Problem #1 With Digital Marketing

FYI - yesterday's quiz apparently sent some of you to the unsub button. It's not my fault you don't know the answers to the questions ... that's on you!

On to today's topic.

Here's actual data, showing the twelve-month rebuy rate of newly acquired buyers based on how many items were purchased in a first order. Tell me what you observe.

Customers buying just one item have an approximate 30% chance of buying again in the next year.

Customers buying multiple items have ever-increasing chances of buying again in the next year ... nearly a 40% chance for those with three items purchased.

I know, I know, this is the point in the program where you tell me that you have an automated AI-infused cross-sell and up-sell program. Good! Now why the heck does it do such a poor job?

Your AI-infused program might not be doing a bad job. Your source of new customer traffic might be responsible.

For instance, look at these results from recent work:

• New Customers via Catalogs = 43% purchased multiple items in a first order.
• New Customers via Email Marketing = 44% purchased multiple items in a first order.
• New Customers via Google = 33% purchased multiple items in a first order.

Repeatedly, I see instances where the marketer goes for the easy win ... paying Google/Facebook to do the heavy lifting ... those channels are doing heavy lifting ... they're identifying customers who want a specific item at a specific point in time. Those channels have no responsibility to send you a quality prospect, they are responsible for sending you ANY prospect. You don't want ANY prospect.

It's your job to identify prospects who want to buy from your full assortment, both today and in the future.

Do you see the difference? It's an alignment issue ... your marketing efforts are not aligned with subsequent success efforts.

When I measure companies with low long-term value, it's frequently because of the decisions marketers made 1-3 years ago to acquire easy-to-find customers who want an item at a point in time instead of acquiring hard-to-find customers interested in a relationship where they buy from your full assortment multiple times.