At Switch, we specialise in creating paid social media campaigns for companies with subscription models. Whilst on Netflix the other night, it got me thinking how similar the challenges we face are to dating and relationships.
When choosing what to watch, we swipe through all the options – no, no, no or seen it, seen it, seen it (if, like me, you’ve been on the dating apps for too long). We then choose one and give it 5 minutes before we lose interest and our ‘finish watching’ list grows like our unfinished conversations.
Occasionally we can’t get enough of a series spending all our spare time watching it and then inexplicably lose interest halfway through season two. Stranger Things have happened. Even when we do last 6, 7 or 8 seasons, it can end in an epic Game of Thrones style disappointment.Just like relationships, we can’t take our customer’s monthly deposit for granted.
Why retention is as important as acquisition
Whilst Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is ultimately what we are judged on, we also insist on focussing our efforts and budgets on the Lifetime Value (LTV) of every customer.
We all know that retention is often cited as being 5 or 6 times cheaper than acquisition and we believe that number is only going to increase.
Social media platforms are moving from a social metric to an interest metric, giving more impressions to a small percentage of posts.
Search engines are answering questions directly on their Search Engine Results Page (SERP) meaning less traffic to your site. AI search is only adding to this challenge.
Add increased privacy, the end of cookies, voice search and the rise of “no follow’ search engines and you can see how much harder social media marketing and SEO is going to be.
Creating the difference
Many companies will invest in paid social to make up for the drop in organic traffic to their site. It makes sense and it’s the right thing to do but it also means an increase in competition and content clutter.
This is why original, high value content that can rise above the default answers will be more important that ever. Search engines will continue to reward original content and punish copied or AI created content.
It’s also why nurturing existing relationships, maximising their spend and creating a brand that customers feel an emotional connection with is as important as driving new acquisitions.
It could save you from the subscription cull that consumers are increasingly carrying out and lead to a true lifetime commitment.