Over the last several years, much has been written about the benefits of measuring lifetime customer value (LCV). The theory is that if you can determine the revenue potential of all of your customers, you can direct your marketing resources to the accounts that have the highest potential yield and thereby maximize the ROI of your marketing dollars.
Understanding
LCV can yield some great benefits. However, there are limitations to this
practice that, if not avoided, can produce negative results.
Perhaps
the biggest danger is over-investing in programs and initiatives that seek to
capture profits only or primarily from the most active, highest spending
customers. This ignores opportunities from customers with growth potential and from
prospects and former customers who represent attractive profits if they can be
cultivated into active customers.
It
is said that companies will lose 50% of their customers in any given five-year
span. Consequently, the need to focus your marketing efforts on new customer
acquisition cannot be ignored. While using an LCV model will lead to an
increase in profits from high-value customers, over-reliance on LCV can lead to
a steady decrease in your pool of customers and overall profit if not balanced
with customer acquisition.
It’s
important to communicate with a wide variety of customers through all the various stages of the
prospect/customer lifecycle. Having a range of marketing materials targeting
different segments can significantly increase the ROI of your marketing
efforts. With today’s database and print technologies, it’s never been easier.
Need ideas for creating the
right target segments? Give us a call!
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