In order for your WordPress agency or your work as a freelancer to be sustainable, you need to constantly expand your customer base. This applies today more than ever. Because without customer acquisition, it's not the best offer that wins in the end, but the one with the lowest price. We'll show you how to acquire, convert and retain new customers.

And it's not just about your own company. You also have only one task for your customers: to help them grow their own customer base - using WordPress as a tool. If you manage to get to the heart of the benefits of WordPress, you've already won half the battle.

Which strategies and tools will help you to become and remain successful? That's exactly what this series of articles is about. You can also download it as a complete e-book. In this first part, we take a look at your target groups and inbound lead marketing.

Combining WordPress development and customer acquisition

WordPress has changed the field of digital marketing over the last decade in ways that would have been unimaginable in the past. The platform has conquered a large part of the internet and dominates over other content management systems. WordPress is the first choice for highly qualified and experienced developers working for local and international companies. But also for beginners who want to start their own business.

At the same time, it's important to know: The popularity of WordPress means that more and more agencies, freelancers and developers are working with it. Limited only by their creativity and ability to connect with clients. As the competition for attention and customers gets tougher, it's more important than ever for you to focus on reaching new customers.

In this series of articles, we will show you how you can maximize your customer acquisition opportunities. We will introduce you to innovative online marketing strategies that will help you gain new leads. We also explain how you can best use your existing customer base to acquire new customers. We also explain how referrals and affiliate marketing work. Or how you can use them to take your websites to the next level.

The technical details are also important if you want to be an innovator and leader in customer acquisition, but also particularly innovative with regard to your customers' WordPress projects. We'll give you a detailed plan to help you measure and analyze how well your customer acquisition strategies are working. And how well you are on track with your goals.

We will also tell you how you can make your processes even more customer-oriented. As well as various tools that optimize your processes and communication - across complex systems.

Last but not least, we address some proven techniques on how to best maintain customer relationships after all the hard work of acquisition. We at Raidboxes are pleased that we can accompany you in the optimization process. After all, the following content is based on the experience and knowledge that we have been able to develop ourselves. In the relationship with our own customers.

Facts about customer acquisition with WordPress

The fantastic growth of WordPress has driven the development of websites to an astonishing degree in recent years. Along the way, WordPress has helped millions of entrepreneurs connect with customers from all over the world.

In 2021, WordPress websites accounted for around 42% of the entire internet, which corresponds to growth of over 10% compared to the previous year. If you only count websites that are based on a content management system, this share rises to almost 65%.

Here are a few more facts about WordPress:

• Over 400 million people visit sites created with WordPress every month
• Almost 30 percent of all e-commerce runs via WooCommerce via WordPress
• Almost 300 new online stores go online with WooCommerce every day
• WordPress has over 58,000 plugins and 3,500 licensed themes

Popularity vs. innovation

However, the popularity of WordPress in particular has led to millions of websites being created by rather inexperienced freelancers. The result is that large parts of the internet are littered with sites that all look the same. For a company or organization to stand out today, innovative WordPress developers with an eye for creativity are a must. As do the corresponding agencies.

If you are reading this, we assume that creativity is important to you. As well as self-determined, efficient work. You need both of these qualities to be successful in this highly competitive business. But how much do you know about customer acquisition? Without this knowledge and without the skills needed to bring new visitors to your website, your customers won't be your customers for long. After all, you can only sell well what you yourself exemplify.

In this time of competitive markets and narrow margins, you need to do more than build websites with WordPress. You need to develop some new skills, including a robust understanding of sales and marketing.

Customer acquisition in the age of the Internet and social media

For the vast majority of modern entrepreneurs, the time when they can be persuaded to spend vast sums on massive, expensive and aggressive (print) advertising campaigns and similar measures is over. And unless you're a company on the scale of Apple or Uber, or offering deep discounts to undercut your competition, it's not feasible to lure their customers to your business en masse.

For you as an entrepreneur and WordPress developer, it's important to understand all the strategic alternatives for attracting new customers if you want to stand out from the competition. But first things first: Knowing what your customers want is the key to sales.

Research to see your business through the eyes of your customers' current target groups is therefore a key component for growth. If you don't offer something that people want, you won't be able to keep the customers you already have. Let alone attract new ones. Some important areas of customer and market research are:

• What do they read? Where do your client's website visitors spend their time? What types of blog posts do they click on the page? Which blog posts do they read all the way through? Which ones do they share?
• What are they looking for? Where in your client's e-commerce space do visitors shop the most? And what do they click on next, and then next, and then next as they browse your client's products in their e-commerce store? 
• What works for the competition? Research what your competitors are doing (more) successfully. Your clients will probably know a lot about their competition, but with the eye of development, you can objectively assess how competitors are maximizing their reach.

In addition, you should know the right arguments why your potential customers need their own website with WordPress. Or why they should expand their existing website. Read our article on why nothing beats having your own website.

Get to know your customers' target groups

Store Direct is a large multi-brand digital retailer from the UK that noticed a slump in response rates to digital ads for women's clothing. The company had segmented its offering into seven "occasions" for spring and summer, with themes such as "summer vacation", "a day at the office" and more. Similar to what Otto does in Germany, for example. The team drove browsing and response behavior by helping women imagine how they could improve their current wardrobe.

The positive turnaround in new customer acquisition was triggered by an online survey. Women were asked about their fashion awareness in a personality quiz. Based on the information gathered, Shop Direct was able to segment and focus its offers and promotions on the website. And in a much more detailed and specific way than was previously the case.

This process and the resulting content, which is individually segmented according to target groups and needs, successfully converted a whole series of new leads.

By using a simple tool, a short online survey, Shop Direct was able to transform its women's fashion department in a very short time. By evaluating the sub-target groups that could be addressed most efficiently. You can use this approach for your customer projects, but also in a modified form for your own online marketing.

The Shop Direct case study, as we've explained it here, is of course a highly condensed version of the website's overall strategies and how the scenario played out. You can read more about it in the article Using Big Data for Customer Acquisition.

However, for WordPress professionals like you who want to help their clients win new customers, this means that with the tools available to you in WordPress, and with a little research and imagination, you can use your creativity and skills. To develop and implement innovative customer acquisition strategies. Sometimes a little lateral thinking and trial and error helps. The success figures and content KPIs ("Key Performance Indicators"), which are so easy to measure online, tell you whether you are on the right track. With your campaign, but also with your target group segments.

Opportunities for customer acquisition

In our information-saturated age, where the market is flooded with content every day, generating new customers is a challenge. Just look at the sheer number of companies, agencies and people who want to reach new addressees online: Over a billion emails are sent every day via MailChimp alone. And around 2.75 million blog posts are published daily via WordPress, every single day.

It's a big challenge to stand out from the crowd here. To get new visitors to go to your site or your client's site, or otherwise engage with it. And we haven't even talked about how most people get to a particular website.

Search queries vs. clicks

According to statistics from datareportal.com, around 81% of people between the ages of 18 and 64 search for a product or service online every month. And around 74 percent have bought a product online, regardless of the device used. But did you know that 35 percent of desktop searches end without a click? And a whopping 65 percent of mobile searches also end without a click.

A good ranking in the search results of Google & Co. is all well and good. But what does it take to get interested people to click through your offer and become customers? It all starts with the generation of inbound leads and what is known as organic customer acquisition. Here are a few basics on this important topic.

What is inbound lead generation?

At its core, inbound lead generation is about ensuring that a person who comes into contact with your website goes through various phases until they convert. In other words, until they accept your offer. Here are the most important definitions:

• Prospect:in is a person who fits the demographic and market that your product or service is aimed at.
• Lead is a person who has expressed an interest in your offer.
• Lead generation means turning interested parties into leads.
• Inbound lead generation is therefore the process of generating leads through actions initiated by potential customers. This is done using digital content, promotions and other (online) methods.
• Outbound lead generation, on the other hand, means sending your product or service (or information about it) to a list of contacts who have neither expressed interest nor engaged with your site.

Both inbound and outbound lead generation is important and useful. But in a world where trust in companies is often rather low and people are not keen on "hard-core" advertising methods, inbound lead generation is crucial to your success. It is the central online lever for expanding your own customer base or that of your customers.

The most important point you need to understand is that inbound leads come to you willingly. We are no longer in an environment where you approach people with stands at trade fairs or sprinkle them with TV ads. Instead, it's about creating an online environment where potential customers become leads of their own accord - or at least that's what they think.

As a WordPress agency or freelancer, it's your job to get and keep the attention of potential visitors. You excite them, annoy them, fascinate them, make them laugh or amaze them in some other way. And they come to your customers' website of their own free will and stay there because they are interested in something they find there. Our article on content marketing for agencies & freelancers tells you exactly how to do this.

The prospect has initiated the contact, so he or she has control over the interaction and the marketing cycle. He or she is therefore predisposed to like your customer's site - a key component of inbound lead generation. Of course, the website must also be designed in such a way that this liking is not immediately undone. But more on this later in our series.

How to generate inbound leads

Any solid strategy for generating inbound leads is based on a number of well-known but important components:

• Search engine optimization (SEO) and local SEO for WordPress agencies
• Social media (you can find out how to find the right platform for this in our tutorial on social media selection)
• Blog posts
• E-mail marketing
• Offering giveaways such as video tutorials or e-books, as we do at Raidboxes with our e-books

You can use these channels to enable previously unknown prospects to find your customers' website. And make friends with it because it offers valuable content. Once prospects have engaged with the site, the next step is to keep them engaged and happy. In other words, turning them into customers.

Other customer acquisition methods

Nowadays, inbound lead generation is almost always associated with the idea of obtaining contact information from prospects and initiating an ongoing conversation. The basic idea is to offer them something in return for a certain action. For example, a free online course, an e-book with high-quality content or a discount - all in exchange for their email address.

But other proven methods of getting in touch with potential new customers are also very valuable. For example, referrals and networking cannot be dismissed out of hand, supported by a partner or affiliate program, for example. A recommendation from a trusted friend or even personal contact and the exchange of business cards is often worth significantly more than a simple email.

You can gain a remarkable amount of leads by simply being friendly and engaging in the real world. For example, in the WordPress community and at WordCamps and WP Meetups. And by exchanging contact information with people you meet there. Our partners from the community keep telling us how helpful this engagement is.

We at Raidboxes find the same thing time and again when we sponsor WordCamps & Co. and are present on site with a stand as well as helpful presentations and offers. For example, we print our e-books and distribute them on site. Alternatively, for ecological reasons, we naturally offer to note down the e-mail addresses of interested parties in order to send the book in PDF format.

The impact of Covid-19 on the business

As we are talking about the transition between the digital and real world, it is inevitable to talk about the impact of events such as Covid-19. Especially in relation to the current digital business climate. Because events like this are turning the way people connect with each other upside down.

Many of us who work in development and other online-oriented fields have probably had little problem conducting even more of our business in the digital space. See our posts on remote work, remote leadership and the right tools for distributed working. However, there are a lot of companies out there that are only now getting to grips with this transition.

Many business owners never imagined that they would use the digital space in more than a rudimentary way. Along the lines of: "Then we probably need an email address". They are currently stumbling while trying to transform their businesses as quickly as possible to adapt to the new normal. And they need your help.

This means that there are many opportunities for developers and WP professionals of all stripes to generate customers. But it also means that the competition is not sleeping. So make sure you're in the market with the right offerings for these difficult times. However, don't just think in terms of more sales, but in terms of how you can support others. See the Raidboxes campaigns on this topic. What's more, customers and industries that you help in this way will thank you in the long term.

Strategies and tools for customer acquisition

In the next parts of the series, we will show you step by step how you can use remarketing and referral marketing to your advantage, what makes up- and cross-selling successful, how you can measure your success and how you can build long-term customer relationships. Here is an overview of all the other articles in our customer acquisition series:

• Remarketing & Affiliate Marketing
• Upselling, cross-selling & performance measurement
• Building customer relationships & customer relationship management
• The entire series of articles as an e-book B2B customer acquisition made easy

We would be delighted if you not only read along, but also if we hear from you: How can we help you grow your WordPress business? What are your own experiences in customer acquisition with WordPress and WooCommerce? Get in touch with us at any time or book an appointment with our sales team. We will be happy to deepen our knowledge with you.