What is Customer Acquisition?

@Sneakers41 - I agree that doing some sort of direct mail or social media marketing is important but I also think that doing a press release at the local Sunday edition of the Neighborhood section of the paper can also get the word out about the business.

I think that once a customer does come in the door, a business has to have a way to track that customer in order to follow up with them so they can develop a relationship.

Some businesses do this by asking customers for their email or contact information and then offering a rewards program while other companies will do this by offering some sort of random drawing.

Restaurants do this a lot. I have seen some restaurants have a big fish bowl and ask customers to drop in their business card in order for a customer to win a lunch for two or a catered lunch for an entire office.

The customer has nothing to lose and the business gets a ton of leads to market to in the future. I have never won anything this way, but I always throw my card in there just to see if I win.

@Icecream17 - I think that it makes a lot of sense for a school to do that. I also think that sometimes a business has to offer a promotion of either a heavily discounted product or service so that a new customer will consider this business.

I know that I come across a lot of new businesses through direct mail and I visit new businesses that offer enough of a discount for me to try their product or services.

It really lowers the risk of the unknown which is something new businesses have to overcome. I also think that posting testimonials on the website can also increase the chance that a customer will do business with a company.

I think new businesses can also seek published information of residents in their immediate area and send them information on promotions and special offers in order to try to get their business, but they also have to have some sort of social media marketing because the internet is the main source that people use when seeking out information.

@Suntan12 - I have to say that I used to hate doing cold calls, but its part of sales. I know that customer acquisition programs can also include open houses.

Many realtors and well as private schools use this method to obtain new customers. For realtors, the open house not only gives prospective buyers an opportunity to view the home, but it also give other potential realtors a chance to see if the home is something that their clients would like. Private schools also offer this opportunity to prospective students and families in order to grow their pool of potential candidates and eliminate the possibility of empty seats in the fall.

I know one private school that does this and also has a waiting list in order to ensure that the classrooms are filled to capacity.

Many exclusive private schools will give the siblings of currently enrolled student’s priority in order to promote the level of customer retention at the school. This priority status for legacy candidates really enhances the customer experience for the family and builds loyalty for the school over time.

I just wanted to say that when I used to work as an account executive for a technical staffing firm we would always try to develop sales leads from customers that worked within the other divisions of the company.

Since this staffing firm also offered accounting, clerical, and legal staffing we could always use this information when we placed our prospecting call. It was considered a warm call because our company had already done business with this company, but not in this division.

We also used lead generation lists that our division director purchased and tried to do some cold calls in order to get more potential prospects.

These were our best customer acquisition strategies that we were able to put together.