Hello! In this article, we will talk about customer acquisition strategies.
Today you will learn:
- How to organize the search and attraction of customers;
- What customer acquisition strategies exist;
- How to retain existing customers;
- How to calculate the cost of one attracted buyer.
We draw up a portrait of the client
The first thing we need to do before we start developing a customer acquisition strategy is to understand who your customer is.
In marketing , there is a technique for drawing up a portrait of a company's client. Don't worry, you won't have to describe each of your customers. As a rule, the company is limited to 5-10 portraits.
In order to create a client portrait, it is necessary to single out several segments in the general population of the target audience that would differ from each other in terms of purchasing behavior: purchase motive, consumption method, and others.
Now you have to describe each selected segment as an independent individual client.
The factors you need to determine to get a portrait will vary depending on the market and the product you offer.
However, we can highlight the main factors that will be useful for any company: gender, age, hobbies, marital status, needs, goals.
Now that we have portraits, we can start developing a strategy for each client (segment).
Types of customer acquisition strategies
There are many classifications of strategies, but we will analyze the most common and, in our opinion, useful. Depending on how sales will be made, customer acquisition strategies are divided into passive and active.
Passive strategy.
Assumes remote marketing attraction to the point of sale. In this case, the customer comes to your store for a specific product. This allows you to save on sellers, who have little to no effect on sales.
But there are also disadvantages. Passive sales involve a large expenditure of funds on advertising and other promotion tools . The customer must constantly hear about your product in order to remember it in the store and take it.
Also, passive sales do not imply a close relationship with the client, which means that a repeat purchase will take place only if the organization continues to actively promote.
Active strategy.
Active sales involve the active actions of sellers to ensure sales. The search for buyers falls on the shoulders of sellers, which makes your sales dependent on the subjective factor.
A good example of active sales is "cold" calls , when the seller calls potential buyers on the existing database and offers his product.
In contrast , hot base calls can be cited as an example , when the seller calls customers who independently left a request for the purchase of any product. This is an example of passive selling.
Comparison of strategies.
The choice of this or that strategy depends on the following factors: brand presence, product, customers, distribution policy.
In the table, we will indicate which of the strategies is suitable for each specific case.
Passive
- Brand - Strong brand
- Distribution policY - Mass distribution, goods can be purchased at almost every outlet
- Clients - Do not have a large supply of free time, do not tend to make long choices, spend money easily
- Product - A simple mass consumption product, no need for after-sales service
Active
- Brand - Possible weak brand
- Distribution policy - Selective or exclusive distribution
- Clients - They prefer not to scatter money, compare for a long time, choose
- Product - Sophisticated, high-tech product, exclusive goods
How to keep a client
As you know, it is much cheaper to keep an old client than to attract a new one. And this means that it is necessary to develop not only an attraction strategy, but also a retention strategy.
Your customer retention strategy also depends on who exactly your customer is, so when defining customer retention tools, you should again refer to our portraits.
In fact, the retention strategy involves the use of promotions and bonuses that will make the buyer buy products only from you.
The most common of these tools are various loyalty cards. Loyalty cards are especially relevant for companies that independently sell their products or are engaged in retail.
Loyalty programs can be selected for almost any client.
We present and describe some of them:
- Cumulative bonus card - allows you to accumulate bonuses from purchases and spend them on purchases in the same store;
- Standard discount or discount cards - provide the owner with a certain discount on each purchase;
- Privileged buyer card - the owner of such a card receives special conditions of service at the point of sale, the opportunity to participate in closed promotions and sales, and much more.
A great way to attract new and retain old customers is the “bring a friend” promotion. In this case, you will kill two birds with one stone: you will attract a new buyer and "bind" the existing one.
In the business of attracting and retaining customers, memorable slogans and company stories work well.
How to attract a client
However, I would like to say a few words about the most effective and free methods of attracting new customers:
- Partnership . The essence of this method is mutual assistance in promoting the products of partner companies. In this case, you do not have to spend your money on advertising. An example of the application of this method is the partnership of the Sunlight jewelry store with popular supermarkets, when when buying a certain amount in the supermarket, the client received a coupon for a gift in the jewelry store. The most important thing when using this promotion tool is to choose a partner whose target audience will match yours;
- News publications . Write about your product and company, shoot videos, draw pictures, in general, create content and negotiate free publication with a variety of online media. This is how most PR agencies work. To successfully implement this method, you should create content that will be interesting and useful for your target audience, as well as choose sites for publication that your target audience reads.
New customers will also be brought to you by standard tools: advertising , direct marketing, personal selling , sales promotion , PR. But in most cases, you will have to pay a lot of money for them.
It is possible to understand whether certain expenses for promotion are expedient with the help of simple calculations. How exactly to produce them, we will consider a little later. And now we will touch on other elements of marketing, which are also included in the strategy for attracting and retaining customers.
Product.
Yes, sometimes a customer acquisition strategy involves this element of marketing as well. But as a rule, product changes do not affect its core benefits, but rather the so-called “soft” aspects: packaging, delivery process, after-sales service.
For example, in Moscow, a hairdresser-bar has been operating for several years, which gained its popularity only after the addition of drinks and food to customer service.
Sales system.
Depending on the specifics of the product and the preferences of the target audience, you can choose a mass, selective or exclusive distribution policy. The first is suitable for a passive customer acquisition strategy, while the selective and exclusive approach is suitable for an active strategy.
Price is one of the most important elements of marketing. In the near future, products will be of the same high quality, which new production technologies allow, and the purchase decision will be made only on the basis of price.
Today it is necessary to adhere to the golden rule - the price should correspond to the quality of the product, and the quality and price should correspond to your target audience.
You can attract consumers using price methods to stimulate sales: discounts, promotions, gifts for purchases. But before you put into practice this or that method, you should calculate the benefits that you will receive from it. We will now look at how to do this.
How to calculate customer acquisition cost
There is such an indicator of efficiency as the cost of one attracted client. It shows how much money was spent on attracting one person who made a purchase from you. The indicator is an average.
So, the formula for calculating the cost of attracting a buyer:
Costs of marketing activities (excluding wages) / number of buyers
.
This calculation formula is considered simplified and is used only to obtain a general idea of the appropriateness of a particular advertising campaign. Also, this method gives an idea of what costs are required for personnel when using a particular attraction tool.
The second formula for determining costs per customer is:
Total acquisition cost/number of buyers
.
In the second case, we take into account the total costs that were incurred to attract a buyer.
You should calculate the cost of attracting a buyer before you have determined this or that acquisition strategy. You should choose the strategy that, in theory, will allow you to attract the maximum number of buyers at the minimum cost.
The most interesting thing about the calculation of the cost of attracting a client is that the expediency of costs is determined by the client. After all, an attracted consumer can buy an inexpensive product from you once, or he can buy often and a lot.
That is why experts have introduced such a thing as customer lifetime value (LCC).
PSK - the entire set of purchases made by the consumer for the entire period of cooperation with the company.
In order for a marketing campaign to be considered successful, the buyer's TFR must be greater than the buyer's acquisition cost.
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