More for less. That seems to be what everyone wants these days, businesses in particular. But, just where do you define a line that combines quality and cost-effectiveness? Indeed, how do you measure cost-effectiveness?
Ultimately, most businesses derive value as return on investment (ROI). Generally they will pay for a service because that will generate more revenue in the long run, than what they are paying.
Though, there are of course other factors to consider. Brand awareness and helping to position your company as an authority can lead to longer term ROI, while some companies also factor in lifetime customer value (LCV).
Let’s take a look at five cost-effective ways that you can improve your customer acquisition strategy, not just from a monetary variable, but also time as well.
Method: Paid Social Media Advertising
Difficulty: Hard
Cost Effectiveness: 5/10
Three years ago, this used to be a very easy way for savvy online advertising specialists to drive traffic to websites or indeed a specific product page. Now, with more and more businesses competing and agencies charging big bucks, it is considerably harder to get the attention of your ideal, target customer.
Added to this that Facebook, particularly, are constantly updating their search algorithm, you really are taking an unnecessary risk with your investment. By all means, experiment yourself, but make sure your funnel (conversion page -> landing page -> ad visual -> targeting metrics) is as effective as it can be first and set a budget that you can afford to not get a return on. These days, it really is a lottery, unless you have been doing it for the last five years and really understand the mechanics.
Method: External Content Publishing
Difficulty: Easy
Cost Effectiveness: 8/10
The only thing you’ve really got to lose here is time if you write the article yourself and even if you don’t, a well-written piece on a website that gets a lot views, with a link back to yours in the content, will pay for itself in no time, especially from a brand awareness perspective.
Websites are always on the lookout for content – especially content that is free. You might have to spend some time looking for ideal ones, though once you have drawn up a shortlist, simply send an email, or identify the best contact on LinkedIn via a company search.
Method: Website Acquisition & Content Migration
Difficulty: Hard
Cost Effectiveness: 6/10
One way to considerably increase visits to your website is to find another website related to yours that is getting a lot of traffic on a daily, weekly, even monthly basis and get in touch with the owner to see if they would consider selling.
The good thing about doing this, is that you then acquire a ready-made customer base and audience as well as boosting your organic ranking in Google, however, the tricky part is migrating both websites.
Even if you have to outsource this, it can be expensive so make sure that the person doing it has done it before. This is one task that you really can’t afford to get wrong and the cost to ROI turnaround, could be really long term.
Method: Feature on other Email Subscription Lists
Difficulty: Easy
Cost Effectiveness: 6/10
If you can identify a business that is semi-related to yours and you know that they’re actively running email marketing campaigns, there is never any harm getting in contact and asking if you can pay for them to give you a mention and a link to your product.
Whether you pay for each campaign or work out a revenue share deal, this could have the potential to convert substantially if you find the right partner.
Method: Targeted Acquisition Platforms
Difficulty: Easy
Cost Effectiveness: 8/10
The technical expertise which goes into building such a platform, based on the objective of easily identifying an actively interested buyer for a customer is considerable.
Snizl doesn’t only generate customers, but also fans and is one of the reasons why we are well-respected by our clients.
Verdict
There isn’t just one answer here. Our advice is to combine two or three using a couple of different channels. Snizl can also effectively help the other strategies perform better as well, so learn more about how cost-effective we are and the results Snizl can have for your business!