TOP 20 SEO Marketing Tips From Semalt On How To Acquire Customers
How do you acquire a client by combining the possibilities of Internet marketing, SEO, and a modern approach to sales? We have prepared for you 20 valuable tips and good practices that will help you appear on the web and attract valuable leads.
Why knowing your customers is so important?
At the very beginning, you should understand that customer acquisition is not one activity, but a whole process, often very complex. Before you think about what actions to take to achieve success in this area, start with the basics - that is, by identifying who you really want to attract.
As you will see later, personalization (of both advertising messages and offers) is a staple in modern marketing, and without it, you can't even think about leads.
However, you need to know who you want to target your content to, so at the beginning, before you start collecting tips and developing a customer acquisition plan, determine which people are your target.
Finally, remember - there is no one perfect way to have a tight sales funnel, and there are no two identical customers (or two identical brands!), So the thought that should accompany you throughout the entire sales process is maximum individualization and personalization of activities. And, of course, creativity in coming up with a plan that works and being mindful of making any necessary optimizations.
How to get a client?
1. Make your website your showpiece
A well-designed website, filled to the brim with valuable pages, is the best possible way to make a positive first impression and acquire customers online. It's also one of the most common first contact points - if someone is looking for a company like yours, there's a good chance they'll meet you there. So you have to show your best side and prove that you are trustworthy. You will need a UX-friendly design, a fast, responsive website, and appropriate SEO optimization with very powerful SEO tools such as the Dedicated SEO Dashboard, which will be very useful for analyzing your website. What for? Take a look at point number two.
2. Make sure you are visible on the web
Page visibility is one of the indicators that tell you how easy it is to find your page on the web, and more specifically - in search engines such as Google. Depending on the tool in which you research visibility, its definition may slightly differ, but most often, it will be the result of the average position of key phrases on which your website is displayed, the total number of searches, and/or traffic from search engines.
Visibility drops in Google should always be carefully analyzed and conclusions drawn from them. Broad positioning is the best way to improve your visibility on the web.
3. Set up a Google listing
Do you know how many people end their activity in the search results at the height of the map, business card, or answer at the zero position? Google is committed to making it as easy as possible for users to navigate the SERPs, which is both a challenge and an opportunity for you to stand out and gain customers.
Just set up a Google listing to improve contact with a potential customer. Add an address, company name, telephone number, or opening hours to the business card, and even better - add entries regularly, take care of good opinions, complete photos and describe your business and offer in detail.
4. Invest in good content
Surely you already know that content is a valuable tool in the hands of every marketer. If you want to acquire a client, a company blog, e-books, audio content or infographics are elements that should be on your website. Diversification of content types within site is very important - create short and long texts, simple news and long guides, vlogs, or other video content (depending on the specifics of your business), and diversify all this with not stock photos, but interesting screenshots, valuable clippings from reports or self-created infographics.
Also, remember that all content should be optimized for SEO - especially matching good key phrases can be extremely valuable for you, as it will help you reach the right audience. Finding the appropriate keywords specific to your field is essential, use the Dedicated SEO Dashboard tool to identify your keywords.
Impress with substantive content and attract with your offer - this is a perfect combination.
5. Take care of the mobility and responsiveness of your website
Do you know how many of your potential customers start looking for the perfect offer from their smartphone? On the tram on the way to work, at a meeting with friends (because someone just recommended you), waiting in line at the cinema. Each of these situations is your chance to catch a valuable lead that you can waste without caring about the responsive design of your website.
If a potentially interested party cannot load the page or is unable to click on the appropriate button (for example, in the contact tab) - your chance of acquiring a customer decreases drastically.
Does your website need an audit? Enter your domain to start a comprehensive analysis.
6. Develop a customer acquisition plan
As we wrote in the introduction, the answer to the question of how to acquire customers is very individual in each case. Therefore, the development of an individual sales plan is the basis for effective activities.
Prepare an extensive plan in which you will take into account not only direct contact with the customer, but also, for example, educating the target group, building a community around the brand, or marketing activities leading to the final purchase decision.
For example, specify:
- how long the process is;
- who makes purchasing decisions among your recipients;
- how many people are involved in the decision;
- how customers can find you.
7. Offer your customers personalized services - stand out from the competition
We will never stop stressing how important the personalization of the offer, services, and marketing itself is in modern marketing. You know perfectly well how we are inundated with information daily and how we often choose the best option so that we don't have to look at copied content, duplicate diagrams, and secondary graphics in page headers anymore.
You need to meet the needs of your customers - understand them perfectly and give them what your competition cannot. It will be your USP or Unique Selling Point - a unique feature of the offer.
8. Be empathetic (and sympathetic)
While preparing this article, we asked our sales specialists what is most important in acquiring customers. They said that:
"To get clients, first of all, you have to listen to their needs. Importantly, listen first, then speak!
Empathy, getting into the client's shoes, understanding, not forcing your product to be sold, and the willingness to help the client instead of selling are the key factors. And, of course, a smile in a conversation, even on the phone!"
9. Invest in paid advertising
Ads such as Google Ads allow you to reach a wide audience and personalize the message accordingly. However, you must remember that for PPC activities to be really effective, it is necessary to have a good knowledge of these tools - therefore, although they are very effective (and at the same time quite fast) support in the sales process and frequent responses to how to acquire a customer, they require the help of specialists, to avoid budget burnout and frustration from ineffective actions.
10. Offer free advice, consultation, and talks about the offer
Customer acquisition is an investment - therefore, when determining what you can afford and until what point the sales process pays off (e.g. when calculating the ROI - Return of Investment), you should take into account space for all kinds of free consultations, talks, and analysis of the customer's problem.
Such a personal approach allows you to build a bond with the brand (and personally with you as a seller) and increases the chance of getting a lead. The impression you make during such meetings will be important - think about how you want the communication between the company and the customer to proceed and set the right tone at the very beginning.
Some time ago, we shared our knowledge of how we communicate with clients in our company. If you want to get another handful of best practice tips, check out the article: How to communicate with the client?
11. Search for problems your customers are having to offer them solutions
This is an important element of personalization of activities - determining what a potential customer needs from you and providing professional support in this area is the best possible way to prepare an individual offer. This is the natural law of supply and demand.
If you offer services for which there are no interested parties, it means that you have most likely misidentified the needs of your target audience.
12. Build lasting relationships
Communication is an important part of a relationship. To build customer trust, it is important to ensure an efficient flow of information, respect deadlines, and be open. But that's just the beginning - to sell effectively-, you need to listen carefully, focus on what the potential customer wants to tell you, and provide the best possible solutions.
And when the prospect trusts you, don't let him/her down - be honest and direct, and at the same time - empathetic and smiling. Simply be yourself.
13. Be present in social media
Being present in social media seems to be an absolute must, but how does just having a Facebook page translate into sales? Well - often to a small extent. Social media must be properly optimized and properly run to be successful. How to get customers from them?
- Use those SM channels where your customers are. If the target group mostly hangs on Facebook, get them interested in your posts there; if you are looking for clients who are closer to Instagram - publish reels and stories regularly.
- Remember that creating a profile is not enough. To really build trust in the brand and serve the sale, it needs to be run on a regular basis.
- Build a community. If you convince people on social networks, there is a good chance that when they need a given service, they will come back straight to you.
14. Collect opinions, recommendations, and references
Hardly anyone will be happy to use the services of a company that is not widely recommended. We live in a reality where it's really hard to trust someone with an average rating of fewer than four stars or a small number of online recommendations - have you ever ordered a pizza from a three-star establishment? Probably not. So why invest more money in a service that could fail completely?
Ask your existing customers to share their reviews - if they've had positive experiences, they'll be happy to do so as a courtesy.
Post reviews on your website, tend to the magic five stars on your Google business card, respond to reviews on your Facebook page, and never leave negative reviews unanswered.
15. Build a leadership position in the industry and build your professional image
For this, you shall use the power of content marketing, which - if used properly - from an anonymous brand will change you into a company that really knows its stuff.
It is also worth being present on such social media as Linkedin and sharing articles created for the blog there.
16. Don't forget about email marketing
While it would seem that it won't work so flawlessly in 2022, email marketing is still a powerful tool for customer acquisition in the hands of marketers. Newsletters in many industries are primarily used for the so-called heating leads, as well as educating future customers. They are often a fantastic way to allow recipients to get to know you better and build trust.
17. Use an effective call to action
If you're not already actively using CTA (Call to Action), it's time to start! Buttons with slogans such as "Write to me", "Check the offer", "Ask for details", "Contact me!" or "I want to know more" encourage potential customers to take specific actions and bring them one step closer to completing the conversion.
18. Create really valuable gated content
What is gated content? This content is not available to all users - very valuable, top-quality premium content, such as an extensive report or (for example, available in exchange for leaving an e-mail address in the database) an e-book on an extremely important topic for potential customers.
Gated content arouses interest and is more appreciated by users than what is available for free at their fingertips.
You build your professional, expert image and, at the same time, gather valuable addresses in the mailing database, thus creating new points of contact with customers.
19. Put case studies on your website
Bragging about your successes is very important! And real, authentic case studies are a perfect place to show what you have to offer to your clients.
How to acquire a client through case studies? Use data, show screenshots or photos (depending on what is more important in your industry), include testimonials of your clients, and link to the service you promote in a given case study.
It is also worth leaving a button for direct contact with you in case a potential customer wants to ask about something.
20. Familiarize yourself with the lead nurturing strategy
Do you know what lead nurturing is? This is called lead maturation or heating, which we mentioned above. The process involves gradually introducing potential customers to your brand and educating them about the services you offer.
It can be run via e-mail marketing, social media, or a corporate blog - there are plenty of options. Include lead nurturing in your customer acquisition process, and we guarantee you will see the results!
Summary
As you can see, there are a ton of ways to get customers - it's up to you which strategies you use first. We keep our fingers crossed, and if you need SEO support - kindly write to us!