It’s true. The world we’ve known is changing, and as a business owner, you’ve likely been curious as to how your company can succeed in this new socially distant society. Rest assured, you’re not alone. Business owners worldwide have been interested in how they can continue building a client base while offering the ultimate customer experience. However, one major obstacle remains: transitioning and building your business online. So, how can businesses continue to reach daily, quarterly, and yearly goals? By focusing on customer acquisition.
What Is Customer Acquisition?
Customer acquisition refers to the process of a business gaining new clients or customers. Companies must develop an effective and sustainable acquisition strategy that can easily be adjusted as new trends, and changes are introduced to the industry the business falls in. Many companies utilize the cost spent on customer acquisition to measure how much value customers bring to said company. A simple way to understand customer acquisition is by considering it a link between advertising and customer relationship management. This relationship is required for businesses to reach target audiences effectively. A focus on customer acquisition is essential for companies worldwide, especially in the sanitation industry. These strategies help make money for company-wide funding, growth reinvestment and provide proof of traction for investors, partners, and influencers.
Marketing teams utilize a grouping of acquisition marketing strategies to help market products and services to new clients and customers. In most scenarios, the marketing department and customer services teams work together to develop useful strategies. This is because acquisition marketing primarily focuses on customers that have discovered your product or service and are in the process of deciding to make a purchase. Every business varies in what customer acquisition channels are most effective concerning the target audience, necessary resources, and overall strategy. There are various customer acquisition channels companies utilize to help attract new leads, readers, and fans.
- Content marketing
- Blogging
- Special offers
- Video
- Social media
- Search marketing
- Email marketing
Developing a Customer-Focused Marketing Strategy
As our current socially distant world is slowly becoming the new norm, you must revisit your marketing strategies – even if they were newly developed. Every marketing strategy should be reformed to better focus on the customer and customer acquisition as these methods are how businesses will flourish in future years. Companies are encouraged to follow a series of simple steps to build and develop a genuinely effective customer-focused marketing strategy.
- Set directives based on your company goals
- Structure a marketing strategy to meet and support those goals
- Clarify marketing priorities and essential areas of focus
- Pinpoint how marketing will contribute to set goals
- Determine the best approach and actions to meet objectives
So, What Changes Can You Make?
Recent events in the preceding year have impacted consumer behavior, and these are likely lasting effects. Because of this, sanitation businesses ranging in size are encouraged to focus resources and budgeting on developing more effective digital acquisition, engagement, and retention strategies. Significant shifts in the consumer market don’t need to be viewed as permanent obstacles. Instead, businesses should view these moments as opportunities to evolve and improve for the ever-changing buyer of today.
Identify Areas You Can Offer Customer Value
Customer acquisition through digital channels is surging, and you are encouraged to focus your energy on prioritizing retention on these platforms. New customers are drawn to value and what a business is offering outside of a product or service. Catering to value is an excellent way for your company to attract new customers and retain the preexisting ones. Improved value can be presented in numerous ways, from responsive messaging and coupons to reduced prices and personalized offerings. Companies must identify how consumers can be offered personalized experiences as many of today’s buyers are drawn to businesses that cater to a customer’s unique needs. These actions symbolize a personal level of care and devotion to your customers.
Cater to Self-Service When Possible
Online shopping is continuing to grow in popularity, especially as many have no other option. Because of this, identifying ways in which your business can cater to self-service is a priority. Eighty-one percent of customers attempt to resolve issues themselves before reaching out to a live customer representative, says Harvard Business Review. While existing customer support (phone, email, in-person) strategies are effective, you must up your game by catering to self-service. Even if you don’t host an online store on your website, having some of the following “self-service” options will build value for your customers.
- FAQs: Many customers, whether new or existing, refer to a company’s FAQs section before contacting customer service. You must verify that your offered knowledge base is easily accessible and up-to-date.
- Online Chat: If you have the ability to staff and online chat, you would be surprised at the amount of customer information you can get! However, you may not have the staff to monitor a live chat throughout each day. If so, try incorporating an Al-based or outsourced chat. The goal is to answer as many customer questions as possible, without them leaving your site!
- Customer forums: Engagement with other customers is crucial for building a well-rounded customer experience. Did you know most of today’s buyers find more value in reviews provided by other customers instead of the company? Incorporating customer forums into your website will not only help customers but allow them to engage with like-minded individuals regarding your products or services. You can also subscribe to popular industry social media networks to make sure you’re staying in the loop on what your customers may need.
Update Your Content
Optimizing existing content and procedures is just as important as identifying your strongest marketing channels and focusing on cross-channel messaging. Today’s consumer market exists on many different social media platforms and utilizes a variety of messaging channels. Focusing on these critical points will help you boost engagement and retain your existing client base. You should also set aside time to update your website’s content. Offering a good user-friendly experience, and trustworthy content is a crucial component of your company’s overall success.
- Update product pages
- Add alternative content like photos and videos
- Live chat implementation if possible
- Optimized shopping or quoting options
- Desktop and mobile-friendliness of your website
- Overall loading speed of your website
Focus on Community
Recent events aren’t just affecting today’s buyers – they’re also affecting your business. Acknowledging these impacts and focusing on the community has proven to be useful for companies worldwide. Customers are drawn to companies that embrace empathy as it offers an understanding of worldly events and demonstrates human communication and connection. For example, companies like McDonald’s have incorporated social distancing messages into their marketing communications to show customers that they care and are aware of existing emotions. You should also devote additional time to your employees and their happiness, as happy employees result in satisfied customers. Identifying ways in which morale and positivity can be kept high is extremely important for current and future years. Today’s workforce is facing obstacles and unprecedented change, just like the consumer market.
Expand Customer Outreach
Not only do customer forums help customers connect and share thoughts and opinions about your products and services, but customer social networks also help spread your company’s message to a broader audience. Since customers’ opportunity to connect face-to-face is seemingly nonexistent, finding ways to facilitate these connections will only set your business up for future success. An expanded customer outreach will also help you create new buyer personas when focusing on high-growth product categories and buyer intent data.
A Socially Distant World Is Far From Over
As we move farther into the current year, it’s becoming apparent that this newly developed socially distant world is far from over. As a business owner, you must consider this and refocus your existing marketing strategies to cater to customer acquisition. Not only will a focus on customer acquisition help build your client base, but it will also help you build more credibility and trust with potential and existing customers. Brands that provide authenticity are more likely to climb to the top in this changing consumer market.
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