Konsultori Resource on Customer acquisition: The best evergreen knowledge pieces curated from the web. Since 2016, this archive has been growing, collecting analyses, frameworks, and compelling case studies on our key topics. We handpick the most interesting articles for you to explore and dive deeper.
Email networking etiquette briefly explained
We all make a valuable contribution to our networks when we do good and tie up loose ends. If I understand in a conversation that two people in my networks could do each other good, then I am happy to bring them together. But how do you do this respectfully? The blog post from CB Insights sums it up very well and explains double opt-in networking via email.
Defining and winning ideal customers
Sixteenventures has prepared a wonderful framework for defining and acquiring ideal customers. Of course, it must also have a nice-sounding name – the ICP – Ideal Customer Profile, not to be confused with the persona. Read more about this in the Sixteenventures article.
Customer retention is the new conversion
Des Traynor’s presentation at the Websummit does an excellent job of summarizing the value of customer retention versus customer acquisition. If you haven’t heard about “net dollar retention” and want to know where to look and what the benchmarks are, then this is the article for you.
Retaining existing customers is worth more than acquiring new ones
Recruiting and winning over new customers is around five to 25 times more expensive than retaining existing customer groups. Which makes perfect sense: the search for new customers consumes a lot of resources and time, while keeping existing customers happy and satisfied takes far less. That’s why it’s important to keep reminding yourself to nurture existing customers and provide them with added value so that a new order comes in. Click here for the original article in HBR.
Why it is so important for managers to know their customers
Nothing can or should be more important for a company than its customers. Both existing customers and the acquisition of new customer groups should always be kept in mind in daily operations. Bernard Marr developed several criteria to help you gain a better understanding of your existing customer groups and how to find more customers like them.
- Net promoter score / Referrals from existing customers
- Custom profitability score / Know the purchasing power of your customer group
- Customer retention rate / Build customer loyalty
- Conversion rate / (Marketing) analyses for effective customer engagement
- Relative market share / Market share compared to the strongest competitor
You can find more detailed information on each point here.
Using customer purchasing decisions as an SEO strategy
The path from the desire for a product to the actual purchase decision is sometimes a long one. The so-called customer journey becomes the interface between what the company wants to offer its customers and what the customers desire and expect from the company or product. But how can this ‘customer journey’ be integrated into an SEO strategy? With the help of the following four points:
- Create your own ‘customer journey’ (How, when, where, and why do my customers make their purchase decisions?)
- Identify and categorize the purchase decision in the ‘customer journey’ (Navigation-driven, Transaction-driven, or Information-driven)
- Create a list of keywords for the individual steps of the ‘customer journey’
- Link these keywords with specific SEO strategy methods
You can find a more detailed guide and many engaging infographics on the topic here on hubspot.com.
Social Media Integration on Your Website
“According to Petra Köstinger, two different areas are currently facing each other: the corporate website on one side, and engagement in the social web on the other. But why aren’t these two areas simply connected? And what could a meaningful integration look like? To address this, the author has developed the ‘9-Step Model,’ which classifies and differentiates the various formats of a ‘Social Integrated Website’: starting from ‘Social Linking’ to ‘Seamless Integration,’ there are several stages:
For more detailed information on the topic of social media and corporate websites, you can find it at Petra Köstinger.
How to Start Your Content Marketing Machine
Jakob Marovt provides insights into the subject and helpful tips and tricks in his article ‘The Ultimate Guide To Kickstart Your Content Marketing Machine.’ For example, he lists questions that should be considered at the beginning of the marketing strategy—during the content marketing definition phase: Who do you want to reach? What content is suitable for you? How can you present it engagingly? Where can I post this content, and how can I see who consumes it? When should I publish the content? How can I track the success of my post? Interested? You can find all the answers here!
Increase user numbers
Developing a good product is no longer enough to become known. It also requires a well-thought-out, strategically planned, and strong (online) presence of the company. Three things you can use for this:
- Find the lead horse: Look for a similar company in your industry and follow their strategy. Offer the competitor a partnership, and you both can benefit from each other.
- Find the trend: Always keep an eye on your industry and observe the topics being discussed. Jump on a trend as soon as you recognize one – later, it will be too late.
You can find more guides and tips here.
One video – an incredible amount of content
Sharing and distributing content across various social media channels is a great way to let customers and partners know what’s happening in your company. But to deliver these contents effectively and quickly to your audience, there are several effective ways to do so. One of them is producing a short video, where you can concisely bundle multiple topics and contents.
Jay Bear posts almost daily videos of three to five minutes on topics like social media, marketing, and life in general. In his article, he describes the creation process and the equipment needed for a short video message that doesn’t take long to produce but can reach a significant audience on various social platforms. He also dedicates a section to the different ways of repurposing content across different platforms to create a wide distribution.
Read more about it here.
Dos & Don’ts for a Successful Homepage
Dan Norris observed and analyzed around 300 websites over two weeks and now reports in an article on the things that stood out to him – both positively and negatively. In the process, he provides helpful tips on how to improve your website:
- Either a simple logo or none at all
- Create a unique brand for the company
- Highlight what the page is actually about
- Don’t set up too many pop-ups
- Avoid external ads
- Consider the design of the page
- Present topics in clear graphics
- Optimize images to increase page speed
- Write texts that are clear and easy to read
- Make the bottom of the page engaging
- Create references, citations, and case studies
You can find more details on each point and a detailed guide for an attractive homepage here.
Gain more customers by focusing more
By specializing in their business field and setting a clearly defined focus, companies are better able to attract new customers – and consequently generate more revenue. Serving too broad a business field usually consumes a lot of energy and rarely leads to the desired successes. You can find more details on the topic here.
The other architecture PR
A refreshing article by a renowned architecture journalist and his accusation that the media usually present architecture without people. Only the buildings are in focus, with no interaction, cold and polished. But architecture is more. It is the result of a discourse, an exchange, a conversation. It also lives in interaction with human users. A tribute to the ‘quiet architects’ by Wolfgang Freitag. Read more about it here in the online edition of Die Presse on Public Relations examples.
Finding the right customers at the beginning
“When you’re taking the first steps in sales, you’ll think about who the right target audience is. Understanding them well will help you address them properly, ensuring that your team’s time is used effectively. This startup reflects on their decision afterward: Was it the right choice to target the customer group with potentially large orders first, and postpone the group with smaller orders? Would the second group have led to success faster? An interesting report with details on this question, which often comes up in business development, was found here at Fillmore. Unfortunately, the original article is no longer available.
Good content is no longer enough – Content Repurposing
“A good blog post or a good website post is often no longer enough to increase the number of visitors on the internet. It is becoming increasingly important to connect and reorganize different types of content. Donella H. Meadows, a successful author on this topic, suggests combining individual pieces of content within a system: ‘A set of elements that is coherently organized and interconnected in a pattern or structure that produces a characteristic set of behaviours.’ This also includes the practice of creating multiple different websites for a topic or product – each with the same core theme, but with a different focus. This increases the interactivity of your consumers, your visibility on the internet, and, in turn, your sales. Not a single website, but a system of websites is the future. Read more about it here.
Stories for Email Marketing
From the earliest days of childhood, we are told stories – and we eagerly await the ending. This sense of suspense can also be maintained today through electronic means: for example, in email marketing. When good stories are told, it encourages readers to eagerly await the next editions. And this should indeed be the goal of an email campaign.
To help us with the creation of stories in business life, Mail Delivered has put together several formats and explained them very clearly:
- Success story
- Cautionary tale
- Parable
- Underdog
- Origin story
Read more about it here.
How to Master Ad-Hoc Addresses
Only five small building blocks are needed to make a spontaneous speech, presentation, or toast successful. And here they are:
- Greeting
- Event: Briefly describe the given setting; mention the reason why everyone is gathered here today, and create a nod of acknowledgement.
- Commonalities: Find a common hook; use the phrase ‘Like many of you, I am…’
- Reason: Explain why you are giving this speech; describe the topic.
- Call to action: End with a call to action; for example, ‘Let’s raise a toast…’ or ‘Applause for…’
For more information on spontaneous speaking in front of an audience, visit lifehacker.com.
Presentation Tips for Sales
Creating a good sales presentation is much harder than you might think. Every single presentation must be tailored precisely to the audience – and this also includes the different presentation techniques and styles of various sales representatives. Creating a successful, consistent presentation for the entire sales department requires considering many different perspectives and a lot of coordination.
You can find presentation tips for a successful sales presentation here from Nancy Duarte.
Growth hacking: The Magic Number
For all small and medium-sized businesses, it’s great when revenue grows quickly – but not when this growth happens too steeply and customers are left behind. That’s exactly why a new go-to-market model has been developed, which not only boosts growth but also easily helps acquire new customers. Paul Albright shows how it works – read more about it here.
Briefing – more than just a quick conversation
“The Green Economy Lower Austria is inviting you again: to a workshop on successful communication for creative businesses. The event will take place on 13th September 2016 at Convo Coworking in Mödling. The main focus will be on the best ways for creative entrepreneurs to present themselves to generate projects, and how to learn a lot about potential customers, the project itself, and financial expectations in a short conversation. For more details and to register for the free workshop, click here.
B2B Sales for Startups on Speed
Anand Chopra-McGowan, responsible for the rapid growth of General Assembly (GA), explains in an interview with firstround.com why it’s important to first say ‘yes’ and figure out the rest later. According to him, there are three key points for accelerating sales for tech startups:
- Lead with insight and direction.
- Develop an objective, data-driven qualification model and apply it ruthlessly.
- Add boosters to each buyer interaction.
Learn more about each step here.
Growth Hacking at AirBnB and the Process Beats the Hack
Ramli John from idea51co warns against the holy grail of growth hacking and advocates for the growth process, which must be well-structured to lead to user growth. Details can be found here. He speaks to my soul because many people don’t want to hear it: growth hacking is a process of many experiments and requires resources and time. A great example of this is the growth story of AirBnB, beautifully presented by Jonathan Golden, the former product manager at AirBnB, here.
Slack: Best Practices for Growth Hacking
Getting off to a real start with growth hacking works in 2017 as well. Slack, the fastest-growing SaaS company, shows how. Millions of people worldwide use Slack to connect teams with exactly the apps, services, and resources they need for their work. Here’s the analysis and tips.
How Startups can acquire corporate clients
Acquiring corporate clients is a milestone for any startup targeting the B2B sector. How this can be achieved and what to watch out for is explained in the following article. To maximize the chances of success, there are several things to consider, such as reducing risk in the offer, analyzing the buying process, and categorizing the stakeholders into decision-makers, interested parties, and power holders.
KPI Dashboards for Startups – Growth Hacking and Reporting
“Monitoring your key metrics helps visualize the degree to which your goals are being achieved. Of course, it is crucial to automate the representation of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from various sources. This process can either be done manually or through the use of a KPI dashboard. The following article introduces 15 KPI dashboards that make this process much more efficient and, most importantly, more visual.
The right tools for your sales activities
Clear and effective. On yoursales.com, you will find a collection of apps and services for your sales activities. Whether it’s CRM, social selling, lead generation, sales and marketing automation, analytics, or performance management, you can easily get a good overview of which tools can support you. Here’s the overview.
Templates Love: Cold Emailing
Templates should be used with caution. They need to be adapted. However, when it comes to cold emailing, there are several things to consider, and I think the oldie-but-goodie post on Harvard Business Review on this topic is really good. That’s why here’s the link.
Warm Introductions – The 3 things that protect your network
Johannes Schaffer connects Austrian startups with the ecosystem in Silicon Valley. He works for the Go Silicon Valley program. His success depends on bringing companies together: Austrian companies, multipliers, investors, scientists, and startups. It’s not an easy task. In his Medium post, he shares the 3 most important things to protect your network. Your network contacts suffer when recommendations are of poor quality. No one wants that. There are three key points for warm introductions: The mutual benefit for both parties is highlighted. Only people you believe in are recommended. It must be clear to both sides who should take the next step. However, I must add something here: Courtesy dictates that both sides should be asked for permission first. No one enjoys being randomly connected. Everyone wants the option to agree or decline beforehand. Here’s the link to Johannes Schaffer’s detailed Medium article.
Indirect Sales Partners and Digital Sales Channels are not mutually exclusive
The Harvard Business Review analyzes in its article the frustration of existing indirect sales partners with direct, digital sales channels. This is an issue that many producers face when building their (direct, digital) sales channels. What measures can help continue to serve sales partners as cooperative partners – are explained here.