Acquiring new customers involves finding those at the very beginning of their customer journeys. That’s the point when they know little to nothing about your company and the products or services you offer. In fact, they may not know much about your niche or industry in general at this point.
For example, consider someone looking to set up a website for the first time who needs to purchase a hosting plan. There’s a good chance they have only a vague idea about what website hosting is, much less how it works and all the different options and factors involved.
This means that instead of immediately looking for a particular plan or provider, they’re likely to start by doing some more general research. They’ll begin searching for information about the basics of web hosting, and the various types of plans that are available.
If you’re a hosting company, this is the perfect place to grab a new customer’s attention. By creating content that explores these basic questions, you can accomplish a number of things:
- You fulfill the potential customer’s current needs.
- You’re helping them kickstart their customer journey, and avoid getting discouraged or confused right away.
- You’ll be demonstrating your knowledge and expertise, which can build trust.
- Once you’ve answered the potential customer’s immediate questions, you can direct them to your website, products or services, knowledge base, or wherever else you’d like them to go next.
In other words, while it’s important to provide information and resources for existing and knowledgeable customers, it’s equally vital to offer beginner-friendly content. To pursue this customer acquisition strategy, you just need to put yourself in a beginner’s shoes (or better yet, ask them directly). Consider the most pressing questions they’ll have, along with the basic information they need to make a purchasing decision.
Then, develop resources to answer those questions. For this, you can use knowledge base articles or blog posts right on your website. Just remember to keep each one concise and to-the-point, and to write in a way that’s accessible and assumes no pre-existing knowledge without being patronizing. Focus on helping the reader rather than on promotion. At the same time, include links to point them towards more of your content to keep them ‘on the hook’.
4. Target potential customers’ pain points
The previous customer acquisition strategy was all about providing the kind of information a prospect is looking for at the beginning of their journey. While that’s important, it’s not all you’ll want to consider. It also matters what the potential customer needs and how that matches up to what you’re offering.
You may have run across the term ‘pain points’ before. In a nutshell, it refers to a need or problem a person has. This is a useful marketing concept, since a big part of understanding your audience involves figuring out what pain points they have, and how they can be solved by your products or services.
Robert Abela of WP White Security summarized the importance of pain points this way:
For example, if I tell prospects that my plugin offers the best coverage and the most comprehensive activity log, they cannot see how that will help them. But if I explain to them that when they keep a record of what happens on their site they can ease troubleshooting, because they can look back at what occurred rather than doing guesswork, then they are hooked.
Show the prospect how your product makes their job easier, not how fancy it is.”Robert Abela
Understandably, research is key to pulling off this customer acquisition strategy. If you haven’t already, this is a perfect time to conduct some audience research and develop a target customer profile. Aim to understand everything you can about your potential customers. Who are they, what do they do, and why are they looking for products or services like yours?
If you can, you’ll want to try and conduct some first-hand research as well. Reach out to existing customers, and ask what needs your offerings solve for them in their work or daily lives. If you have a library of testimonials, those can also provide crucial hints.
The important thing is to not focus on what you think the benefits of your products or services are. All that matters is what real customers find valuable about them. Once you know which pain points your offerings solve, all you need to do is to incorporate them into your messaging at every opportunity. This is particularly important on your website – any list of services, benefits, or features should focus in on the pain points that are bringing leads your way in the first place.
