How to improve your eCommerce customer acquisition strategy

Attracting new customers to your eCommerce platform and persuading them to purchase your product is a challenging undertaking. This process, known as customer acquisition, is an essential part of your eCommerce success. Finding an effective customer acquisition strategy for your business should be a top priority.

With the right methods and tools, you can increase your customer base, engagement, and ultimately, your sales.

In this article, we will discuss five proven strategies to help you boost customer acquisition through your eCommerce website:

• Reach new customers with social media advertising
• Get more organic traffic with search engine optimization (SEO)
• Engage with your potential customers through email marketing
• Boost eCommerce sales growth and build customer loyalty through referral programs
• Expand your reach with affiliate marketing

Keep reading to learn how to implement these strategies and how they can drastically boost customer acquisition.

The Importance of Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition, or finding of potential customers and convincing them to buy your product, is a key part of your eCommerce strategy. As an online seller, it’s important to develop an effective customer acquisition process that you can repeat over and over again. It’s also important that your customer acquisition strategy is measurable, so you know how well it’s working.

There are many different ways to reach consumers and turn them into customers. These are called customer acquisition channels, and include paid ads, emails, your website, referrals, social media, and more.

When thinking about customer acquisition strategies for your business, pay attention to the following:

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

When analyzing your customer acquisition strategy, be sure to pay attention to CAC, or customer acquisition cost. This is the amount of money you pay to turn a consumer into a paying customer.

You can calculate your customer acquisition cost by dividing the total cost of marketing by the number of customers you acquire.

Calculating your CAC can help you determine if your marketing efforts are paying off. Keep in mind that customer acquisition costs have increased in recent years, so finding methods to keep your customer acquisition cost down can help increase profitability.

Customer acquisition funnel

Customer acquisition is often visualized as a funnel or an inverted triangle.

Calculating your CAC can help you determine if your marketing efforts are paying off. Keep in mind that customer acquisition costs have increased in recent years, so finding methods to keep your customer acquisition cost down can help increase profitability.

Customer acquisition funnel

Customer acquisition is often visualized as a funnel or an inverted triangle.

At the top of the funnel, also called TOFU, are leads. This is the widest part of the triangle, and is known as the awareness stage. In this stage, you generate awareness for your brand and product. You’re targeting a broader audience that is likely interested in your brand or product, but might not be ready to go through with the purchase.

In the middle of the funnel, or MOFU, are prospects. These are prospective customers who have moved from the top of the funnel down in the next stage: consideration. Prospective customers have taken an action such as signing up for your newsletter, displaying a deeper interest in your product. They are considering making a purchase from your brand.

The bottom of the funnel, or BOFU, is the final stage: purchase. This is when you finally turn your prospects into customers. Consumers move down into the bottom of the funnel when they do something that shows that they’re ready to make a purchase, like adding a product to their cart.

Customer Acquisition Strategies

When targeting potential customers, you want to be sure to use strategies that work well for each consumer where they are in your funnel. Think about which channels will be most effective for your audience and product, try them out, and keep track of what’s working and what’s not. Then, you’ll be able to optimize your customer acquisition strategy.

Here are some proven strategies to boost your customer acquisition.

1. Reach new customers with social media advertising

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are no longer just spaces for personal networking but have transformed into powerful marketplaces.

If you run an eCommerce business, these platforms present immense opportunities for you to reach out to your target audience quickly and without breaking the bank.

Social media offers you a chance to grab the attention of a vast audience and guide them toward your online store through strategically designed and well-targeted paid advertising campaigns.

You can define your target audience by factors like age, location, interests, and even their online behavior. This means that your ads are more likely to reach people who are interested in your products. Targeted ads drastically improve your conversion rates – the percentage of people who not only see your ads but also go on to make a purchase.

Here are a few key benefits of advertising your products on social media platforms:

• Increased reach: With millions of active users daily, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can connect your business with a vast audience that you might not be able to reach through traditional marketing channels.
• Targeted audience engagement: Through tailored content and targeted ads, you can interact directly with your potential customers, understand their needs and preferences, and build stronger relationships.
• Improved conversion rates: When your ads reach people who are genuinely interested in your products, they are more likely to convert from potential leads into actual customers.
• If you’re running an eCommerce business and haven’t ventured into social media advertising yet, there’s no better time than now to start.
• 2. Get more organic traffic with search engine optimization (SEO)
• With search engine optimization (SEO), you can elevate your website and product pages to appear prominently in search engine results. This enhances your online visibility.
• SEO is a collection of strategies aimed at improving your website’s positioning in search results. By optimizing your website, you can capture the attention of users who are actively looking for products or services similar to yours.

Here are five simple but effective strategies to boost your website’s SEO ranking:

1. Use relevant keywords in your site content: Keywords are the phrases that users type into search engines when looking for specific information, products, or services. You should incorporate these relevant keywords into your site content.
2. Write engaging meta titles and descriptions: Meta titles and descriptions are brief summaries of a webpage’s content that appear in search engine results. An intriguing and relevant meta title and description can increase the click-through rate, driving more traffic to your website.
3. Adopt a search engine and user-friendly URL structure: Your website’s URL structure should be easy to understand for both search engines and users. A well-structured URL can provide both users and search engines with more information about the webpage.
4. Optimize your site’s navigation: An easy-to-navigate website can significantly improve the user experience. By using relevant tags and categories, you can help users quickly find what they’re looking for, improving their overall experience and perception of your site.
5. Build quality backlinks: Backlinks, or links from other reputable websites to your site, are a strong signal to search engines that your site has valuable content. By cultivating high-quality backlinks, you can boost your website’s authority and improve its ranking in search engine results.

Implement these SEO best practices to reach more potential customers, drive more traffic, and ultimately increase your sales and revenue.

3. Engage with your potential customers through email marketing

Email marketing provides an impressive return on investment (ROI). In fact, studies show you can potentially earn up to $36 for every dollar spent on email marketing.

Every visitor to your website is a potential customer, and you need to seize the opportunity to engage them. Therefore, collect the email addresses of your site visitors, whether through sign-up forms or pop-ups with a strong call-to-action (CTA). Once you have these contacts, it’s time to cultivate and nurture them.

Sending out personalized emails to your subscribers can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy. This could include:

• Special offers or discounts tailored to their preferences
• Updates on new products or services they might find interesting
• Value-rich content that resonates with them

By providing relevant and appealing content, you increase the chances of maintaining regular engagement with your audience. When your subscribers feel valued and engaged, they’re more likely to stay connected with your brand and become long-term customers.

4. Boost customer growth through referral programs

Word-of-mouth remains one of the most powerful marketing channels. Referral programs are a way to acquire more customers through your current, satisfied customers. It’s a simple yet incredibly effective strategy to expand your customer base while also rewarding your loyal customers.

Referral programs capitalize on the trust and relationships that your existing customers have built with their networks. You can motivate your current customers to become brand advocates by encouraging them to share their positive experiences and refer their friends, family, or colleagues to your store.

In return, you can offer them compelling incentives, such as discounts, free products, or exclusive access to new releases, for successful referrals.

This strategy is a win-win situation. Your existing customers are motivated to stay engaged with your brand due to the incentives, while you simultaneously gain new customers who have been referred by a trusted source.

Here are the three key benefits of implementing referral programs:

1. Strengthened customer loyalty: As your existing customers engage with your referral program, they deepen their connection and loyalty to your brand. This happens as they take on the role of brand advocates, sharing and promoting your brand within their personal networks.
2. New customer acquisition: The primary goal of referral programs is to attract new customers, and it’s highly effective. People tend to trust recommendations from someone they know, making referred customers more likely to engage with your brand.
3. Improved brand reputation: Every time your customers recommend your store, they’re not just referring new customers; they’re also endorsing your brand reputation. This positive word-of-mouth contributes significantly to enhancing your brand image and credibility in the market.

5. Expand your reach with affiliate marketing

This approach transforms the traditional concept of sales promotion into a collaborative effort. Affiliate marketing is a strategy in which you team up with affiliates to showcase and promote your products. Affiliates can be other relevant websites in your niche, influencers, YouTube personalities, or email marketing specialists.

Here are the three key benefits of implementing referral programs:

1. Strengthened customer loyalty: As your existing customers engage with your referral program, they deepen their connection and loyalty to your brand. This happens as they take on the role of brand advocates, sharing and promoting your brand within their personal networks.
2. New customer acquisition: The primary goal of referral programs is to attract new customers, and it’s highly effective. People tend to trust recommendations from someone they know, making referred customers more likely to engage with your brand.
3. Improved brand reputation: Every time your customers recommend your store, they’re not just referring new customers; they’re also endorsing your brand reputation. This positive word-of-mouth contributes significantly to enhancing your brand image and credibility in the market.

5. Expand your reach with affiliate marketing

This approach transforms the traditional concept of sales promotion into a collaborative effort. Affiliate marketing is a strategy in which you team up with affiliates to showcase and promote your products. Affiliates can be other relevant websites in your niche, influencers, YouTube personalities, or email marketing specialists.

An affiliate marketing program is essentially a performance-based marketing strategy. Here, you provide the affiliates with a unique link to your product, and they incorporate this link in their content—be it a blog post, social media update, or video.

When a customer on the affiliate’s platform makes a purchase using this unique link, the affiliate earns a commission.

Here’s how affiliate marketing can help you with customer acquisition:

• Expanded audience reach: By partnering with affiliates who already have a robust follower base, you are indirectly tapping into their audience.
• Increased brand exposure: As multiple affiliates promote your products, your brand gains increased exposure. Each blog post, social media share, or video featuring your product serves as an additional platform for showcasing your brand.
• Boosted sales: One of the most direct benefits of affiliate marketing is the increase in sales. With the added visibility and exposure, more potential customers are likely to discover and purchase your products.
• Cost efficiency: Since you only pay commissions for successful sales, affiliate marketing minimizes the risk of wasted marketing expenses. It’s a cost-effective strategy with a high potential return on investment.

Strengthen Customer Retention with 8fig

While these strategies—SEO, social media advertising, email marketing, affiliate marketing, and referral programs—are effective tools for customer acquisition, another important aspect to pay attention to is your supply chain and inventory management.

As your customer base grows, it’s essential to maintain a robust supply chain and sufficient inventory to prevent stockouts. Customer retention is less costly than customer acquisition, and therefore key to your success. Running out of stock can quickly damage the customer base you’ve worked so hard to build.

That’s where 8fig comes in. We offer continuous cash flow based funding to cover your most important costs, including inventory, freight, shipping, and even marketing. This ensures you don’t have to worry about running out of stock or not being able to fund marketing campaigns as your business grows. That’s just what you need to acquire and retain new customers at scale.

Our clients have experienced significant successes, with stories ranging from 7-figure Amazon exits to Amazon store growth of up to 500%.

If your online store has been in business for a year or longer, has an annual revenue of $100,000 or more, and generates $8,000+ in monthly sales, you could qualify for an 8fig Growth Plan

Sign up today and find out how 8fig can help you reach your growth goals.