Creating a well-designed website usually takes a lot of work and time. It’s fantastic when you type your domain name into your browser and finally see what you’ve been working towards for months: your new, well-thought-out, beautifully designed website. You can sit back in satisfaction.
If that’s what you’re thinking, I’m sorry to disappoint you: the work is yet to begin. You’ve got to get visitors because just because the site is live doesn’t mean the traffic will start pouring in immediately. Sure, a good SEO foundation will help you get started, but it’s not enough.
What can you do to make your website attractive to visitors?
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
1. Know the levels of the conversion funnel
We distinguish 5 levels for users, covering the different phases of “engagement”:
Level 1: Strangers
These are visitors who have never met your brand, they don’t know you yet. For these users, brand building and content marketing are the right tools, and the goal is not yet customer acquisition for small business websites, but to increase engagement. Rather than bombarding them with offers, start with a punchy image, video, and value proposition that will get their attention.
The goal is to get them to meet your brand, see your logo a few times, pique their interest, and get them to remember you. At this level, a low cost per click (CPC) is not the goal, and your ad’s relevance value may not be sky-high.
Content marketing is a longer-term strategy anyway, but it’s worth investing in; if people find your company through your blog, it gives you credibility, because you didn’t advertise yourself, but they found you through your carefully crafted content strategy. If you have the resources, a company blog can be worth its weight in gold.
Level 2: Potential buyers
You’ve already piqued the interest of this group, so it’s time for them to find out more about you and, if not yet with their money, make some small commitment. In B2B, the tools are typically a downloadable e-book, an infographic, a course, or participation in a webinar. In B2C, they include providing an email address, and phone number, registering, and following social media channels.
Level 3: Leads
At this level, your visitor already knows you and is ready to buy (in B2B, this is usually a contact or a free 30-day trial). You’ve got half a foot in the door – the buying decision hasn’t been made yet, but you have a realistic chance of making it. (There’s little difference between points two and three, for many companies, the two can be the same.)
Level 4: Buyers
These people have already been convinced, so they are willing to pay for your product/service, but the customer acquisition is not over yet. What you need to focus on from here is retention, keeping or increasing their satisfaction on an ongoing basis – and of course, you need to measure this. If you can keep them, not only will they buy again without you having to spend the cost of acquiring them, but there’s a chance they’ll be completely on your side emotionally and move on to the next level.
Level 5: Promotional spaces
These are your customers who are eager to help you with your WOM (word of mouth) marketing and provide you with free leads simply because if what you are doing is excellent, they will be seen in a good light by those to whom they are being referred.
They are worth ‘keeping well’, doing your best to keep up this good habit and promote your brand. A coupon code, an affiliate program, special events – you owe a lot to this group, it’s not only nice to pamper them, but it’s in your best interest to make your customer acquisition for small business websites a success.
2. Have a well-built small business website
Since 95% of people use the internet search engine first when looking for a service or product, if your website doesn’t appear in search results, you’re handing over a very high percentage of your potential customers to your competitors.
A well-built website is one of the most effective ways to promote and present a product or service. You can also use your website as a webshop, to sell products or services online, to generate leads.
Thus, a commercially well-built website is one of the most important elements of your marketing channels for customer acquisition for small business websites. It’s important to use the web as a business tool, even for those who sell primarily offline, as offline shops are also primarily searched for online. We can also create a landing page for a simple service or product. We can also choose ad management options if there are few visitors.
You will need search engine optimization, or SEO for short, to get your website to rank as high as possible in search engines for the keywords you are looking for. The better SEO a small business website has, the more visitors and potential customers it can attract.
3. Update your social media profiles
Many small business website builders think they don’t need a Facebook or Instagram page, or they create one but neglect it, even though they’re missing out on many opportunities. First of all, start by creating a social media image that suits your small business (cover image, profile picture, posts, etc.) and then fill in all the relevant information.
Make plans in advance for when and what you will post. You can buy post packs tailored to your business and service, you just need to set when you want to publish, but if you choose social media management we will publish at the time that will reach the most potential customers.
It’s a big advantage if you keep taking professional photos of your products, either on a white or grey background. It’s worth doing, and investing the time because you can use these photos not only on social media but also on your website, in videos, or in promotional materials.
Take a look at your social media pages through the eyes of a customer/interested party to increase the conversion rate of your small business website and think about which company you would trust more, the one that takes photos of their products, shares real, interesting content, the one that posts pictures taken from the internet with half information, posting 1-2 times a month, or the one that doesn’t even have a social media page. You can also choose ad management options if you don’t have enough reach for your social media pages.
You can also collect reviews from your customers, share updates, and opening hours, and introduce new products and services. Convince your customers that you are the person they can trust!
4. Target group definition, outreach
In the first instance, we can approach our old clients, and tell them that we are expanding our business or that we have spare capacity to take on new projects/works.
Most clients (especially if they have been satisfied) are happy to receive offers, showing that you are still available. Many clients are afraid that the small business owner will disappear later and they will no longer get help if they have any problems. But they may also simply forget who they worked with last time. Be available and be present and don’t be afraid of your old, established customers.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, because often the best ideas and projects come from outside your comfort zone, and can later become the best references.
5. Do search engine optimization
SEO (search engine optimization) aims to get your website ranked high in search engines. This should be an important consideration when designing a website, so it’s a good idea to start with this in mind and build the structure and content.
Search engine optimization is worthwhile because those who come to your site from organic searches are more likely to become customers than those who click on ads. SEO gives you a long-term advantage over your competitors because getting to the top of search engine results doesn’t happen in a few weeks: it takes work and persistence. Persistence also means that you can feel the effects of the work done in the long term.
How can search engine optimization help your website?
- Choose the right focus keywords: you can use Google Keyword Tool (nowadays you need a Google Ads account) or Ubersuggest.
- Create an internal link network: make sure the text of the link is related to the topic you are linking to.
- Get backlinks: You should also pay attention to the domain authority, it’s good to have a value of at least 20-30. (The “domain authority”, DA is a logarithmic scale from one to one hundred, and it shows the ranking power of the domain.)
6. Customer acquisition for small business websites with email marketing
Have a newsletter subscription option on your site! It’s worth promoting it less as a newsletter and more as a series of educational material, where you give value to your readers, but sometimes you also send out sales emails. This could be a bait study, video, webinar recording, or even with a guest. Think about what your target audience would bite on, thus how you can improve customer retention for small business websites.
Building your list is worth it only because these email addresses remain your property and you can contact their owners again at any time, while your social media profiles and pages can be deleted, blocked, or shut down by these systems. Make sure you comply with GDPR rules when collecting data.
A super user-friendly, intuitive solution for sending newsletters is Mailerlite software, which is what I usually recommend to our clients.
7. Leveraging Capturly for effective customer acquisition for small business websites
For small business websites, gaining new customers is essential for growth. One effective tool for improving customer acquisition strategies is Capturly, a web analytics platform. Understanding how visitors interact with your website can help you make better decisions to attract and retain customers. Here’s why Capturly and web analytics are important.
Why web analytics matters for customer acquisition for small business websites?
Web analytics provide crucial insights into how visitors use your website. This data helps you optimize your marketing efforts, improve user experience, and boost conversions.
Here’s how Capturly can help:
- Track Multiple Channels: Capturly lets you monitor different acquisition channels like social media, email, organic search, and ads. This helps you identify which channels bring the most traffic and customers.
- Evaluate Channel Effectiveness: Not all traffic is equal. Capturly helps you see how effective each channel is by analyzing metrics like bounce rate and conversion rate. This way, you can focus on the channels that work best.
- Understand User Behavior: Capturly shows how users from different channels navigate your site, which pages they visit, and where they leave. This helps you find and fix problem areas.
- Improve User Experience: Using heatmaps and session recordings, Capturly shows how users interact with your site. This helps you spot usability issues and make changes to enhance the user experience.
- Personalize Marketing: Capturly’s data helps you understand different audience segments. This allows you to tailor your marketing messages to different groups, making your campaigns more effective.
- Measure ROI: Capturly helps you measure the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing efforts. By tracking conversions and linking them to specific campaigns, you can see which strategies are most cost-effective.
Getting the most out of Capturly for customer acquisition for small business websites
- Set Clear Goals: Decide what you want to achieve, whether it’s increasing traffic, improving conversions, or boosting engagement.
- Monitor Regularly: Keep an eye on your website’s performance using Capturly’s dashboards. Regular checks help you spot trends and address issues quickly.
- Experiment and Optimize: Use A/B testing to try out different elements of your website and marketing campaigns. Capturly’s data will show you what works best.
- Take Action: Use the insights from Capturly to make informed decisions and implement changes that improve your customer acquisition efforts.
In conclusion, Capturly is a valuable tool for small businesses looking to improve their customer acquisition strategies. By providing insights into visitor behavior and channel performance, Capturly helps you make data-driven decisions that lead to better user experiences and higher conversion rates.
8. Build your list
This is a bit out of the ordinary because I’m not going to suggest a direct sales method. If you are thinking long-term, you might want to think about a different strategy. A strategy that will take your small business website to the next level.
The question is, what do you do with those visitors who already find your site but don’t ask for a quote, don’t call you immediately? Probably nothing at this point: they’ll take it upon themselves to quit without a word.
Worst of all, you have no idea who they are. Some of them probably just happened to wander in. You can be sure that your competitors are looking at your site, they don’t order either. But others are interested in your service, yet they don’t contact you. They may not have made their decision yet, or they may have some hidden fear.
You must communicate with them. You should build trust with them and help them overcome their fears. To give them more useful information to help them decide to make a successful customer acquisition for small business websites.
9. Be a guest on someone’s blog or podcast
If you know someone who is in your space, i.e. a small business owner like you, who produces content (such as a podcast) regularly, and even if you’re comfortable writing or performing, get in touch and see if it works.
When approaching them, make sure you are also providing value to that person’s audience. No one will take kindly to you performing just to sell yourself through it. Create ideas around topics that you can engage with and that can help your audience, then they are more likely to cooperate and customer acquisition will be easier.
Reaching out to people who have businesses in similar areas can be a great idea for exchanging recommendations and promoting business to each other.
For example, if a real estate agent partners with a local coffee shop, they can hold meetings with their clients there, and the coffee shop can put out some business cards or flyers in exchange to get the information out to more people.
10. Take advantage of Google Ads
The Nonplus Ultra is nothing other than Google’s advertising system.
Google Ads is an advantage for small businesses who want to reach a wide online audience quickly and effectively. Keyword-based campaigns allow ads to be shown to exactly those users who are likely to be interested in a particular product or service. With the help of sensitive measurement tools and analytics, businesses can monitor and optimize the effectiveness of their advertising, so that costs can be used efficiently.
However, to be successful in customer acquisition, it is important to select the right keywords, target the right audience, and continually fine-tune ads to achieve the desired results (basically everything we’ve talked about so far). Google Ads allows businesses to respond flexibly and quickly to market changes, optimize their campaigns, and increase their online visibility, which can contribute to effective customer acquisition and business growth.
Summary
The art of customer acquisition has almost infinite potential. However, it pays to develop a few constant attitudes to ensure success.
You need to be attentive to your customers, always on the lookout for new avenues to explore, stay informed, and think creatively to use as many ideas as possible to fit your small business website.