5 Effective Acquisition Strategy Examples to Copy in 2023 Sarah Chan Rejante January 17, 2023
If you're actively involved in marketing and sales, you've probably heard buzzwords like "customer acquisition" or "acquisition strategy" being thrown around in some form or another.
These terms sound attractive—who wouldn't want to acquire customers? But do you know what a "customer acquisition strategy" entails? And do you know how to build one? You may even be wondering, "Does my business really need a customer acquisition strategy?"
Well, if you're looking to grow your business and foster a loyal customer base, the answer is probably yes! Think of it like this. You wouldn't start a business without a business plan. Why? Because investing time and money into a business without a clear, measurable path to success is risky, unpredictable, and leaves a lot of room for error.
The same goes for customer acquisition. You've already got the attention of potential customers. If you want to take the next step and convert them into existing customers, you need to do your due diligence and create a plan of action. Without a strategy, you run the risk of losing qualified leads and missing out on growth opportunities.
In today's article, we'll talk about how your business can benefit from a strong customer acquisition strategy and acquisition channel, how to build a customer acquisition strategy, and a few acquisition strategy examples to help get you started.
Keep reading below to learn the ins and outs of customer acquisition.
What is a "customer acquisition strategy"?
In our previous article, we mentioned that, according to Shopify, customer acquisition refers to, "the process of finding and persuading prospective customers to buy from your business in a way that is both measurable and repeatable—not random."
The end goal of customer acquisition is to secure new customers. Customer acquisition strategy can be defined as the plan that gets you to that end goal. The strategy should include a combination of tactics that uniquely complement an individual product, service, or business.
See also: Product-Led Growth vs. Sales-Led Growth: A Deep Dive
How do I choose the right acquisition channels for my "customer acquisition strategy"?
There are plenty of creative tactics you can use to acquire customers, but finding the best combination for your business isn't easy. Remember, you're looking to build a sustainable customer acquisition strategy. That means getting the formula right so that you can continue to use your strategy well into the future to acquire new customers.
Before you start developing your tactics, it's important to consider your brand and audience. What does your customer demographic look like? What type of media do they tend to consume most? Where do they hang out? What are your customer acquisition goals?
Then, think about which acquisition channels best complement your brand and product. Ask yourself the following questions:
Does the demographic of this channel match that of my target audience?
How much will this contribute to my total customer acquisition cost?
Are my competitors also using this channel and if they are, how are they using it?
How would I use this channel to benefit my brand, product or service?
Learn more about how to measure customer acquisition costs in our article titled, "Customer Acquisition Funnel: Stages & Steps."
Case study: boosting customer acquisition for a candy store
Let's apply our acquisition channel evaluation method to a few of our favorite tactics. Imagine you own a local candy store in a major city.
Perhaps your customer demographic might be children ages 3 and older and their parents. Children will most likely have limited access to social media, but we all know how popular video streaming platforms like YouTube are within this demographic.
Parents, on the other hand, may be more inclined to view long-form content like blogs or social media posts. They are also active users of search engines, often regularly check their email, and will go out of their way to visit websites when they are looking for information.
Grandparents might also be a good target audience—after all, most of them love to spoil their grandkids—but they may not have the same exposure to the modern channels we use the most. This is where a good cold call could do the trick.
Now, let's think about goals. In marketing, it's important to remember to create SMART goals. No, that's not us telling you that you aren't smart. SMART is an acronym used to ensure that your goals are realistic. The letters stand for:
Specific—What do you hope to accomplish and what actions will you take?
Measurable—What data will you use to measure your success?
Achievable—Do you have the resources and capability to reach this goal?
Relevant—Does this goal align with your business objectives?
Timely—When do you hope to achieve your goal? This should be a reasonable time frame.
For example, your goal in this case could be: Increase customer conversion rate for online purchases by 2-3% in the next 6 months.
Once you've analyzed your brand and audience, it's time to pick your acquisition channels. Here is what the answers to those 4 evaluation questions could look like:
Acquisition channel: blogs
Does the demographic of this channel match that of my target audience?
Yes. I can collaborate with local parenting bloggers in order to leverage their existing following. Food bloggers and local news bloggers may also be a good fit for this strategy.
How much will this contribute to my total customer acquisition cost?
The average blogger charges about $100-250 for a 1,000-word blog post. I will include 3-5 blog posts in this strategy, spread out across 6 months.
Are my competitors also using this channel and if they are, how are they using it?
Yes. My competitors are advertising on local news blogs by creating posts highlighting their latest products, events, and promotions.
How would I use this channel to benefit my brand, product or service?
For parenting and local news bloggers, I would invite them to visit and shop through my store, then write about their experience. For food bloggers, I would ask them to create a recipe using or write a review of the products sold at my store.
Acquisition channel: vlogs/TikToks/videos
Does the demographic of this channel match that of my target audience?
Yes. YouTube Kids offers a safe environment to kids to watch video content. I can collaborate with influencers who post their content on YouTube Kids. I can also create my own YouTube channel and promote it to my existing customers in order to gain followers.
How much will this contribute to my total customer acquisition cost?
YouTuber/influencer fees vary from several hundred to thousands of dollars. Depending on their fees, I would hire a Youtuber/influencer to create 1-2 videos. Creating a business YouTube channel or TikTok account is free.
Are my competitors also using this channel and if they are, how are they using it?
Yes. My competitors are posting regularly on their own TikTok channel, as well as inviting local news YouTubers to post video walk-throughs of their store.
How would I use this channel to benefit my brand, product, or service?
I would send YouTubers/influencers care packages of the products sold at my candy store so that they can review them in a video. I would also invite TikTokers to visit my store and post videos of them shopping for and reviewing interesting candies.
How do I determine the right balance of tactics for my customer acquisition strategy?
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Not everyone uses Facebook, not everyone watches YouTube, and not everyone has a TV. Imagine missing your ideal potential customer just because you decided against running paid ads on search engines.
By diversifying your tactics, you increase your reach, which in turn increases your chances of acquiring customers. Of course, as we said before, you should focus your acquisition strategy on customer acquisition channels that are popular amongst your target audience. But rather than just choosing one, try to create a strategy that balances a selection of at least 3-5 tactics.
You can start out with 1-2 at first, if you'd like to test the waters and experiment with the types of content you want to create and customer acquisition channels you'd like to use. When you have a good feel for your audience and strategy, analyze the effectiveness of each channel and make adjustments accordingly.
For example, perhaps you aren't getting enough engagement on your tweets. You can opt out of using Twitter or try writing them in a different way. If your YouTube channel is more successful than you expected, you may want to consider increasing the number of planned videos. Maybe your demographic is older, and their use of social media is limited. Consider that the best way to reach them might be with well-thought-out sales calls.
Once you've tweaked your plans, you can then try to branch out to more customer acquisition channels and grow your customer acquisition strategy.
Five examples of successful customer acquisition methods
Here are some great customer acquisition examples:
Example 1. Glass.io—Video-chatting with potential customers
This is a great customer acquisition channel that allows you to build a meaningful relationship with your potential customers. Have you ever wondered what the visitors to your website are thinking? Or worried that they may not be finding what the information they're looking for?
Glass.io acts as a bridge between you and your website visitors by tracking their interaction with your website in real-time and providing an opportunity to directly video call them if they meet the right criteria. Get the most out of your website traffic using Glass.io.
For example, if they view your product page and click through to a product they are interested in, they will be prompted with an invitation to video call a customer service representative or account executive who can help get them to the final stage of the customer acquisition funnel.
Example 2. Target—Video marketing
There are many corporate YouTube channels that run excellent video marketing campaigns. Target has leveraged its position as a major national retailer to create partnerships with well-known influencers in order to bring valuable content to people's feeds.
As you can see in the image above, rather than simply sponsoring influencer posts, Target actually curates and creates content for their own channel, bringing prestige and expertise to their brand. Their customer acquisition strategy focuses more on owned content and promoting themselves as trusted advisors.
User generated content is a great way to get your name out, but at the end of the day, this mostly drives traffic to their own accounts more than your business' account. By inviting the influencers to participate in content hosted on your own platforms, you are in turn bringing the views back to your page.
Viewers will be more willing to subscribe and watch content on Target's account because they trust that the videos will be high quality and often feature recognizable influencers that they admire.
Example 3. Google Keyword Planner—Search engine optimization
We briefly mentioned this in our previous article, but we can't stress enough how convenient it is to have a software that helps you plan your SEO keywords. Search engines are fuelled by algorithms, which are created based on users' search histories and commonly-searched terms.
Knowing what these common search terms are will help you bring your content to the top of your audiences' search results. That's where Google Keyword Planner comes in. You can use Google Keyword Planner to research new keywords and plan your SEO strategy accordingly.
This is a great way to acquire new customers because chances are, they were already looking for a business just like yours. All you need to do is get their attention with the right words.
For more information about search engine optimization, check out this helpful SEO starter guide from Google: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
Example 4. Influencer marketing—ad placement
Have you ever been watching a video, only to be interrupted by a sudden shift to the person giving you the pros and cons about a product you may or may not have heard about before? Or finished sitting through two ads, only to be greeted by a third ad at the start of a video?
Try this recently trending video, for example. Though the ad is short, it's placed right in the intro of the video, likely following two more ads, now that YouTube shows at least 2 ads at the beginning of every video.
Binging with Babish: Pretty Patties from SpongeBob SquarePants by Babish Culinary Universe
Avid YouTube video watchers know that ads are virtually inescapable, even if you subscribe to YouTube Premium. That's because most of YouTube's biggest stars are known to take advantage of lucrative sponsorship deals in exchange for a couple of minutes of ad time.
These types of ads are skippable, but many YouTubers will try to seamlessly integrate their ads into their content in order to make them less disruptive and encourage viewers to watch the full ad spot.
If you want to take advantage of influencer marketing in your customer acquisition strategies, be conscious of how your brand, product, or service fits into the type of content the influencer creates. You wouldn't have a beauty guru boost your pet food on their makeup tutorial video, for example. It just wouldn't make sense!
For more strategies and examples that could help boost your influencer marketing efforts, check out this video:
How To Use Influencer Marketing To Grow Your Business (Strategies & Examples) by Think Media
Example 5. Chipotle's Twitter account—social media
Twitter is one of the most popular customer acquisition channels right now. Short-form content is easily digestible, easy to generate, and free. Twitter users also vary from youth to adults, although their feeds may look drastically different from each other.
One of the most popular corporate Twitter accounts right now belongs to fast food giant Chipotle. Chipotle's marketing team definitely knows their audience because their content never falls short of hilarious and relatable.
From engaging and sharing user generated content to interacting with other popular fast food chains, the memes never stop on Chipotle's Twitter feed and their customers love it. Their account has over 1.1 million subscribers, and while we're sure they don't have trouble organically acquiring customers through the mouth-watering smell of their flavorful burritos, we're pretty sure the quality of their content does make a big difference.
Many of their posts also drive traffic back to their website, particularly when they have special contests and offers (which on their own are great customer acquisition strategies). When possible, your content should always link to your website or online store in order to encourage new customers to familiarize themselves with your brand, product, or service.
When you're planning your social media strategy, you should be conscious of your audience, however, because as funny as Chipotle's memes may be, they may not be as effective with older generations who are less familiar with the types of viral content popular with Chipotle's younger customer demographic.
Frequently asked questions
I implemented a customer acquisition strategy, and it didn't work. What am I doing wrong?
Like all marketing efforts, customer acquisition can be a bit of a gamble. Of course, you can plan ahead in order to increase the likelihood of your content going viral or your reach growing tenfold. You can research your audiences, review customer data, increase your ad spend or post on all of the big social media platforms. At the end of the day, it's up to your audiences to decide whether they are interested.
This is why regular evaluation and reporting is an important part of creating a customer acquisition strategy. If something isn't performing well, your customer acquisition plan should be flexible enough to switch gears at any moment. The only way to fail is to stop trying.
If, for example, your email marketing strategy only has a 5% open rate, will you continue to focus your acquisition budget on developing email marketing content? No! If you're trying to generate new business, you should explore every avenue. Instead of email, shift to social media marketing efforts and grow your reach there instead.
How do I measure the success of my customer acquisition strategy?
There are a number of factors that will contribute to the success of your customer acquisition efforts, but the most important one is the CAC: LTV metric.
CAC stands for customer acquisition cost. How much of your marketing budget did you spend to acquire new customers? In order to calculate customer acquisition cost, you need to divide the total amount you spent on marketing with the total number of customers acquired.
LTV stands for customer lifetime value. This is the total revenue you expect to earn throughout the lifetime of a customer's relationship with your business. According to the Corporate Finance Institute, LTV can be calculated by multiplying the value of the customer to the business by their average lifespan.
By dividing your CAC by your LTV, you can determine whether your overall customer acquisition cost was worth the spend. If your customer acquisition cost is less than the revenue earned from the customers acquired, your customer acquisition efforts were a success. Congratulations, you've made a profit!
In closing
Customer acquisition is an integral part of growing your business, and it's important for marketing teams to know how to build an effective customer acquisition strategy.
No two customer acquisition strategies are alike because the customer acquisition methods you choose depend on the demographic of your target audience, the typical demographic of each customer acquisition channel, and the specifics of your brand, product, or service.
If you're looking to create an amazing customer acquisition strategy, think about how you can implement or learn from the examples provided here.
Sarah Chan Rejante is a digital marketer and social media coordinator based in Toronto, Canada. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations from Humber College and is passionate about marketing and getting in front of customers in the right way.
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