You can’t expect your business to grow without acquiring new customers. But in a world where consumers are constantly bombarded with messaging, marketers can struggle to attract a person’s attention.
In addition to fighting to stand out against the competition, marketers are also running into the issue that acquiring new customers is getting more and more expensive. In the last five years, customer acquisition costs increased roughly 60% for B2B and B2C companies.
It can look frustrating, but increased competition and rising costs are not a reason to give up. Instead, marketers need to look at what’s working in an acquisition strategy. The best way to do that is by taking a hard look at the data and leveraging it effectively.
For those looking to identify potential buyers in the market or source and activate existing data, let’s first define acquisition marketing and the role it can play for you. Then, we’ll look at how to implement a strong acquisition strategy using data-driving marketing tactics to acquire new customers.1
What makes acquisition marketing unique is that a company is implementing a strategy that specifically targets consumers who might be aware of your brand, but are not yet customers. It typically requires cross-department collaboration by involving the marketing, sales, and/or customer service teams.
Acquisition marketing is a multichannel approach that could include any combination of the following: blogging, search marketing, video, social media, and email. The specific channels a company uses depends on current trends and their target audience. For example, we’ve seen more people become burned out on digital ads after the pandemic forced a shift to remote and hybrid working. As a result, there’s been a resurgence in direct mail as an effective tactic for marketers to implement.
Knowing the trends and knowing who to target are key in developing your acquisition marketing strategy–both of which can be determined with data.
Today’s consumers are about speed, relevance and ease of purchase. While brands aim to communicate in a relevant and timely manner, the fact is, they are inundated with too much information and not enough insight. Having all the data means nothing if you can’t sift through it in order to use it effectively. So, as a marketer, how can you become more relevant to your customers and drive real business growth?
That’s where a strong acquisition strategy comes into play.
An effective marketing strategy–of any kind–starts with selecting the right audience. Remember, acquisition marketing isn’t about retaining existing customers or upselling. It isn’t even about targeting people who have never heard of your business before. It’s about targeting prospects who know who you are and are perhaps stuck in the “interest” or “consideration” phase of the sales funnel.
To do this, consider building customer acquisition models. These are completely customizable and help marketers maximize their budgets by narrowing their focus on prospects with a higher conversion rate. These are largely built with third-party data that provides the following information:
For example, Resideo partnered with Data Axle to analyze existing data and create a customer acquisition model in order to drive up new purchases. With the data, they were able to hone their targeting based on geography, weather, and other data-points like a recent move. With a focused audience, the acquisition campaign drove a 78% higher number of activations when compared against previous years.
Once you’ve identified the right audience to target, it’s time to determine how you plan to reach them. With technology, you can determine and optimize everything from channel selection to campaign timing and deployment. We’re increasingly seeing a trend of marketers adopting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help glean insights.
These specific tools can be especially useful when operating within an industry with strict regulations. For example, Data Axle’s acquisition experts partnered with one of the 5 largest health insurance companies. The company needed help with advanced targeting of prospects and real-time messaging capabilities while still remaining compliant with industry regulations. As a result, their acquisition campaign saw a 32% reduction in disengaged website visitors and a 4% to 8.2% lift in acquisition rate for their target audiences, based on the specific segment.
The final key piece of any successful acquisition strategy is analyzing metrics and making adjustments as needed. Of course, you’ll want to examine metrics for individual campaigns but you’ll also want to keep an eye on the Cost per Quality Acquisition, or CPqA.
This marketing metric measures the total cost to acquire a paying customer on a campaign or channel level. As a financial metric, it is relevant because it directly measures the revenue impact of acquisition marketing campaigns.
Too many marketers are not utilizing data to leverage in their acquisition marketing strategy. To keep up with competition and rising costs, it’s time for businesses to refocus their acquisition efforts with a data-driven approach.
1 https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/how-is-cac-changing-over-time
As Content Marketing Manager, Natasia is responsible for helping strategize, produce and execute Data Axle's content. With a passion for writing and an enthusiasm for data management and technology, Natasia creates content that is designed to deliver nuggets of wisdom to help brands and individuals elevate their data governance policies. A native New Yorker, when Natasia is not at work she can be found enjoying New York’s food scene, at one of NYC’s many museums, or at one of the city’s many parks with her two teacup yorkies.