Customer Acquisition Playbooks by Channel: Building Repeatable Processes
Master channel-specific playbooks. Build repeatable acquisition by channel.
Key Takeaways
- Playbook structure: Define ideal customer, top-of-funnel strategy (how attract), engagement (how nurture), conversion (how close), retention (how keep). Cost per channel: Organic £0 (time), paid £5-20K/month, sales £5-15K/month, partnership varies. Benefit: Repeatable (scalable). Example: Self-serve SaaS needs 1 playbook. Enterprise needs different (AE-led). Example: Cold email playbook: 100 prospects → 5 meetings → 1 customer (5% conversion, £5K CAC if 1 FTE running).
- Channel characteristics: Organic (slow, cheap, sustainable), Paid (fast, expensive, dependent on ad spend), Sales (high-touch, expensive, higher value), Partnerships (scalable, requires work). Best strategy: Mix (don't depend on one). Example: 40% organic, 30% paid, 20% sales, 10% partnerships. Monitor: Cost per customer by channel, conversion rate, customer quality (retention), LTV by channel.
- Optimization approach: (1) Pick 2-3 channels to master (depth > breadth), (2) Build playbooks (repeatable, documented), (3) Measure (track metrics), (4) Optimize (test variations), (5) Scale (invest more in best channels). Cost: Varies (measurement/optimization time). Benefit: CAC optimization (30-50% improvement typical), predictable revenue. Timeline: 3-6 months to mature playbook.
Building Repeatable Customer Acquisition Channels
Creating scalable sales and marketing processes. **Channel comparison** | Channel | CAC | Sales Cycle | Quality | Scalability | Effort | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Organic/Content | £500-2K | 2-4 months | High | High | High initial | | Paid ads | £1-5K | 1-3 months | Medium | High | Ongoing spend | | Sales/AE | £3-10K | 2-6 months | High | Medium | Team-based | | Partnerships | £2-8K | 2-4 months | High | Medium-High | Relationship-based | | Referral | £500-1K | 1-2 months | Highest | Medium | Word-of-mouth | | Inbound/Brand | £1-3K | 2-4 months | High | High | Long-term investment | Ideal mix by stage: - Early (pre-PMF): Organic/content + direct sales (build brand, land anchor customers) - Growth (PMF): Organic + paid + sales (scale proven channels) - Scale (£10M+): Balanced mix (reduce individual channel dependency) **Cold email playbook (sales channel)** Target: Mid-market SaaS (£1-10M ARR), 50-500 employees Process: 1. Build list: 100-200 qualified prospects - Job titles: VP Sales, CFO, CRO - Company size: £10-50M revenue - Technology: Using competitor product - Tools: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Hunter.io - Cost: £200/month for tools 2. Outreach: Sequence of emails - Email 1 (day 1): Personalized (reference their company/job) - Email 2 (day 3): Follow-up (value prop) - Email 3 (day 7): Social proof (case study link) - Goal: 5-10% response rate 3. Meetings: Calendar link if interested - Qualification call (15 min): Confirm fit - Demo call (30 min): Product overview - Close: Proposal to contract (30-60 days) 4. Conversion rate: - List to response: 5-10% (10-20 responses from 100) - Response to meeting: 30-50% (3-10 meetings) - Meeting to close: 10-30% (0.3-3 customers) - Overall: 100 → 1-2 customers 5. Cost: - Labor: 1 AE (£80K/year) ÷ 20 customers = £4K CAC - Tools: £200/month × 12 ÷ 20 = £120 CAC - Total CAC: ~£4.1K Optimization: - Improve open rate: Better subject lines, personalization - Improve response rate: Stronger value prop, social proof - Improve conversion: Better qualifying, demo skills - Goal: 1-2 → 3-5 customers (2.5x improvement) **Paid ads playbook (paid channel)** Platform: Google/LinkedIn ads, targeting decision-makers Funnel: 1. Ad spend: £2K/month 2. Click-through rate: 2-3% (£2K ad → 40-60 clicks) 3. Landing page conversion: 5-10% (40-60 → 2-6 leads) 4. Sales conversion: 20-30% (2-6 → 0.4-1.8 customers) 5. Monthly customers: 1-2 6. Monthly CAC: £2K / 1.5 = £1.3K per customer Optimization: - A/B test creative: Different ad copy, images - Refine targeting: Narrower audience (higher conversion) - Improve landing page: Higher conversion rate - Improve sales: Better qualification, faster close - Goal: Reduce CAC 20-30% (£1.3K → £900-1K) Break-even analysis: - CAC: £1.3K - ACV: £3K (monthly), LTV: £36K (annual) - Payback: £1.3K / (£3K × 0.7 margin) = 2.5 months (healthy) Scaling: - If CAC £1.3K and payback 2.5 months: scale up ad spend - Double ad spend (£4K/month) → 3-4 customers/month - Revenue: £9-12K/month (new ads) - Cost: £4K (ads) (ROI 2-3x) **Content marketing playbook (organic channel)** Strategy: SEO-driven blog content, build authority Content: 1. Topic selection: High-volume keywords - "SaaS pricing strategy" (5K monthly searches) - "Unit economics for startups" (2K searches) - "CAC payback period" (1K searches) 2. Content creation: Target top 10 ranking keywords - 10 articles/month (£500-1K per article from freelancer) - Cost: £5-10K/month 3. SEO timeline: - Month 1-3: Publish, no traffic (building domain authority) - Month 4-6: Organic traffic starting (few hundred/month) - Month 7-12: Growing (thousand+ visits/month) - Month 12+: Compound growth (referral traffic) 4. Conversion: - Traffic: 5K monthly visitors (12+ months in) - Email signup: 2% (100 leads) - Free trial: 10% (10 trials) - Paid: 25% (2-3 customers) 5. CAC: - Content cost: £5K/month × 12 months = £60K/year - Customers: 2-3/month = 24-36/year - CAC: £60K / 30 = £2K per customer Optimization: - Content quality: Better articles → higher traffic - Keyword research: Target easier keywords first (faster ranking) - Link building: Backlinks from authority sites → faster ranking - Goal: Same content, 2x traffic → CAC £1K (50% reduction) Long-term benefit: - Compounding: Same effort, traffic keeps growing - Brand: Content establishes authority - Inbound: Leads come to you (vs cold outreach) - Cost efficiency: £2K CAC scales to £500 CAC after 2 years **Partnership playbook** Strategy: Partner with complementary companies for referrals Identify partners: - Complementary, not competitive - Same target customer - Larger audience/customer base - Example: If we're SaaS metrics tool, partner with CFO advisor Process: 1. Outreach: Warm intro or LinkedIn 2. Meeting: Pitch partnership (mutual benefit) 3. Agreement: Referral fee, commission structure 4. Enablement: Give partner resources, training 5. Tracking: Set up referral link, track conversions 6. Reward: Pay commission on customers referred Economics: - Referral fee: 20% of first-year ACV (example) - Example: Partner refers customer, £3K ACV = £600 fee paid - Partner perspective: Easy money for recommending - Our perspective: £600 CAC (if customer retained) ROI: - Find 5 good partners → 2-3 active referrers - 1-2 referrals/month per partner → 3-5 customers/month - CAC: £600-1K (commission paid) - Cost: 5 hours/month managing partnerships - Result: 3-5 customers/month at low CAC **Optimizing across channels** Measurement: - Track CAC by channel (google sheets or Mixpanel) - Track payback period by channel (important metric) - Track customer quality (retention, expansion by channel) Monthly review: | Channel | Spend | Customers | CAC | Payback | LTV | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Cold email | £4K | 2 | £2K | 6 mo | £20K | | Paid ads | £2K | 1.5 | £1.3K | 4 mo | £20K | | Content | £5K | 2.5 | £2K | 5 mo | £25K | | Partnerships | £3K | 3 | £1K | 3 mo | £22K | Best performing: Partnerships (lowest CAC, fastest payback, good LTV) Action: Invest more in partnerships (find more partners) Worst: Paid ads (highest CAC, though fast payback) Action: Optimize (better targeting, improve conversion) or reduce spend Scaling strategy: - Double down on partnerships and content (best CAC) - Optimize paid ads (improve CAC) - Maintain cold email (reliable, predictable) - Goal: Reduce overall blended CAC 20-30%, double customer volume