Getting customers for your e-commerce business can be a real pain and takes a lot of time. Whether you’re just starting as an entrepreneur or have been in the game for a while, customer acquisition will always be a top priority. Sales are often unpredictable. It’s not uncommon for e-commerce sellers to feel uncertain about the best approach to take. However, the good news is that many proven strategies can help you acquire new customers and grow your business.
Understanding Customer Acquisition
Before diving into detail, let’s revisit the basic concepts of e-commerce funnels. In short, the sales funnel can be broken down into three stages. At the top, create awareness and generate leads. In the middle, it is designed to persuade potential customers to make a purchase. At the bottom, it’s about converting prospects into paying customers.
To attract new customers, you’ll need to work on the top of the funnel as it’s more about creating awareness among customers to attract them.
E-commerce Customer Acquisition Strategies
Here are six practical tips to acquire new customers:
1. Organic Search
Organic search marketing involves ranking highly on search engine results pages (SERPs) to attract potential customers. To do this effectively, invest in search engine optimization (SEO) of your e-commerce website to optimize your content for your target audience. Though SEO is not an exact science, there are proven methods to help your content rank better in organic search.
Some of the best practices include creating indexable content, using keywords in the post title, adding alt text to images, uploading transcripts for video and audio content, and linking internally within your site. It’s a cost-effective customer acquisition method, and it continues to rise as a priority for marketing teams worldwide. Spend time learning SEO strategies and optimizing your blog posts to see improved rankings.
2. Paid Search
Paid search marketing (pay-per-click, or PPC) involves advertising on search engines and partner websites. You can consider using tools like Google Keyword Planner and Microsoft Advertising to equip your product-related content and ads for optimal performance on search engines.
3. Social Media Promotion
Using paid social media can be a more effective customer acquisition tactic, depending on your budget and audience. Social media advertising ensures that your content reaches your target audience without requiring a network of loyal followers. Facebook Lead Ads can be used to gather customer information, such as email addresses and names, to convert followers into leads.
4. Email
Email marketing is a highly effective way to stay in touch with your customers and promote quality content, product information, discounts, and events. It provides a direct line into your consumer’s inbox, unlike other acquisition tactics.
5. Referrals
Earning customer referrals is one of the most cways to acquire new customers. Creating a referral program and offering incentives, such as credit, physical gifts, or monetary rewards, can motivate customers to share about your company. Providing value first and asking questions later is key to a successful referral strategy.
6. Customer Spotlight
One of the most effective ways to acquire new customers is by turning satisfied customers into promoters of your business. This not only saves time and money on other customer acquisition methods, but also helps build trust and credibility with potential customers.
To empower your customers to promote your business, encourage customers to share their stories through case studies, interviews, reviews, or user-generated content. This helps showcase your business through the eyes of your customers, rather than solely relying on paid advertising or social media.
Additionally, make it easy for your customers to share your content with their followers by creating shareable social media posts, blog posts, or graphics. The more convenient it is for your customers to promote your business, the more likely they are to engage with it.
By leveraging your satisfied customers as promoters, you can create a powerful customer acquisition tactic that yields long-term benefits for your business.
Conclusion
Customer acquisition is not an overnight process as it takes time to create awareness about your business. However, the effort pays off when you gain customers in the long run. Also, not all of the strategies will work. You’ll have to keep trying and evaluate which of the strategies are working for you.
