Online Customer Acquisition is simply the process of attracting new customers to your business. Your main objective here is to create an efficient and sustainable acquisition strategy that can adapt to shifts and trends.
Having a customer acquisition strategy is essential if you want to keep your sales pipeline full. This consistent stream of revenue allows you to 1) cover the costs to operate your business, 2) invest in fresh initiatives to scale your business to new heights, and 3) show evidence of business growth to investors and partners.
Customer Acquisition vs Lead Generation
The customer journey is most often illustrated as a funnel that details the different stages in the buying process. These stages also relate to the mindset of the consumer as they move through the funnel
The stages of the buyer’s journey can help us understand the difference between customer acquisition and lead generation. These stages include:
Awareness – the consumer becomes aware of your brand
Consideration – the consumer compares your brand to other brands/options
Decision – the consumer makes the decision to become a paying customer or client
Lead generation typically occurs at the top of the funnel as a consumer becomes aware of a brand. Lead acquisition happens in the middle of the funnel as a consumer is added to your CRM and begins navigating the sales process. Conversion is when the lead reaches the decision stage and finally converts into a customer.
With that in mind, customer acquisition typically refers to the buyer’s journey as a whole – starting with the customer being acquired and then eventually converted. Lead generation is just one step in the customer acquisition process.
Three Stages of Customer Acquisition
Above we mentioned the three stages of the buyer’s journey, but many modern businesses are transforming the typical funnel into a flywheel model based on the stages of: Attract, Engage, and Delight.
This is an expansion of the original funnel in that 1) it takes on the perspective of a potential customer and 2) it makes use of your marketing, sales, and service teams.
Once you understand these stages, you’ll have a better idea of how your prospective customers think and how you can use acquisition marketing to spin the flywheel.
Stage 1: Attract
Much like the Awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, the Attract stage here refers to the moment when consumers become exposed to a brand. This might happen as a result of content marketing efforts, search engine optimization, social media engagement, search engine marketing, targeted ads, word of mouth, and much more.
When it comes to creating your customer acquisition flywheel, your goal here should be to launch marketing campaigns that appeal to potential customers and reach them where they are at. This is where inbound marketing most often comes into play.
Stage 2: Engage
Once you’ve caught the attention of your ideal customer, you now need them to take action. This might start off as downloading an ebook or signing up for an email list. Then, if you have marketed your products or services effectively, consumers will take action and become paying customers.
This is where consumers expect an easy, hassle-free buying process, so it’s important that brands make this as frictionless as possible. You’ll want to educate your sales team on how to maximize performance, up-sell and cross-sell for more sales, and handle any objections customers have during this stage.
Stage 3: Delight
New customers may reach out to your support team with questions or concerns after making their purchase. How helpful and responsive your team is will play a role in customer delight, which affects retention and repeat business. This step is mastered by brands that are able to create helpful customer service content that customers can access when they need it.
Happy customers easily turn into brand ambassadors who can promote your brand to other people. These customers can help increase brand recognition and send new customers your way. You can encourage advocacy by giving customers multiple opportunities to share your content, publish testimonials, and interact with your business online.