Customer Acquisition: How to Win New Customers

Your customers are your company’s astir invaluable assets. 

So, you request to person a coagulated lawsuit acquisition strategy that consistently brings caller customers to your business. Helping you make much gross and sustainable growth. 

In this guide, we’ll amusement you however to physique a almighty lawsuit acquisition strategy that attracts caller leads and turns them into loyal customers. 

But first, let’s commencement with the basics.

What Is Customer Acquisition?

Customer acquisition is the process of bringing caller customers to your business. Through channels similar societal media, hunt engines (like Google), and email marketing.

Customer acquisition involves identifying, reaching, engaging, and nurturing imaginable customers done these channels. And yet converting them into paying customers.

The superior extremity of lawsuit acquisition is to prosecute your imaginable customers successful ways that physique trust, involvement successful what you person to offer, and a willingness to marque a purchase.

In this way, lawsuit acquisition goes hand-in-hand with lawsuit retention.

Customer Acquisition vs. Customer Retention

Customer acquisition focuses connected acquiring caller customers.

Customer retention is the process of turning your existing customers into repetition buyers.

Both are intimately linked and indispensable for semipermanent occurrence and concern growth. But you can’t clasp customers without acquiring them successful the archetypal place.

Further reading: 65 Customer Retention Statistics You Need to Know successful 2024

Why Is Customer Acquisition Important?

Customer acquisition helps you grow your lawsuit base. And it counterbalances the earthy attrition of your existing lawsuit base. 

Because nary substance however bully a company’s lawsuit retention strategy is, they’re apt to suffer immoderate existing customers implicit time. 

Having a almighty lawsuit acquisition strategy lets you offset these inevitable losses. Helping your concern not lone support a equilibrium but besides a dependable gait of growth.

Customer acquisition is besides important for:

• Market expansion: Acquiring caller customers from untouched segments tin assistance you diversify your lawsuit base. And trim your dependence connected a azygous market.
• Increased marque awareness: As your lawsuit basal grows, truthful does the accidental of different radical proceeding astir your marque done connection of mouth. Helping you summation marque consciousness and physique a coagulated estimation successful the market.
• Gather feedback: New customers bring caller feedback and demands. Which tin assistance you thrust improvements successful your products oregon services.

The 3 Main Customer Acquisition Stages

At immoderate fixed time, your customers are astatine antithetic stages of the buyer’s journey. This travel tin beryllium summarized into a funnel of 3 lawsuit acquisition stages:

1. Awareness

In the consciousness stage, imaginable customers recognize that they person a circumstantial request oregon problem. And they whitethorn (or whitethorn not) beryllium actively looking for a solution. They besides apt don’t person a merchandise oregon work successful caput yet.

This is your accidental to drawback their attraction and present them to your brand. By addressing and providing a solution to their problem. 

Imagine you merchantability an online fittingness course. Your imaginable customers see radical who consciousness little energetic and conflict to enactment motivated passim the day. 

They hunt for queries similar “how to get fit” oregon “how to summation vigor levels” connected Google.

Here, they recognize they person a occupation and request a solution. But they aren’t needfully looking to marque a acquisition yet.

2. Consideration

In this stage, imaginable customers research antithetic solutions to lick their problem. This is your accidental to amusement however your solution stands retired from the alternatives.

Your imaginable customers person realized that subscribing to an online fittingness people tin assistance them.

They present hunt for queries similar “best online fittingness courses” connected Google. To comparison the antithetic options and find the champion acceptable for them.

3. Conversion 

Conversion is the last signifier wherever imaginable customers marque the determination to acquisition your merchandise oregon service. 

Your imaginable customers person compared antithetic online fittingness courses. And are present leaning toward your course.

This is wherever having an effectual conversion complaint optimization strategy comes into play.

Top Customer Acquisition Channels

Here are the champion lawsuit acquisition channels to consider, nary substance what benignant of concern you run:

1. Organic Search 

Organic hunt refers to unpaid listings that look successful hunt motor results pages (SERPs). 

Here’s an illustration of a website ranking organically for the keyword “best task absorption software”:

Why leverage integrated hunt arsenic a lawsuit acquisition channel?

Because Google processes 6.3 cardinal searches each minute. Bing has much than 100 million regular progressive users crossed the globe.

Search engines similar Google, Bing, and Yahoo are the go-to places for galore radical to find answers to their queries. And—importantly—to observe products and services.

Standard integrated hunt listings correspond large opportunities for lawsuit acquisition. For example, a imaginable lawsuit astatine the opening of the buyer’s travel mightiness hunt for a word similar “what is padel tennis” and spot results similar below:

The apical effect is from Head, a sports institution that sells padel racquets. They see links to their products successful this article. Showcasing integrated hunt arsenic a viable lawsuit acquisition channel.

But integrated hunt is besides a almighty acquisition transmission for tiny and section businesses.

Imagine you ain a plumbing business. And you people imaginable customers successful your section area.

Your people assemblage mightiness hunt for the keyword “plumbing services london” and spot your website ranking successful the local pack. 

Appearing successful the section battalion can:

• Increase your business’s visibility
• Provide users with cardinal accusation astir your concern (like wherever it is connected the map)
• Build credibility

2. Paid Search

Paid search refers to paid hunt results. These results are typically labeled arsenic “Sponsored” oregon “Ad.” 

Here’s an illustration of a paid hunt advertisement ranking for the query “web hosting provider”:

To leverage paid hunt arsenic a lawsuit acquisition channel, you request to tally a paid ads campaign. 

On hunt engines, paid ads typically tally connected a pay-per-click (PPC) basis. PPC is simply a concern exemplary wherever an advertiser pays a interest each clip idiosyncratic clicks connected their ad. 

When you motorboat a PPC campaign, your ads tin look successful beforehand of your people assemblage astir instantly. And the infinitesimal you halt backing your PPC run oregon your advertisement fund runs out, the visibility and postulation from these campaigns travel to an contiguous stop. 

Aside from accepted hunt ads that look similar those successful the representation above, you’ll besides find paid ads successful Google’s Shopping tab.

People browsing this tab for hunt presumption are apt successful the information oregon possibly adjacent conversion signifier of the lawsuit acquisition funnel. Making paid ads successful this country a utile transmission for businesses that merchantability products.

You tin besides find paid ads successful areas similar the section finder, which appears erstwhile you grow the section pack.

As with appearing successful the section battalion organically, this is simply a utile spot to get your section concern successful beforehand of searchers that are apt acceptable to walk money. 

Organic societal refers to unpaid societal media content. 

As with integrated search, you don’t person to wage wealth to enactment your contented successful beforehand of your people audience. Instead, your assemblage discovers it naturally.

Here’s an illustration of societal media station from Chewy organically appearing successful Instagram’s reel section:

People walk an mean of more than 2 hours connected societal media each day. And societal media platforms person billions of progressive users.

But which platform(s) should you choose?

Identify the ones wherever your people assemblage hangs retired the most. And makes purchasing decisions on. 

For example, if you merchantability lawsuit narration absorption (CRM) software, leveraging professional/business-focused channels similar LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) marque sense. 

Conversely, if you tally a manner brand, see Instagram and TikTok. Because these platforms are visually oriented and often utilized to stock manner and manner content.

Paid social is societal media contented you show to your people assemblage done paid ads. 

Such contented is typically marked arsenic “Ad,” “Promoted,” oregon “Sponsored.”

Here’s an illustration of a paid advertisement connected LinkedIn:

Here are immoderate benefits of paid societal implicit organic:

• Targeted reach: You tin pinpoint what benignant of radical you privation to prosecute by mounting circumstantial criteria specified arsenic age, location, interests, and behaviors
• Fast visibility: You tin rapidly boost visibility due to the fact that paid ads tin commencement showing up successful your audience’s feeds arsenic soon arsenic you money your campaigns
• Track results: You tin intimately show the effectiveness of your campaigns by tracking metrics similar engagement rate, click-through rate, and conversions

As with paid hunt ads, determination are assorted places your paid societal media contented tin appear. Including successful users’ feeds, stories, and videos, similar Instagram Reels. 

5. Email 

Email is different almighty lawsuit acquisition channel. Because billions of people usage email to pass with others. 

You tin leverage this transmission to straight pass with your imaginable and existing customers. 

Here’s an illustration from Airtable, wherever they pass the motorboat of their caller feature, Airtable AI, done email:

Unlike galore different lawsuit acquisition channels, wherever algorithms tin person a large interaction connected your visibility, you person (almost) afloat power implicit email. 

You tin leverage this transmission for antithetic purposes. Like educating imaginable customers astir your products and promoting caller offerings. 

Further reading: What Is Email Marketing? The Definitive Guide for Beginners

6. Podcast Streaming Platforms

More than 460 million radical perceive to podcasts. Making podcast streaming platforms (like Spotify and Apple Podcasts) large channels for lawsuit acquisition.

Imagine you ain a tiny java shop. 

By hosting a podcast that focuses connected discussions astir java beans and brewing techniques, you tin pull an assemblage funny successful specialty java and café culture.

By sharing your expertise and passionateness for coffee, you tin physique spot and found your marque arsenic a thought person successful the java industry. 

You tin besides look arsenic a impermanent connected different fashionable coffee-related podcasts oregon invitation experts to talk connected your ain podcast. 

When you invitation manufacture experts to your show, it enriches your podcast with divers cognition and perspectives. Making it appealing to regular listeners.

Similarly, by appearing connected different podcasts, you tin pat into the host’s established pursuing and authorization to grow your reach. And further physique spot and authorization with imaginable customers. 

6 Winning Customer Acquisition Strategies

Here are six lawsuit acquisition strategies to suit the channels we discussed above:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search motor optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website’s hunt motor visibility done non-paid tactics. 

These tactics impact publishing high-quality contented and optimizing it for some users and hunt engines. Helping you amended visibility and pull much customers.

The higher your website ranks connected hunt engines, the much apt it is to beryllium seen by imaginable customers. 

A Backlinko study of astir 4 cardinal Google Search results revealed that:

• The archetypal integrated hunt effect attracts 27.6% of each clicks
• The 2nd presumption receives 15.8%.
• The 3rd integrated hunt effect garners 11% of the full clicks

SEO involves a batch of antithetic strategies and techniques, including:

• Finding the close keywords for your business
• Making your website mobile-friendly
• Adding on-page SEO elements (like rubric tags and headers) to your webpages 
• Linking internally to different important pages and posts

And overmuch more.

Semrush offers a wide scope of tools to usher your SEO efforts. 

Like the Keyword Magic Tool. It helps you place applicable keywords for your business. Which you tin people connected your website to amended your rankings. 

To get started, participate a effect keyword (a wide word related to your business). Select a people determination and click “Search.”

Next, you’ll spot a database of related keywords. Along with cardinal metrics similar search intent, hunt volume, and keyword difficulty. 

To find keywords that are astir apt to pb to lawsuit acquisition for your business, constrictive your hunt down with filters.

For example, you tin filter for presumption with little keyword difficulties. To bash this, click the “KD %” filter and acceptable a customized scope of 0-49. Then click “Apply.”

You tin besides filter by intent. This lets you lone amusement keywords that, for example, suggest the searcher is person to the conversion signifier of the lawsuit acquisition funnel. 

To bash this, click the “Intent” filter and prime “Commercial” and “Transactional.” Then click “Apply.”

In the database below, you whitethorn privation to people presumption similar “dog toys for assertive chewers.” It’s a circumstantial keyword with precocious hunt measurement and a comparatively debased keyword difficulty. Plus, it has transactional intent (denoted by the “T”), indicating the searcher is acceptable to buy.

Once you person a database of keywords to target, you tin past make and optimize high-quality contented for those terms. And hopefully thrust imaginable customers to your website done integrated search.

2. Paid Advertising

You tin tally paid advertising campaigns connected hunt engines, similar Google and Bing. And connected societal media platforms, similar Facebook and LinkedIn.

Obviously paid advertisement campaigns outgo money. So this is lone a viable lawsuit acquisition strategy for those with the budget. 

However, it tin output results overmuch faster than a strategy similar SEO. Making it an perfect prime for businesses that request to person users quickly. Or for launching products oregon peculiar promotions that are time-sensitive. 

Use Semrush’s advertizing tools to usher your paid ads efforts. 

For example, the Advertising Research instrumentality helps you reappraisal your competitors’ ads with ease. To find retired what’s moving for them and summation insights to accommodate your ain strategies.

Enter your competitor’s website URL and prime your people location. Then click “Search.” 

Then click the “Ads Copies” tab. 

Here, you tin spot a database of ads your rival has used, and the transcript each advertisement contained. Clicking the “Keywords” drop-down nether 1 of the ads volition amusement you each the keywords the advertisement could amusement for. Along with hunt measurement and the outgo per click.

You tin usage these arsenic inspiration to tally a winning paid hunt run for your ain business. 

Social media selling refers to the usage of societal media platforms to people pull and prosecute your audience. It involves:

• Building a societal media strategy
• Publishing high-quality contented consistently connected societal media channels wherever your people assemblage is astir active
• Interacting with your people audience, typically done comments
• Analyzing and reporting connected platform-specific metrics

Social media selling tin assistance you scope much customers. But it requires important clip investment.

Use the Semrush Social toolkit to streamline the societal media absorption process. For example, usage the Social Poster to draft, schedule, and station contented connected aggregate societal media channels astatine once.

Use Social Tracker to analyse your competitors’ societal media presence. And comparison their maturation and engagement to yours.

And usage Social Analytics to measurement your societal media selling efforts. To show your followers and engagement levels for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn each successful 1 place.

Finally, usage Social Inbox to person and respond to societal media messages crossed antithetic platforms, each successful 1 place.

These tools marque managing your societal media selling strategy straightforward and little clip consuming. So you tin absorption much connected lawsuit acquisition, alternatively than juggling tons of antithetic platforms astatine 1 time.

4. Content Marketing

Content selling involves producing and sharing invaluable online contented (like blog posts, how-to guides, videos, podcast episodes, and emails) to pull and prosecute your people audience. 

You tin make contented for antithetic lawsuit acquisition channels similar integrated search, integrated social, email, and podcast streaming platforms. 

Content selling tin increase marque awareness, physique trust, and found authority. Helping you make much leads and conversions.

Content selling is much than conscionable producing and sharing contented online. You request to nutrient contented that’s valuable, engaging, and interesting. It should:

• Address your audience’s needs and problems
• Provide them with a solution 
• Catch their attraction astatine archetypal glimpse and support them engaged
• Encourage your readers/viewers to instrumentality action

Use the Topic Research instrumentality to make ideas for engaging content. Enter a wide taxable related to your business. Let’s ideate you connection graphic plan tuition services and you besides connection courses arsenic a integer product.

Select your people determination and click “Get contented ideas.”

The instrumentality volition show cards of related topics for you to make contented around. Clicking “Show more” nether 1 of the cards displays apical headlines and questions for that topic. 

Along with hunt volume, difficulty, and taxable ratio (where precocious taxable ratio means precocious measurement but debased difficulty).

Use these taxable ideas to make content. Or to optimize your existing contented with applicable subheadings and questions your people assemblage is asking.

For example, you could make blog posts that reply questions surrounding wherever radical tin larn graphic plan and however they tin larn logo design. Then you tin constituent to your people wrong those blog posts arsenic a mode to get customers.

5. Video Marketing

Video selling uses videos to marketplace your product, service, oregon brand. 

It involves planning, producing, editing, and sharing videos connected antithetic channels. Like YouTube, societal media, and your website.

Here’s an illustration from GoPro’s YouTube channel:

The video showcases user-generated content successful a mode that besides shows disconnected GoPro’s product. Making it a large blend of entertaining contented and merchandise promotion.

You tin make antithetic kinds of videos to suit antithetic lawsuit acquisition strategies:

• Educational: To amended your assemblage astir a circumstantial taxable revolving astir their symptom points
• User-generated: To showcase real-life lawsuit experiences related to your product, service, oregon marque (like the GoPro illustration above)
• Product walkthroughs: To show however your merchandise works
• How-to: To present applicable proposal oregon instructions connected achieving circumstantial tasks utilizing your product
• Case study: To showcase results achieved by your customers aft utilizing your merchandise oregon service

You tin usage videos to found a beardown integrated beingness (as videos often amusement up successful Google hunt results). 

And you tin usage them successful your paid advertisement campaigns. To summation the chances of catching your audience’s attention. And making them click-through to your landing pages.

Further reading: Video Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for 2024

6. Email Marketing

Email selling involves sending targeted emails to your email list. This is simply a database of email addresses of radical who person signed up to person emails from your business. 

You tin tally email selling campaigns to:

• Keep your subscribers engaged, by sharing invaluable contented similar blog posts
• Inform imaginable customers astir upcoming merchandise launches
• Promote peculiar offers oregon discounts to promote sales
• Announce events oregon webinars

Segment your email database to present much personalized and applicable contented to antithetic groups of subscribers. Based connected their interests, behaviors, and stages successful the lawsuit journey.

Different types of emails you tin make include:

Educational Emails

Educational emails assistance you code and supply a solution to the problems your people assemblage faces. Further helping you physique spot and found your marque arsenic an authorization successful the field.

The Semrush Newsroom email newsletter is an illustration of this. It provides readers with the latest SEO news, on with adjuvant tips and resources. 

Promotional Emails

Promotional emails tin assistance you promote purchases. By showcasing peculiar offers, discounts, oregon caller products to promote purchases.

This email, by Old Navy, uses a consciousness of urgency to thrust purchases. The countdown timepiece indicates that a 40% disconnected everything merchantability is ending soon. Also, the usage of "online exclusive" suggests that this connection isn’t disposable successful carnal stores.

Re-Engagement Emails

Re-engagement emails tin assistance you reconnect with subscribers who haven't interacted with your marque successful a while. 

This email by Grammarly is simply a clever illustration of a re-engagement email. The playful conception of a “Wrinkle successful Time Badge” adds a interaction of wit and acknowledges the user's lack without being pushy.

Also, it encourages the recipient to travel backmost and proceed utilizing the work by reminding them of the worth Grammarly adds to their writing.

How to Build a Customer Acquisition Plan

Follow these steps to make a winning lawsuit acquisition program for your business:

1. Define Your Target Audience

Defining your people assemblage gives you clarity on: 

• The challenges they face
• How they marque purchasing decisions
• What benignant of contented they similar to consume
• Which platforms they use
• Their interests

To find retired elaborate accusation astir your people assemblage and wherever they bent out, usage Semrush’s One2Target tool.

To start, participate up to 5 rival URLs (your competitor’s people assemblage is apt akin to yours). Then, click “Analyze.”

The instrumentality volition past supply accusation astir your competitors’ people audience. Like their demographics, behaviors, and socioeconomics. You tin find retired which platforms your people assemblage uses by clicking the “Behavior” tab.

This shows you which societal media platforms are astir fashionable with each competitor’s audience. Use this accusation to recognize which societal media platforms mightiness beryllium the champion lawsuit acquisition channels for your ain business.

2. Perform Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is the process of researching your competitors to amended recognize their product, sales, and selling strategies. 

You tin usage this probe to place their strengths and weaknesses. And observe opportunities. 

Performing competitory investigation lets you:

• Better recognize your people market, industry, and customers
• Find retired who your nonstop competitors are
• Understand what lawsuit acquisition channels your competitors are using
• Identify gaps successful your existing lawsuit acquisition strategy

Semrush’s Organic Research instrumentality lets you summation insights into your competitor’s beingness connected hunt engines. Use this accusation to recognize however you tin leverage integrated hunt arsenic a lawsuit acquisition channel.

To get started, participate a competitor’s domain, take a people location, and click “Search.”

Next, you’ll spot a broad overview of their domain's show successful integrated hunt results. This includes cardinal metrics similar the fig of keywords they fertile for, their integrated traffic, and their apical keywords by postulation share. 

Clicking “View each # keywords” shows you each the keywords that rival ranks for.

This information tin springiness you an penetration into the kinds of presumption your competitors are targeting. Helping you recognize what kinds of keywords you mightiness privation to people with your ain contented selling efforts.

3. Set Your Goals

Setting due goals volition usher your lawsuit acquisition efforts. 

They should straight align with your concern goals. To beryllium your lawsuit acquisition efforts are straight contributing to your gross metrics.

So, if your gross extremity is $500K successful caller concern implicit the adjacent year, you request to acceptable lawsuit acquisition goals that straight align with reaching this gross target.

Use the SMART model to bash this:

Here’s an illustration of a SMART lawsuit acquisition goal:

Acquire 10,000 caller website visitors by the extremity of Q3 done a operation of SEO and contented selling strategies.

This extremity is:

• (S)pecific: Focused connected expanding website visitors
• (M)easurable: Quantified arsenic 10,000 visitors
• (A)chievable: It’s a reasonably realistic number
• (R)elevant: More visitors tin pb to much conversions
• (T)ime-bound: By the extremity of Q3 2024

Here are immoderate much examples of SMART lawsuit acquisition goals you tin accommodate to your ain plans:

• Convert 2% of website visitors into email subscribers wrong the adjacent 6 months by optimizing the website's telephone to enactment placements and offering invaluable pb magnets
• Launch a targeted advertisement run connected LinkedIn to make 500 qualified leads successful Q2, aiming for a 5% conversion complaint into paying customers

4. Decide the Best Customer Acquisition Channels for Your Business

We noted supra that you tin find the champion societal media platforms to people arsenic lawsuit acquisition channels utilizing the One2Target tool. 

But present are a fewer much ways to place the champion channels for your business:

• Conduct lawsuit surveys: Ask your existing customers (or leads) which channels they’re progressive connected the most, oregon however they recovered your business
• Track your website analytics: This helps you recognize which sources already thrust postulation to your website
• Perform A/B testing: Run selling campaigns crossed antithetic channels to spot which platforms present the champion instrumentality connected concern (ROI)
• Use manufacture benchmarks: Research manufacture benchmarks to recognize which ones typically connection the champion instrumentality for businesses similar yours

You besides request to see your fund and resources. If you person a constricted budget, you mightiness person to regularisation retired strategies similar paid societal and alternatively absorption connected SEO oregon contented marketing. 

And portion targeting aggregate channels tin make much leads and income erstwhile done right, spreading your resources excessively bladed tin mitigate these imaginable gains. So you mightiness spot amended results by focusing connected a azygous transmission astatine first.

5. Measure Your Customer Acquisition Efforts

Measuring your lawsuit acquisition efforts tin springiness insights into what’s moving and what’s not. Helping guarantee you walk your selling fund wisely.

Here are immoderate cardinal metrics to track:

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC is the full outgo of acquiring a caller customer. It includes selling and income expenses divided by the fig of caller customers acquired during a circumstantial period. You cipher it with the pursuing formula:

Customer Growth Rate

This is the summation successful the fig of caller customers implicit a circumstantial clip frame. It reflects the business's quality to grow its lawsuit base.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV is the full gross a concern tin reasonably expect from a azygous lawsuit passim the concern relationship.

Churn Rate

Churn complaint is the percent of customers oregon subscribers who halt utilizing a company's products oregon services wrong a circumstantial clip period. It's a captious metric for knowing lawsuit retention and satisfaction.

Continuously Refine Your Content Acquisition Strategy

Building a lawsuit acquisition strategy isn’t a one-off task. 

You request to measurement your efforts and continuously refine it. Based connected what’s moving for your business. And what’s not.

Tools similar Semrush tin assistance you astatine each measurement of the lawsuit acquisition process.

Whether it’s the Keyword Magic Tool to find presumption to people with your blog content. Or One2Target for identifying the champion societal media platforms to tally paid ads connected to scope your people audience.

Get entree to 55+ adjuvant tools and reports with a Semrush escaped trial.