In digital marketing, the recognition of potential customers and loyal customers is important; Likewise, the techniques and strategies to capture them are a priority in companies that seek high levels of profitability and income.
The searches that users do through the Internet do not always foresee the final purchase destination, but they may allow themselves to be influenced by content, an advertisement, a recommendation, or a benefit; therefore, the company’s website must provide direct access to a user, according to their needs or expectations.
There are several strategies and techniques that the company can consider to favour customer acquisition. Still, your choice, among others, will depend on the final objective of the recruitment, which may be related to the purchase of a product, to know the offer of services or to request contact information; the preceding without forgetting that, in the future, they will result in relationships with potential customers that report the most significant benefit for the brand.
How is it understood, then, the acquisition of customers through the Internet?
The addition of customers is part of and is the objective of the sales process, becoming the fundamental axis to guarantee its operating income since the growth and positioning of the brand depends on it.
The attraction of customers to the brand involves several considerations:
- Identify where the customer is and how long they stay on the website
- Identify customer needs and wants
- Identify which search channels are used by the client
- Correctly use marketing tactics and even social networks
Customer acquisition, more than defining the target audience, seeks to make a potential customer become a buyer; element is directly related to business models on the Internet:
- B2B: Business to Business -B-to-B. Business to business. It consists of electronic commerce between companies through the Internet.
- B2C: Business-to-Consumer -B to C. Business to the consumer. It refers to the strategy commercial companies develop to reach the client or end user directly.
- B2G: Business to Government -B to G. It involves optimizing the negotiation processes between companies and the government through the Internet.
Whatever the type of customer, the acquisition action requires an optimal presentation of the product and service the company wishes to sell, attracting the customer to the brand and guaranteeing conversion from web tools.
According to a Gartner study, B2B and B2C customers consider the web page the core contact point when making a purchase decision. These are more inclined to think that buying is more natural when the company provider has designed a marketing advertising strategy that offers relevant content in the process and the purchase decision.
Techniques to attract customers through the Internet
- Cold capture: There is no prior contact with the customer, and communication begins proactively to try to attract their attention with the offer and thus, finally, they are encouraged to purchase the product and service, thus initiating the business relationship. Email, brochures and phone calls are used in this technique.
- Hot capture: There is prior contact with the potential customer; Sometimes, these users have not made a compass for some time, and their reactivation is sought with the contact. The chances of accepting the new offer and acquiring the product and service are very high if the previous experience was positive for the client.
- Passive customer capitation: It is done through referral marketing or by a third party; business partners or already loyal customers recommend a foreign product and potential contact customers. It is a very reliable technique since, for many clients, the recommendation of a third party is worth more than direct advertising.
In addition, there are other techniques to favour customer acquisition:
- Leverage the Content: If the content is of high quality, the company stands out from the information available on the Internet; Web pages must also be attractive to users, presenting content that invites them to decide to become potential customers. It is a good strategy to request contact information so that the user obtains the content through a web form or subscribes to a blog.
- Combination of techniques: Optimize the web page and combine techniques that improve the results in search engines so that the company appears among the first options when searching for the user. It is suggested to access options such as SEO or SERP to increase the website’s value and obtain more search traffic.
- Display Advertising: It is made up of advertisements on websites, but since they are trackable, the company can collect some information from the user. It becomes important if different characteristics are considered in the target audience; if these are not known, it is suggested to optimize retargeting.
- Paid advertising: Pay-per-click ads show ads as sponsored results on search engines. They effectively get immediate results and generate potential customers interested in the company’s products.
- Digital marketing: This strategy encourages the potential client to decide for himself in relation to the offer, product and service that is promoted. Search engine advertising, recruitment through a SEA campaign, SEO strategies and landing pages are helpful.
- Generate clients through Social Media: Please take advantage of social networks such as Linkedin or Facebook to join groups of potential investors who could be linked to the company in the future; it also allows you to generate direct links to the company’s website.
- Referral programs: Reading customer recommendations currently trace decision-making regarding acquiring a product and services. These opinions reduce the duration of a sales cycle since trust is created even if the service is obtained from the company.
Strategies that favour customer acquisition
There are various strategies that companies can resort to to attract a client; here are some:
- Postal mail: Given the boom in messages and communications that travel through the Internet, postal mail has gained importance, as some customers pay more attention to printed mail. This strategy implies additional costs for the company to send them.
- Email or email marketing: Although it is cheaper for the company and much faster to reach the final recipients, there is also the risk that the client will classify it as unsolicited or spam. Therefore, it is suggested that you only send this type of message to users added to a distribution list who previously expressed their permission to be contacted.
- Face-to-face contact: It is the best strategy if the intention is for a partner to invest a sum of money in the product and service; if the intention is the direct meeting of the company with the buyers; for example, at an event, a fair or a congress. It is facilitated to directly know the potential client’s expectations and create a positive contact.
Benefits for companies
Some of the results of effective customer acquisition are:
- Good segmentation: You discern which sources or channels work best by monitoring the entire lead-generation process. It also helps refine the search process to collect data from potential customers.
- Increase in customers: If the recruitment strategy is good, it will attract more users who the commercial area of the company will contact; This contributes to the diversification of the risks due to loss of sales since if any contact does not retain loyalty, there will always be new opportunities with new users attracted.
- Higher revenue and better ROI: Each loyal customer increases the sales and profitability of the business; This allows the increase in income, the growth of the company and the compensation of the risks derived from the increase in operations.
- Information gathering: For each message sent and each response received from a user, it is possible to establish behaviour patterns, which are the initial source of a market study; Useful information when defining what they buy. Why do they buy certain products? And answer these questions from the brand’s offer.
- Conversion improvement: Please make the most of the time when contacting the prospect, as it could improve the conversion rate. The selection of clients must be rigorous and segmented; it is suggested to focus more on quality than quantity.
Difficulties to overcome in customer acquisition
- The first difficulty in attracting customers involves improving your experience on the website; For this, it is necessary to control invasive advertising, navigate an impractical page, and find too many pop-up windows with irrelevant information.
- The second difficulty is the ability to overcome the lack of alternative communication and information channels outside of what is offered on the web; Therefore, developing an omnichannel platform that considers users’ concerns by various means is necessary.
- Another area for improvement is evidenced by ignoring the impact of emotional communication; Although acquisition responds to solid and determined metrics and strategies, the impact of customer emotions on the sales result must be addressed.
- Excluding social networks from customer acquisition is a present difficulty in digital marketing; Resources such as Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn favour fast and close communication.
- Omitting the consideration of all expenses and investments executed during the recruitment process in digital marketing becomes a difficulty in the company’s operation since all costs must somehow be recovered thanks to loyalty or conversion of leads.
Recruitment and its relationship with the growth of the brand
The design of digital marketing strategies appropriate to potential customers is crucial to have a greater uptake and determinants in the relationship with them; The company that defines techniques such as a blog, a web page or the use of social networks to motivate loyalty makes those decisions based on its information regarding the needs and expectations that, in one way or another, it will try to respond with the offer of your products and services.
Digital marketing affects consumer purchasing decisions, and these strategies are widely accepted, facilitating the promotion of services to the company. This is why social networks are the medium that positively influences digital marketing, since, applying the processes correctly, the effectiveness of purchasing decisions is achieved and, likewise, the increase in profitability and income for the company.
Conclusion
The acquisition of clients by the Internet offers several possibilities that ultimately benefit the brand and the profitability of the companies; It is necessary, then, to distinguish not only the offer that is provided to the client but the information and the contents on a web page; but also giving yourself enough time to get to know the users to whom the product is promoted, trying to establish close relationships with them and listening to their opinions and suggestions.
Also Read: Cross Channel: The Best Customer Experience