CUSTOMER

ACQUISITION &
GROWTH
WHAT IS CUSTOMER
ACQUISITION?
MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF THE CUSTOMERS YOU
ACQUIRE.
Customer acquisition signifies the beginning of the customer’s
lifetime.

It is the process of finding and persuading prospective customers

to buy from your business in a way that is both measurable and
repeatable—not random.
Customer acquisition
happens in stages, which
are often visualized as
a customer acquisition
funnel.

- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
 As consumers move through the funnel to become buyers, they:

• Gain awareness about your brand

• Add your product or service to their consideration pool
• Make a decision to become a paying customer of your business
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION REFERS TO THE FUNNEL
AS A WHOLE.
TOP OF THE FUNNEL: AWARENESS

Goal: Generate
Awareness and Leads
MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL: CONSIDERATION

Goal: Education
BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL: PURCHASE

Goal: Conversion
(intent to buy)
AMAZON’S ACQUISITION STRATEGY

Jeff Bezo’s
Launched Amazon
as an online
bookstore in 1994.
CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY SEEKS TO
UNDERSTAND WHICH
CHARACTERISTICS ARE MOST
CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE
LIFETIME VALUE OF A CUSTOMER.
FISHING FOR
THE RIGHT
CUSTOMERS.
HETEROGENEITY VS CUSTOMER CENTRIC

Heterogeneity Customer-Centric

• Conventional sales and • Focused on the highest

marketing teams focused on value customers and the
QUANTITY vs. QUALITY best customer
• More customer for low costs • Need to find the balance of
‘nets’ and ‘spears’ to
continue to feed business
(and new waters!)
ACQUISITION
MARKETING
ACQUISITION MARKETING DEFINITION

Acquisition marketing is implementing certain strategies to

market your products and services to new customers. It typically
requires collaboration and alignment between marketing and
customer service teams.
STRATEGIES VS
TACTICS
 STRATEGY VS TACTIC
STRATEGY TACTIC
BROAD STRATEGY – Gain lots DIRECT – Known prospects.
of customers.

SELECTIVE STRATEGY – Fewer INDIRECT – Unknown

but higher-quality of prospects.
customers.

Reference: Customer Centricity Playbook: Implementing a Winning Strategy, Chapter 4

 STRATEGIES USED TO ACQUIRE NEW
CUSTOMERS
BROAD STRATEGY: Cast a wide
net in order to gain lots of new
customers.

• Great strategy if at the

beginning of your product
lifecycle
• Need to fill in the sales pipeline
and stimulate network effects
(always need new clients coming
in)
• Don’t need repeat business
SELECTIVE STRATEGIES USED TO ACQUIRE NEW CUSTOMERS

SELECTIVE STRATEGY: Requires

the precision targeting of a
spear to bring in fewer but
higher-quality customers.

• Companies that need to be

picker about customers
because of:
• Capacity constraints
• Switching costs are high
• Customers will be in for the
long-run
MOST COMPANIES
NEED A BLENDED
APPROACH.
 DIRECT VS INDIRECT TACTIC
BROAD STRATEGY SELECTIVE STRATEGY

DIRECT TACTIC • Lead generation • Profiling/scoring models

• Telemarketing • Social network neighbour
• Detailing methods
• Lookalike models

INDIRECT TACTIC • Mass marketing • Influential seeding

• Random Seeding • Referrals
• Word of Mouth • 2nd degree targeting

Figure 2.1: Types of acquisition strategies and tactics.

Reference: Customer Centricity Playbook: Implementing a Winning Strategy, Chapter 4

DIRECT-BROAD APPROACH
The direct-broad
approach targets
specific individual
customers, but little is
know about these
leads.

Example: Purchase a
list and cold call
customers, Google
Marketing
DIRECT-SELECTIVE
The direct-selective
approach,
marketers usually
use two sets of
models to describe
and find good
customers.

They start with

their own database
and run profiling
models to identify
characteristics.
INDIRECT-BROAD ACQUISITION APPROACH
This approach is all about
casting the widest net to
reach as many customers
as possible.

Example: Mass media or

billboards
INDIRECT SELECTIVE ACQUISITION APPROACH
In indirect-selective approach,
companies look for customers who
have something in common with
their existing high-value customers,
but don’t know who they are.

Example: Referred Customers

OTHER CUSTOMER
ACQUISITION
STRATEGIES
CONTENT MARKETING
Content marketing is an
effective customer
acquisition method for
all types of businesses.
Creating new, exciting,
and relevant content is
a highly effective way
to snag your audience’s
attention and send
them to your website.
BLOGGING
- Explore different topics
- Optimize for search
engines and reader
experience
EBOOKS, GUIDES, AND CONTENT OFFERS
- More in-depth
knowledge
compared to blog
- Customers need to
give their
information to get
content
- Get leads in funnel
 VIDEO
- Video allows you to get
more in-depth
- It is good for connecting
and converting your
audience
SOCIAL MEDIA – ORGANIC
. The key is accessing the right
networks — and this all comes
back to a well-defined audience.
SOCIAL MEDIA – PAID
- Paid ads that
will help you
get more traffic
to your site
SEARCH MARKETING
SEO is a popular
customer
acquisition
method because
it’s reliable and
cost-effective.
EMAIL MARKETING
- Build email list and
leverage that list to
connect with and
convert customers.
MEASURE CUSTOMER
ACQUISITION
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the cost associated with bringing a new
customer or client to your business, such as marketing costs, events, and
advertising. It’s typically calculated in reference to a specific campaign or
window of time.

CAC is important because it assigns real value to your marketing efforts and
allows you to measure your ROI
HOW TO CALCULATE CUSTOMER ACQUISITION
COSTS
This CAC formula is CAC = MC / CA, where:

CAC is customer acquisition cost

MC is marketing costs
CA is customers acquired
EXAMPLE:

For example, say your Instagram page brings in

50 customers a month and you spend $500
creating content. Your customer acquisition cost
would be $10:

Marketing Spend ($500) / New Customers

($50) = CAC ($10 per customer)
THINGS TO CONSIDER WITH CAC:
• On average, how often do your customers make purchases? There’s a
major difference between the CAC of an Audi dealership and a
Starbucks.

• Does/did your company spend money on marketing efforts that are

slated to pay off in the far future? Say you invest in a Q3 campaign but
pay for it in Q1. You aren’t necessarily going to see new customers
right away from that investment, and that might skew your Q1 CAC.
HOW TO MINIMIZE CUSTOMER ACQUISITION
COSTS
1. Improve your website conversion efforts. Enhance your calls-
to-action, ensure your site is mobile and tablet responsive,
optimize your landing pages, and clean up your copywriting.
2. Boost the value of your current customers. This may involve
releasing a new product or upgrade in which your customers
can also invest in.
3. Adjust and optimize your customer acquisition strategy. Take
some time to lay out your acquisition blueprint and see what
each method is costing you. Where could you cut back on extra
marketing spend or manpower?
HOW TO IMPROVE
YOUR CUSTOMER
STRATEGY
A SOLID STRATEGY SHOULD HAVE FOUR ITEMS:

SUSTAINABLE:

A sustainable customer acquisition strategy is one that works in the

long run. This means that the investments you make (whether
money, time, or human) can be upheld for the foreseeable future.
A SOLID STRATEGY SHOULD HAVE FOUR ITEMS:
FLEXIBLE

FLEXIBLE:

Your customer acquisition strategy should also be flexible because

marketing and sales, and the way people respond to them are
always changing. While salespeople were once the gatekeepers of
information about a product, that’s no longer the case.
A SOLID STRATEGY SHOULD HAVE FOUR ITEMS:
TARGETED

TARGETED:

All consumers aren’t your best consumers, and customer acquisition

can result in a crazy waste of resources if not pinpointed toward the
right people. Before you invest in any customer acquisition methods,
you must define who you’re targeting with said methods.
A SOLID STRATEGY SHOULD HAVE FOUR ITEMS:
DIVERSIFIED

DIVERSIFIED:

When you diversify your acquisition strategy and use various

acquisition methods, you have a greater chance of reaching new
audiences and generating new leads.
WHAT WILL YOUR ACQUISITION
STRATEGY LOOK LIKE?

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