How much of your growth marketing tactics based around acquisition, and how much are they based around retention?

It really depends on the lifecycle stage of the product and the goals/OKRs set up each quarter. But it is very common for growth-focused initiatives to be organized around the audience lifecycle. I often organize my teams, strategies, and tactics around some version of the following but adapted to fit my product needs: acquisition, onboarding, retention, resurrection.  That way you will empower different team members to be accountable for each part of the customer journey and be able to measure ...Read More

When working on a product, the goal is that we are focusing on a problem that our merchants want us to solve. If we are doing that, there is already a natural interest in the product, which leads to acquisition. The audience that is organically interested in our product is likely to be the most highly qualified for the product or feature we’ve launched. Therefore, my priority is to ensure that we retain our existing customers and meet their expectations. If we are not doing this, then focusing o ...Read More

This is going to depend entirely on the growth stage of your business and the health of your customer base. If you're a startup, you'll need to focus on getting new customers in the door. But, if those prospects or trialers aren't converting into paying customers, or are churning out rapidly in the first few months, then there's no point in adding more into a leaky bucket. You'll need to patch up the bucket first. In reality, balancing customer lifecycle initiatives will be an evolving and fluid ...Read More

This really depends on the maturity of your product and/or stage of the company you’re working at. For example, early stage and scaling growth companies often have a strong emphasis on customer acquisition to build the user base quickly. If this is where you’re at, then this is where the majority of your focus should be. For businesses with subscription models or have high customer lifetime value, a strong focus on retention is key. Because keeping existing customers happy and engaged is much ch ...Read More