EVERY business, no matter the size, needs customers to succeed.
Customer Acquisition refers to bringing consumers down the marketing funnel from brand awareness to purchase decisions.
To create a sustainable acquisition strategy, you need to evaluate your current acquisition strategy. Calculating your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), which measures the cost of converting a lead into a customer, is an excellent place to start.
CAC is an essential measure of how much value a customer brings. It's a simple calculation that divides marketing costs by the number of customers acquired.
Source: Propellor
Reducing this value means the business uses its budget more efficiently to see higher returns in its total profit.
Acquiring a customer is a milestone for any business, but as crucial as Customer Acquisition is, you need to focus on sustainable growth strategies to keep growing.
HOW ACQUISITION CAN CREATE LOYALTY
Customer loyalty is an emotional bond, and Acquisition strategies must create this feeling.
Sustainable Customer Acquisition is a crucial step in creating customer loyalty, retaining customers and turning them into brand advocates.
Customer Acquisition strategies can be expensive, so fostering customer loyalty in every funnel stage is essential – from imagination to conversion to ongoing experience to lifetime advocacy
Customer Loyalty Loop, Source: Medium
ACQUIRE, ENGAGE, RETAIN.
Understand your customer's needs and remember, sometimes they don't always know!
Attach a quick two- or three-question survey to your email communications. For customers who just purchased a new product, ask them why. Use this information to build new offers and to expand your customer marketing strategy.
Always remember, some customers don't know what they want or need. This could look like offering a personal loan to someone with high-interest-rate credit cards or targeting women over 35 for discounted mammograms.
Adopt a broader strategy
Multiple channels should be used, including direct mail, email, and social media ads. The best channels for your business will depend on your audience, resources, and overall strategy.
Don't go it alone
People don't want to feel like they're being sold to; they want to feel like they belong to a community. Leveraging authentic and existing loyal customers is a great way to introduce new ones to your brand. Referral marketing can take many different forms, from word-of-mouth marketing, user-generated content, to influencer marketing on social media.
Implementing referral strategies will bring your brand to customer retention, where your campaigns both encourage repeat purchases and brand advocates.
92% of people claim to trust recommendations from family or friends - Nielson
The journey is customer engagement, and loyalty is the destination
Loyalty is more expansive, prosperous and complex than it has been in the past. It has expanded past points and rewards and into processes, technologies, and interactions.
Your content marketing strategy should be sustainable with long-term goals. As long as you produce value-add content for every customer stage relevant to your target audience, you'll have a sustainable acquisition tool.
Repeat customers are more profitable than constantly acquiring single-purchase customers.
One of the most sustainable ways to reduce CAC is through customer retention. The reality is that the customers you already have are the most profitable. Mastering the art of customer retention allows your brand to grow sustainably by balancing marketing to potential and existing customers and closely monitoring your CAC.
Cultivate long-term loyalty with rewards
Incentivize your customers by implementing a rewards program. Implementing a loyalty program enables your brand to develop a deeper understanding of purchasing habits and spending behaviours.
TOP TIP: Incorporating up-sell features to unlock additional rewards with additional purchases will motivate customers to add more to their carts.
Brands should priortize both acquisition and retention at the same time.
By incorporating initiatives for both with a financially sustainable strategy, you will foster sustainable growth. Let your customers know how important they are to you by prioritizing them, and in return, receive their loyalty, trust and retention.