Effective Online Customer Acquisition Strategies through Competitive Intelligence
09 August 2010
Many strategies have been forged in the business world in order to help companies gather intelligence about their competition and to acquire and retain customers. Theres never a sole method to use; youll always be able to find competing strategies for your
online business. Looking at the competitive intelligence method, well cover a bit about customer acquisition strategies.Competitive intelligence - or competitor analysis - is a system made up of fundamental principles that allow you, the business owner, to gauge your competition. This sounds vague, to be sure; and truthfully thats due to what the intelligence process encompasses.There are various sub strategies within the framework of competitive intelligence. Think of it like spying, if you will (only not sinister by any stretch). Youre basically trying to find out how your competitor thinks, what his/her strengths and weaknesses are, how to plan a course of attack and carry it out, and what the risks are to you and your business by doing so.
Its like Sun Tzus The Art of War on many levels and if you can grasp what it is to perform competitive intelligence, then we can begin discussing exactly how it pertains to helping you with effective customer acquisition strategies.Pursuing and acquiring customers online can be a tricky process at times. Youll definitely need a proper strategy to assist in this. This is where competitive intelligence can come in and work in your favor. In fact, if done properly, you can perform analysis on your competitors and kill multiple birds with one stone.For example, looking at your competitions customers is a great way to gauge exactly what youre up against. Youll find out what theyre selling, what theyre selling it for, how their business (site and trafficking) is laid out and executed, and exactly what it is about this business that keeps customers trafficking through.Use your competitive intelligence to get deeper, though. Subscribe to your competitions forums, newsletters and, if theyre really similar, even purchase products and find out about new deals. Find out exactly what theyre doing through every step of the process.The idea here isnt to imitate what your competition is doing, obviously. You wont succeed this way. Youll blend in with the fray and go under. However, you will be able to improve on ideas and learn how to better acquire customers. What you find may end up being a hodgepodge of numbers, so the proper analysis is important. By breaking down things like their keywords, website hits, items sold, membership base, etc, youll be able to paint an accurate picture of your market. From here, youll know exactly how to proceed on the right path. This isnt like reading any advice article and following steps verbatim. Youll be involved in true-to-life up-to-the-minute data that will help you formulate the best strategies for customer acquisition. It wont be an easy process, but it will certainly be worth it.
