The Changing Consumer Experience

Driving traffic and building awareness in budget-challenged times

Effective versus Measurable: Evaluating Marketing Tactics

Looking at subscriber and free churn rates
I was recently asked to look into churn rates for subscription models. I found it tricky to find real industry numbers, but here are the fruits of my digging.First of all, how we define churn:Total Subscribers = (Total Subscribers * Loss Rate) + AcquisitionsTo get a churn rate, you need to compare your total subscribers from one period with the amount of change within the base.Of course, you have to be able to know when a customer leaves. For the purposes of this post, I'm talking about specific subscribers to a paid service. Churn on a free service is, I believe, harder, because you have to decide on some activity rate beyond whi

Is the elevator pitch outmoded?
Michael Port seems to think so. He believes it's all about the conversation. Showing your passion with a back and a forth. But I have heard so, so many people totally fail at answering the question "so what does your company do?" in a way that's brief and coherent, I still think it's critically important to have that simple, reliable statement.If you, or anyone in your company, can't communicate your value proposition instantly, quickly, and correctly, you're in trouble.OTOH, Michael's list of what you should be able to answer is good:Who you s

I want to get me one of these
I can't wait for the Apple's tablet. Sorry, Amazon. I have a Kindle. I just don't like it. For a start, I keep poking the screen trying to navigate. I hate the flash as it moves through pages. I hate the keyboard. (Anyone remember the 80s Peanut chicklets? It's worse.) I hate the searching. Sorry, but I just don't like any of it.Now, this. This looks tasty:

Plenty of room for non-games in top iPhone spots
Looking today at the top 100 grossing apps for the iPhone. You can see them yourself here. (Will launch iTunes.)Of the top 100, 68 are games. 32 are various productivity or travel helping apps, including smattering of adult stuff and one recipe app. (Well done, Jamie!). Plenty of room for interesting things that aren't games in the top 100! I wonder how the line up will change this time next year.Here's the list:#2 MobileNavigator North American $89.99 #3 RedLaser tag reader $1.99 #18 DocumentsToGo for taking docs $9.99#

How much is too much to pay for a customer?
Been working with a client recently on the gnarly problems around how much to pay to acquire a customer. Thought it would be useful to share this nifty calculation with represents one way to look at the issue.Traditionally, companies look at a marketing/sales expenditure to be 15-20% of each revenue dollar. But you may have different models. And, frankly, with almost all the companies I work with, there's only a very slim marketing budget available. So let's look at it from the perspective of the lifetime value of a customer:Lifetime Value equation:LTV = (Frequency of Purchase) X (Duration of Loyalty) X (Gross Profit)- How frequentl