7 Tools To Include In Your Customer Acquisition Plan

You probably already know that it costs more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep a current one. That’s why this article is so important.

When you are working to gain new customers, you want to make sure you are maximizing your dollars and doing everything right.

So, to help you be as efficient as possible when trying to attract new customers, we’re going to discuss seven tools to include in your customer acquisition plan.

#1: Set Your Goals

Author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said, “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”

Your customer acquisition plan is futile if you haven’t set your goals. It’s like walking in the dark while trying to read.

Your first tool is goal-setting. It will not only shape your customer acquisition plan, but it will also shape the people you hire and the lead generation tactics you set into motion.

Here are some possible goals you might set when it comes to customer acquisition:

• Increase website visitors by X%
• Convert more website visitors into actual leads by X%
• Convert more leads into paying customers by X%
• Increase new customers by X amount in a certain time frame.
  

Be sure that when setting your goals, they are specific. You don’t want to set vague goals. You also should limit your goals to a certain number in a certain time frame.

In addition, your goals must be measurable – this is data analysis. They must be achievable and realistic – don’t set goals that you have no chance of achieving. Lastly, your goals must be time-bound – keep to a time frame.

For example, focus on one or two goals and set deadlines for each one. You might say your goal is increasing web visitors by 25%, and you’ll write four blog posts, send two emails and spend two hours per week on social media for one month.

This is an infinitely trackable goal. It enables you to track and monitor your results with relative ease.

#2: Define Your Target

Do you know who your market is? If not, an essential tool in your plan is defining your target audience. You have to know your ideal customer if you want to reel them in.

While it’s important to know their demographics such as gender, household income, where they live, interests, etc., there is much more to defining your target market.

You’re looking for the people most likely to buy what you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling men’s work shirts, women probably aren’t your target market. Likewise, if you sell a gaming app geared toward teenagers, the elderly set isn’t your target.

Defining your target – in other words, the people you want to market to – involves really getting to know these potential buyers.

• Are they using Facebook or Snapchat?
• Do they prefer to surf the web on their phones or tablets?
• What motivates them?
• What are their problems? How can you solve them?

Once you really understand your target, you can move forward with your customer acquisition plan. You can now target the right people at the right time for the best chance at success.

#3: Estimate Costs

Before you dive into your strategy, you want to estimate the cost of acquiring new customers. This is referred to as CAC (cost to acquire customers).

You find this by taking the cost of your sales and marketing expenses over a specified period of time and dividing it by the number of customers you acquire. This can be hard to do when first starting out, so make your best estimates.

#4: Hire Talented Staff

What if you craft a great plan, know your target market and have the budget to spend, but you don’t have the right people to implement your plan?

You can probably guess the answer. Make sure that you have staff on board who can take your customer acquisition plan through from beginning to end.

#5: Define the Acquisition Funnel

This means knowing and understanding where your customers come from. What does their journey look like?

For example, you want to know the following information:

• How does your customer learn about you?
• What makes them consider your product or service?
• Why would they prefer you?
• What makes them decide to purchase?
• After the purchase, how do you create loyal customers who then advocate for you?

You also want to break your funnel down so you know how people are getting to your landing pages. Is it SEO, social media, email marketing, referrals, organic search, paid search or word of mouth?

Are there any leaks in your funnel, and can you plug them?

#6: Use Various Channels

In your plan, outline the channels you will use to put your customer acquisition plan into action. Here are some things to consider:

• Create your landing page for each campaign. Include a strong call to action, vivid imagery and catchy headlines and text.
• Identify which social media platforms appeal to your target audience and concentrate on those.
• Use content marketing tactics – a blog, webinar, podcast, eBook or video.
• Consider and evaluate pay-per-click options.

You want to continue to test and refine your landing page and your channels to improve your conversion rate optimization.

#7: Track and Measure Data

Your successful customer acquisition plan depends on constantly testing and measuring your data. Set up your data collection well in advance, and don’t neglect to track and measure your data.

Set specified times during each campaign to analyze your data – don’t wait until the end. This way you can make adjustments if necessary.

To Conclude

Now that we’ve looked at the seven tools to include in your customer acquisition plan, it’s time to get started.

It can be easy to implement the plan but forget to analyze the data. Yet, this is incredibly important to your customer acquisition plan. With proper analysis, you can make adjustments in your strategy to meet your customers’ and your businesses’ changing needs.

Your goal-based acquisition plan has a process and a strategy that you set into motion. You then use a set of tactics to reach your goals.

How will you know if the tactics you set into motion aren’t working? That’s where the analysis comes in. Don’t bypass the tracking and measuring.

It will help you fine tune your customer acquisition plan to meet the needs of your ever-changing customer.

Lastly, remember that plans change. But, that doesn’t mean you don’t need one. You must have a plan for customer acquisition that includes all the details mentioned above as well as an understanding that plans evolve.

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Image: Drew Collins