Mini Blog Post 4: Customer Acquisition

Think about the last thing you bought…was it clothes? Food? A game? More importantly, why did you buy it? Whether it was to make you happy or fix a problem you had, you played your part in customer acquisition. Customer acquisition is the process of bringing new customers or clients to a business. This concept is important for businesses of any size since it allows them to attract and convert new customers while staying healthy and growing — plus it keeps investors happy! Students in the Future Entrepreneur Challenge with Mr. Massi were able to explore customer acquisition with their startup ideas. Student teams came up with potential solutions to acquire customers based on their product idea and target audience. In this session, students had to clarify their “users” and “marketing target audience.” For example, a high school lunch delivery app users are high school students, but schools or parents may be the ones paying for it. During the class, Mr. Massi taught about various online marketing concepts and tools, such as a funnel:

This funnel works as a framework to help in tracking and monitoring each stage of customer acquisition. Once their target audience is clarified, the student teams needed to decide the channel, which they did by analyzing various marketing tools, such as email and social media:

Teams then had to create their plan, using prompts like:

• What channels will you use to acquire customers?
• What will your content say?
• How and when will you publish your content?

In the end, students learned how necessary it is for a business to have a sustainable customer acquisition model. Without one, their business will lack customers. And without customers, their company cannot be successful. However, customer acquisition is just one aspect of a successful business and future entrepreneurs must take care to study all parts of the business to do well. Sign up for the Future Entrepreneur Challenge to get an edge and rise above the competition!