Running a successful e-commerce business isn’t just about having great products; you also need to know how you attract customers. After all, what is your business without customers? They are the heart of your brand. This is where customer acquisition comes in.

Customer acquisition is essential for e-commerce growth. The ultimate goal of any e-commerce business is to make sales, and this cannot be achieved without customers. By implementing strategies like targeted advertising, special offers, and influencer partnerships, e-commerce businesses can continually acquire new customers, ensuring ongoing success and expansion. 

According to Invesp, 44% of businesses put customer acquisition ahead of other aspects of their business.

In this article, we’ll look into these strategies and explore how they can transform your e-commerce business.

What is customer acquisition?

Customer acquisition is how businesses source prospective customers and transform them into customers that purchase from them. Some examples of customer acquisition strategies include email marketing, using a CRM (customer relationship management) platform, and offering outstanding customer service. This opens room for massive referrals, increasing your clientele.

Customer acquisition helps businesses generate more revenue by using different strategies and channels to reach prospective customers.

Customer acquisition channels

Customer acquisition channels are the means businesses use to communicate with current and prospective customers. These channels are where customer acquisition strategies are carried out and can be used at any point in the customer’s journey.

Some customer acquisition channels include:

• Online website
• Blog
• Events 
• Paid ads
• Organic social media
• Email marketing
• Referrals
• Customer support

The customer acquisition funnels

The customer acquisition funnel visualises the journey a potential customer takes. Marketers and entrepreneurs often discuss the funnel as having three main stages:

•     Awareness stage: The first stage in the customer acquisition funnel is awareness. This is the stage when prospective customers discover your business. You’ll be engaging with a broad demographic interested in your business, and your main priorities should be raising awareness and showcasing your value. 
•     Consideration stage: In this stage, you start noticing some actions from prospective customers which suggest they are ready to purchase from you. Actions like signing up for your newsletter and filling in their details. In the consideration stage, customers start showing signs that they are more serious about buying. They are assessing the value of your offer to them.
•     Purchase stage: This is the stage where prospective customers enter the sales funnel. They have completed their research and are ready to buy from you. Sending incentives to entice them further is a great idea at this stage. This will quickly convert them into paying customers.

What is a customer acquisition strategy?

A customer acquisition strategy involves all the tactics marketers employ to seek out potential customers and convert them into paying customers. Because consumers use multiple channels daily, engaging with them through various channels will be part of your customer acquisition process.

Let’s look at some customer acquisition strategies you can use to improve your business.

1. Run pay-per-click (PPC) ads

Online advertising is one of the most popular methods of gaining new customers. Most e-commerce businesses use Facebook and Google to run their ads because they offer several measurement tools that allow you to improve your ads and get the best offer out of your budget.

However, you can purchase ad placements on almost any social media site, online marketplace, or search engine, so choosing which one to use comes down to knowing your target audience and where they spend their time online.

These online advertising platforms allow businesses to choose their target audience based on several parameters. These parameters can help reach potential customers and convert them through paid ads.

2. Start a referral programme

A word-of-mouth referral from a close friend is very effective. Trust is a significant factor in determining how and where people shop online, and a good referral from friends is an excellent way to acquire more customers. 

To use this strategy to gain new customers, you have to engage with loyal customers by giving them a great shopping experience. This makes it easy for them to refer their friends. One way to achieve this is by starting a referral programme where your existing customers receive incentives for referring a new customer. 

3. Email marketing campaigns

Lead generation is the first step in acquiring new customers. To generate leads, you need to get data from potential customers to create or send targeted ads to them to turn them into actual customers. 

You can automate your email marketing campaign so that it sends out different emails based on your customers’ demographics and interests. For example, when a customer registers, an email is sent to welcome them. Due to the revenue that email marketing generates for businesses, sending emails to visitors/potential customers is considered one of the best ways to acquire customers.

4. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a popular form of online advertising. To endorse your product, you need the services of popular YouTubers and bloggers.

You must find the right influencer or influencers to market your product to acquire more customers with this strategy. When looking for the right influencer, you should look for someone who has an active following and can create content consistent with your brand’s voice.

Reaching a wider audience with your product is the aim of influencer marketing. Through this, you can acquire new customers from their followers. This strategy also gives your brand publicity.

5. Website Optimisation

Improving your landing pages is one of the best e-commerce customer acquisition strategies. Optimise your site’s design and ensure all the essential details are in place to enable your website to load quickly. A quick-loading website has a higher chance of retaining visitors.

Add social proof to your website by including testimonials and reviews, links to your social media pages, and logos of your supporting partners. This can increase potential customers’ trust in your brand. 

Make your website’s checkout process as simple as possible for the person who has made a purchase decision to complete the transaction. Provide simple instructions and multiple payment options to ensure they complete the purchase.

6. Improve your search engine visibility

The first place customers go to when searching for a product is Google. You have to optimise your content if you want your website to appear on Google’s search results page.

Your website can rank higher on Google by conducting keyword research and incorporating the results into a content strategy for your blog and website pages. This will drive traffic to your website, which includes prospective customers.

Google is the most visited site, with over 99,000 queries entered into its search engine every second. You can acquire customers by targeting a few people looking for the products you offer and organising the content on your website to rank higher on Google. 

• Category: Descriptomizer Library