How Do You Create a Customer Acquisition Plan Before You Launch?
Updated: Sep 15
A few years ago, a friend who had helped me start my first company came to me with what I thought was a ridiculous idea.
After a successful career as a CFO for international companies in Europe, China and the United States, he wanted to change direction and build a Sudoku game app.
My first thought was that this sounded more like a midlife crisis than a business idea.
But you take friends seriously. He had researched the market and, as you might expect from a CFO, his numbers were correct. The market for mobile games was growing, Sudoku had a large international audience and he could develop the app himself.
He would build the product. I would help with the business strategy, business model and marketing.
The most important marketing question was not whether we could create a good Sudoku app. It was how enough people would discover and download it.
In formal terms, we needed a customer acquisition plan.
A good product does not automatically attract customers
Building the app had a clear owner. My friend could programme, test features and improve the game. Progress was visible every day.
Customer acquisition felt less urgent. Why spend time reaching people when the product was not ready yet?
That is precisely where many startups go wrong.
Creating a product gives you something tangible to work on. Finding customers is more uncertain. You have to speak to people, test assumptions, risk rejection and discover that your message or even your target audience may be wrong.
But launching a better product does not solve the problem of nobody knowing it exists.
A good product or perfect service is only worth something if people want to buy it en masse.
“En masse” does not necessarily mean millions of customers. A specialised consultancy may only need ten good clients. A game app may need thousands of active players. It means attracting enough of the right customers to make the business model work.
Customer validation and customer acquisition are not the same
Before developing a complete customer acquisition plan, you first need evidence that a genuine need exists and that people are willing to pay for your solution.
That is customer validation.
In Sell Before You Build, I explain why conversations, paid pilots, pre-orders and other forms of commitment tell you more than compliments or market research alone.
A customer acquisition plan answers the next question:
> If people are willing to buy this, how will we repeatedly find, reach and convince enough of them?
One paying customer may validate an important assumption. It does not yet prove that you can acquire one hundred customers at an acceptable cost.
Validation tells you that demand may exist. Customer acquisition determines whether you can reach that demand consistently.
What is a customer acquisition plan?
A customer acquisition plan describes how a business will attract and convert new customers in a repeatable and financially viable way.
It explains:
Which customers you want to acquire.
Which problem or buying need moves them.
What offer you will make.
Which channels you will use to reach them.
Which steps lead from first contact to purchase.
What acquiring a customer may cost.
Who is responsible for each activity.
What you will measure and when you will adjust the plan.
A customer acquisition plan is part of the wider marketing and business strategy. It is not a list of every marketing channel you could use.
The purpose is to make choices.
Why should you create the plan before launching?
Most acquisition channels take time to develop.
Publishing three posts on a new LinkedIn, Instagram or TikTok account will rarely create a reliable stream of customers. Building an audience takes time. Search engine visibility takes time. Partnerships take time. Being invited to relevant podcasts or events takes time.
Even paid advertising requires preparation. You need a message, visual material, landing pages, tracking, a follow-up process and enough testing budget to discover what works.
The same applies to direct sales. You need a list of suitable prospects, a reason to approach them, a conversation that creates interest and a clear next step.
If you only begin doing all this on launch day, you are not launching a customer acquisition plan. You are starting to create one.
You do not need a finished product to begin. You can already talk to potential customers, test messages, build an audience, approach partners, create a waiting list or offer a pilot.
The product and the customer acquisition plan should develop alongside each other.
What should a customer acquisition plan contain?
1. A clearly defined customer
“Small businesses”, “people who like Sudoku” or “health-conscious consumers” are not sufficiently specific customer groups.
A useful customer description goes beyond age, income and interests. It explains:
What problem the customer experiences.
When that problem becomes urgent.
What the customer currently does instead.
Who makes or influences the purchasing decision.
What might prevent the customer from acting.
What outcome would be valuable enough to pay for.
For a Sudoku app, someone who occasionally completes a puzzle on holiday is a different customer from an experienced player who wants challenging variations and support when stuck.
They may need different messages, features and acquisition channels.
2. An offer that gives people a reason to act
A product is what you have made. An offer is the reason someone should choose it now.
Your offer combines the problem you solve, the result you promise, the price or commitment you ask for and the proof that makes the promise believable.
For an app, the first offer might be a free download with access to several puzzles and an upgrade for advanced levels. For a consultant, it might be a paid diagnostic session. For a new service, it could be a limited pilot with a clearly defined result.
A vague promise creates vague interest. Your offer must give the customer a concrete reason to take the next step.
3. One or two primary acquisition channels
Startups often create accounts on every available platform because they are afraid of missing an opportunity.
The result is usually five nearly empty channels and no meaningful presence anywhere.
Choose one primary channel where your ideal customers are already reachable and one supporting channel that strengthens it.
Depending on the customer and offer, that might be:
Direct outreach and personal conversations.
Search engine content.
Paid advertising.
App Store optimisation.
Partnerships or affiliates.
Events and public speaking.
Email marketing.
Relevant social media communities.
Referrals from existing customers.
The best channel is not necessarily the one with the largest audience. It is the channel through which you can reach the right people, test your assumptions and learn at an acceptable cost.
Focus matters. Trying to do everything at once usually prevents startups from discovering what genuinely works.
4. The journey from first contact to purchase
Finding a potential customer is not the same as acquiring one.
Someone may see a post, visit your website, download information, ask a question and still decide not to buy. Your plan must describe what happens between the first moment of attention and the final decision.
For a business service, the journey might be:
A decision-maker reads an article.
The article leads to a relevant service page.
The visitor requests a short introductory conversation.
The conversation clarifies the actual problem.
A proposal translates the problem into an approach and result.
The prospect decides whether to proceed.
For an app, it might be:
A player sees a short demonstration.
The player visits the App Store page.
The screenshots and reviews create enough confidence to download.
The first experience shows the value of the app.
The player returns and eventually chooses a paid option.
At every step, ask what the customer needs to see, understand or trust before moving forward.
5. The financial logic
Customer acquisition costs money, time or both.
Customer acquisition cost, usually shortened to CAC, is calculated by dividing the total cost of acquisition activities by the number of new customers acquired during the same period.
If you spend €3,000 on advertising, content, sales tools and sales time and acquire ten customers, your CAC is €300.
Whether €300 is acceptable depends on what a customer contributes.
A customer who buys once and creates a contribution margin of €200 cannot sustainably cost €300 to acquire. A customer who generates €5,000 in contribution margin over several years may justify that investment.
Conversion also matters. Suppose you are willing to spend €300 to acquire one customer and one out of every hundred qualified prospects becomes a customer. Each qualified prospect can then cost an average of no more than €3.
These calculations will initially be based on assumptions. That is not a problem, as long as you recognise them as assumptions and replace them with real numbers as quickly as possible.
6. The first experiments
A customer acquisition plan is not a prediction of exactly what will happen. It is a structured way of testing what you believe will happen.
Write down your most important assumptions:
We believe this customer has this problem.
We believe this message will create interest.
We believe this channel can reach the customer.
We believe this offer will lead to a purchase.
We believe we can acquire a customer for this amount.
Then design the smallest useful test for each assumption.
Do not immediately build a complete marketing machine. Speak to twenty suitable prospects. Test two versions of your message. Run a small campaign. Offer five paid pilots. Ask interested people why they did or did not proceed.
The purpose of the first experiments is not to prove that you were right. It is to discover what needs to become true before you can scale.
7. Planning and responsibility
A plan without ownership easily becomes a list of good intentions.
Determine:
Which activities must begin before launch.
Who is responsible for each activity.
What materials and technology are needed.
How much time and budget are available.
Which results you expect and by when.
When the plan will be evaluated.
Work backwards from the intended launch date.
If an SEO strategy needs months to generate visibility, content cannot begin one week before launch. If partners need to integrate or promote your offer, conversations must start early. If direct sales is the main channel, the first prospect list and conversations should not wait until the product is finished.
Which numbers should you measure?
The number of followers, visitors or downloads can look encouraging without telling you whether the business is working.
Measure the steps that connect attention to revenue:
The number of suitable people reached.
The percentage that responds or clicks.
The number of qualified leads.
The percentage that starts a trial or conversation.
The percentage that becomes a paying customer.
The average acquisition cost.
The time needed to acquire a customer.
The contribution margin or lifetime value of that customer.
For an app, activation and continued use may matter more than the download alone. For a consultant, the number of qualified conversations may be more useful than website traffic.
The right metric is the one that helps you make a better decision.
When is your customer acquisition plan ready?
It is never completely ready.
At first, it contains assumptions. The market then provides feedback. Some channels work better than expected. Others produce attention but no customers. Your message changes, the offer improves and your understanding of the customer becomes more precise.
That does not mean the original plan failed.
A customer acquisition plan is valuable because it makes your assumptions visible before you spend too much time and money on them. It gives you something concrete to test, measure and improve.
You can develop a customer acquisition plan as part of my Startup Incubator Program, but the first step remains surprisingly simple.
Do not wait until launch day to start looking for customers. Launch day should be the moment when the work you started months earlier begins to pay off.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a customer acquisition plan and a marketing strategy?
A marketing strategy covers the wider positioning, brand, audience, communication and market approach of a business. A customer acquisition plan focuses specifically on the process of attracting and converting new customers.
When should a startup create a customer acquisition plan?
Begin after you have an initial understanding of the problem, target customer and offer, and before investing heavily in a launch. The plan will initially contain assumptions that should be tested while the product or service is still being developed.
Which acquisition channel should a startup choose first?
Choose the channel where the ideal customer can already be reached and where you can test your message and offer at a manageable cost. Start with one primary channel instead of spreading limited time and money across every available platform.
How do you calculate customer acquisition cost?
Divide all relevant acquisition expenses during a specific period by the number of new customers acquired in that period. Include advertising, tools, external production and the time spent by people involved in marketing and sales.
How often should a customer acquisition plan be updated?
Update the plan whenever reliable evidence changes one of its assumptions. In an early-stage startup, this may happen every few weeks. Once acquisition becomes more predictable, monthly or quarterly reviews may be sufficient.
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