Ways to get new customers

Here the customer finds you: ranking in search, paid advertising, publishing on social accounts and referrals from existing customers.

They share one trait: slow to build, cheap once built. They also share one difficulty, which comes from the same place. The first three months usually produce nothing, and three months is longer than most small companies can hold their nerve.

Here you go to them: direct email, phone calls, trade shows and partnerships.

They share one trait: the first result arrives within weeks and you set the volume. They also share one risk: done badly they damage the brand, done well they are the cheapest channel available.

Three questions decide it: how much you earn per customer, how many people are involved in the decision, and how long the sale takes to close.

High value per customer and a decision made by a few people points to direct email and phone. Low value and a large pool of buyers points to search visibility and advertising.

The formula is simple: what you spent on a channel in a period, divided by the customers it won. Count your own hours as spend; leave them out and manual channels look cheaper than they are.

Compare that number with what a customer is worth to you. If acquisition cost is more than a third of what a customer pays in the first year, the channel is not sustainable.

Two at most. Run three and you cannot tell which one worked, so the budget sits in a dead channel for months.

A sensible order: start with a method that gives fast feedback and build a slow one in parallel. Direct email is the cheapest example of the first group, search visibility of the second.