For most companies, the bottom line of any business is to make money, and marketing is an essential channel to reach that end goal.
In my experience…
Sometimes, traditional and typical best practices worked best; other times, a riskier and more unconventional approach was required to bring home the results.
Today, I will be giving a brand new update on one of my already-published articles about ‘acquisition, conversion, retention.’
Below, I break down what they are.
Acquisition strategies are broad action plans. Acquisition happens when a firm attracts attention to its products but the customer is not yet committed. For example, when Apple Music allows people to stream music free for the first three months, that’s their way of acquiring users.
Conversion strategies are narrower in scope. Conversion happens when a company gets potential customers to become regular clients. For example, H&M often gives out coupons to users as an acquisition strategy. It’s generally known that a conversion is only confirmed after a client makes three purchases. In the Apple example above, conversion takes place when a free user becomes a paying subscriber.
Acquisition and conversion tactics vary from business to business, and new methods are arising every day. For example, content marketing guru Neil Patel recently pointed out that chatbots will be replacing landing page conversion forms in the near future, even while acknowledging the link between branding and long-term marketing.
There is no single path to success for your profit/non-profit organizations because your strategies are based on the metrics you chose to concentrate on.
∎ Retention
Retention refers to a company’s ability to keep converted clients hooked. Adding more value to products and services is one way to ensure customers keep returning on a regular basis. Sears, for instance, uses the “Shop Your Way” rewards program to promote customer loyalty. Shoppers earn points on purchases and they can later redeem them. Therefore, they have to keep coming back in order to build up enough points.
Acquisition, conversion, and retention are all useful to grow a customer base and boost profitability. Establishing market presence and a strong brand also rely on how well you execute these actions.
I personally categorize branding as being strategic and marketing as being tactical. A strategy is tied to vision, purpose, and goals while tactics focus on tasks, concrete steps, and specific procedures.
Please bookmark this article if you found it interesting. If you want to keep reading to learn more about branding and marketing, here is another post I wrote: Understanding the concept of branding.
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‘Mylène’s Blog’ gives you an answer to something you’ve been curious about. ⑇ Are you a songwriter or have friends who are? I co-founded Tunedly, an online recording studio. ⑇ The Homepage of my website is the best place to learn about me. LinkedIn Twitter Facebook ⑇
9 Comments. Leave new
I just followed you on Twitter and I love this post about young entrepreneurs! Can you give productivity tips next? I would love to read up about that too.
Rewards for loyal customers is a great way to maintain your customer base. I always advise entrepreneurs to think of something they can afford to give out and stake it as a giveaway or a price for very loyal customers. This can motivate customers to keep coming back and maybe compete with the others.
Knowing your weaknesses totally helps a lot and from there you can actually fix up a plan that can get things back on track. You’ll be surprised at the results when you are sincere to yourself and decide to work our something.
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You have a good point Mylene. Acquisition, conversion, and retention are all very useful to grow a customer base and boost profitability. Though I’m seeing it in a different way from what you shared, the end goal is still to establish market presence and this will surely rely on how well one can execute these 3 actions.
Neil is not far from the truth. Chatbots are going to be replacing landing page conversion forms soon. It’s as if every business I see today is focused on investing in chatbots because the conversion rate seems to be higher. I’m also considering taking that route so I don’t blame anyone once it takes over soon.
Ohhh. I didn’t really know that a conversion is only confirmed after a client makes three purchases. I do assume that a client has converted once they make the first purchase since they are already moving out of the free zone and now paying. Well, I think this revelation is just going to make me go back to the drawing board and try a different and better approach.
You are doing great with your blog Mylene. I always pick one or two lessons from your posts and whenever I act on them, I always love the result. Keep it up.
I love the idea of having shoppers earn points on purchases and later redeem them for something else. This simple tactic can make almost all your customers repeat customers. This type of thing gets people excited and so they will always want to come back and see how far they have gone and what to do to get their points higher. In fact, if you want to spice it up a bit, let the customers use their points to compete with each other. Do that once in a while and you’ll notice people just walking into your shop to see how the competition is going. And surely, they must leave the shop with a thing or two.