Acquisition: Are Most of Us Doing it Wrong?

Marketers spend countless hours strategizing about advertising, creative, acquisition, packaging, presentation, design, analytics, reporting, market research, consumer research, retention and reduction of churn - the list goes on and on. But many times, marketers get so wrapped up in the day-to-day minutia of the job to release that we're forgetting the simplest, most efficient way to acquire new customers: Be interesting. Winning is generating interest in your brand.

Don't believe me? Look at these simple examples.

The largest amount of media consumed by customers every day is via digital or linear screen time. When was the last time you went on TikTok hoping to see an ad? When was the last time you watched your favorite tv show hoping it would get interrupted by a ad? People HATE being sold to. I don't care how good your product or service is.

There is one lone time, every year, that people actually crave advertising: the Super Bowl broadcast. And why do people tune in to watch the advertising? Because the spots are so expensive, advertisers are focused to spend less time on promotion of product and more time on the concept of ad and the script itself. They have to change their strategy from selling to entertaining. We never leave the Super Bowl saying, wow - I need to buy some Doritos because they're on sale today, we leave saying "That's why I like Doritos, because of how damn entertaining that spot was. Maybe I'll go buy some this week."

Now granted, there are times when you need to shout promotion, but you can lose sight of the larger story. Even with promotions, you're still telling a story, but it can't be your only story. Promotions drive short-term sales. Storytelling drives long-term revenue. Having one without the other can be detrimental to either your short-term sales goals or your long-term growth goals.

To successfully use both strategies in tandem, you need to educate your stakeholders and set expectations. Part of the marketing budget should be focused on short and medium-term goals and that can be measured with metrics like ROAS with a lens towards LTV and cash-on-cash returns. Another part of the budget should be focused on your long-term storytelling that creates interest in your brand beyond transactional interest. Those funds should look at total acquisition, market share, and LTV beyond the initial promotional window.

That's just one of the winning strategies I like to share, and deploy, with my clients: Let's achieve your short-term strategic cash generation goals while keeping an eye on how to generate the approach to long-term interest and brand appeal through storytelling.