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The customer acquisition process is the foremost business activity that drives brand growth. While its primary objective is to augment sales, it also sets up a cyclic process of building brand presence and further strengthening the customer base. A sustained customer acquisition effort in the right direction ensures a favorable flow of these cyclic events. This makes it critical to marketing success, and the tools that aid in customer acquisition, an imperative to business planning. In fact, a marketing strategy that pivots on suitable customer acquisition marketing tools stands to build sustainable growth for the business. Customer acquisition tools are the software that provides actionable data and insights, facilitates interaction with customers to augment customer experience, and builds valuable customer relationships. Read this article to find out the best customer acquisition channels, best practices to measure customer metrics, and top 10 software that will help you achieve results in acquiring customers for your business What is customer acquisition? Customer Acquisition is a process that helps you acquire new customers for your business with the help of marketing and support strategies. So, sustainable business practices that bring about positive results should be the focal point of your plan. Moreover, It is imperative to have a defined marketing strategy to drive the company’s growth by increasing sales conversion via defined channels. A new customer acquisition strategy is unique to a business, curated specifically by judging the industry and the target market. An appropriate strategy will help the business cost-effectively acquire customers. Online businesses which are selling less established brands on their platform need to invest more in custom acquisition than customer retention. Technology plays a crucial role in customer acquisition, leveraging innovations to reach out to customers, interact with them and create opportunities for gaining new customers. Which Acquisition Channels to Use & How to Get New Customers Onboard? A customer acquisition channel is a medium that allows interaction with the customer. By analyzing all customer touchpoints, appropriate channels can be devised. Identifying appropriate channels for your business that can bring better results, giving direction to your customer acquisition strategy. Moreover, you will derive better value from the costs entailed. Data available can be examined to determine channels that can produce real-world results. Accordingly, the best channels can be selected for sustainable growth of the business and can be incorporated using custom eCommerce development services. The more popular customer acquisition channels are as follows : Popular social media channels present enormous opportunities with the vast community they have as a regular audience. Presenting your brand in front of them can get substantial brand awareness. Social media marketing : A well-targeted email marketing campaign can help you reach out to customers. The internet connects the world sans any boundaries. Innovatively curated email content that aptly reflects your brand ethos and instigates leads is a tried and trusted form of marketing. Email Marketing : Around 41% of customers choose live chat to communicate with the business, making it an important tool to reach your target audience. Live Chat : Partnering with businesses, independent websites, social media influencers, and others who have an audience that you aim to target can reap in benefits, and give your brand the necessary impetus. Affiliate marketing : Search advertising (PPC) and display advertising are two popular ways to attract customers. Google and Microsoft's bing run an advertising channel that can be utilized. Paid search How to measure customer acquisition success? Quantifying the results achieved by your customer acquisition campaign is paramount to drive the analysis that will help ascertain the pragmatism in applied marketing strategies and will help you devise the future course of action. Customer Acquisition Cost CAC, Customer Lifetime Value CLV are popular metrics that will help measure the value addition of customer acquisition strategies. The data acquired from these metrics can be useful for the companies themselves as well as their investors. Let’s discuss these metrics in a little more detail :  This metric is calculated by dividing the resources spent by a company in a specified period and the total number of customers acquired during that period. CAC =Amount spent on marketing activities CAC ==============================

     Number of customers acquired This metric can establish the cost of acquiring a new customer for a business. With this information, the business can measure the performance of the marketing strategies currently utilized by the company. : This metric is used to calculate the value a customer brings to a business. It is calculated by multiplying the average total sale of the order with the number of sales over time and the average retention time. CLV = Average Total Sale X Number of Sales over time X Average Retention time CLV By measuring the value a customer brings to and comparing it with the cost of acquiring new customers you can gain valuable insights into your business strategies. How to lower customer acquisition costs? CAC is the sales and marketing costs associated with the customer acquisition process. Analyzing and lowering these costs is essential to drive more value out of marketing effort and reduce overheads. Enlisted below are five strategic ways that will help lower acquisition costs 1. Focus on the target audience A marketing effort focused on the target audience your product or service is ideally suited for will bring in more value. Sales channels that precisely target these audiences should be prioritized 2. Retarget It makes great sense to pay attention to customers who have visited the site. They are an important part of the sales funnel. Retargeting is paying attention to these customers. This channel is significant, important, and cheaper to run. Moreover, in the case of dissatisfied customers, this channel can reduce instances of negative reviews and ratings on the internet. 3. Marketing automation Marketing automation software boosts lead generation, reporting and analysis, email targeting, and more. The scale at which eCommerce operates effectively rules out manual tasks, making automation imperative. Tools such as email drip can produce great results. 4. Partner Collaborations Social media influencers, websites of authority, established publications, and others present, an audience that trusts the channel. Collaborating with such partners can be very productive and fast-track customer acquisition. 5. A/B Test of landing pages A process to test two versions of your landing page concerning CTAs, forms, buttons, layout, and more, with the help of data gathered from analytics tools such as Google Analytics, A/B testing lets you identify the combination that drives maximum sales for your business. Having understood the value of customer acquisition and the various nuances attached with it, let us have a look at the 10 best customer acquisition tools. Top 10 customer acquisition tools you can use to increase your sales 1. Proprofs Chat ProProfs Chat is a top online chat software. It is the best way to positively engage with direct traffic on your website, providing faster resolution to queries, and ultimately creating opportunities for higher sales conversions. The software can reduce tickets with 24*7 support, and enhance the knowledge base of the customer resulting in lead generation. Additionally, valuable customer feedback can be obtained to drive crucial business decisions. Key features Branding Customizations. Third-Party Integrations. Keeps track of website visitors. Pros: Delivers measurable results. Support for mobile phones. Rich featured and intuitive to use. Cons: Owing to high demand, the time with which you get up and running with your software might be a little slow. Pricing structure ProProf Chat’s pricing is as follows: ProProfs Chat pricing starts at $80 for the essentials version, $160 for the premium version and there is an enterprise version, the price of which depends upon the features opted for. 2. Qualaroo Get real-time responses from your customers with well-timed surveys directed to generate actionable insights with Qualaroo. You can customize the surveys to appear at specific instances to target select customers performing certain actions that can generate data of value for your business. Understand customers based on specific actions, behavioral patterns, events, locations, browser cookies, or data streamed from applications. Your customer acquisition effort can benefit significantly from feedback received directly from the customer. Key features Data Analysis Tools. Third-Party Integrations. Reporting & Analytics. Pros: Includes a popup tool called Nudge, which assists in A/B testing. Cons: Owing to high demand, it might take time for you to get Qualaroo for your website. Pricing structure Qualaroo pricing is as follows: Starts at $80 for the essentials version, $160 for the premium version and there is an enterprise version, the price of which depends upon the customizations opted for and is available on request. 3. Outgrow Outgrow is a tool that lets a business create interactive quizzes and calculators to keep the website visitors engaged.  Interactive content leads to user engagement, perpetuates better opt-in rates for email subscriptions, and eventually facilitates building a database of leads for your business. Key features Contemporary features to facilitate ease of content marketing. Leads management. Data analysis tools. Pros: Outgrow offers enhanced ease of use. Multiple options for integrations. Excellent customer service. Cons: Getting all features can get a little expensive. Pricing structure. Outgrow’s pricing is as follows: (All plans are billed annually) $25/month; Essential: $95/month; Business: $600/month; and there are Enterprise and Agency versions, the prices for these depend upon the customizations opted for and are available on request. Freelancer: 4. ConvertKit Convertkit is an affordable creator email marketing platform that helps a business to grow its audience by interacting with them via interactive emails. ConvertKit can be used to create sign-up forms for your website, create email lists, send personalized emails, and more. Tasks can be automated to function round the clock. Key features Building emails with the option to personalize them. Leads management.
Data analysis tools Pros: Landing page analysis reporting Customizable Nifty features to manage your contacts. Cons: Pricey and learning to use it takes a little time. Pricing structure ConvertKit pricing is as follows: The pricing depends upon the number of email subscribers. There is a free version, creator for $29/month, and creator pro for $59/month. All listed prices are for the first 1000 subscribers. 5. ProProfs Project ProProfs Project is a project management software with an intuitive dashboard that will help manage and keep a track of the success of the business. It helps to work collaboratively with the team with sync calendar and discuss important project matters thereby, planning tasks more accurately and meeting deadlines faster, delivering efficient results for complete customer satisfaction Key Features Tools to facilitate collaboration. Expense tracking features. Tasks and resources management Pros: Ability to view in 一 Gantt Charts, Kanban Board, Calendar View, and more. Ease of use. A single dashboard view to manage all functionalities. Cons: Task prioritization is missing. Pricing structure. ProProf Project pricing is as follows: The pricing depends upon the number of email subscribers. There are 2 models  一  Essentials for $2/user/month and Premium for $4/user/month. 6. Unbounce Unbounce is a powerful AI copywriting platform that helps create beautiful landing pages to enhance customer engagement and ultimately lead to higher conversion rates. Landing pages are at the forefront of a website giving the first impression to the users that will, in turn, establish the brand image for the business. Key features All elements feature drag and drop builder. Domain Integration. Free images accessible inside of Unbounce. Pros: Simplicity and efficiency of drag and drop as well as entire page editing. Speed boost
Customizable Cons: UI/UX could be better. Pricing structure Unbounce Pricing is as follows:’ Unbounce is available in multiple pricing models  一  Launch: $72/month; Optimize: $108/month; Accelerate $180/month; Scale $270; and Concierge $270+ 7. Buffer Buffer is a social media tool that is an intuitive and affordable way to reach more people via popular social media platforms. It comes with Analytics that will help to analyze the performance of the social media strategy of a company. The software is affordable, easy to use, and enhances collaboration. Moreover, it will let you react faster to social media posts, enhancing interaction with the target customers, building on customer engagement, and ultimately helping with customer acquisition. Key features Custom scheduling per platform and per profile. Analytics and reporting Native support for videos and animated Gifs. : Pros Nifty social media tools such as scheduled sharing Integrations with third-party apps Customizable Cons: Limitations to integrations with some social media channels. Pricing structure Buffer Pricing is as follows: Buffer is available in two pricing models  一 Free: $0/month with the capping of 3 social media channels and Essentials: $5/social channel/month. The price of these plans is dependent on the number of social channels chosen. 8. Hunter.io Hunter.io is a nifty tool that will help in finding professional emails and verifying existing ones, thus enabling a business to generate valuable data that can be used to identify and connect with target customer profiles. Key features Contact, Company, Industry data availability Data segmentation Integration possibilities with CRM Pros: Hunter. io returns a high quantity of data. Beautiful UI/UX
Affordable Cons: The search is limited to websites and domains and is dependent on an accurate search string. Pricing structure Hunter io Pricing is as follows: Hunter.io is available in multiple pricing models  一  Free: $0/month; Starter: $49/month; Growth: $99/month; Pro: $199; and Enterprise: $399/month 9. ReferralCandy ReferralCandy helps a business to run a successful referral program that is one of the best ways of building customer loyalty and at the same time spreading the word about the business. Instant payouts, enhanced ROI with emails, and actionable analytics all help with customer retention and acquisition. Key features Seamless Contact and Campaign Management. Tracking of Referrals. Rewards Programme. Pros: Customizable. Intuitive. Good Customer Service. Cons: Limitations to integrations with some social media channels. Pricing structure. ReferralCandy Pricing is as follows: ReferralCandy is available in two pricing models 一 Premium: $49/month + commissions and Enterprise: $3999/month (Billed Annually). 10. Trustpulse TrustPulse is a marketing platform that automates notifications to provide the customer with social proof that engages your audience and enhances customer trust leading to higher conversions. Customer trust is the foremost differentiating factor in eCommerce and social proof will help a business in establishing brand value. Key features Run a live-stream video in real-time to garner customer interest Actionable analytics Ability to display social proof to augment conversions Pros: Flexible design options. Easy to set up Works with all popular eCommerce platforms Cons: The search is limited to websites and domains and is dependent on the accurate search string. Pricing Structure. Trustpulse Pricing is as follows: Trustpulse is available in multiple pricing models  一  Basic: $5/month; Plus: $10/month; Pro: $19/month; Growth: $39; and Enterprise: $399/month Fuel Business Growth with Customer Acquisition Tools Customer Acquisition Tools help identify and engage with the target audience and provide actionable insights & data. Moreover, they leverage the use of social media communities to build a brand image that can give a business the necessary impetus to stand out from the competition and also boost its customer base. For best results, ensuring seamless integration of software with the eCommerce platform is imperative. This makes it essential to utilize custom eCommerce development services from a with proven eCommerce expertise. top software development company

Best Customer Acquisition Tools for Rapid Sales Growth

If no man is an island, then no business is either. Even if you have the best business plan and top-notch products, you will be limited in your growth and marketing abilities without the support of others around you. Word of mouth marketing is one of the most trustworthy forms of promotion, with 86 percent of consumers trusting messages in this format, according to . Referral Candy But don’t leave it up to your customers to share their love of your brand. Partner with other local businesses so you can drive value for them while do the same for you, helping promote your business, saving you money, and assigning in building your brand recognition in the process. Use partnerships as a tool to build business post-COVID or simply connect deeper with the businesses around you—a long-term strategy that will pay dividends. Here’s how you can leverage these valuable local partnerships in your area to grow your business and improve your standing in the community. Look for Ways to Help Others In Your Community The first step to forming lucrative local partnerships is to consider what you have to offer to others in your community. What services do you offer that other businesses don’t and how can use what that unique offering to make other businesses or community institutions stronger? Here are a few examples: A CPA might offer discounts to entrepreneurs who rent offices in a co-working space to help them get their businesses off the ground. The CPA gets business that will grow over time, the entrepreneurs get affordable financial help, and the co-working space gets to offer an additional perk to renters. A restaurant may partner with local schools and nonprofits because to donate funds or food or sponsor events in exchange for advertising. A personal trainer might form a partnership with a local dietician. A realtor might have partnerships with interior designs and contractors that offer special rates. The goal is to find key partnerships that lift up others while benefiting your business in the long-run, allowing you to connect, support, and grow. During COVID, the University of Chicago started Partnering for Community Impact to support local residents. explains UChicago News “These efforts, which reflect the University’s deep institutional commitment to supporting the vitality and strength of Chicago and the South Side in particular, will provide at least 225,000 meals over the course of the next 10 weeks (a minimum of 3,000 meals per day) to South Side residents through use of the University’s existing infrastructure." There will also be a donation of "1 million in food through direct funding and philanthropy" along with $1 million in the form of bridge grants to support local small businesses and nonprofits. This type of partnership—between the University, the city, and its residents—provides support to many while building loyalty and awareness for the University. Form Partnerships That Support Your Customer It’s critical to keep your customers at the forefront of all brand partnership decisions; after all, they’re the ones who will be taking advantage of the promotions and deals. Which businesses would your customer be most interested in? Which partnerships would benefit them the most? For example, Shine Pole and Aerial Fitness, a small business in Hurst, Texas, partnered with a local yoga studio to complement what the studio offered to its members. explains, "Now members at Shine can access the yoga studio's classes to continue to work on flexibility and strength at Shine and work on mindfulness and breathing through yoga, all with one membership." MindBodyOnline Put Values Before Competition While partnerships shouldn’t take business away from you, they can be used to better serve your clients. Consider the experience of Scott J. Corwin, Attorney and Principal of . He works within a community of lawyers in his area to pair clients with the right attorneys for their needs—even if it means sending a referral outside of his law firm. Corwin explains: Scott J. Corwin Law “There is a saying, justice delayed is justice denied. If we are unable to obtain an excellent result to settle a client’s case, I partner with other attorneys who have dedicated their practice to litigation and trial. We work with and partner with these other law firms and lawyers. We share the work and the costs of litigation to achieve the best result for our clients. We put their interest ahead of our own.” When everyone is connected and gaining value from the partnership, the customers and clients win. What’s more, you build a strong rapport with others in your industry, which likely drives referrals and business in the long-term. Focus on Holidays and Events A great time to leverage local partnerships is during holidays and events—when customers are already shopping, eating out, and indulging in spending. While there are many ways to leverage partnerships during this time, consider this simple idea from PayLess ShoeSource and GameStop. explains: NFIB “GameStop and PayLess ShoeSource partnered up on a cross-promotional campaign. Shoppers at the video game retailer received register coupons for the shoe store, while shoppers at PayLess got discount coupons for GameStop. Because many of the stores' locations are in close proximity, it was a win-win for the retailers.” Leveraging local partnerships can be as simple as this. Make it easy for customers to move between the two businesses and give them a reason to spend with you and your partner to leverage the full benefits of a marketing partnership. Leverage Local Partnerships Local partnerships are similar to leveraging . Your brand benefits from getting in front of a new audience of people, while the other business gets in front of your audience. With the right local partnerships, you can form strong bonds with other businesses that last for years, while helping others within your community and showing your customer that they’re your priority—a win-win-win. influencer marketing

How to Leverage Local Partnerships as a Marketing Opportunity

The power of influencer marketing can’t be denied. Although the industry is still relatively new, it is set to reach $10 billion by 2020. What makes influencer marketing so powerful? Well, besides the fact that over 2.8 billion users have made social media a part of their everyday lives, it works so well because people tend to trust influencer recommendations over celebrity recommendations. A recent social media report indicated that for every $1.29 within the beauty industry in 2017, brands received an average return of $11.38 spent on influencers This is great news for small businesses: just connect with the right influencers and let them speak positively about your brand. But how exactly do you through the ? guide your leads sales funnel Most marketers tend to view influencer marketing as being a part of the “awareness” stage of the buyer’s journey. This is understandable, considering how we usually measure the effectiveness of campaigns based on metrics such as reach or impressions. Others skip over brand awareness and just concentrate on . However, influencer marketing has the potential to play a significant role in all three stages of the buyer’s journey. affiliate marketing programs Using influencer marketing throughout the buyer’s journey can help to customers. convert them from leads In this post, we’ll help you understand how to create content for each stage. Influencer Marketing for the Awareness Stage The starts with the awareness stage. This is where the buyer identifies a challenge they have that needs to be addressed. traditional buyer’s journey Influencers can be an instrumental part of this stage because they have the opportunity to introduce their audience to your or services. products How? By naturally addressing those challenges and making their audience aware that your business can help them solve these challenges. For this stage, the influencer can write a post about your business, mention your product in a post, or even just post a pic with your product in it. The goal is to let their audience know that your business exists. They haven’t yet decided that you’re the right business for them, however, the fact that one of the influencers they’re following thinks highly of your business will intrigue them about you and what you have to offer. Influencer Marketing for the Consideration Stage At this stage, your buyer is aware of his or her problem and they are considering different solutions. In order to help your market pass-through this stage and into the next one (decision stage - where they hopefully decide your product is best for them), your influencer and marketing team needs to that addresses the different solutions to their problem. create content To help you understand this, let’s say you operate an organic food restaurant or delivery service. What are some of your market’s ? challenges when it comes to customer acquisition Leading a healthy lifestyle while being a busy professional Cooking food that’s both delicious and healthy Lack of time for meal prepping Your influencer can address these challenges in different ways, including speaking about what to look for when trying to purchase organic foods and the convenience of opting for an organic food delivery service. They can then link to help their audience learn more about your business. to one of your landing pages Influencer Marketing for the Decision Stage Once the buyer has considered different solutions to their problem, they decide on the most relevant solution for them. However, they may not have decided on which business to buy from. So, using the organic food delivery service example, at this stage, your market knows that a delivery service is the most convenient way for them to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They just haven’t decided that your business will help them achieve this. To help persuade them, your influencer can create a product comparison video or post. They can then naturally speak on some of the over the other options. Besides comparing your product to your competitors, they can also give a discount code and highlight why they prefer your service. benefits of your product Authenticity is a very important part of this stage. Anything that feels scripted won’t work because their audience is genuinely looking for a solution. So, let the quality of your product or service speak for itself. What helps is if your influencer genuinely uses your product in their everyday lives. They’ll be able to speak and connect with your market more authentically. Effective Influencer Marketing Takes Time It’s going to take more than just a couple of influencer posts for you to start seeing considerable ROI. How many? Well, marketing’s Rule of Seven states that your market needs to consume your messages at least seven times. This highlights that your influencer marketing campaign needs to be an ongoing effort. As discussed above, we know that influencer marketing is effective because buyers take recommendations from influencers seriously. So, using the above tips, make the most of this new marketing tactic and create the right content at the right time to help grow your business. About the author: Raul Galera is and ’s Partner Manager. CandyBar ReferralCandy Raul has spent the last six years working closely with startups and tech companies, four of them helping ecommerce businesses grow their sales through referral marketing.

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