E.g. Referrals, website, business card, physical store organic traffic, etc
We fix cars and light trucks:
https://evesautomotive.comWe get almost all our new clientele from Google and our reviews.
Ultra high r.o.i.
I found two nieches with ultra high demand so I don’t care about finding customers. But I’m not going to share it, If I will tell you everyone will start doing it.
You won’t truly know the demand until you are operating the businesses.
Data Strategy consulting business and most are through Twitter and LinkedIn content and PR.
We put out content that focuses on local topic du jour which get good traction in the community and have often lead to news and radio slots.
Yeah, agreed with the other commenter. That’s pretty interesting. I never figured out how people decide on the ‘topic du jour’.
Wetland Consulting - delineations, gis, and permitting
Insurance loss control inspections.
Word of mouth. Simple. I got very lucky.
Branding and e-commerce development. Referrals only now.
I am in still launching my first product (a Notion 1-on-1 coaching package) and I’ve been helping people in the Notion subreddit, and messaging them after I’ve helped them asking if they’d like to do the course for free so I can get testimonials and referrals. It’s helping me iron out the bugs in my customer experience workflow too.
It’s very slow going, but I’m getting a few signups. It’s slow going, but the engagement rate is extremely high!
Physical therapy company. Most clients from PPC ads and SEO. Book online via our website. Growing number or referrals from previous clients as business gets older.
Thanks for the response. I always hear mixed things about PPC ads in particular. I’m trying to decide if it’s right for me.
It really depends on the business. There’s no one best way.
Our newest sources of business come from government bids. It’s great to have agencies required to purchase from you. No larketing whatsoever.
But isn’t bidding very competitive,
While I don’t believe there is one universal “best” way to acquire customers, some of it will come down to the type of business. What is your Customer Lifetime Value?
All of these CAN work:
- Content marketing: blogging, YouTube, podcasting
- SEO
- Paid acquisition: Adwords, Meta ads, etc.
- Conferences
- Referrals and affiliates
- Partnerships and Integrations (especially for software)
- M&A - just buy your competitors
Some of these will be cost prohibitive if you have a lower priced product, or a lower LTV, so you’ll want to filter the list with that in mind.
But generally I’ve found that most any company can grow in almost any customer acquisition channel, the challenge is sticking with ONE of them long enough to make it work. We as founders love the shiny object and want to go try something new when things get hard…but the successful companies all know that sticking with something until it works is the real key.
Aquarium lease and care startup
100% (1 out of 1) by cold calling and physical visits.
Planning to build a 2th one same way, I hope referral and website will take off over timelol nice with the 1 out of 1. Congrats. Website for me has always been tricky to tune just right.