out more!