Understanding the Core 4 of Customer Acquisition

Now, don’t overthink whether these platforms will work, whether they’re the right choice, or if you should pick something else. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of that a little later. For now, I want to take you to the next step.

Let’s assume the platforms are ready. So, how do we get customers from them?

It might seem simple: sign up for the ad platform, create a campaign, launch the ad – and customers will start rolling in.

But this is exactly where most people fail. Or even if it works initially, the customer acquisition cost tends to be very high.

That’s why we need to follow proper systems to get the most out of these platforms. It’s not that there’s only one right way to get clients. There are multiple ways — but before anything else, we need to understand the fundamentals of marketing and how customer acquisition works. That’s key.

Now, let’s focus on those fundamentals.

Regardless of the platform, there are four core advertising methods – a broader view of how marketing works. These are known as the Core Four Advertising Methods, a concept popularised by Alex Hormozi. While these methods have existed for a long time, he explained them in a very simple way, and I’m using that to help you understand.

We get customers by letting people know about our product or service. And there are two types of people we’re trying to reach:

1. People who know us

2. People who don’t

And there are two ways of reaching them:

1. One-to-one

2. One-to-many

These combine into four basic ways someone can reach others with their offer.

Let’s break them down.

We have two types of audiences:

• Warm audience – People who have permitted you to contact them. This includes your friends, family, followers, current or past customers, leads, etc.

• Cold audience – People who haven’t given you permission. These are strangers – people from other audiences, bought contact lists, or cold traffic through ads.

The way we communicate with them differs.

Also, there are two styles of communication:

• One-to-one (Private) – Like a WhatsApp message or a personal email

• One-to-many (Public) – Like a social media post, a podcast, a YouTube video, or a billboard

Now, let’s map this to what we’re doing.

When we run Google or Meta ads:

• Are we doing one-to-one or one-to-many? → One-to-many

• Are we targeting warm or cold audiences? → Cold (because they don’t know us yet)

So, with these platforms, we’re mainly operating in the Cold Audience + One-to-Many quadrant.

But remember, there are still three other combinations we haven’t used yet.

That’s why we can’t rely only on ads to bring in customers. We have to focus on all four methods if we want to build a real, lasting brand.