As inflation soars to a 40-year high in the US, consumers are dialing back their spending.
Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of any business, and reeling in new customers isn’t easy at the best of times. Enter a time of high inflation, and plummeting consumer confidenceand gaining new customers can start to feel like a magic trick.
To make matters worse, 88% of executives feel customer needs are changing faster than they can adapt their business models.
Fortunately, you don’t need magic to increase customer acquisition. What you need is a loyalty marketing solution and a comprehensive, multi-channel marketing strategy that taps into consumers’ needs.
Keep reading to find out how you can effectively drive customer acquisition in 2022.
Invest in Loyalty Marketing
Most people associate loyalty marketing with customer retention rather than customer acquisition. However, it can also be a strong driver of customer acquisition if implemented correctly.
A loyalty marketing solution can be the key to unlocking increased engagement from your very first interaction with the customer. If customers feel like your loyalty program will trigger savings for them, this can be a strong motivator toward a first purchase.
It can also initiate an intention for future purchases. This lays the perfect ground for remarketing.
Let’s look at an example to see how this can play out. A new customer is browsing your eCommerce store. They have their eye on a few items, but they’re wondering if they can get similar products from an online store where they already shop.
Then they see they can gain a discount on their first purchase with you, and accumulate discount points to use on future purchases.
Instead of leaving, they complete their purchase. From here you can retarget them with loyalty marketing emails encouraging them to spend their points.
It’s also worth recognizing the combined ROI that can come with loyalty marketing. Not only can your brand trigger high customer acquisition rates, but you can also take advantage of the cost savings that come with customer retention.
Experts state that acquiring a new customer costs between 6-7 times more than retaining an existing customer. The exact costs will depend very much on your business model and industry, but it’s safe to say that customer retention has a high ROI.
Get Clear on Your Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing can not only build brand awareness, but it can also be pivotal in driving customer acquisition.
If you already have a content marketing plan in place, take this as an invitation to re-evaluate and assess how you use it to maximize customer acquisition.
The type of content you produce will very much depend on your industry, but one thing remains true. Answering your target audience’s questions is the secret to successful content marketing.
If your content marketing KPIs aren’t what you’d like them to be, you might need to dig deeper into what your audience is seeking. Are you skimming the surface on topics they need more in-depth information on?
Are you losing traffic to competitor content? If so, evaluate your competitors’ strategies, and assess why they’re gaining the lion’s share of traffic and engagement.
The secret sauce to content marketing is providing high-value, authoritative information. While at the same time promoting your offerings in a way that inspires trust and doesn’t come across as overtly self-promotional. If you’re beating the drum of your offerings at every turn, without backing up your claims or bringing value, you’re inadvertently tarnishing your brand image and driving away new customers.
Don’t Skimp on SEO
It doesn’t matter how strong your content marketing strategy is. If your SEO isn’t up to par your brand will (literally) be talking into the void.
Great content that serves your audience is inherently valuable. But, if you’re not appearing in search, it won’t do anything for your metrics.
SEO isn’t just important for the success of your content marketing strategy. It’s also pivotal for your sales pages or product pages.
If product pages aren’t optimized for search, they’re going to be outranked by competitor offerings.
Scale up Social Media Marketing
If leveraged correctly, social media marketing can be a powerful vehicle for driving brand awareness. It’s also the modern way to engage with customers.
A recent study revealed that 40% of consumers expect brands to respond via social media within an hour. A further 79% expect responses from brands within the first 24 hours.
This might sound like a tall order, but it can also be an opportunity. The same study showed that only 50% of brands are meeting these expectations around service response time.
If your brand has a strong social media presence, it’s going to receive more eyeballs and more engagement. When consumers do reach out with a query, if you can beat the competition to a response, your brand will be instantly positioned to earn more trust.
Optimize Email Marketing
Email marketing can be a powerful way to engage with new site visitors. It can also maximize the impact of other marketing efforts.
Brands can use it to further the reach of their content marketing strategies. They can also use it to max out engagement on social media campaigns, such as contests, and utilize it for promotions.
Most established brands conduct email marketing. But few utilize it to its full potential. Gone are the days when customers would put up with floods of bland, self-promotional marketing materials in their inboxes.
If you want your email marketing strategy to trigger customer acquisition, you have to tailor your campaigns to drive conversions.
Here are a few ways your brand should be optimizing its email marketing campaigns:
- A/B test headers for click-through rates
- Keep your brand voice consistent
- Implement drip campaigns
- Create a sense of urgency
- Make sure your copy is crafted to keep the recipient reading
- Pepper the content with visuals
- Craft a compelling CTA
Fine-Tune Your Paid Ads Marketing Strategy
Organic methods like social media marketing and content marketing take time to yield results. To supplement customer acquisition in the short term, you should also look into optimizing your paid ads strategy.
Paid ads can drive overnight results, but only if your campaigns are formulated correctly. If your brand isn’t seeing the conversion rates it should on paid ads, it might be time to overhaul your ad campaign strategies.
Are you targeting the right audience? Is your ad copy A/B tested for conversions? Are you utilizing the right channels?
These are all questions your marketing team should be looking into.
Are You Looking for an Effective Loyalty Marketing Solution?
As the economic downturn intensifies, brands of all sizes are left struggling for market share. Fortunately, increasing customer acquisition is possible, no matter the economic climate. By leveraging and optimizing these fundamental strategies you can build brand awareness and trigger new conversions.
While it definitely can pay to look into your existing customer acquisition strategies, brands should also delve deeper under the hood and identify untapped ways to both attract and retain customers.
If you’re looking to do both of these things at once, loyalty marketing is the answer. An effective loyalty marketing solution will engage customers from the start, and retain them as they continue their journey with you.
Looking for the best loyalty marketing solution? If you’re ready to see what next-gen loyalty marketing can do for your brand, it’s time to connect with Kobie.
We help brands deliver seamless customer experiences and value, derived from deep consumer insights, translated across integrated digital and offline channels.
Contact us today to get started.
