Acquiring customers is the lifeblood of any business, without custom you have no business and using the internet as a leading marketing tool means you have to get creative in your methods. There are many different methods for acquiring customers and here we’re looking at just five which work.
Ride the Viral Wave
Creating your own viral content is not a perfect science but when something in your industry goes viral, why not get involved? Everything from the Ice Bucket Challenge to the Mannequin Challenge have given businesspeople the chance to engage with their audience and attract more attention. DO it right and promote across the right channels and it will make a great impression.
Offer Helpful, Informative Content
Freemium content is a hugely busy area of the market and it’s an effective way of building your email lists. Developing intelligent and informative beginner’s or how-to- guides in your area of expertise gives you something tangible to offer for your audience. Swapping this content for email addresses or sign ups to your blog list helps to quickly build up a list of engaged and interested subscribers for your list.
Focus your Content on Long Tail Keywords
Don’t forget your main keywords but keep them in the background and hone in on your longtails. Rather than bringing in huge traffic via search engines, focusing on longtails allows you to increase conversions by targeting those specific phrases which are essential for sales. You won’t get huge traffic from longtail searchers but they will be more inclined to convert, due to the specificity of their search.
Consider Forum Marketing
Forums may be considered an outdated medium but the size of sites such as Reddit and Quora suggests otherwise. Forum marketing requires a soft selling approach and time taken to build up rapport. You answer questions, offer helpful advice and have the opportunity to, in time, introduce yourself from a business perspective. As relationships build, so does the respect and trust forum users have in you, when the time comes to introduce your business.
Publish Externally
The age of general guest posting being good for your SEO and link building campaigns is pretty much over but posting on certain external sites can push interest in your business to the next level, albeit for a relatively short burst of time. If you become a Buzzfeed or Huffington Post contributor and your pieces are picked up and shared in feeds, or even on the front page, you’ll soon see a spike in interest and the chance to acquire a new kind of customer.
