Continuous Reach

December 14, 2012

"Hi Louis, we're always on the lookout for enthusiastic digital marketers. Fancy a chat sometime?"

Fucking finally.

After investing the little savings I had in a 12-week professional diploma in digital marketing, after working in the car industry forever (OK, three years), after weeks of job hunting, I am finally getting somewhere.

The CEO of an up-and-coming Irish start-up got in touch with me! And he genuinely seemed interested in my profile after sending a connection request on this new social network called LinkedIn.

Sometime in January 2013

I got the job! It was my dream to work in marketing.

Enter the "digital marketing enthusiast" version of me. I was a walking Larousse dictionary of marketing jargon with exactly zero real-world experience—yet I thought I knew it all. For example, I thought I knew exactly what makes customers loyal. Loyalty programs are key to increasing revenue. Eighty percent of revenue comes from twenty percent of customers. Growing a business means making sure to turn customers into raving fans. It's just common sense.

Remember, I talked about this experience in Chapter 7. We sold bulk SMS solutions to local shops like butchers and beauty salons. One of our arguments was that SMS builds loyalty.

I was fully on board with it; it made total sense.

It's only years later, after I left and failed at my first marketing agency, that I discovered the truth. Pretty much everything I thought I knew about loyalty marketing was demonstrably wrong. Turns out:

It's 60 percent—not 80 percent—of revenue that comes from 20 percent of customers. A big chunk of revenue tends to come from light buyers. Meaning around 40 percent of revenue comes from folks who very, very rarely buy from the brand.

Loyalty programs have a very weak effect on sales. That's because they appeal to customers who already purchase more frequently than the average.

There's no evidence to back up customers falling in love with brands. (Yes, yes, even Apple.)

To be clear, I'm not saying to forget about making your current customers happy so they rave about you. Sure, that's important. But here's the kicker: a lot of the time, folks leave for reasons totally out of your hands—like moving to another city or changing jobs.

What to do?

Continuously reach as many of the right people as possible when it's most relevant to them (within your means). That nonstop activity constantly puts you in front of the people in your segment so they see you all the time, think about you all the time, and remember you when the time is right for them to buy.

In this stage, you will uncover the final three elements: triggers, channels, and offers.

Then you'll use those final elements to put together a plan for continuous reach. The cool kids call this a go-to-market (GTM) strategy.