How to Bring New Customers to Your Online Business
One of the most challenging aspects of running an online business is finding a consistent and reliable flow of customers every single day. Every store is likely to see periods of growth, but they’re often met with a steep decline soon after.
For online business owners that want to defy the growing frustrations around customer acquisition, it’s important you change your mind set about what customer acquisition is. It’s not so much a goal or even an objective. Instead, it’s a process that must be respected and trusted.
It requires understanding more than just how many customers you have at any given time, but also how much money that customer is likely to spend when visiting your online store, how often they’re likely to return, and how much it’ll cost to maintain that relationship over time.
When it comes to customer acquisition, we have some tips that will help you find success -- whether you’re new to owning an online business or have been in the game for a while. Without further ado, let’s get started!
The Basics of Customer Acquisition
Before we get deeper into the depths of customer acquisition, let’s first make sure we’re all on the same page about what customer acquisition entails. In its essence, customer acquisition refers to the process of finding, developing, and nurturing customer relationships in a way that persuades them to support your business.
For the most part, business owners like to think of customer acquisition as if it’s a funnel. There are three parts of the funnel -- the top, the middle, and the bottom. Let’s take a closer look at each:
- The Top - this part of the funnel requires you to form leads from a wide target audience that consists of people that might be interested in your product or service, but that interest isn’t guaranteed. You’ll need to know your target audience, but it’s okay to not be too specific here.
- The Middle - once you garner interest from potential customers, they’ll fall into the middle of the funnel. This is typically when they’ve added something to their cart or signed up for a newsletter on your site. These are the leads you need to start persuading and nurturing a relationship with.
- The Bottom - this part of the funnel consists of potential customers that are ready to purchase a product or service with you. They’ve shown the interest, you’ve persuaded them, and all you have to do is close the deal.
Every business is going to have their own procedures and standards when dealing with each customer or lead throughout each process. For example, there are hundreds of different ways you can attract leads at the top of the funnel and they won’t all be feasible for your business. Instead, you’ll need to choose the one that works best for you.
How Much Does Customer Acquisition Cost?
Most business owners spend all day finding and interacting with potential customers, yet a majority of them have no idea how much it’s costing them to go through the customer acquisition funnel.
Enter the customer acquisition cost (CAC), a simple yet effective way to measure the cost of each new customer you bring on every month. In order to calculate this, divide your total cost of marketing for that month (or week, or year) by the total number of customers acquired during that month (or week, or year).
Once you determine the CAC, you can take it a step further and compare it to the average amount of money spent by each customer when they first visited. Ideally, this number will be greater than the CAC, which would mean you’re making a profit on that customer.
One of the few times it’s okay for the amount spent by the customer to fall below the CAC is if it’s highly likely for that customer to come back and spend more money at your business.
Don’t worry, there are certain tools that make it easy to track these numbers and actually do all the number-crunching for you automatically. Google Analytics and Shopify Reports are two of the most common tools used by online businesses today.
Having Difficulty Acquiring Customers Effectively?
When dealing with the customer acquisition funnel, many businesses struggle to make that initial contact with potential customers. This is imperative when you don’t have the proper strategies in place to attract them.
Let’s discuss some of the most prominent and effective customer acquisition strategies your business can benefit from.
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Social Media Presence
One of the most powerful tools and strategies your business can implement when acquiring new potential customers is social media. It’s free (at its core) and is extremely fun when you use it to spread your message and core values.
With some companies boasting followers in the millions, there’s no telling what a stronger social media presence could mean for your company. It drives in organic traffic and it helps give others proof of your leadership in your industry.
Unfortunately, it’s also difficult to maintain, takes time to build a following, and the landscape for social media is always changing. The pros weigh the cons in most situations, though.
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Focus on SEO
If you like free strategies, here’s another one -- search engine optimization (SEO). This is the process of optimizing your website to make it easy for search engines to find your content. With the amount of purchases starting with a Google search these days, this is an important strategy to implement for any business with a website.
You’ll need to determine the keywords that best associate with your business and its customers, as well as blast those keywords strategically throughout the site. There are also a variety of other SEO strategies that could help you gain some respect with Google and improve your ranking in searches.
While it’s free and brings a good amount of organic traffic to your website, it isn’t always easy to implement and may require some assistance. It also takes time to see results and, of course, there's a lot of competition out there.
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Traditional Advertising
Wile digital marketing has certainly become the focus for many businesses, that doesn’t mean forms of traditional advertising are dead. In fact, they’re still very much in-use today and can have a very strong impact on your ability to attract leads.
The great thing about traditional advertising is it comes in many forms and they range from small-scale campaigns (like print advertising and direct-mail advertising) to large-scale campaigns (like radio and television ads).
Traditional advertising is a great way to build customer trust and gain widespread exposure the old way. Unfortunately, it often costs a pretty penny and is difficult to track how well it’s working for your business. Either way, it’s a good option to explore when searching for more ways to gain leads.
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Introduce Referral Programs
There’s nothing better than having existing customers bring you new customers, it’s like the gift that keeps on giving. It’s effective because others are more likely to trust a referral from someone they know and there’s a limited up-front cost since the incentive is rewarded after the new customer is brought to the bottom of the funnel.
A referral program helps encourage repeat purchases, it increases exposure in areas where your customers already live, and it helps add some excitement when customers interact with your business. For a lack of better words, it gives them a reason to do your marketing for you.
Of course, it also means you won’t get to engage with that lead until they reach the middle of the funnel. You’ll have to act fast in persuading them before they lose interest.
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Utilize the Power of Emails
How often do you personally check your email every single day? For most people with a mobile device, this answer is likely by the hour -- if not more often. That means there’s a ton of opportunity to connect with potential customers via email.
Newsletters are one of the biggest ways of doing this. It allows you to be visual and creative with the content, opposed to the boring old text email we’re used to. Of course, this strategy only works if you have emails to connect with.
To collect emails, you need to ask for them. Your website and social media profiles are the two easiest ways to gain email leads. The best part is you get to keep those emails until they unsubscribe from the newsletter -- and let’s be honest, that rarely occurs.
Your lead generation list will continue to grow and you’ll always have a way of reaching out to potential customers. Eventually, it’ll be just as powerful as a popular social media page.
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Take Advantage of Influencers
Speaking of popular social media pages, you don’t always have to use your own followers to gain potential customers and leads. In fact, there are a wide variety of influencers on the internet that are prepared to market your product for you to their followers.
Since some of these influencers have hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers, this can open you up to a wide range of followers. As long as you choose your influencer wisely, those followers could hold a strong interest in your own company.
Influencers help with brand awareness and niche targeting, but it also only works if you have a budget or something to offer the influencer (free membership, free samples, etc.). It’s also difficult to track how well it’s working.
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Paid Ads Go a Long Way
The final strategy we’ll discuss when attracting customers to the top of your customer acquisition funnel is paid advertising. There are so many ways to advertise online when you have the budget to do so -- including social media ads, search engine ads, and even advertising your stuff on other websites.
When done properly, it can lead to a wide range of exposure on the internet and is pretty easy to target where the funds should go. At the same time, it can be rather expensive and there’s a steep learning curve when getting the most out of paid ads.
If you have the budget for it, it’s certainly worth a try -- especially if you have the right help in your corner.
Which Strategy Works Best for You?
With so many different strategies available to online business owners, it can be difficult to understand which one works best for you. You know your goal and you know you’re ready to do what needs to be done to achieve it, you just need that extra little push.
Don’t worry, we understand. At Consultants In-A-Box, we dedicate ourselves to making sure every business is implementing the right customer acquisition strategies to maximize their exposure and increase sales on a consistent basis.
If you need further assistance implementing these strategies or finding the one that will work best for you, contact us today. We can’t wait to discuss how we can help your business continue to grow and elevate it to heights you’ve always dreamed of.
Here’s How Testimonials Help Boost Your Sales
Customer behavior is one of the many things in business that are always changing. Especially in today’s digital world, which presents a wide range of new opportunities every year, the way your customers shop is bound to be different from one year to the next.
Today, there’s nothing more important than testimonials from past customers. Positive ones help attract new customers and build a sense of customer loyalty, while negative ones are known to drive those customers away.
That’s why it’s important to collect, respond to, nurture, and monitor your customer reviews and testimonials regularly to ensure you’re meeting your customer’s needs.
Don’t worry, we understand this is something most business owners aren’t keen on. We’re going to run through everything you need to know about testimonials -- including how to use them, how to get them, how to display them, and how to find success with them.
Are Testimonials Worth the Hassle?
Customers today are extremely interested in the experiences other customers had when interacting with your business. In fact, 90% of consumers say online reviews from other customers help influence their decisions when shopping.
The thing about testimonials is it gives the customer a sense of confidence before purchasing an item or signing up for a service. They have a better idea of what to expect, which is important because a lot of businesses go out of their way to make their product seem better than it really is.
Testimonials help build trust with customers before they commit to your product, which heavily increases conversions and sales. These conversions become even more beneficial to your business when the testimonial is coming from someone famous, well-known, or popular in your industry.
As long as the testimonial is authentic, customers are going to appreciate it and utilize it every time -- and this is proven. One study by Econsultancy discovered that testimonials increase the likelihood of a purchase by more than 60% and even increase sales by nearly 20%.
Another study by Reevoo proved that having 50+ testimonials can increase nearly 5% of your sales and a study by Brightlocal found that 88% of people trust online reviews as much as reviews from friends and family.
The numbers don’t lie -- testimonials work and are necessary for any business.
Receiving Testimonials From Customers
One of the best ways to get testimonials from your customers is by asking them -- after all, that’s the key to getting most things in business. If you need numbers to prove this, the same study by Brightlocal we mentioned earlier also found that 68% of customers leave a testimonial when asked.
Since there are so many ways to initiate this, we’re going to detail some of the most popular and effective ways:
1. Utilizing Surveys
Customer surveys are such an easy way to get a feel for how your business is perceived by others. It’s your chance to group together a wide range of questions that require a yes/no answer or a rating.
You can ask questions that describe their use of the product or service, questions about their demographic, questions about their satisfaction, and even questions that require a typed-out answer. Some popular questions to include are:
- How often did you use the product or service?
- What did you like most about the product or service?
- What is your age, gender, employment status, and marital status?
- How satisfied are you with this product on a scale of 1-10?
- If you could change anything about the product or service, what would you change?
- Will you be using this product or service again in the future?
A survey is versatile and can be used to gain valuable insight and data about your customers, while also giving you valuable content to showcase online -- that way other customers can read their answers.
2. Automating Emails
Emails are a great way to ask for testimonials. They can be used to send out the survey, but they can also be used to simply ask for a written testimonial about their experience with your product or service.
With the way technology is built in your favor, you can even automate these emails to be sent to the customer a week after receiving the product or service. This not only gives them a chance to try the product first, but it gives them a reminder to tell you what they thought of it.
Of course, you’ll want to make it worth their while by offering some type of incentive for completing the survey or writing the testimonial. It can even be something as simple as a one-time drawing where there’s only one winner -- don’t be afraid to get creative!
3. Integrate Apps
There are also a wide range of apps out there designed to help you collect and display testimonials or reviews. For example, you can use Yotpo, Stamped.io, Loox, or Shopify’s own Product Review app to integrate testimonials directly on your Shopify site.
You can also use apps like Yelp and Google to ask customers for reviews. It’s simple to do and there are already a wide range of people doing it -- sometimes they just need that extra push!
Should You Ask Anyone for a Testimonial?
To be fair, you should always leave the door open for anyone to leave a review or testimonial for your business. Even the negative ones give you an opportunity to grow and become better.
At the same time, you also want to make sure you have as many positive reviews as possible. That’s why you have to know where to go for that positive review and more important, how to get it!
First, you’re going to want to locate your most loyal customers. These are the customers you see frequently, the customers who spend the most money, and the customers that have been with you the longest. You can label them your MVS -- Most Valuable Shoppers.
Once you’ve asked them for a testimonial, you can start to venture out to other areas. Social media is a great place to start because a majority of your customers are already on there. You can easily search hashtags and even look at your own messages or replies.
Stay on the lookout for social media followers that have already posted something positive about your product. Repost their shoutout and respond to them!
Reach out to them and thank them for using your product. That’s when you can kindly slip in, “Would you mind leaving us a testimonial of your experience with us so far?”
Lastly, you can use what’s called a Net Promoter Score survey. This is where you send out an initial survey that asks, “Would you recommend this product or service to someone you know?” Those that answer positively should be reached out to for a follow-up survey or reached out to for a testimonial.
What Should Testimonials Contain?
While it’s important to know how to ask and who to ask for a testimonial, you also have to know what to ask. As much as you want hundreds of reviews and testimonials, you don’t necessarily want them to to all be, “Great product!” or “Love it!”
The truth is, those don’t provide other customers with any valuable information and often come across as spam or fake.
The key when avoiding this is to search for customers willing to give specific, clear, and detailed reviews of your product or service. This doesn’t need to be hundreds of words, but it should be more than the generic reviews you’re used to getting.
In order to encourage more specific and detailed reviews from your customers, consider the following:
- Ask for photos or videos from the customer to provide further supporting material for other customers.
- Be honest and be specific with them as far as what you’re looking for in your testimonial.
- Give them examples of other reviews that you thought resembled what you wanted in a testimonial.
- If there are any key words you want the customer to mention in their testimonial, try using them in your own verbage to inspire the customer.
- Send them a history of products they bought or services they utilized.
At the end of the day, you want to make sure the customer knows you want descriptive testimonials. If you have to, don’t be afraid to tell them you’ll display their testimonial on your website if they write a glowing review.
You Have the Testimonial, Now What?
There are so many different places you can display your testimonials for others to see. Making sure you display them in the right places is essential to making sure they produce the results you were hoping for when you collected them.
Here are some of the most popular and effective places to showcase them:
- Social Media - a simple retweet of a customer’s testimonial or positive review can go a long way because all your followers will see it. You can also shout out customers yourself on social media, they’ll appreciate the 15 minutes of fame.
- Testimonial Page - having a page on your website dedicated to displaying testimonials is a great way to hold all your testimonials in one place.
- Product/Service Page - if you have testimonials about certain products or services, displaying them on their corresponding product or service page can help drive conversions.
- Case Studies - when you build a case study, you should always include testimonials from clients in that industry.
Once you can figure out where to display them and how to get other customers to read them, you’ll start to see the testimonials take effect on your business. Soon enough, you’ll see your sales start to increase and you’ll even start to see more testimonials come in!
Need Extra Help With Testimonials?
Asking, collecting, monitoring, managing, nurturing, and showcasing testimonials to potential customers is extremely beneficial to the future of your business. At the same time, it’s extremely time-consuming and something not every business owner has the time to do.
You might be wondering if it’s worth it to outsource this process to a professional. Like anything else, it comes with its own set of pros and cons. The pros, for instance, include having someone with experience lead the way, freeing up your time to focus on what’s most important, and increasing the amount of testimonials you receive on a monthly basis.
On the other hand, the cons include having to do it yourself, risking not having enough time to do it properly or effectively, and a loss of quality.
Whether you want to find a professional, search for a software program to help, or do it all yourself, the important thing is that you’re doing it. Eventually, you’ll start to see results and learn that it was all worth it.
If you need help, contact Consultants In-A-Box today. We can’t wait to assist you with the growth of your business and help you get more quality reviews.
Top Ways to Build Customer Loyalty
There are so many different ways to build customer loyalty in your business, but it generally boils down to whether or not your customer has a positive experience when interacting with your business. Once you can build that loyalty, you’ll have customers that are willing to go out of their way for your business.
The best part is they’ll show this support and love in a variety of ways. Whether it be through glowing reviews on social media, wonderful recommendations to friends and family, or even through continuing to purchase your product/service, your customers will stand by you.
Without these customers, your business, brand, or idea will struggle to gain steam and grow into the powerhouse you imagined it could be. That’s why we like to call these customers your “VIP customers” or “brand champions,” but you can call them whatever you’d like.
Why Do We Need Loyal Customers?
One of the things we’ve heard many business owners ask is, “Why should I care how loyal they are? I already made money off them.” First off, it’s not all about making money off of them. Like we mentioned above, you also have to provide a positive experience.
Secondly, it’s not just one loyal customer you’re dealing with. With the way customers shop today, one loyal customer turns into another loyal customer -- which eventually grows into a loyal customer base that keeps your business running and growing.
Lastly, you can’t have customers that think bad about your business. Again, this isn’t just one customer because that customer will multiply. Eventually, you’ll have a lot of customers that are avoiding your business due to warnings from other customers.
In a recent study by Jay Baer, he concluded that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family, while 70% trust reviews from anonymous consumers online. This high-trust rate means you need to rethink your strategy when interacting with customers.
That’s why it’s important to treat every customer your best, that way you’re constantly building and nurturing a culture of loyal customers.
So, How Do You Build Customer Loyalty?
Most business owners expect loyal customers to come as a result from being open for a long time or just through luck alone. Instead, loyal customers come as a result of hard work, dedication, commitment, and genuine gratitude toward the customer.
If you’ve been trying to build a loyal customer base, but haven’t had the luck you were hoping for, we’ve got several tips that will help you on your way:
1. Ask Your Customers
Never be afraid to reach out to your customers or clients and ask them for feedback about how they were treated, how their experience was, and what your business could’ve done better to provide a more memorable experience.
This can be done through surveys or by having a specified place on your website to accept suggestions/feedback. You can also make use of those emails you’ve been collecting and start a campaign. If customers truly want to see change in your company, they’ll let you know.
Ignite that change, and you’ll start to gain trust!
2. Respond to Reviews
While customers like to read the reviews of other customers before purchasing a product or signing up for a service, they also like to know how the business responded to that review -- if they responded to it. That’s why it’s important to always monitor your reputation online and respond to customers in a timely manner.
The key is to always stay positive when responding, always apologize, and always present a solution to the issue. This will show them that you’re here for them, not for yourself.
3. Incentivize Referrals
If you were wondering why you aren’t getting that many referrals, it might be because your customers aren’t being pushed to doing so. Sometimes, that’s all they need -- a little incentive to make it that much more worth it for them.
Get creative with this, but it doesn’t have to be anything crazy. Give them each a discount on their next purchase, or a free meal the next time they come in. Something that won’t cost you that much on the back-end, but something that they’ll appreciate nonetheless.
4. Loyalty Programs Work
In addition to incentivizing referrals, introducing a loyalty program can help increase your ability to build trust with customers. Offer a free meal after the purchase of five or a free item after spending a certain amount -- trust us, it works.
Those people that would normally only visit you once will suddenly start visiting you monthly and even weekly. This gives you more time to nurture their experience with your business and keep them interested in doing business with you long-term.
5. Give Back to the Community
Especially in a day and age like this, it’s extremely important to give back to your community and show that you’re more than just a business -- you’re here to help make life better for others in any way possible.
When there’s a local event going on, find a way to participate. If there’s a charity you have respect for, make a donation. You should always be looking for new ways to give back and show your business’ true colors so the rest of the community can see with their own eyes.
6. Customer Service Is Key
Of course, there’s nothing customers like more than being treated well. When you interact with a customer, you have to make them feel special and turn all your attention towards them. If you don’t, they’ll easily take their business elsewhere and talk bad about yours in the process.
Take the time to train your employees correctly and make sure you’re following all the right protocols when interacting with customers. You should also reassess those protocols often to make sure they meet evolving standards.
7. Consistency Helps
Another thing that’s essential to building a loyal customer base is being consistent. You can’t expect to keep a customer engaged with your business if you can’t consistently give them good products or service. They want to rely on you long-term, but only if you can prove it to them.
To solve this, make sure you and your employees are always following the best practices and protocols we discussed in the previous section. You should also ensure your employees know how to handle themselves in a high-pressure situation to avoid any mishaps.
8. Quality Over Everything
Last but not least, focusing on quality never hurts anyone or any business. It’s what the customers want, it’s what they expect, and it’s the only thing you should think about delivering when they need you.
Don’t cut any corners and always find ways to improve your company -- from top to bottom. Every little improvement will benefit the overall experience by the customer, so don’t take anything for granted here.
Don’t Stop There!
Once you start implementing the right strategies, you’ll see loyalty rise with customers. They’ll start engaging with your business more often and be more willing to spend their hard-earned money at your business.
If you want to enhance your connection with customers, social media can be a huge help. Your customers are already on there, they already use it frequently, and they likely already want you on there. Furthermore, it gives you an opportunity to show your business’ true colors and personality.
Ultimately, you have to figure out what your customers want and what they expect out of a company like yours. Once you can figure that out, you’ll know what needs to be done to satisfy them day-in and day-out.
Of course, you can always contact Consultants In-A-Box for more strategies, tips, advice, and assistance when building customer loyalty in your business. We can’t wait to help you find success with your customers and build a lasting relationship with them!
