Getting customers is the lifeblood of immoderate business.

But hunt for “how to get customers,” and you’ll find yourself flooded with advice, tips, and tactics. It’s hard to cognize which 1 to choose, considering that you person constricted resources.

Fortunately, astir strategies connected however to get customers boil down to these 4 cardinal methods:

Find retired what your customers are searching for, wherever they’re searching for it, and amusement up with your content.

Here are the large hunt channels:

Google and Bing

If you privation to fertile precocious connected hunt engines similar Google and Bing, you’ll person to people topics your assemblage is searching for.

The easiest mode to statesman is to usage a keyword probe instrumentality similar Keywords Explorer. Here’s how:

1. Go to Keywords Explorer
2. Enter presumption applicable to your website or niche
3. Go to Matching terms

For example, if you ain an ecommerce store selling java equipment, you’ll privation to adhd words similar “coffee”, “french press”, and “latte”.

From here, you’ll privation to spell done the study and prime retired applicable topics you privation to target.

However, arsenic you tin see, determination are implicit 2 cardinal keywords successful this report. That’s excessively galore to spell through, truthful an casual mode to constrictive down the champion keywords is to look for keywords that person precocious Traffic Potential (TP) and debased Keyword Difficulty (KD).

You tin usage the filters to rapidly hunt for these topics:

When you person your database of desired keywords, you’ll person to make contented to fertile for them. Doing this means knowing wherefore the searcher is looking for that topic.

You tin fig that retired by looking astatine what’s presently ranking successful the SERPs for the people topic. The easiest mode to bash this is click connected the SERP fastener for your people keyword, click Identify intents, and it’ll archer you the search intent for that topic.

For example, here’s what we spot for “best java maker”:

Searchers are looking for adept reviews and recommendations for the champion java makers. So, you’ll apt person to make thing on those lines if you privation to fertile precocious for this keyword.

Finally, you’ll person to get links to your pages. Links are a Google ranking factor, and adjacent though Google reps person said that they substance little these days, they still substance (according to our research.)

There are galore ways to get backlinks, truthful I urge speechmaking our usher to nexus building.

YouTube

You whitethorn not recognize it, but YouTube is the second-largest hunt motor successful the world. YouTube has 2.49 cardinal monthly progressive users and radical walk an mean of 48.7 minutes connected YouTube each day.

Sam Oh, our YouTube god, helped turn our channel to 608,000 subscribers.

Last year, helium shared immoderate of his YouTube tips astatine our inaugural conference, Ahrefs Evolve.

Here are his champion tips for ranking precocious connected YouTube:

• Add people keyword to your rubric and description
• Mention applicable keywords successful your content
• Cover indispensable subtopics successful your content
• Use timecodes oregon chapters with applicable keywords
• Hold people’s attraction arsenic agelong arsenic possible

The past 1 is of course, the hardest. There is nary definite look and adjacent astatine 600K subscribers, we’re inactive perpetually experimenting to find the best-fit format that our subscribers volition ticker to the end. So, arsenic Sam says, purpose to amended your videos by 5% each time.

For example, we marque a assortment of thumbnails for each video and swap them retired if 1 of them isn’t working:

However, 1 thing’s certain: You’ll person to seizure your audience’s attraction wrong 30 seconds. Otherwise, they’ll driblet off, ne'er to return.

ChatGPT and other LLMs

More and much radical are turning to ample connection models to reply questions, get recommendations, and get advice. Some LLMs, similar ChatGPT, Perplexity, and DeepSeek, tin hunt the web, efficaciously transforming into an AI hunt engine.

As such, much brands are investing successful LLM optimization (LLMO), trying to get LLMs to urge their brands erstwhile applicable questions are asked.

We’ll soon beryllium releasing an LLM Chatbot Explorer, which volition see a afloat marque visibility study to benchmark show and trial the interaction of your LLM optimization.

Some tips connected LLMO see investing successful PR, adding much quotes and stats to your content, doing entity SEO, and claiming your Wikipedia listing.

One happening to enactment is that LLMO and SEO are intimately linked. A study from Seer Interactive suggests that integrated rankings bash thrust LLM mentions. So, adjacent if LLMs are the aboriginal of hunt engines, don’t neglect your SEO.

My workfellow Louise has written an amazing usher connected LLMO, truthful I urge speechmaking it from commencement to finish.

TikTok and Instagram

Banned oregon not, determination is nary uncertainty that the short-form video level is the societal media of prime for the younger procreation and beyond. (Heck, adjacent my dada uses it.)

In fact, a 2024 survey by Adobe suggested that 2 successful 5 Americans usage TikTok arsenic a hunt motor and 1 successful 10 Gen Zers are much apt to trust connected TikTok than Google arsenic a hunt engine.

The aforesaid goes for Instagram.

In our league past year, 1 of our speakers, Charlotte Ang, shared immoderate tips connected however to optimize for TikTok search:

• Use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to look for taxable ideas (what you’ll bash if you’re doing keyword research for SEO; spot the conception connected Google/Bing)
• Look for applicable subtopics by checking TikTok’s auto-complete (during search) and Others hunt for
• Include a 5-second hook successful each your videos
• Optimize your on-feed SEO by editing auto-captions accurately, including 3 related keywords, and usage 3-7 hashtags.
• Post your video done Creator Search Insights
• Reply comments connected your videos with your people keywords

While determination are immoderate level differences, you tin apt bash the aforesaid for IG too.

Pay a level oregon idiosyncratic with an assemblage to entree their audience.

The opportunities to advertise your concern are limitless. Just marque definite you’re not spending $100 to get a $50 customer.

Here are the large advertizing channels:

Google, Facebook, X, and different societal media ads

Most of these platforms enactment the aforesaid way—you wage a interest each clip idiosyncratic clicks your advertisement connected the platform. This is known arsenic PPC marketing.

First, you’ll request to take a level to advertise on. You should lone tally ads connected platforms wherever your assemblage exists. For example, if you’re selling endeavor software, you mightiness not privation to advertise connected TikTok (unless you person information that shows C-level executives successful your manufacture are doomscrolling.)

Then, get acquainted with the platform. Click astir oregon instrumentality a course. Most of these platforms connection acquisition resources to assistance you learn. For example, Google offers free ads training:

One of the astir important aspects of PPC selling is targeting. So, marque definite you’re targeting the close assemblage connected these platforms. For example, if you’re moving hunt ads, 1 mode to find the close keywords to people is to look astatine what your competitors are already moving ads for.

You tin bash this by entering your competitor’s domain into Site Explorer and going to the Paid keywords report.

For example, we tin spot that Shopify is targeting the keyword “dropshipping” and paying an estimated $1.81 per click for the keyword. If you’re a competitor, you could perchance people the aforesaid keyword excessively (as agelong arsenic the fund makes sense.)

Finally, creatives and transcript substance a batch successful PPC marketing. So, marque definite you’re perpetually experimenting with antithetic images, videos, headlines, assemblage copies, and much to spot what resonates with your audience!

TV and out-of-home (OOH) advertising

We each cognize TV ads. But what are out-of-home ads? They’re what you spot connected the go, similar billboards, transit (e.g., buses, taxis), and thoroughfare ads.

OOH ads are typically costly and large-scale. So, that’s wherefore according to Adam Singer, VP of Marketing astatine AdQuick, an OOH advertisement platform, companies should commencement with a geofenced trial run successful a circumstantial city. Then, by tracking metrics specified arsenic hunt measurement uplift, website traffic, and brand awareness, you tin determine if you privation to tally your OOH ads successful much places.

Tim Soulo, our Chief Marketing Officer, interviewed Adam Singer connected our podcast to larn much astir offline advertising. Check retired the interview:

Podcast advertising

With implicit 4.19 cardinal podcasts successful the world, chances are your assemblage is listening to 1 of them.

We regularly sponsor podcasts astatine Ahrefs. (We adjacent tally our own!) Generally speaking, determination are 3 types of podcast sponsorships:

1. Pre‐roll: ~15–30-second advertisement astatine the commencement of the show.
2. Mid‐roll: ~1-minute advertisement successful the mediate of the show.
3. Post‐roll: ~15–30-second advertisement astatine the extremity of the show.

Mid-rolls are the astir expensive, followed by pre and post‐rolls.

Podcast sponsorships are a spot of a chaotic market, wherever pricing is arbitrary. You should expect to negociate a lot. For example, you could perchance negociate the terms per occurrence to beryllium little if you’re looking to sponsor for a agelong period.

The 1 happening we’ve recovered that worked truly good for america is getting the big to springiness an integrated mention, alternatively than a scripted one. We astir ne'er springiness podcast hosts transcript to work from. We conscionable springiness them the topic, immoderate cardinal points, and fto them bash the rest. After all, it’s their audience, truthful they cognize the champion mode to communicate.

Partnerships and influencers

Podcasts are conscionable 1 mean wherever influencers physique their audience. They tin besides physique audiences connected email, societal media, YouTube, and more. You tin wage to entree their assemblage connected those platforms too.

For example, we partnered with SEO influencer Eli Schwartz to beforehand our latest tool, Web Analytics:

I asked Raúl Galera, Growth Lead astatine ReferralCandy, for tips connected however to enactment successfully with influencers. Here’s what he said:

Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is wherever you springiness contented creators a peculiar nexus with a tracking ID. People who click connected that nexus gets a cooky stored connected their device.

If they extremity up purchasing from your website, the merchantability is attributed to the contented creator’s nexus and you wage them a committee from the sale.

In the best-case scenario, ideate hundreds oregon thousands of salespeople moving circular the timepiece to merchantability your product.

Because you’re paying commissions, the size of the committee could marque oregon interruption your affiliate program. Ideally, it should beryllium charismatic capable but not truthful overmuch that you suffer wealth per sale. This astir apt depends connected knowing your customer acquisition costs.

Getting the close affiliates is besides important. There’s a phantasy that you’ll get thousands of affiliates rushing successful erstwhile you unfastened one, but it doesn’t enactment that way. Pareto’s Principle applies: Most affiliates don’t thrust immoderate sales, and the astir palmy ones thin to make the bulk of the sales… and that lets them beryllium discerning astir who they spouse with, and however overmuch they complaint (as they request to support their narration with their audience.)

So, determination is simply a batch of enactment progressive successful recruiting the close affiliates, from checking if their estimation is airtight to seeing however they’re going to beforehand your product. You whitethorn adjacent person to measurement successful to assistance them retired with discounts and coupon codes.

Go aft your people customers directly.

If your full addressable marketplace (TAM) is small, the supra 2 strategies whitethorn not work. Some businesses are truthful niche that they cognize astir of their people customers by name.

But nonstop selling besides applies to your endeavor customers. It’s uncommon that large deals travel solely from hunt oregon advertising. You’ll request the quality touch too.

Here are the large activities successful nonstop marketing:

Account-based selling (ABM)

ABM is simply a benignant of B2B selling that focuses connected aligning selling and income to scope circumstantial people accounts. As Marcus Ho, laminitis of Brew Interactive explains astatine Ahrefs Evolve 2024, ABM is similar proposing to your apical prospects:

There are 3 types of ABM:

1. One-to-one: Highly personalized selling attack targeting a prime fewer high-value accounts
2. Balanced: Targeting mid-market with semi-personalized campaigns that tin scope much accounts quickly.
3. High-scale: Using automation with data-driven decision-making tech to people a wide scope of accounts.

Knowing which strategy to usage depends connected your company’s goals. Most importantly, you request to cognize your ICP, similar their industry, institution size, revenue, symptom points and challenges, buying behaviors, and decision-making processes:

Once you’ve selected your accounts, it’s truly astir engaging them the right way.

For example, if they’re inactive astatine the Awareness stage, you’ll privation to people them with advertising. If they’re successful the Consideration stage, past you could invitation them to 1 of your webinars. If they’re successful the Purchase stage, past dedicate resources to getting them implicit the line, similar lawsuit stories and lawsuit studies, how-to guides, and more.

Event marketing

AI whitethorn bash our work, but it can’t regenerate quality enactment (yet).

Events are a large mode to conscionable your prospects and customers, get to cognize them arsenic people, larn from them, and possibly adjacent bash concern together.

I mentioned it galore times successful this article, but we ran our inaugural conference, Ahrefs Evolve, successful 2024 and volition beryllium doing it again in 2025.

But the league isn’t the lone lawsuit we’ve run; we’re perpetually moving workshops, meetups, webinars, and more.

In fact, this is the way I urge to anyone who wants to bash lawsuit marketing: start small.

Don’t unreserved consecutive into a multi-day, planetary conference. Start by sponsoring immoderate events oregon moving tiny section meetups successful your city. Only standard it up if you’re seeing traction oregon imaginable growth.

I wrote a guide with everything you request to cognize astir lawsuit marketing. I highly urge speechmaking it if you’re readying connected this channel.

People urge your marque to their friends, family, and adjacent online.

Word-of-mouth selling happens naturally, but that doesn’t mean you can’t accelerate it with strategical selling and equipping your customers with catchy talking points.

Here’s how:

Having an astonishing product, content, and brand

Even if a edifice offers you wealth to urge them, you apt won’t bash it if the nutrient is terrible. You simply can’t enactment lipstick connected a pig.

So it doesn’t substance what tactics you use—if you don’t person a merchandise oregon work that solves your customers’ problems and delights them, nary 1 volition urge you.

Your halfway absorption should ever beryllium to marque an astonishing merchandise and physique a marque that your customers trust. For america astatine Ahrefs, that means:

• Consistently releasing caller features, updates, and upgrades to our tool
• Creating tons of acquisition materials to assistance them get the astir retired of our toolset (including free courses, articles, YouTube videos)
• Listening to our customers erstwhile they person feature requests
• Monitoring conversations astir our marque connected societal media and Reddit (and jumping successful wherever necessary)
• Meeting our customers IRL astatine manufacture events and listening to their concerns
• Having a large enactment team

Little by little, each of these actions physique up into a marque that our customers trust.

Building an audience

As you optimize for hunt and make contented connected aggregate platforms, you’ll commencement to summation followers and physique an audience. This is incredibly invaluable arsenic radical connected the level tin similar oregon repost your post.

For example, Nat Eliason made >$400K successful a fewer days conscionable by announcing his people connected X, wherever helium has ~74K followers:

Even though Nat made the bulk of his gross from his X audience, he’s inactive bullish connected email lists. So americium I. The main crushed is that an email database is not taxable to a platform’s algorithmic whims.

Your scope won’t beryllium throttled erstwhile the level changes algorithms or, worst case, bans your account. Even though your ‘virality potential’ is lower, with an email list, arsenic agelong arsenic your assemblage stays subscribed, you tin scope them anytime.

So, adjacent if you person a important assemblage elsewhere, marque definite you’re driving them to your email database frequently, similar Justin Welsh:

If the bulk of your postulation is going to your blog content, past marque definite you promote radical to motion up, similar we bash connected our sidebar:

Giving distant free stuff

‘Free’ is the easiest mode to incentivize radical to dispersed the connection astir your brand. Especially if you tally a giveaway and bundle sharing into the criteria.

For example, we ran a giveaway to beforehand our conference. One of the “rules” of winning was to similar and reshare the post:

Even though you tin astir apt summation a batch of attraction by giving distant costly products similar MacBooks and cars, I bash not urge doing that. Doing truthful volition lone summation you freebie seekers, and not your people audience. (Unless you indeed sell cars oregon computers.)

The champion happening to springiness distant is your merchandise oregon thing related to your product. For example, we regularly springiness distant swag boxes and our SEO books:

However, you don’t person to bounds yourself to that. For example, years ago, erstwhile I worked for a startup without its ain merchandise (yet), we partnered with different institution to springiness distant theirs. We past shared the email database betwixt ourselves.

Public relations (PR)

Public relations is the signifier of managing communications with the media. The extremity is to power your marque cognition positively.

The main happening to cognize is that media publications are funny successful what’s newsworthy. So, astir PR tactics are either astir jumping connected what’s already trending oregon being the quality itself.

For example, newsjacking is astir monitoring unrecorded quality and spotting opportunities to enactment your marque astatine the halfway of conversations by reacting with adept commentary and thought enactment pieces.

AskTraders consistently landed sum successful articles from large media houses by putting retired adept commentary connected everything happening successful the concern world: banal prices, institution reports, medication news, and more:

You tin besides purpose to beryllium the quality itself. That’s wherever OOH advertizing tin assistance too. As Adam Singer points retired successful our podcast, a bully OOH advertisement tin get radical talking and sharing connected societal media.

That’s besides wherefore companies sometimes tally PR stunts to get radical talking. For example, Circles.Life, a Singaporean telco, made the news by installing vending machines that dispensed a $50 enactment successful speech for $3.

You tin perceive Delbert Ty, ex-Head of Marketing of Circles.Life, sermon the run connected the Ahrefs podcast:

To beryllium fair, large stunts are not ever necessary. Data is newsworthy too, truthful you tin tally surveys oregon analyse first-party/third-party information to make absorbing insights.

For example, existent property marketplace Zillow surveyed 1,815 homeowners and recovered that those with little owe rates are doubly arsenic apt to enactment enactment vs selling their home. They earned 235 backlinks from the likes of Bloomberg, Yahoo, FoxBusiness, and Money.com.

Final thoughts

Which lawsuit acquisition strategy should you choose?

I learned this mental model from my friend, David Fallarme, who’s the VP of Marketing astatine Owner.com. The basal thought is to archetypal cognize whether you’re going aft elephants, deer, rabbits, mice, oregon flies (i.e. your concern model):

• Elephants: 100 customers paying you $1m
• Deers: 1,000 customers paying you $100,000
• Rabbits: 10,000 customers paying you $10,000
• Mice: 100,000 customers paying you $1,000
• Flies: 1,000,000 customers paying you $100

When you cognize the carnal you’re going after, past you tin prime the close hunting tools:

• Spears — Lots of nonstop quality accomplishment and involvement, e.g., nonstop marketing
• Nets — Lets you propulsion successful a ample fig of imaginable targets astatine once, e.g, SEO
• Seeds — The lawsuit basal “grows connected its own”, e.g., word-of-mouth

For example, successful the earlier days astatine Ahrefs, we targeted mice, rabbits, and deer. That’s wherefore our main lawsuit acquisition strategy focused connected hunt (“nets”)—we created contented to fertile precocious connected Google and YouTube.

Today, arsenic we determination upmarket and people endeavor customers, we’re employing much nonstop selling strategies. Running events and having an endeavor income squad (“spears”) are present besides portion of our arsenal.

So, which carnal are you hunting?