There are many people who are worried that they don’t know where to start when trying to attract customers online, or that they are not getting the results they want. There are several types of web customer attraction, and making the best choice will maximize the effect. Therefore, in this article, we will introduce the types and characteristics of web customer attraction, as well as specific examples of measures.
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What is web customer acquisition?
Web customer acquisition is a marketing method that utilizes the Internet to acquire users. For example, we use tools such as web advertising, search engines, and SNS.
The purpose is to use these to increase the number of content views and sales by driving traffic to your company or your own website.
Purpose of attracting customers online
There are various purposes for attracting customers online.
- Improving corporate awareness and branding
- Acquire potential customers and turn users into fans
- Use or purchase our products and services
- Increase in sales
The key is to change the method of attracting customers online depending on the purpose and persona of the target audience. By selecting the most appropriate measures and disseminating information, you can smoothly guide users to your company’s homepage, etc., and expect a high customer attraction effect.
Differences in marketing strategy
Marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan for what kind of customers, what value, and how to provide it. For example, we analyze market and user needs and devise effective sales promotion measures.
On the other hand, the main purpose of web customer acquisition is to acquire users through measures in the Internet environment. In other words, attracting customers online is part of your marketing strategy.
What type of web customer attraction? Advantages and disadvantages of each measure
The effectiveness of online customer attraction varies depending on the measures and tools used. Generally, there are several ways to attract customers:
- Attracting customers through owned media
- Attracting customers via search engines
- Attracting customers through SNS
- Attracting customers through web advertising
- Attracting customers from external media
Let’s take a closer look at the features, advantages, and disadvantages of each.
Attracting customers in-house
This is a method of attracting customers from owned media such as corporate sites, blogs, and SNS accounts owned by your company.
The characteristic of attracting customers in-house is that there is a high degree of freedom. Since you can freely send out information that is useful to users and the company’s thoughts, you can send out measures that match the target customer group at the best time.
However, even if you create good content, it takes a certain period of time for it to rise to the top of search results, so it will take at least three months to a year for it to have an effect on attracting customers.
| How to attract customers | merit | Demerit | overview |
| corporate site | ・Easy to brand ・Since content is accumulated, continuous customer attraction can be expected. | – If the site is half-baked, trustworthiness may drop. | So-called official homepage. Including owned media such as blogs |
| ・Easy to lead to website ・Can be done at a low cost | -Can only approach existing customers | Dissemination of services through email distribution |
Attracting customers via search engines
This is a method to strengthen the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your content and increase traffic from search engines to e-commerce sites.
There are two types of SEO measures: external measures and internal measures. External measures are measures that increase the number of backlinks from other related sites to the website you want to rank higher. The purpose of this is to have Google evaluate your site as a “highly reliable and high-quality site.”
Internal measures aim to improve the quality of existing websites by adjusting the HTML source code.
In addition, in recent years, the number of users who obtain store information from map searches has increased significantly, so MEO (map engine optimization) measures have become important. Google Business Profile is a free service provided by Google that displays information provided by businesses on a map.
| How to attract customers | merit | Demerit | overview |
| SEO | ・Has a stable customer attraction effect
・Can attract customers continuously
・Content becomes an asset | ・Requires specialized knowledge
・It takes some time for the effect to appear | Measures to ensure that your company’s content ranks high when searching for certain keywords on Google, Yahoo!, etc. |
| MEO | – Match with highly relevant customers ・You can match with local users and expect to secure repeat customers. ・Effects appear in a shorter period of time than SEO ・There is still less competition | – Bad reviews may be written
・Industries are limited | Measures to be displayed at the top when searching for specific keywords on Google Maps |
Attracting customers through SNS
Attracting customers using SNS is also a method that has become important in recent years. The main measures are information dissemination and advertising through official accounts. Depending on your product or service, you can expect a greater effect on attracting customers by using video content from YouTube, TikTok, etc.
However, SNS goes in and out of fashion quickly, so you have to keep coming up with ways to never get bored of it.
| How to attract customers | merit | Demerit | overview |
| SNS | ・You can start for free ・Can send information in real-time
-Easy to communicate with users | ・There is a risk of fire – It takes time to acquire followers | Open official accounts on Instagram, Twitter, LINE, TikTok, etc. |
Attracting customers through web advertising
The advantage of web advertising is that the effects of the measures can be seen quickly when attracting customers on the web.
Although the cost is lower than traditional advertising such as TV commercials and newspaper ads, it can be expensive depending on the keywords and conditions. Consider cost-effectiveness and choose the most suitable type of advertisement.
| How to attract customers | merit | Demerit | overview |
| Listing advertisement | ・You can match with users who are highly motivated to purchase. -Effects appear relatively quickly | ・Operating costs are high ・There are users who intentionally avoid | Displayed on search engines based on the keywords searched by the user |
| display advertising | ・Able to approach latent demographics ・Can be retargeted | ・Conversion rate is low | Displayed in banner format in advertising space on websites |
| article advertisement | ・A large amount of information makes it easy to convey the appeal ・No running costs | ・Publication fees are high ・It takes a lot of effort to create articles | Published in article format on web news, blogs, etc. |
| SNS advertising | ・Possibility of being spread ・Can be matched with potential customers | ・There are few users over 50s ・There is a risk of fire | Displayed on SNS platforms |
| Retargeting, remarketing advertising | ・Able to approach potential customers ・High conversion rate | ・Not suitable for highly urgent services ・It may be displayed continuously, which may be unpleasant. | Displayed by tracking users who have visited your website in the past |
Attracting customers from external media
This is a method of attracting customers by distributing press releases, posting on comparison sites, and pasting links on external media such as portal sites. Increasing the number of backlink sites will naturally increase traffic to your owned media.
The main disadvantage is that it is expensive. Also, you need to follow the rules and policies of external sites, and you may be at the mercy of the site’s operator. The content is the property of external sites, so relying solely on attracting customers from external sites is risky.
| How to attract customers | merit | Demerit | overview |
| comparison site | ・You can approach the visible demographic (users who are highly interested in your service). – Recognized by many users | ・The presence of each company decreases ・Competition becomes more intense | A site that summarizes information on specific services. Kakaku.com is a typical example. |
| Portal site | ・Easy to match with users who are highly motivated to use the service ・We can expect to attract a stable number of customers. | – Information is posted in a template format, making it difficult to differentiate from competitors.
| Tabelog, Hot Pepper, Ekiten, Gurunavi, etc. |
How to choose an effective method of attracting customers online and tips
There are important points to keep in mind in order to maximize the effectiveness of online customer attraction.
- Clarify purpose and target
- Think about how to express it
- I’ll hold off on whether it’s free or not.
First, identify your target and purpose, and clarify your persona. It is also recommended to create a “customer journey” that visualizes the behavior and psychology of users up to usage and purchase.
Also, think about the expression method that suits your company’s services. The best way to convey the benefits of your company’s services to users is to clarify which one is better: photos, videos, or text, and you will be able to see which tool to choose.
Although you may be concerned about cost, please consider using or continuing the service based on cost-effectiveness. Once you get started, don’t forget to constantly analyze and improve. When promoting measures such as SEO, Google’s evaluation standards change daily, so it is necessary to brush up on the article content regularly.
Specific examples of web customer attraction by case
We will specifically introduce the methods you should choose depending on your purpose.
If you want to create your own fans
We recommend using SNS to attract customers. By using charismatic influencers, you can encourage them to become fans. Another advantage is that you can start for free.
To convey the appeal of your service, choose the SNS to use based on your target audience, such as whether videos or text are better, and what age group you are targeting.
If you want to acquire potential customers
We recommend web advertising and SEO measures using owned media to increase awareness. If you can provide useful information and services to your users, you will be highly effective.
Especially in the case of a service that is not yet well-known, the key is how much traffic your site can receive from internet search engines.
If you want to increase sales in a short time
Listing advertisements, email distribution, etc. are recommended. Listing ads allows you to match with users who are highly interested, so the hurdles to actually taking action are low.
You can also stimulate purchasing intent by sending coupons and limited information via email.
It is OK to leave the web customer acquisition to an outside party.
There are several types of web customer acquisition. Each has different characteristics, so it is important to choose a policy that matches your company’s services and objectives.
However, because attracting customers online takes time and often requires know-how and specialized knowledge, it is quite difficult to start from scratch. It may be easier to consult a consulting company for SEO measures and an advertising agency for web advertising. If you don’t feel that your in-house efforts to attract customers online are effective, why not consider outsourcing this to an outside company?
At Pantograph, we can make proposals tailored to our client’s concerns, including attracting customers online using content SEO. If you are having trouble managing your website, please feel free to contact us.
