How Can New Technology Support Customer Acquisition?

Technology has become a huge part of people’s everyday lives – it is so easy for everyone to be connected to friends, family and the news at all times, across the world through smartphones, laptops, tablets and TV. Advances in technology have not only made people better connected but have improved the way in which businesses can learn about customers, their habits and behaviour. Technology has, therefore, become a key way for businesses to improve their engagement with customers and, in turn, improve their customer acquisition strategy.

 o  Engaging with customers on social media

 Social media has made it easier than ever for businesses to engage with and build relationships with customers. A staggering 84% of UK adults use at least one social media platform and two-thirds of the UK use social media on a daily basis. It is, therefore one of the best and most common places for consumers to learn about your businesses values, products, services and voice. Consequently, it is vital that any business that wants to build their customer base has a business page on at least one social media platform.

Once on a social media platform, your business needs to begin posting relevant content and engaging with customers using the like, share and comment features. The engagement from customers can be measured by assessing how many customers liked, shared or commented on your products. 

o  E-Commerce

 The number of businesses that fail to have an online store is surprising considering the amount of people who prefer to shop online rather than in an actual shop. Not having an online store restricts your potential customers to a small geographical area - most are unlikely to travel long distances to visit a particular shop. Having an online store as well as a physical store, or even an online store alone will increase your customer reach significantly, and in turn, your ability to acquire new customers.

  o  Utilise Analytics

 Recent technology allows you to analyse your engagements with people online. Whether you are using adverts on websites, social media or in emails, there are analytical tools to measure who clicked on the ad and what they did afterwards – whether they made a purchase, looked around on the site or simply clicked off of it. Email marketing campaigns can also have their details measured – who opened the email, where they are in the world, what time they clicked on it, who clicked on a call to action and more. This data can then be used to create better-targeted marketing campaigns that are tailored to those who have shown interest in your business which will make it easier to acquire customers and, therefore, increase sales. Social media engagement can also be analysed both through specialised tools but also simply by measuring the amount of people who liked, shared or commented on your content.

  o  Content Marketing

Content marketing can include whitepapers, blog posts, videos, images and infographics. Once content has been created, it can be shared on websites, blogs and social media to capture the interest of potential consumers and encourage consumer engagement. It is important to ensure all content shared by your business is relevant and interesting and does not present itself as spam material as this can be detrimental to your business’s reputation and credibility.

  o  Search Engine Optimisation

 Search engine optimisation is one of the most important developments in online technology for any business to get right. Optimising your website for the web ensures that it appears high in search result rankings when someone searches a word or phrase that is relevant to your business. Consumers tend not to look past the first the first page of search results and thus, making your site one of the top results is key to gaining interest from new customers. SEO is not, however, an easy task and requires time and patience to get right. Not only do you need to consider the wording used on your site but you also need to focus on building a credible site that outside users engage with and link back to whether on review sites or posts on other websites.

  o  Email Marketing

While email marketing is not as ‘new’ as other technology, there have been significant developments to both how emails are created and how their success can be analysed. The data gathered via databases record individual customer interests and recent purchases as well as their names, dates of birth and other personal information. This information allows emails to be personalised to individual customers which increases their success rates for turning prospective customers into sales. Businesses that address their emails using customers own names see a significant increase in opening rates. Additionally, with the data that is stored when customers make a purchase, it is becoming increasingly more common to find companies sending out emails to recommend similar products that the customer might like which increases the likelihood of a customer returning to make a repeat purchase.

Want to learn more?

Magnificent Marketing is an online step by step course that helps you build your marketing plan. Based on Purpol’s Review, Acquire, Promote, Retain model, the course combines video-based learning with unique practical exercises and worked examples to develop your understanding of marketing. This is accompanied by our Magnificent Marketing Plan template which is populated in stages as the course progresses.

As well as the marketing plan template, we also provide two fully completed example marketing plans showing a B2B Manufacturing Business and B2C Fitness Coach business to act as a reference. As a bonus, you also get a marketing strategy eBook full of helpful hints on practical application.

Our Short video provides an overview of how the course works - https://youtu.be/3xkGtdWbFxo

Buy the course at https://purpolmarketing.co.uk/product/magnificent-marketing-training-course/

Denise O’Leary

Managing Director

Purpol Marketing Limited

Tel        07966 333657

Email   [email protected]

Web    www.purpolmarketing.com