Category Archives: Newsletters

Optimizing for Customer Value

The following is from the February 2011 Drilling Down Newsletter.  Got a question about Customer Measurement, Management, Valuation, Retention, Loyalty, Defection?  Just ask your question.  Also, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll reply.

Want to see the answers to previous questions?  Here’s the blog archive; the pre-blog newsletter archives are here.

Q: Thank you for creating this useful website!

A: You’re welcome!

Q: When figuring out retention rate for an annual or a 8 months life time cycle period, how do I pick the starting period?  Do I look at their first orders on a date?  Or I pick a time frame such as one month?

A: It depends on:

1. What kind of “retention” you are talking about, the definition, which is probably impacted by the audience for the data

2.  What you will do with the retention data, what kind of decisions will be made and actions be taken because of the data

You should always ask these questions above  when someone requests “retention data” – or any other kind of analysis, for that matter!  For example, there probably is a huge difference in what you would provide to the Board of Directors for an annual benchmark and what you would provide to Marketing people for executing campaigns.

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When Does a Visitor Need a Coupon? And the Reverse (Incremental Sales / Subsidy Costs)

The following is from the November 2010 Drilling Down Newsletter.  Got a question about Customer Measurement, Management, Valuation, Retention, Loyalty, Defection?  Just ask your question.  Also, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll reply.

Want to see the answers to previous questions?  Here’s the blog archive; the pre-blog newsletter archives are here.

Q: First off, I very much appreciate you sharing all this wonderful content on your blog and conferences such as eMetrics.

A: Thanks for that!

Q: My question is a simple one, but I think the answer may be hard: When does a visitor “need” a coupon?  *Need* defined as: visitor would not have placed an order unless presented with the coupon.

A: Hmmm…methinks we’re going to have to define a few concepts and be clear on the goals to make sure we are nailing this down… visitor versus customer, sales versus profit, etc.  In other words, answer is not hard, but could be complex without defining context.

Q: It’s still a mystery to me why so many retailers seem more than willing to hand over all their margins to Groupon or give coupons to basically all visitors.  I am curious whether you would approach this question using  observational data (eg web analytics) or experiments (eg AB testing), or both.

A: Right – is a mystery to me too!

There are certain situations where this approach might be appropriate, but the problem with much web “marketing” (which often is really just advertising without much thought about marketing) is often there is success in a narrow or special situation.  Then the pundits jump on and say “if you’re not doing this you are stupid”, regardless of the business situation and / or without recognizing the special circumstances that are driving success.  This is all the real Marketing stuff people leave out; understanding why it works, under what circumstances, for which segments, involving which products.

Continue reading When Does a Visitor Need a Coupon? And the Reverse (Incremental Sales / Subsidy Costs)

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