Customer Acquisition Requires a Mix of Skills

 By Pat Campbell

Four Basics in Consumer Focused Marketing

Here is a discussion of four basic elements to have in place when you are setting up your customer acquisition marketing platform. Customer acquisition is a skill set that we actually have as infants.  Who doesn't respond to a baby's cry.  Over time though we learn not to ask for things, we learn not to put ourselves forward.

Becoming a marketer requires undoing those "buckles" and releasing learned behaviour. You can really let your personality shine through.  Your product or service reflects who you are as a person and the basic value you bring to the marketplace is you. In fact customer acquisition is all about relationship marketing.

Four basic steps can keep your business moving forward.

1. Solution: Is what you are marketing really responding to your consumer demands/problem or need? You figure this out by spending time considering your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Your personality reaches out to your market when you know who you are and the solution you are offering to your market. For example, a stay at home mom with an expertise and passion for interior design can make a win/win solution develop. This home based entrepreneur knows she wants to stay home with her baby; she has training, experience in decorating; she understands other young moms may have decorating needs with limited budgets and access to services. Her solution to the need? She can market an online service for decorating consultations with budget limitations using a customer needs survey, photos, drafting plans.

2. Information: What methods are you using to get your message to your market? Is your message about your solution clear? Are you using tested and tried marketing strategies for exposure to your market? In your message is it apparent who the messenger is, does your customer have a sense of who you are as a person. What steps are you taking to build a rapport, a relationship with your consumer? Do you have a contact information form in your message? Is your contact information available? All of these questions give guidelines for writing your message. If you have already done the work of knowing how to format the message to get your customers attention, you will have an audience. Your information delivery will develop a loyal customer.  Help you customer find you by using good search engine optimization practices.

 3. Value: It is important in your marketing to be clear to your customer how your product or service will add value to their need. List the benefits of completing a purchase transaction with your product or service. Make the cost of the purchase obvious. Be sure to point out warranties, support services provided and how to access them. If there are any expectations of the customer making sacrifices to reap the reward of the product, make this plainly understood. For example, if someone subscribes to a training site like Renegade Professional, make sure the consumer understands the exchange of time and effort in a learning curve for results.

4. Access: Customer acquisition does not happen unless there is ease in the purchasing path. Whether you are promoting an online business consultation like the decorating service described, or a traditional bricks and mortar business such as selling art from a studio, make the access steps for the purchase decision simple, short, and secure. Your marketing site should list clearly the delivery options for the product or service.

These four steps are from a model called SIVA proposed by two authors, Chekitan Dev and Don Schultz and presented in Market Leader, the journal of Marketing Society in the UK.

Customer acquisition is only the first of many steps in building your business. The relationship does not end with the purchase. There is a definite connection between customer acquisition and customer retention for a long term healthy viable business.

Enjoy the process of experiencing customer acquisition for your USP.

Pat Campbell is a Renegade Professional and Super Guide. She has learned Attraction Marketing with Mike Klingler since 2002. Online Attraction Marketing has been a breath of fresh air after years of cold calling, return calling with poor results. Pat knows the effort it takes to juggle your passion around fulltime day job commitments and life. It is exhilarating to develop strength and skill set within you that is brand new with Attraction Marketing.

 www.campbellpat.com