What process should I take to acquire customers?

Day 1:
--- Set up analytics to you can track how successful each of your attempts is. This will allow you to choose which to focus on and optimize. Use freemium services to make it easier
o Popcorn metrics (to define what to track) connected to Mixpanel (visualization of data)
o Learn how to use Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMs) so that you can better distinguish which of your methods are working best in later steps.

--- Start trying to define the 'persona' of your customer. This will help you in the next steps when you think of ways of getting them to know about your product.

--- Learn about and get set up for a 'drip email campaign' which you will need on Day 3. You could use MailChimp.

Day 2:
--- Start trying different methods for telling potentially interested people about your product.

--- Ads
o Google adwords
o Facebook

--- Engage with communities
o Online
= Twitter
= Facebook
= Youtube
= Blogs / news sites
o Offline
= Meetups
= Television news

--- Think up other methods to try. Anything that somehow describes your product to those that would likely want to buy it

--- Get as much contact info as possible. As people land on your website, even if they don't buy anything, you should be collecting email addresses from as many as possible.

--- Watch your analytics data in real time as much as possible (using Mixpanel), especially right after starting to try something new.

Day 3:
--- Analyze your data and start working more on the promising tactics.
--- Start working on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your site. The basic stuff can be done quickly, but to get it to work well takes time.
--- Start your 'drip email campaign' with the emails you've collected (and continue to collect) to stay in touch with your potential customers about your product.

If only it we're as easy as someone telling you exactly what to do and voilá, the customers would just appear. In reality very few startups actually fail because they can't put together a decent product and very many fail because no one ever hears that they exist. There are a great variety of different customer acquisition channels you can try. If you get one channel to work, you already have a good business. If you get more than one to work, you have a fantastic business. I'd recommend reading online about customer acquisition channels.

Hi there,

requesting a step by step plan based on the day-to-day format you've just outlined will not help.

Businesses vary, and what works for others may not work for you. So, I'd suggest you share a bit more about your business, and then I'll be able to give you some pointers. Feel free to contact me directly if need be.

With all due respect, your question is quite naive. Looking for something like this is useless because every business is different. There are lots of consultants who will walk you though this for a fee (many of us on here are paid consultants).

You should not look for a cookie-cutter remedy to a complicated problem.

"Prescription without diagnosis = malpractice" so if someone suggests a detailed plan for you, then ignore it.

Hi there, I hope this helps... I've used phases not days. Not much can be achieved or learned in a day, sorry!

Phase 1.
Understand, based on your business plan, how much you could pay to acquire a customer. A rough rule of thumb is on third of your retail price, but every business/product is different. This is your cost per acquisition target (CpA). The CpA should take into account the lifetime value of each customer rather than just to profit from the initial purchase. (This is obviously difficult in the early stages).

Phase 2.
Try free stuff, like social media. But don't just try in one way. Try different offers and promotions and be clear about what the objective is for each mini campaign. It might be that 'Likes' are a goal initially, just to give credibility. A campaign to do that might look very different to an acquisition campaign.
Only make a decision on whether or not something works if you have enough data.

Phase 3.
Try obvious targeted paid for media. The most obvious being AdWords and BING or even paid social. It's best to use somebody that knows what they're doing because the default settings can spend your money pretty quickly and might lead to you discounting something, like PPC, without good cause.
At all times try to collect data. Get contact details, set up retargeting to make your company appear bigger than it is. Start to build a database and learn how to utilise it. Try to ascertain which source of customers/likes/subscribers are worth the most (FB competition entrants tend to be quick to unsubscribe from emails etc. for example).
Make the most of what traction you do get by introducing member get member incentives from day one (if relevant).

Phase 4.
Don't ignore traditional media. Just because something can't be tracked with fancy software, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be used or that it can't be a good source of sales.

Phase 5.
Make sure you ignore generic advice offered without a good understanding of your particular challenges (like everything i've said above!).

Good luck with it all.

Every business is different, so it's hard to give you an exact answer that works for you but generally, when clients come to my agency (https://www.brotskydesigns.com) we follow these five main points:
1. Collect - We start by research demographics, collect data, etc.
2. Plan and Organize - We come up with a marketing strategy with hit lists, schedules, and budgets.
3. Deployment - We will start our plan and let it take effect.
4. Analyze - We review marketing data and figure out what worked and what didn't work.
5. Repeat - We fix our mistakes and continue doing things that worked.

I hope this helped. :)