Understanding the Essentials of Customer Acquisition in the Digital Age

If you know you're 90 seconds in and they're still looking at you like you got a third eye, you probably still have some refinement to.

Mm, that's good. And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Mark. A Getting Brew. I'm your host, Brett Dyer. If you could please subscribe to this podcast and all your favorite podcasting. Absolutely. For Five Star Review, it really does help with the rankings. Let me know how I'm doing. But this week we're gonna talk about customers, acquisitions, data, all the things that marketers should know, but maybe boring to some, but it's still really important to actually know. But with me, I have Trey Robinson here and he has been in the financial services industry since 1997. He's worked with Charles Schwab. Acquired and he went from being responsible for a single marketing channel newsletter to becoming the head of marketing and division for the startup by Charles Schwab at USAA. He was responsible for doubling their account growth, client acquisition, and grew it by more than 850,000 within three years. But welcome to the show, Trey.

Thank you for having me

ask the first question, ask all my guest is, are you a coffee or tea drinker? Ha.

Coffee. Actually both but if I have to choose coffee every time,

any specifics that you like or you just just give it to me 'cause it has caffeine.

No. In the afternoon it's iced cold brew in the morning. It's got a little cream and sugar in it, but I'm one of those all day coffee, gas.

It's a good thing that you don't actually, you can still go to sleep with an all day drinking coffee.

Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

Anyways, I gave a brief summary of your expertise. Can you give our listeners a little bit more about what you do?

I've spent my entire career trying to find new clients for customers. A lot of it in financial services. And that's probably my favorite thing to do. And the thing I love to do most, whether it's for a brand I'm working for directly or or a client is figure out how to help 'em grow. And usually that means. Finding them new clients.

Got you. And so what are some more of the effective channels for acquiring new customers in today's digital landscape? We got social media, we've got email newsletters, which is still pretty effective. Like what is effective for businesses today?

A lot of it's driven by the client's budget, market size, right? When I was at Schwab, we ran, we went all the way out into tv. I don't recommend that unless you've got a, a relatively large budget. If we're talking about a startup, I think Google Search is a great place to start because it's high intent, it's relatively affordable. There's not a lot of waste. And so what we like to do at Story Amplify, our agency is sit down and talk to a potential client about what resources do they have, who's the target, where do we find them, what's worked in the past, and tailor something that's real specific to them based on budget, geographic region. Target audience. But it's hard, honestly, if you're new to marketing, to not start with something like and you wanna start in a page channel, like something like search, because it's, it tends to be very effective. It's got its downside. But if you're talking about starting out where to start, we love starting at the, the bottom of the funnel.

And it is like podcasting starting to become that mix. 'cause you do have very niche podcasts that actually can. Fit within the user or customer acquisition. Financially you can find a bunch of financial pod podcasts and that some of 'em could be cheap and some of 'em could be expensive. You really have to choose. Pick and choose.

Yeah, a absolutely. One of the things when it comes, especially if we're talking about media, we're talking about spending money. One of the things that's really important for a marketer to think about is efficiency. How do I minimize the waste? And so when you think about a podcast, if you are going after a specific niche in financial services it might be, people that are close to retirement and you've got a podcast that focuses on living in retirement, I. Most of those people listening to it are gonna be in your target market. And so I love that type of niche podcast for a niche brand because when they really align, like I said, we're not wasting a lot of media. On the other side, I think a bad mistake is when you pick a broad media channel for a brand that doesn't have a broad appeal audience. And the other day we were watching baseball and I noticed the logo on the patch. On the shoulder of the Rangers was for a B2B energy play, and I was like, I don't understand why a B2B advertiser that has a relatively small market. Wants to buy time on a major league broadcast that's advertising to a relatively large consumer market. And it's that kind of thing we wanna avoid as marketers is really, where there's a mismatch between advertising target and and the medium that, that they're at.

Yeah, it does sound weird given that I know that you can get some sales through it, but if nobody knows who you are, it's kinda that's a weird logo. You might as well just spend it on LinkedIn and then B2B marketing podcasts or B2B Energy podcasts or just energy podcasts in general, and probably spend way less and probably hit more of your target. Audience.

Absolutely. And I think there's a spot for in every in every business plan for a mass media play, but it needs to be after you've exhausted the lower funnel stuff. That's what we, I like to move from the bottom up. I there's a brand here in Austin, I think it's called Self, and it's a financial services startup, and I saw them on the court of The Santino Spurs last season, and I was like, that's awesome. I know those guys are responsible. I know they do a good job in their marketing. I know they built it from the bottom up. And what was impressed me was, wow, that's reaching a lot of people and that brand is now big enough to be moving into a mass market type brand play. Like the Spurs to me just said a lot for how that brand has grown. Like I said, there's always a spot. You just wanna make sure it fits with the goals and the market size for your client.

Could like one of the lower parts of the funnel be like your webpage and your landing pages and like offering something for free. 'cause that's an easy way of getting into your newsletter to eventually sell to them. It's a slower process, but it's a little bit cheaper in a way of your own website.

Oh, absolutely. We love content marketing. And I think content marketing works best when you've got however the audience is getting there, whether it's a Google search or it's a, or it's an ad whatever the content that's on the ad that's driving them to that landing page, let make sure that the messaging is very aligned to the problem that the the user's trying to solve. And then that downloadable piece of content or deeper piece of content is also very aligned. So let's just say someone's Googling Tools to reduce my 2023 taxes, right? And then the ad or the blog topic is, ways to reduce your 22 3 tax taxes. And then the downloadable on the right side says all the ticks and tricks to reduce your tax bill. We've got real alignment between what they were researching, what they saw, what ad they saw, what they're finding on the landing page, and what that downloadable is. I think in a case like that where we're using content, where brands can get themselves in trouble is they start to introduce themselves too soon before they've really given the research or the client the answer they were looking for. Because the last thing you want is them to hit your landing page and then back out 'cause they don't see what they were looking for. So I think in that case, when we're playing with content, we love content. One of our golden rules is keep it as aligned as possible and when you solve the user's problem, Then you've earned the right to start talking about yourself. And love content for that reason. But I do think there's some tricks and tips about when to start talking about yourself versus solving their problem. That will that can really minimize the abandonment rate of that of that lead if we're real conscious about putting their needs first.

So it's almost like keeping it as frictionless as possible. 'cause if you're like, Hey, I'm gonna solve your problem, jump over to my website. And I'm like I don't have a. Where's solving my problem except for sign up for this, and I'm like, okay, I don't really, it's to some people it's I don't really need that problem solved that much. And so then you lose customers because Do you think it's the important like problem or solu to the solution and I can just go to YouTube and find it a lot more frictionless than having to jump through all these hoops?

Yeah, absolutely. I think reducing friction is the name of the game. And so when we sit down with our clients. Or I sit down if I'm in a new role, one of the first things we try to do is really understand like what they're trying to do, what they've done in the past, who their target is, because then we can build a custom solution to them. And to your point that, that has maybe the maximum pull through that minimizes the friction that drives the most alignment with their With their brand. And so a lot of times it is custom. But I think there are some tenets like we were just talking about, that you can carry from client to client or campaign to campaign that, that I would consider best practices.

Is there any way to personalize this? 'cause everybody likes things to be custom to them for the most part. There's a certain extent of how personalized you can get, but is there any ways to personalize it, to humanize it a little bit so people are like, oh, you guys are thinking of me. Even though, to be honest with you, it's probably using ai. We're just making you feel good?

Yeah, I think the more you know about who you're marketing to, the more you could improve your relevance. And you can do that through if it's a one-to-one tactic like email, you can do that through the some of the variable texts and fields that you might have in your CRM so that your dear name. Inserting paragraphs about or images that we know are relevant to that user. If we get broader, like we were talking a second ago with media but we're still in a, like a targeted media, like a podcast. I think customizing that read to be about the problem or the topic of that podcast and really trying to be as relevant as you can. It's obviously harder in media than it is in one-to-one communications, but anytime you can, as we know, improve relevance, I. And reprove customization. We're gonna drive higher engagement by the user. And then what that ultimately translates to is better conversion.

And is there some innovative ways of using social media to do customers acquisition? I know it's commonplace to use social media and it's depending on your generation too, because Gen Z Alpha usually use TikTok, millennials, us, sometimes use TikTok, but mostly it's YouTube, Instagram, and everybody else is like Instagram and Facebook.

Yeah, to your point, knowing where your audience is key. More and more the the, platforms are pay for play, right? So we always, even though we put together organic content for our clients, we always recommend spending some money to boost the content or wrapping that with some paid ads. But our general rule of thumb in social is create good content, create relevant pieces that solve people's problems. Put them on your site, put them on your blog, then spin ads to run. Traffic to them. And since you've already done all of that work to create the content and the experience also included in your social, and then depending on budgets, spend money on social to to boost it and drive engagement to it. We are a big bel believer in create once, use many. In the marketing world because we know how hard it is to create content and how today, obviously AI is making some of that easier, we never find a marketer that has a bunch of extra time. And so one of the things we like to do when we're creating a campaign is include social. And make sure that we are creating assets that that, that are part of an integrated campaign. But mostly for us we try to start at the content piece and then figure out, okay who that now that we've got something that's really robust, how do we get it out in front of the right users? And social usually becomes part of that, but it's never usually our primary starting point. It's usually an add-on to a campaign.

Would you advise using like the LinkedIn newsletter feature or would you like to place your news or your email marketing specifically on your website? Because I know it's a difference between rented and paid for or bought because you're only renting from LinkedIn. You may, you do something wrong and all that stuff's gone.

Yeah, I think as a marketer, the way to think about your email list is it's an asset that you've created for use, right? And so I'm a big believer in building your own list. I. And keeping it really clean and keeping it outta spam filters and maintaining that asset. But to your point, that takes time, right? And so if you're a new brand and you're starting out how can you use a LinkedIn feature or a rented feature to drive people to the site, get them maybe subscriber, a series or something like that? Use your blog to have a subscription feature, right? Things you can surround your marketing with. But over time, I think the right thing to do is to build your own. Newsletter database, but in the beginning I think it's great to use the rented ones or if you're launching a new product or going on FD Target and you feel like your database you have is maybe off a little bit, that's when I would rent. But, just like I tell my kids long-term we wanna be a house buyer, not a house renter. I think in the email world, we want to create that asset. And so if we can create an email list that we own I'm a big fa fan of that as a long-term strategy.

It's true. But never buy a house in California 'cause you'll just lose everything.

Yes. You definitely don't wanna buy anything at the top of the market, but yes there are certain markets. But like when we talk about rent versus buying an email, I think it's also important as a marketer to be thinking about rent versus buy. I. Across their channels. And what and a lot of times we have conversations with clients and they say should I do organic search? Or do I should paid search? Should I create organic content or should you pay? And I look 'em in the face and I say, do you have more time or do you have more money? And most of the time the answer is, it's some kind of balance, right? Because the organic tactics. Building a newsletter list. Those take time, right? The paid tactics are immediate ad, but every time you use them, it costs you money, right? And so what we're a big believer of is working with our clients to create some organic content, create a way to sign up for a newsletter and be doing that from day one. At the same time, we're running some paid ads. We're renting some lists, and so we're finding a blend there. But what happens over time is the organic content starts to rank. We start to build ourselves a newsletter, and if we do it right, we become less dependent on our paid channels. Because we built our brand, we built our organic search, we built our email list, and then that allows us to have a lower cost to acquire, right? And ultimately, as we push our cost to acquire down and we do things to improve The lifetime value of those clients, we start to build a healthy business. And so we love to come alongside our clients and help them think about the short term and the long term, the rent and the buy because when you do that, I think from the beginning, you can look up in five years and have a very healthy mix. And as a marketer, be very secure in your role because you've created a sustainable acquisition model for your business.

Got you. And what are some of the common mistakes companies make with a cus customer acquisition? We've been talking about email marketing and doing con rate content and a little bit of frictionless too. But is there any other common mistakes that they are like, oh, this is a great idea, and it's you probably shouldn't do that yet?

There's a couple of things that we talk about. One I love when something goes viral. I think it's awesome. I think that's really hard. And so explaining to your founders, your partners, your business partners your CEO, that this is a time, this thing's gonna take time, right? That they're, that silver bullets are great and we will look for them, but ultimately we need to. This is a re effort reward business in marketing. And we need to be methodical and we need to build a machine that works and we need to invest in our channels and we need to build things right over time. That's one thing. I think people try to, or they expect success too fast. They look for silver bullets. They're not real methodical in their methodology. That leads me to number two, they're not really measuring. What's working and what's not working. They don't have good dashboards. They'll go all the way down to revenue, right? It's, they, like a lot of people can get clicks and opens. That comes in HubSpot, but what are, what's our conversion rate on the visitor? How are they buying? How much are they buying? And so having a dashboard that allows you to really understand what's working out at the top of your funnel based on revenue. I think is a, is a mistake that people make that, like I said, they don't spend enough time building out their dashboards. So that, that'd be number two. I think lack of consistency is something we see. We, I had a client once who had changed their target market and honestly change the brand almost annually for five years in a row looking for. A quick pop. And when and when we stepped in, it was, when I stepped in, it was, we were five years in and ultimately if they had just been consistent for five years, they probably went much farther ahead than they are now. Were now becau, but they just didn't really spend the time to understand up front who they were going for and being consistent. And so I think consistency over time is a big thing. And Then lastly, I think number four would be would be making sure that you're hitting a customer pain point that they actually really have and your messaging is really clear. We we had a discussion the other day with the brand and, they, I was like I don't, there were two different startups and they were both in the real estate world and one of them focused on generating leads for real estate agents, and the other one focused on engagement of homeowners. I. I was like, okay, I understand what it means to create a lead for a realtor and why they would pay for that, but how do you monetize engagement? And they were like if we can get the yada y, know what I'm saying? And so I took me a long time to break down that messaging to help them under, to understand what they were doing as a business and to ultimately how what we needed to do. As a marketing team. And so I think number four, sometimes you can get too close to your own messaging and you think you're being clear, but when really you're not being clear, you're not really solving a pain point, you're not really hitting a big consumer need. And so I think just being very diligent about what you do, who you do it for and speaking it very plainly would be, a fourth mistake is you get caught on, in your own messaging swirl.

So let's say it's not like a company secret. Should you give it to one of your friends and family member, be like, does this make sense to you or would you be interested in this? Because I feel like when you say you're too close to it, it's true. We get too close to our own things and we aren't very objective after that. We're very subjective. Where any criticisms like, wait, whoa, what are you talking about? But is it good to get outside help or get someone on outside eyes to actually look at it and see if it's actually clear or not?

100%. There's a lot of survey tools out there that aren't very expensive. And so I love the, I love using those. We use, still use SurveyMonkey all the time with clients, right? If it's an easy, quick way. Especially if they have a list of prospects or a little bit more sophisticated survey tool will. Recruit for you. But let's just be simple. Like you've got friends and family, you've got cocktail parties you go to, you can go, you can easily go to a LinkedIn, even though they're not my favorite thing. Network mixer, right around a happy hour and when someone says, what do you do? Work on your pitch, work on your messaging, right? If they're like, oh, I get that's really cool. I know that like you're like, Hey, I'm getting it right. If you know you're 90 seconds in and they're still looking at you like you got a third eye, you probably still have some refinement to do.

That is very true. But what's the role of some brand building in the long term acquisitions? Like what are some ways of doing those customers acquisitions and grow growth with the brand building? Because it feels like with startups you're build, building your brand, but you're also trying to acquire customers and growth at the same time. So what are some building blocks or brand building blocks to actually do this in the long term? Because everybody wants to do it in the long term.

Yeah. Yeah. So first of all I think if you're a startup, I love the idea of being clear on who you are, what pain point you solve, how you say it, who your target market is. I think that's step one of your brand. And that's done around a table in your own office. To your point, step two is let's test that. And so cocktail parties, there's some informal researcher. We have money, some formal research to make sure. That our thesis and our messaging is resonating with customers. And and when you get that done, that's the foundation of your brand, right? It's who you stand for. It's who you serve, it's what you do unique in the market. You typically wrap a campaign around that. And those campaigns for startups need to deliver. They are hardworking, low funnel tried and true tactics, but. Along the way, they're reinforcing your company name and what you do and the value prop that you add. And so even though they're direct marketing tactics, they're not devoid of name and brand and colors and other things. Name and logo and colors and experience, which is your brand, right? And so I believe that you can. Once you spend the time to really understand who you are and what you do, I think you can do direct marketing tactics that are meant to drive new customers and wrap them in some brand elements that are building your brand. I don't, I think that's a long way of saying I don't think direct market tactics and brand or mutually exclusive. As the marketing machine matures and the company starts to grow and you move up funnel, you will, your tactics will naturally become less direct response oriented and start to infuse more and more emotion tactics like video. Tv, those have natural elements that can be more storytelling, that can be a more emotive in their nature, and then that allows the brand to express its way itself in different ways. And so I think that you want to include those elements. But like we were saying earlier, as you move up the funnel, as you mature your acquisition machine, you spend more and more time in those higher level tactics and that will give you more space for brand. But I think you can build brand all along the way. And I think it's how you talk, how you do your offer, who you target, how you're clear, right? Even in some of the language you use, I think you are building brand. And I don't think those two the direct response and the brand building tactics next necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. I think they can work together.

And what are some emerging technologies or trends marketers should be aware of for basically customer acquisitions or future customer acquisition strategies?

I'd be remiss if we didn't talk a little bit about ai because it's the topic of the day. We at the agency are using AI to help us do research. To help us build outlines to help us check our work. I still, I think today's AI still needs a subject matter expert at the helm, right? And so I believe it has part of the, it's part of the journey. But I don't believe it's the full journey yet. I think you've still got to you've still gotta have a subject matter expert review and use part of, be part of that cycle. So I definitely think when we talk about emerging technologies we're talking about AI in terms of content creation. I think you still wanna include your blocking and tackling like we've talked about, search and organic search and website. I think podcasts to we, as your point we were making earlier in this one are growing in. Their ability to reach niche audiences. And I would, even though they've been around for a while, I feel like they're finally coming into their own in terms of a viable scaled channel. And so I think that's part of it. And then and then, and then lastly, you've gotta include some social, depending on where your social channels are. So I know really, AI was the only emerging one I hit on, but I think, like I said earlier, I think you gotta keep your blocking and tackling in mind too.

Yeah, podcasting's been around since. 2005, I think is the first official one. So yeah, it's in technology terms it's older because technology terms are not as the same as human like age. But yeah it's old, it's older, but the awareness is newer because it wasn't really until the pandemic we were really shot off. That's where it is. I think markers. Mismanage, the importance of downloads instead of actual like ROI of the, 'cause. You could have a really small niche, but have a really engaged community and you can get more out of that than a big audience, but small. Engaged, commun, smaller engaged communities. So I think marketers haven't figured out that part yet. And podcasting the metrics aren't great either. And speaking firsthand,

But to your point, if you look at a brand like Patagonia, right? And they started with this, these hardcore climbers in Yosemite, which I love this, their brand story in general. They started with a really tight tribe, right? And so the idea that we might have a podcast that's followed by, that's got a really hardcore following, and they all have a very a very strong sense of each other and what they stand for and what they care about. And if you can come along as a brand and align your values and true, you gotta be true to yourself, your brain. You can't just be what they want you to be, but if your values align with their values and that. If their tribe is your tribe and you can start to support them and you can start to Get engaged with them on multiple levels. To your point, that might be more valuable because you're creating a community of brand ambassadors than a million kind of, oh, I think I've heard of those type people. Because, 'cause those rabid fans will carry that message to their, those tribes, and then I. Ultimately what happens is groups that are like that, start to circle those fans 'cause they want parts of that and they start to hear those. And then, Patagonia is now, closed, but now they're more about environmentalism and that thing has just grown into a global behemoth. But to your point, it started with a really. Passionate type group of people and and I think there's lots of good brand stories that start there. And so if that is your brand, I think a tight knit podcast like that to me is a home run place to start.

Yeah. If you get with a smaller podcaster, he actually may be, or she, he or she may be more, I guess very. Appreciative of you and they might not charge you as much 'cause you stuck with them in the beginning. 'cause a lot of we all want markers, always want the bigger players. But you're not always gonna get the bigger players. You're gonna get the smaller players. And sometimes that relationship in that building may actually help in the long run because podcasting is a very long run game. So is customer acquisitions and you gotta think in those terms of long run games.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And to your point, they may be a user of the product yourself, and now they're not just a podcaster, but they're a fan. And that'll come through in how they talk about the product. I think a lot of benefit in that small type of community. And to your point it is a long term game, right? At, whether it's investing in a podcast or a new channel, or building your acquisition machine patience and consistency are always gonna pay off.

And people listen to this podcast and they're loving the information. So where can they find you online to learn more?

Yeah. So f first of all, thank you for having having me. As you can tell, I'm a little bit of a marketing geek. I love to have these conversations. We love to have 'em with clients even. And if, honestly, at lunch, I had one with a friend. Our agency's called story amplify just like it sounds. S-T-O-R-Y-A-M-P-L-I-F y.com. So story amplify.com. We've got case studies on there. We do mostly focus on financial services. We do a lot of financial advisors and fintechs, regional banks because that's deep subject matter expertise and our team knows about those products. Not to say we don't take other clients and I'm happy to have conversations but yeah. Story amplify.com. Is a place to find us.

All right. Any final thoughts for listeners?

No. I appreciate you having me there. Here I would say be consistent, right? Start at the bottle of the funnel know what you do and how you help the consumer. And if you do those things right and you're smart, how you make your decisions and you're patient, you'll be successful in time.

All right. Thank you Trey, for joining Digital Coffee Marketing, bringing, sharing your knowledge on customer acquisition.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

And thank you for listening. As always, please subscribe to this podcast and all your favorite podcasting apps. We a five star review of religious help with the rankings. Let me know how I'm doing and join me next week as I talk to another great thought leader in the PR and marketing industry. Alright guys, stay safe. Get to understanding your customer acquisition, the strategies, the merging technologies or whatever you need to be successful in that. It's you next week later.