Are your customer acquisition efforts delivering the results you need? Whether you're struggling with high acquisition costs or looking to scale your customer base efficiently, this guide will show you proven strategies that work.
You'll learn how to build a sustainable customer acquisition strategy that attracts qualified leads and converts them into loyal customers - all while keeping your costs in check.
Contents
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8 Practical Strategies for a Successful Acquisition Strategy
1. Understanding Your Target Audience
2. Selecting the Right Acquisition Channels
3. Creating Compelling Value Propositions
4. Consider Implementing Referral & Affiliate Marketing
6. Invest in Partnership Marketing
7. Customer Loyalty Programmes
8. Monitoring and Adjusting the Strategy
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Key Takeaways
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Understand your target audience deeply before choosing any acquisition channels.
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Focus on creating value at each funnel stage rather than rushing to convert.
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Video content offers unique opportunities to showcase your brand story and build trust.
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Referral marketing works best when you make it easy for satisfied customers to share their experiences.
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Strategic partnerships help you tap into established audiences while sharing resources.
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Testing and optimising your landing pages is crucial for improving conversion rates.
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Well-designed loyalty programmes naturally encourage word-of-mouth marketing.
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Regular monitoring helps you spot trends early and adjust your strategy accordingly.
The right customer acquisition strategy can be the difference between steady growth and stagnation. In competitive markets, simply finding customers isn’t enough; you must employ a robust strategy that creates relationships that last.
Before we dive into the strategies that will help you do exactly that, let’s understand how the acquisition process works.
What is a Customer Acquisition Strategy?
The process of convincing potential consumers to buy your products is known as customer acquisition. A solid customer acquisition strategy generates leads, nurtures them until they are sales-ready, and then converts them into customers. Your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total cost of completing these steps.
Imagine you're at a networking event. You wouldn't just stand around hoping people would notice you, right? You would start conversations, show your knowledge, and make real connections.
And that's where the Customer Acquisition Funnel comes into play.
The Modern Customer Acquisition Funnel
Your acquisition funnel is the roadmap that guides potential customers from "What's this?" to "I need this!"
Here's how the pieces fit together:
Step #1: Awareness
Think of this as the first handshake. You're introducing yourself and making that initial connection. Strategies at this stage often involve referral marketing, social media engagement, and online advertising.
Action goal:
Position your brand where your ideal customers are looking
Key tactics:
- Create content that speaks directly to your audience's challenges
- Use data-driven social media advertising to reach qualified prospects
- Optimise your online presence for relevant search terms
- Track metrics: Brand mentions, social reach, website traffic
Step #2: Interest
As prospects move down the funnel, their interest in your offering deepens. At this stage, you're providing additional information about what you do. You can do this through blog posts, videos, and engaging email content.
Action goal:
Capture attention and demonstrate your expertise
Key tactics:
- Develop educational content that showcases your unique solution
- Share customer success stories that resonate with prospects' needs
- Use email nurturing to deliver valuable insights
- Track metrics: Email open rates, content engagement, time on site
Step #3: Consideration
By now, prospects are intrigued and want to learn more. They are considering investing in your product or service. This is where you provide detailed information through customer reviews and case studies.
Action goal:
Build trust and differentiate from competitors
Key tactics:
- Highlight specific benefits that set your solution apart
- Showcase detailed case studies with measurable results
- Offer product demonstrations or free trials
- Track metrics: Demo requests, trial signups, comparison page views
Step #4: Intent
In the intent stage, potential customers are almost ready to make a purchase. They're leaning in, thinking, "This might be exactly what I need." At this point, offering incentives like discounts or free trials can give them that final nudge.
Action goal:
Remove buying obstacles and create urgency
Key tactics:
- Provide clear pricing and package information
- Address common objections through FAQ content
- Offer limited-time incentives for decision-making
- Track metrics: Cart additions, pricing page visits, sales inquiries
Step #5: Conversion
It's official—they're making the commitment. Your efforts were rewarded, and they are hitting the "Buy Now" button. This is where your checkout process, user experience, and payment options play a significant role in converting intent into action.
Action goal:
Make purchasing smooth and reassuring
Key tactics:
- Streamline your checkout process to reduce friction
- Offer multiple payment options for convenience
- Provide clear confirmation and next steps
- Track metrics: Conversion rate, cart abandonment, average order value
Step #6: Post-Purchase Engagement
The relationship doesn't end with the purchase. It is critical to keep customers engaged after the transaction. Follow-up emails, customised advice, and great customer service are all part of this.
Action goal:
Turn new customers into successful users
Key tactics:
- Create a structured onboarding process
- Provide resources for product mastery
- Offer proactive support during crucial first weeks
- Track metrics: Customer satisfaction scores, product usage, support tickets
Step #7: Loyalty and Advocacy
The last stage entails converting delighted customers into loyal supporters. Customers become brand champions who leave positive reviews and refer others.
Action goal:
Transform satisfied customers into brand champions
Key tactics:
- Build a referral programme that rewards advocacy
- Create exclusive benefits for long-term customers
- Gather and showcase authentic testimonials
- Track metrics: Referral rates, repeat purchase rate, customer lifetime value
Pro tip: Your funnel isn't linear; customers may move back and forth between stages. Focus on providing value at each touchpoint rather than rushing the process.
Well-optimised funnels don't rush customers; they create meaningful interactions that build trust and demonstrate value at every stage.
8 Practical Strategies for a Successful Acquisition Strategy
Now that you understand how customers move through your acquisition funnel, let's explore eight proven strategies to optimise each stage.
These practical approaches will help you build a more effective acquisition plan, starting with the foundation of any successful strategy - understanding your audience.
1. Understanding Your Target Audience
Understanding your target demographic is a continuous activity that influences every part of your customer acquisition approach. The better you understand their needs and behaviours, the better you will be able to personalise your approach to resonate with them and promote successful customer acquisition.
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Segmentation: Group potential customers by demographics (age, gender, location), psychographics (lifestyle, values, interests), and behaviours (shopping habits, online activity).
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Customer Personas: Create detailed personas for different audience segments. To humanise and understand personas, give them names, backstories, and traits.
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Problem Identification: Get to the heart of your audience's pain points and challenges. What issues are they attempting to resolve? Tailor your messaging to show how your product or service addresses these issues effectively.
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Decision-Making Factors: Understand what factors influence their decision-making process. Is it price, quality, brand reputation, or something else? Tailor your value proposition accordingly.
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Feedback and Surveys: Engage with your existing customers to gather feedback. Use surveys to learn about their experiences, pain points, and ideas for improvement.
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Competitor Analysis: Study your competitors and their audiences. What market segments are they aiming for, and how are they meeting their needs? Identify any flaws in their strategy that you may exploit.
2. Select the Right Acquisition Channels
With a clear picture of who you're trying to reach, the next step is determining how to reach them effectively. Channel selection can make or break your acquisition efforts - here's how to choose wisely.
Here’s how you can achieve this:
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Channel Relevance: Choose channels that align with your audience's preferences and behaviours. If your audience is active on Instagram, for example, focus your efforts there.
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Business Goals: Consider your business objectives. Are you aiming for brand awareness, lead generation, direct sales, or a combination? Choose a channel that supports your business goals.
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Multi-Channel Approach: Utilise multiple channels to reach a wider audience. It is often more effective to use a combination of social media, referral marketing, and paid advertising.
3. Create Compelling Value Propositions
Once you've chosen your channels, you need a message that resonates with your target audience. Your value proposition is what makes potential customers stop scrolling and start paying attention. It should complement all your marketing activities and encourage customers to choose you over your competitors.
Here’s how you can achieve this:
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Unique Differentiation: Clearly communicate what sets your product or service apart from competitors.
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Address Pain Points: Highlight how your offering addresses specific pain points or challenges your target audience faces.
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Quantifiable Benefits: Clearly state the benefits customers will gain from choosing your product or service. Use quantifiable metrics whenever possible (e.g., "Save 30% on energy bills").
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Emotional Appeal: Connect with your audience on an emotional level. Appeal to their desires, aspirations, and emotions to create a stronger bond with your brand.
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Customer-Centric Approach: Put the customer at the centre of your value proposition. Show how your product or service meets their demands and improves their lives.
4. Consider Implementing Referral & Affiliate Marketing
A compelling value proposition sets the stage for conversion, but third-party validation takes it further. Recommendations from friends, family, or trusted affiliates can break down barriers and expedite the decision-making process for potential customers.
Here's how to leverage social proof through referrals and affiliate marketing to accelerate your acquisition efforts.
Referral Marketing:
Referral programmes encourage your satisfied customers to refer friends and family. Their personal recommendations are more effective than other traditional advertising methods for building trust among potential customers.
88% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over any other form of advertising.
Here are some of the benefits of encouraging referrals:
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Retention Boost: Referred customers tend to stick around longer, contributing to higher retention rates compared to other acquisition methods.
Referred customers have a 37% higher retention rate than non-referred customers.
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Conversion Edge: Referrals often result in higher conversion rates due to the inherent trust established through the referral connection.
Referred customers tend to convert 30% better than leads generated from other marketing channels.
Affiliate Marketing:
An affiliate (publisher or partner) promotes your products and services via their app or website. They drive direct sales for your business and receive a commission each time customers convert through their platform.
Here’s how you can make this system work for you:
- Influence and Trust: Leverage affiliates with a strong partner network to endorse your product or service.
83% of marketers use affiliate marketing to increase brand awareness.
- ROI Potential: Allocate resources to collaborate with affiliates for authentic endorsements. This increases brand exposure and conversions.
- Audience Reach: Choose affiliates whose networks align with your target audience. This allows you to reach relevant audiences.
Combining affiliate and referral marketing strategies can help you improve customer loyalty through:
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Increased Trust: Customers referred by others tend to trust the brand more and spend more with them.
Customers referred by other customers have an average lifetime value 16% higher than non-referred customers.
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Affiliate Influence: Affiliates can significantly sway consumer purchasing decisions, especially within niches they specialise in.
UK businesses used affiliate marketing to raise almost £21 billion in revenue in 2023. This represented over 15% annual growth from the £18 billion mark set in 2022.
5) Leverage Video Content
Video marketing has become an essential tool for customer acquisition due to its ability to capture attention, engage audiences, and effectively communicate a brand's message.
91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. Video content also generates a positive ROI for 92% of video marketers.
Here are some key reasons why video marketing is important for customer acquisition:
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Engagement and Attention: Videos are inherently engaging and can capture viewers' attention more effectively than text or images.
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Storytelling: Videos offer a dynamic platform for sharing your brand's narrative. It highlights your values and provokes an emotional response from your audience. Storytelling helps humanise your brand and make it more appealing to potential customers.
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SEO Benefits: Videos can improve your website's search engine rankings, driving organic traffic.
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Educational Content: Videos are excellent for explaining complex concepts, demonstrating product features, or providing tutorials. Educational content demonstrates your knowledge and helps prospects understand your products.
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Social Proof: Showcase user-generated content, success stories, and reviews through video. Authentic social proof can influence potential customers positively.
Here are some top tips provided by VEED when creating marketing videos
6. Invest in Partnership Marketing
While video helps you tell your story effectively, strategic partnerships can help you share that story with entirely new audiences.
Brand partnerships expand your customer base, enhance your value proposition, and increase your conversion rate.
Revenue increased for 49% of companies that adopted a partnership strategy. 45% reported increased brand awareness with a target audience.
Let's explore how collaboration can expand your reach.
- Strategic Collaborations: Strategic partnerships are crucial for growth. Digital partnership programmes involve teaming up with other brands that share your goals and audience demographics. Finding brand partners whose products or goals complement your own allows you to expand your reach and break into new markets.
- Exclusive Benefits and Discounts: Digital partnership programmes offer your customers exclusive benefits and discounts on your brand partners’ products or services. You can offer prospective customers something they can not get elsewhere: more value for their money.
- Visibility and Brand Exposure: Partnering with reputable businesses can boost your visibility and brand exposure.
High-growth brands use marketing partnerships three times more than low-growth brands, which is expected. - Trust and Credibility: Customers will have more faith in your business and products if they see you working with other reputable brands. This makes it easier for you to convert leads into paying customers.
- Access to Niche Audiences: By partnering with companies that serve specific interests or industries, you can reach and attract customers from these niche communities.
Joint promotional campaigns influence the purchase decisions of 68% of customers. - Cost-effective Marketing: When compared to more conventional forms of advertising, digital partnership programmes can help you reduce acquisition costs. By working with others, you can gain access to their customer base without spending a fortune on advertising.
7) Customer Loyalty Programmes
A customer loyalty programme can support your customer acquisition strategy. It might seem counterintuitive, but these two concepts can complement each other.
Here's how a customer loyalty programme fits into the overall strategy:
- Retaining Existing Customers: A customer loyalty programme aims to keep your current customers engaged and coming back for more. This not only increases customer lifetime value but also reduces churn, allowing you to capitalise on the investments you've made in acquiring those customers initially.
- Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Satisfied and loyal customers are more likely to refer friends, family, and colleagues to your business.
More than 50% of buyers will recommend others if they receive a reward, recognition, or exclusive loyalty programme membership in return. - Value Proposition Enhancement: A well-designed loyalty programme adds to your value proposition, making your brand more appealing to potential customers. Rewards and special bonuses may encourage new customers to pick you over the competition.
- Data Utilisation: Loyalty programmes collect data about customer preferences and behaviours. This information might help you better identify your target audience.
- Customer Advocacy: Loyal customers who participate in your loyalty programme become brand advocates. Sharing their positive experiences through testimonials, reviews, and social media, helps attract new customers.
8) Monitor and Adjust the Strategy
These strategies provide a strong foundation, but markets and customer preferences evolve. Here's how to ensure your acquisition strategy stays effective over time.
- Data Tracking: Regularly collect and analyse relevant data, such as website traffic, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and return on investment (ROI).
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Define and track KPIs that align with your business goals. The KPIs will help you measure the success of your acquisition strategy.
- Regular Reviews: Conduct frequent reviews of your strategy's performance to identify areas for improvement and recognise successful tactics.
- A/B Testing: Test variations of your campaigns, landing pages, emails, and other elements to determine which versions yield the best results.
- Audience Feedback: Listen to customer feedback, suggestions, and concerns. Incorporate this information into your strategic adjustments.
How to Minimise Customer Acquisition Costs
There’s always room for improvement in marketing. You can always reach new audiences, use better messages, and minimise associated costs. Let's explore practical ways to reduce your customer acquisition costs while maintaining quality.
1. Improve Website Conversion
Enhance Calls-to-Action: Make sure your CTAs are clear and compelling, they should guide visitors towards desired actions.
Mobile Responsiveness: In today's mobile-driven world, ensure your website looks and functions seamlessly across all devices.
Optimise Landing Pages: Create focused landing pages that match user expectations and lead them towards conversion.
A/B Testing: Consider A/B testing a landing page or shopping cart to see if a certain design or copywriting angle works best.
A/B testing can lead to an average conversion rate improvement of 49%.
2. Boost Customer Value
New Products or Upgrades: Introduce new goods, services, or upgrades that give value to your existing clients and encourage them to invest more.
Referral Programmes: Encourage current customers to refer friends and family by offering incentives or rewards.
Advocacy: Cultivate brand advocates who willingly promote your products or services to their network, expanding your reach.
3. Adjust and Optimise Your Strategy
Analyse Channel Costs: Regularly review and analyse the cost-effectiveness of different customer acquisition channels. Are certain channels yielding better results at a lower cost?
Trim Extra Spending: Identify areas where you can cut back on unnecessary marketing expenses without compromising on results.
Stay Agile: Keep your acquisition strategy flexible and adaptable to changes in the market landscape and customer behaviour.
Supercharge Your Customer Acquisition Strategy Today!
By now have a clearer understanding of how to build a successful customer acquisition strategy. The next step is to use proven strategies like referral marketing to create a cost-effective, data-driven approach to customer acquisition success.
Get started by checking out our ROI calculator, which includes forecasts for increased revenue by launching a referral programme.
ROI Calculator
See How A Referral & Customer Loyalty Programme Can Impact Your Business
Enter the size of your audience, average customer value and programme type to see how much you can gain.
FAQs
What is a customer acquisition strategy?
Your customer acquisition strategy outlines your marketing efforts for acquiring new customers through various digital marketing channels. It guides your business model in attracting and converting prospects while optimising your customer acquisition cost (CAC). Traditional marketers focus on creating sustainable, measurable growth through targeted campaigns.
Why is understanding the target audience crucial for customer acquisition?
Understanding your target customer shapes every aspect of developing a successful customer acquisition strategy. Your marketing campaigns become more focused, content marketing resonates better, and customer acquisition methods improve. This high-level understanding ensures efficient resource allocation across all platforms.
How can businesses effectively identify their ideal customer profiles?
Start by analysing your current customer base, tracking the customer journey, and monitoring how each customer interacts with your brand. Use email marketing data, social media platforms engagement, and customer experience feedback. Send targeted email newsletters to gather insights about preferences.
What are the most effective channels for acquiring new customers?
Effective customer acquisition efforts combine digital marketing with traditional approaches. Content marketing, personal email outreach, and social media platforms work together. Pro tip: Focus on channels where your target customer spends time, measuring engagement across each platform.
How does content marketing contribute to customer acquisition?
Content marketing builds trust by providing value before asking for sales. It supports cross-selling opportunities and improves customer lifetime value (CLV). Through strategic content, you guide prospects through their customer journey while establishing authority in your field.
What role does social media play in attracting new customers?
Social media platforms enable direct customer interactions and showcase your brand personality. Your marketing efforts here should focus on engagement rather than constant promotion. Regular monitoring helps refine your approach to acquiring new customers effectively.
Track key metrics including customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (CLV), and conversion rates across marketing campaigns. Monitor how each customer interacts with your content, email marketing performance, and social media engagement to optimise strategies.
Avoid focusing solely on acquiring new customers without considering customer retention. Don't ignore customer experience or overlook the importance of personal email communication. Remember that high-level strategy needs consistent implementation across all marketing efforts.
Balance acquisition and retention by creating a seamless customer journey. Use email newsletters and cross-selling opportunities to increase customer lifetime value. Your business model should support both acquiring new customers and nurturing existing relationships.
Successful businesses combine digital marketing with traditional marketing methods. They prioritise customer experience throughout the customer journey, use targeted content marketing effectively, and maintain consistent communication across all marketing campaigns.
Mark Camp | CEO & Founder at PropelloCloud.com | LinkedIn
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Propello Cloud, an innovative SaaS platform for loyalty and customer engagement. With over 20 years of marketing experience, he is passionate about helping brands boost retention and acquisition with scalable loyalty solutions.
Mark is an expert in loyalty and engagement strategy, having worked with major enterprise clients across industries to drive growth through rewards programmes. He leads Propello Cloud's mission to deliver versatile platforms that help organisations attract, engage and retain customers.
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