The very best buyer acquisition methods embody paid search, tailor-made remarketing, nice content material, referrals, and search engine marketing. Learn the way the consultants do it on this information.
Right here, you’ll discover 7 buyer acquisition methods for progress:
- Paid search marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media marketing (organic & paid)
- Remarketing
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Referral marketing
New clients herald over a third of a brand’s total revenue. That’s a fairly large slice of the pie.
Whereas there’s no magic method for securing conversion-ready leads, there are digital advertising methods with buyer acquisition at their core.
We tapped into HawkSEM’s VP of Development and Technique, Steve Dang’s experience, to map out seven of our favourite buyer acquisition strategies. Every is backed by real-world success and sensible insights that will help you grasp the artwork of buyer acquisition.
Firms that use paid seek for profitable buyer acquisition realize it’s not solely in regards to the advert. (Picture: Unsplash)
What’s a buyer acquisition technique?
A buyer acquisition technique is your model’s blueprint to draw, interact, and convert potential clients into paying ones at each stage of the gross sales funnel. The purpose is to broaden your buyer base, enhance income, and take your enterprise to the subsequent degree.
Sounds so much like lead era, proper?
“Concerning how basic leads are totally different from advertising certified leads (MQLs), basic leads are increased within the funnel and characterize anybody or motivated sufficient to fill out a lead type. It is a higher-level step within the conversion funnel,” explains Dang. “As soon as these leads are certified or scored by the advertising workforce, they’re considered a MQL.”
Which means? There’s a stronger chance that the lead will convert right into a sale or, higher but, a loyal buyer.
An efficient buyer acquisition technique considers each step of the buyer journey—from lead era and fostering loyal clients to conversion charge optimization.
Remember the fact that the acquisition begins on the very first contact with a prospect. Then, it naturally rolls into your buyer retention technique. Collectively, these methods work synergistically to make sure your advertising efforts keep worthwhile.
Is buyer acquisition the identical as advertising?
The most important distinction between your advertising efforts and buyer acquisition technique is that the advertising falls underneath buyer acquisition. The identical applies to lead era and gross sales, too.
Put merely, your advertising prices account for a portion of your buyer acquisition efforts.
For example, say you make investments $9,000 into a targeted display ad campaign. Each click on and conversion this advert generates contributes to buying new clients. Subsequently, it feeds into your buyer acquisition technique.
Whether or not it’s a particular advertising marketing campaign, a show advert, or a bit of content material, if it’s aimed toward attracting new clients and evoking curiosity, then it’s all a part of the broader buyer acquisition course of.
Image the standard gross sales funnel. Advertising normally sits close to the highest, specializing in the preliminary levels, like model consciousness and consideration. Buyer acquisition, however, is the overarching technique that shapes your entire buyer journey, from first consciousness during to conversion.
Buyer acquisition 101? Verify. Time to speak technique.
7 strategies for a profitable buyer acquisition technique
Able to make each new buyer your greatest buyer? As a top 3% SEM agency, we’ve obtained the within scoop on find out how to craft an efficient buyer acquisition technique that really delivers.
1. Paid search advertising
Paid search, also called pay-per-click (PPC), is likely one of the best digital advertising methods on the subject of buyer acquisition. That’s as a result of it permits corporations to focus on their splendid buyer with the suitable key phrases on the proper time.
Paid search advertisements seem on the high of the search engine outcomes web page (SERP) on websites like Google and Bing. If somebody’s looking for “girls’s black biking sneakers,” for instance, and also you’re an ecommerce model promoting biking merchandise (together with girls’s black biking sneakers), you need your focused advert to be the one they see.
The identical goes for manufacturers promoting different services.
The businesses that use paid seek for profitable buyer acquisition realize it’s not nearly churning out an honest Fb advert or two. It’s simply as vital to pair eye-catching, interesting advert copy with an optimized landing page that boasts constant verbiage, clear design, and a transparent name to motion (CTA).
At HawkSEM, we go the additional mile for our shoppers.
We supercharged ThriftBooks’ paid search efforts, partnering carefully with Google for beta alternatives and zeroing in on key viewers segments. The end result? A 35% bounce in clickthrough charges (CTR) and a 50% enhance in common order worth (AOV).
2. SEO (search engine marketing)
Together with a strategic paid search plan, you want a solid SEO strategy for serps to acknowledge your web site simply. This very important facet of inbound advertising helps enhance your rankings and, ideally, develop your attain for higher buyer acquisition.
Excessive-impact web site search engine marketing means having components equivalent to:
- Distinctive, related title tags and meta descriptions for every web page
- A stream of constant, high-high quality content material
- Inside and exterior hyperlinks to authoritative websites
- A complete sitemap (organized record of all of your net pages)
- Photographs with descriptive alt tags
These are among the ways we leveraged, together with conversion charge optimization (CRO) audits and content material technique, to steer our consumer DILO again to its industry-leading place.
The proof is within the knowledge: a rise of 36% in natural clicks, 24% in Google clicks for high-value key phrases, and 46% in Google impressions—all inside just a few brief months.
However bear in mind, optimizing your website for serps doesn’t assure you’ll snag the highest spot of search engine outcomes pages (SERPs) and even land on the primary web page, for that matter. Search engine algorithms are consistently altering. And people shifts? They’re not all the time clear.
Nonetheless, by protecting your website up-to-date, simple to navigate, and academic for prospects and present clients, you’ll place your model as a thought chief and your website as a reliable data supply.
3. Social media advertising (natural & paid)
In terms of social media, you’ve obtained the choice to leverage each natural and paid advertising channels. However don’t make the error of assuming you possibly can leverage every path in the identical method or obtain the identical outcomes.
Natural
Let’s begin with natural social media. The follow of repeatedly creating social media posts will help unfold the phrase about new enterprise choices or updates, improve your publicity, and even aid you go viral (in a good method, ideally).
Whereas natural social posts received’t all the time straight lead to buyer acquisition, they will assist in model consciousness, content material sharing, and highlighting your distinctive model persona.
Paid
Paid social, however, is usually a highly effective software if wielded correctly. When selecting which social media platforms to advertise on, it is best to first take into account your target market and the platforms they use most.
For instance, in case your splendid buyer base consists of pros and enterprise decision-makers within the SaaS area, LinkedIn is a primary selection.
Branded and influencer-generated content material, PPC advertisements, and show advertisements are all types of paid social media. Every of those can attract audiences that encounter your model for the first time, doubtlessly turning them into paying clients.
When you’ve honed in in your splendid platforms, you should use the viewers concentrating on instruments most have in place to get your content material delivered straight to those that must see it most.
Whereas running a blog is a good medium for companies on the subject of buyer acquisition, efficient content material advertising can embody way more. (Picture: Unsplash)
4. Remarketing
Remarketing makes use of show advertisements to attach your enterprise with individuals who have already visited your website or cell app. When finished proper, it’s one of many best and most cost-effective ways to get prior guests again to your website.
Not solely does it hold you high of thoughts when somebody takes an motion like visiting your website or requesting a session or demo, nevertheless it additionally lets you hyper-focus your advertisements and improve your probabilities of turning a lead right into a conversion.
Is remarketing the identical as retargeting? Not fairly.
Search Engine Journal says the largest distinction is that retargeting focuses on steering potential clients down the acquisition path, whereas remarketing re-engages present clients by means of different channels (like electronic mail or paid advertisements).
In fact, probably the most profitable remarketing campaigns aren’t one-size-fits-all. A brand new website customer shouldn’t be remarketed the identical method as a returning customer. Why? As a result of they’re at totally different levels of the shopper journey—a brand new buyer is within the ‘consciousness’ stage, whereas an current buyer is probably going nearer to creating a purchase order.
Take our consumer Timbuk2. We helped them ditch the cookie-cutter method and tailor-made their remarketing to each new and returning guests. This garnered a 56% enhance in internet income and a 21% uptick in AOV—a transparent win for custom-fit methods.
Together with knowledge and online privacy changes, the eventual demise of third-party cookies will drive adjustments in digital advertising, significantly for remarketing advertisements. However there’s no must panic.
Whereas extra options will develop into obvious as the method unfolds (equivalent to alternative instruments like FLEDGE and Topics), concentrate on attracting new clients to maintain your lead pipeline flowing.
In search of extra methods to extend your buyer acquisition? Let’s talk.
5. Content material advertising
Running a blog is a good medium for companies on the subject of buyer acquisition, however really useful content marketing encompasses a lot extra.
Some examples of high-caliber content material embody:
- Weblog articles
- Movies
- Webinars
- Guides
- ebooks
- Infographics
- Checklists
- Podcasts
- Downloadable templates
- Product descriptions
- Case research
Regardless of the content material you create, you need to ensure it’s correct, useful, and keyword-targeted. The extra deliverables you publish and promote, the extra {industry} subjects you possibly can cowl. This makes your website extra more likely to floor in natural search outcomes for individuals looking for what you need to provide.
Professional tip: You’ll be able to take issues a step additional by partnering with one other model (that’s not a competitor however shares an identical viewers) on one thing like a podcast or visitor weblog. Strikes like these can develop your variety of clients, construct your skilled community, and additional solidify your model’s credibility.
However don’t bow out of the content material advertising sport earlier than seeing the fruits of your labor. Like search engine marketing, it takes time and sustained effort.
One option to take your content material from once-in-a-while to 24/7 automation? Depart it within the palms of a dedicated content marketing team dedicated to growing buyer lifetime worth (CLV) and your return on funding (ROI).
You’re six instances extra more likely to get a click-through from an electronic mail marketing campaign than from a tweet. (Picture: Unsplash)
6. E-mail advertising
E-mail newsletters are one other highly effective acquisition channel if you happen to observe just a few greatest practices.
As Campaign Monitor reports, you’re six instances extra more likely to get a click-through from an electronic mail marketing campaign than a tweet. That’s a reasonably candy incentive to get a publication going, wouldn’t you say?
In our expertise, probably the most profitable newsletters:
- Embody a single, clear CTA
- Supply actionable worth (like a professional tip, low cost, or statistic)
- Seize consideration with compelling topic traces
- Use well-planned, easy templates
- Are easy-to-read
- Are optimized for for cell
- Conduct A/B testing to slender down the perfect codecs
To construct your non-client subscriber record, get inventive! You’ll be able to add exit-intent pop-ups to your website or embody a subscription field in your website’s footer navigation.
So long as it doesn’t damper the buyer expertise or get too pushy, yow will discover distinctive methods to broaden your buyer base.
Professional tip: Let your readers aid you unfold the phrase! Encourage forwarding in your electronic mail publication to make sharing a breeze. Due to the psychology of social proof, peer-recommended content material is normally thought of extra reliable..
7. Referral advertising
Have you ever ever tried a new product you liked and instantly shared your enthusiasm with a good friend? Referral packages reward you for this, providing incentives for recommending their choices to different potential clients.
Not like word-of-mouth marketing, which depends on individuals spontaneously sharing data (normally verbally), referral advertising offers tangible perks and rewards to encourage referrals.
For example, Uber’s rideshare service rewards credit to each the brand new rider and the one who referred them.
Not solely does referral advertising have a decrease value per lead (as a result of it makes use of your present clients to unfold the phrase vs. paid advertisements or high-budget advertising campaigns), nevertheless it’s additionally extremely efficient.
In actual fact, referral packages generate a mean of 3 to 5 times higher conversion rates than different methods.
Dang believes referrals are useful as a result of it means they’ve been vetted and vouched for by somebody acquainted.
“Oftentimes, they’re additionally likelier to transform than a chilly lead as a result of there’s a component of belief and familiarity already embedded within the relationship,” highlights Dang.
Referral packages can embody:
- Unique reductions
- Free presents
- Money-back rebates
- Complimentary upgrades
- Charitable donations of their title
- Early entry to gross sales or occasions
- Branded merch or swag objects
These perks can tip the scales for a potential buyer towards your enterprise over a competitor.
What’s buyer acquisition value?
Buyer acquisition prices, or CAC, is how a lot a model invests to accumulate new clients. Your CAC covers advert spend, advertising, gross sales personnel, and extra, divided by the variety of clients acquired.
CACs are one of many main key efficiency indicators (KPIs) you’ll need to keep watch over. In keeping with Dang, different related metrics embody the typical:
- CPL (value per lead)
- Value per MQL
- Value per SQL (gross sales certified lead)
- Lifetime worth of a buyer (LVC)
- Click on to steer conversion charge
- Result in MQL conversion charge, result in SQL conversion charge & result in sale conversion charge
Nonetheless, he says the actual KPIs will rely in your firm and enterprise mannequin.
So, why is your CAC such an enormous deal? Development is sweet, however progress at any value can damage your enterprise in the long term. Give it some thought: if you happen to spend an excessive amount of to accumulate every buyer, you may win battles however lose the monetary conflict.
Sustainable progress is important, and that’s the place a balanced CAC comes into play. It boosts your profitability reasonably than draining your sources.
That’s why it’s very important to know how to lower CAC. Your first step is to trace all bills and ROI. Our proprietary tech ConversionIQ makes protecting a finger on the heartbeat of your knowledge a breeze.
“ConversionIQ can completely assist enhance common acquisition prices and a wide range of conversion charges by letting us see all of the elements which may affect the standard of the lead,” Dang says. “It might probably additionally give us insights into what to regulate in an effort to craft and optimize for a more practical conversion funnel, whether or not that has to do with the originating key phrase, match kind, time of day/day of week, machine kind, and so forth.”
However he warns in opposition to falling into frequent traps.
Pitfalls to keep away from in CAC evaluation
It’s all about seeing the large image.
“The most important problem shouldn’t be having a full view of the conversion funnel and seeing in and round all of the potential weak factors alongside that funnel,” says Dang.
He explains how this might sign points on the first interplay or someplace in the midst of the conversion funnel. The catch?
“All of this knowledge must be collected and offered in an simply digestible method in an effort to be helpful. Moreover, having a full image of the conversion funnel isn’t enough,” Dang explains. “It’s equally vital to have the ability to flip these insights into an actionable plan or technique.”
The answer? That oh-so-exclusive proprietary tech we talked about earlier. (cough, cough, ConversionIQ).
The takeaway
It’s no secret that clients are the bread and butter of any enterprise. And digital advertising is likely one of the most direct methods to attach together with your desired prospects.
By realizing your viewers, assembly them the place they’re, and analyzing the info behind your advertising campaigns, you’ll have the instruments you should not solely entice extra clients however hold them loyal and completely satisfied as properly.
HawkSEM’s mission is to make your buyer acquisition technique your biggest triumph. With knowledge and experience, we attain your target market and make your model stand out in even probably the most crowded markets.
Don’t take our phrase for it, although—simply peep our collab with actual property crowdfunding market, Patch of Land.
“We observed they promote closely on the Larger Pockets podcast and determined to purchase show advertisements on the Larger Pockets web site/area to piggyback off of, and reinforce their audio advertisements on the podcast,” shares Dang.
The end result?
“Excessive-quality leads for them at a fraction of the price that we have been seeing even on the search facet. This perception was solely doable by having an entire 360-picture of their advertising technique,” says Dang.
If you wish to do a full 180 in your acquisition technique to drag in and captivate the perfect clients for your enterprise, we’re here to make it happen.
This publish has been up to date and was initially revealed in December 2019 and up to date in January 2024.
