Customer Acquisition: Strategies for Increasing Your Base

We can’t speak to your business’s specifics, but we know that all successful enterprises have three strategies in common: they think and plan for the long term, are risk-tolerant, and their core values align with customer needs. Visionary Steve Jobs knew how delighting customers and building an empire, so let’s consider his take on these approaches.

Think long-term. “[The Mac] is very crude back in the day, [but] what will it be able to do 10 or 20 years from now or 50 years from now?” You’re in it for the long haul. Because if you’re not, your business won’t be, either, and your customers will know it. Be prepared to spend the time it takes to build your base from what it is now to what you see it becoming.

How long will that take? The answer lies in the question: What will your business be 20 years, 50 years from now? Got the vision? Great. Now, work backward from there. Be prepared to take risks. “Sometimes, when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.”

But if you’re not innovating — even in a small way — you’re not growing, and if your company is not increasing, your base isn’t either. So please don’t shy away from risk; instead, welcome it as an opportunity to reach new customers and new levels of customer satisfaction. Mitigate risk with a plan and a fallback plan, notice what works and what doesn’t work, and be prepared to take your lumps and move on quickly if necessary. Most importantly, be aware of the difference between “risky” and “foolhardy” because we all know what happens to a fool and his money.

Align corporate values with customer needs.

“Our DNA is as a consumer company – for that individual customer who’s voting thumbs up or thumbs down. Our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience.” More than a product or service, what you bring to the marketplace values, and that value is sourced directly from your corporate values, your “DNA”. Consider Apple’s obsession with the customer’s experience of a product in addition to its mere functionality. That obsession was and continues to be rooted in Steve Jobs’ belief — his insistence — that technology can and should be beautiful. The customer needs beauty in design (you know you love you some iPhone), Apple values beauty in design, and boom, a vast and loyal customer base is born (or rather, wooed).

So, do your products reflect your corporation’s core values?

If the answer to that question is “no”, we can help. Contact us today for insights and practical steps you can take to put these three strategies firmly in your corner.

Your customers will thank you.

Read Also:

Customer Development & Acquisition

Customer Acquisition and Retention

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