Digital customer acquisition has changed. Learning about how to find new customers online used to be all about running pay-per-click ads or creating content for your blog and social media channels and that was it.
Today, the digital markets are more crowded. This means we need to get more creative. Businesses need to take advantage of every opportunity to reach their target audience online with multiple smaller touches rather than one big push.
Research from Google shows that 89% of shoppers agree that YouTube creators give the best information about products and brands. And this video is just one of the pieces of the digital customer acquisition puzzle.
GlobeNewswire reported that the global market for Digital Advertising and Marketing was estimated at $350 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $786.2 billion by 2026, with much of that going towards digital advertising and new ways for brands to find customers online.
As this market grows, it makes sense to spend some time figuring out the digital customer acquisition puzzle.
While these new tactics may not be as straightforward as an old-school press release or billboard, they’re proving more effective at bringing in new customers to businesses willing to experiment with them and they are also easier to track and measure.
As a consultant and small business owner, I understand that being able to find new clients is something I must do to bring peace of mind to my family and our team.
In this article, I will share with you my top four insights, and 5 specific tactics, on how to find new customers online in 2022.
Contents
What is the best way to find new customers?
There are many strategies you can use to find new customers, and we can group these into two big groups. You either go find new customers or you create ways for them to find you (also known as outbound and inbound).
Typical ways of going out to find new customers are door-to-door sales, cold calling, or going to industry events.
In the digital world, the equivalents are going to people’s websites and sending a message through the contact form, sending a direct message to one of their social media accounts, or going to digital events where your customers are likely in attendance.
The typical ways of attracting clients are to create brand awareness campaigns and locate yourself in areas where your customers will likely look for you. This could mean having a physical store in a great location (think main street or a famous mall).
Or it could also mean being featured on expert TV shows where your ideal clients are likely looking for information on how to solve problems related to the products or services you offer (i.e. a financial expert being featured on the news to talk about the economy and what people should do to prepare for a recession).
One of the oldest and best ways for businesses to attract new customers is by referrals. Marketers have long known that word-of-mouth recommendations are their best chance of growing the top-line revenue of their business.
But with the advent of social media, influencer marketing, and other new ways to bring in referrals, businesses have more options than ever before.
Up to this point, we’ve talked about the different ways to find new customers online. But which is the best?
Any experienced sales and marketing professional will likely tell you that the answer is… it depends!
I’d say that if you are just getting started or if you need to generate sales fast, then you need to get out there and knock on some doors (outbound). In the digital world, that can be done by reaching out to people on LinkedIn.
If you are interested in doing so, I’d recommend you take a look at this 90-day plan with insights on how Candyce Edelen was able to generate $438,000 in sales in 6 months running a 2-person business.
On the other hand, if you are already at a point where you have some sales and what you want to achieve is scale. If what you want is to have a consistent and predictable flow of new clients, then I’d say that investing in a system to attract new clients is the best option (inbound).
Where can I find new clients?
Any successful business owner will tell you that there is in fact a secret way to find new clients that most people oversee.
This secret is the most efficient and effective way to grow your business. Which is about selling to existing clients.
Every sales and marketing expert out there will tell you that is WAY easier to sell something to someone who has already bought from you. So don’t overlook that opportunity.
You should always look for ways to upsell your clients. If possible, your products and services should be designed in such a way that upselling is always a possibility.
In the same line of thinking, retaining your existing clients should be a priority. There is no point in finding new clients if you also lose your existing clients at the same time. Because this would be like pouring water in a leaky bucket.
You want to make sure that you are keeping the majority of your existing clients so that as you find new clients, the revenue will actually grow.
5 Ways to Get New Customers Online
Now, let’s start to bring all these big-picture components down to earth. Here are five specific ways in which you can get new customers online. Some are part of inbound and others outbound.
Paid Advertising
Whether you’re advertising on Google or Facebook, or on one of the many other digital advertising platforms available today, paid advertising is still one of the most effective ways to get new customers online.
This doesn’t just refer to digital advertising, either. AdWords, for example, has been using print and TV ads for years to bring in new customers. What’s changed is the way that ads are created, targeted, and measured.
Now, businesses can use predictive analytics and other software to help them maximize the return on their advertising spend.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is more than just publishing blog posts or creating infographics. It also includes video and audio content, as well as newsletters and other written materials.
By creating engaging, shareable content that will appeal to your target audience, you can use this as a way to reach new customers online and build your brand at the same time.
Influencer Marketing
Advertising and content marketing comes down to one thing: the customer experience.
But what about before the customer even comes into contact with your brand? How do you get your product in front of people who don’t know you even exist?
Partnering with influencers in your industry and using their following to your advantage can be a great way to get new customers online.
Live Streaming
Live streaming has become a powerful way for businesses to reach their audience, and you can use it as a way to drive new customer acquisition.
Whether you’re offering an advice show, hosting a Q&A session, or even running an online 24-hour gaming marathon, giving your customers a way to interact with you and offer you feedback is a great way to bring in new customers online.
Referral Programs
If you’re looking for low-cost customer acquisition, then a referral program might be just what you’re looking for.
By offering your customers a way to earn rewards or cash back when they recommend your products or services to their friends, you can bring in new customers while also increasing your retention rate.
How To Attract Customers Online
We’ve covered the big picture of how to find new customers online and we’ve also shared 5 specific ways to get new customers online.
Now, we will go deeper into how to attract customers online. We’re going to share a content marketing approach that was created by Marcus Sheridan and is explained in his book They Ask, You Answer.
This is the strategy we leverage to create a personal brand for coaches, consultants, and small business owners so that they can create a consistent and predictable flow of new potential customers.
Our goal with this strategy is to identify the content that people are looking for when they are close to making a purchase and also identify the questions that they have once they are evaluating the potential options.
What we want is to leverage content to attract the customers and move them as close as possible to the finish line, so that when you schedule a call with them your close rate is, ideally, 90% or more.
This is what we call the minimum viable content marketing strategy. We cover the four key pieces of content that you must create to position yourself as the go-to thought leader in your niche.
We must create content that:
- Attracts your potential clients
- Educates and demonstrates how you can create value
- Explains your products, services, and pricing structure
By doing so, you will avoid having to repeat yourself on every discovery call. Because prospects will be able to educate themselves, at their own pace, through your content.
The four key pieces of content we recommend are:
- The Top X Best <Coaches/Consultants/Companies> in <Your Niche>
- Ultimate Guide on <Your Niche> Pricing
- Some DIY tool or methodology
- An explanation of your top product/service
Let’s say you are a small business CPA in Houston. If that’s the case, the topics you should probably cover are something like:
- Top 10 Best Small Business CPAs in Houston
- Ultimate Guide on Small Business CPA Services Pricing
- How Small Business Owners Can Use Quickbooks to Pay Fewer Taxes
- How We Help Small Business Owners Minimize Tax Liability
The specific words might change depending on what we find when doing discovery and keyword research.
But overall, the goal would be to attract potential clients with the first two, as “Best service/product” and “Service/product pricing” are searches that someone is making when they are close to making a purchasing decision.
From those, you lead them to your tool/methodology content to build trust and demonstrate that you are an expert in your niche. And then, you lead them to the explanation of your services.
That way, after they’ve gone through those pieces of content, if they decide to book a call they are already acquainted with what you do and how you do it. Thus, the likelihood of them becoming clients is higher (and you avoid calls with tire kickers).
Want to Learn More About How to Find New Customers Online?
If you’d like to learn more about how to implement this strategy, you can get started by crafting a personal branding statement using our free personal branding statement generator.
Whenever you are ready to take the next step, you can take a look at our pricing page and our baseline package.
