Customer acquisition is an important part of growing our business. Side by side we all know that customer retention is also critically important if we run a subscription based business or it has repeated customers.

So both of them are important. But how do we know that in which we have to focus more energy on when forming the growth strategy. The solution is really very complicated and it depends on a number of variables like customer acquisition cost, long term business goal, business canvas model and many more.

The basics of CustomerAcquisition

So we cannot run a successful business without acquiring the new customers. This is particularly true for nascent startups and also for small growing businesses. Securing the first few customers seem to be a great challenge when we first start a new business.

We have to do brand building because brand reputation is very much important for any business. Without any customers we can not build the brand reputation. We can advise them but potential customers will be hesitant to trust our brand if we don’t have enough customers yet.

In any company, the first customers will be their existing contacts of business and its stakeholders.As our customer grows and we increase our brand awareness and customer acquisition becomes exponentially easier. So it is essential and a necessary part of our business.

The basics of Customer Retention

Customer retention is an incredibly important part but often we have overlooked variable in the success or failure of a business. It seems very difficult to retain the old customers in our business. It all boils down  to deliver a world-class customer experience and delighting our customers. Lets discuss some basic tips of retaining existing customers:

  • We have to start out on the right foot by ensuring that new customers have everything they need to be successful from the very first day.
  • They produce content that solve common problems of customer base. It will help to build trust and authority with your organization.
  • It will help to reach out to customers on a routine basis to check in and see how things are going on.
  • In addition to that, we have to create a customer advisory board to give our customers a voice in the direction and evaluation of money.
  • We have to focus on solving customer support problems at the very first to minimize the effort they must devote to resolve the issue.
The basics of Customer Retention

Why Customer Acquisition is important?

It is very much necessary that by increasing the customer base is the fastest way to grow our business and the most obvious way to reach the short-term revenue goals. It is not the only way, we have to become an up-selling to our existing customers.

Customer acquisition is always a driver for business, which is the main reason for the inbound marketing which has a rapid growth of industry as of now. Inbound tools are ideal for attracting qualified potential clients and it can easily convert them to sales.

Why Customer Retention is important?

Stepping aside from the concerns of profitability, customer retention is one of the best way to measure how reliably our company is providing the service. Simply, the companies of high retention rates are knocking it out of the park, and also doing such good works so that their customers could realize they would be worse off without them.

Also strong customer retention rates can also be a great driver of customer acquisition through referrals and they may cause study evidence which we can provide to potential clients. So when it comes to revenue, customer retention is highly important to consistent growth and financial planning.

The more committed customers we have for the next financial quarter, it is easier to make budgetary decisions. Another benefit of retained customers over acquired customers is that they generally require less maintenance.

Conclusion

So what should be concluded here? Should we have to more focus on customer retention or customer acquisition to maintain a competitive edge? As per my opinion, that upside down and spending 50% of our marketing budget on tactics to retain the old customers. It is the best long term business growth strategy in nearly every case.