We previously looked at what acquisition and retention are and what sales and marketing activities are needed to accomplish each. This helped us see how you can improve your conversions in both cases, using the power of intent data. Now the question is which of these activities should be the most invested in!
Your business wouldn’t be able
Truly grow if you didn’t invest time, effort, and resources into customer acquisition and retention. Both are essential. But since resources botim database aren’t infinite, the question often arises as to whether you should devote more effort to one or the other.
Most organizations tend to focus on customer
Acquisition because the results are easy to see and it’s the most obvious path to growth. The assumption is that if the product or service products would be complementary to the original is good enough, people will buy again and therefore there’s no need to spend huge resources on retention. However, ignoring customer retention can lead to revenue instability when you start seeing high churn at renewal time. You’re losing revenue that could have been retained with a little personalized retention effort.
On the other hand
some argue that since customer acquisition is much more expensive than customer retention, you should focus more on retaining your cell phone number customers than acquiring new ones. This is “easy” money because customers are 60% more likely to buy from you than new prospects, allowing you to grow with less investment. However, this ignores the fact that companies that focus primarily on brand loyalty (retention) perform worse on all business metrics….
As a result B2B Institute data indicates
That for Marketing customer acquisition is more important than retention in B2B sales and marketing.
Acquisition activities not only help you win for Marketing customers, but also increase your market share and awareness, which helps build trust and loyalty, so customers are more likely to stay with you after purchase.
If you build brand awareness
People feel more comfortable choosing your solution because they perceive it as a popular and safe choice. The old popular saying in B2B IT is, “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.” Applied to our case, this is exactly what this principle of security in perceived popularity is all about.
However, whichever strategy you devote the most time and energy to, don’t neglect the other. These are two strategic axes essential to the growth and stability of businesses.
How Intent Data Can Increase Your Acquisition and Retention Conversion
Customer acquisition and retention takes time and can often require in-depth analysis to determine whether a customer is of interest or whether there are any issues that could cause them to churn.
This is where you need the power of detailed, quality intent data.
Intent data is data that shows a person or for Marketing account’s intent to buy. This can include contact information for prospects and customers, search topics, engagement levels, other members of the buying team, and more.
Let’s see how intent data can help you increase your acquisition and retention conversions.
How Intent Data Can Accelerate Customer Acquisition
You spend a lot of time and money tracking MQLs and SQLs, leads into for Marketing customers. So how can you increase your chances of success with leads by determining who is most ready to take the next step in the buyer’s journey?
When you’re looking for customers, ideally you’ll be able to see who is searching for information in your industry and who is intensely searching for solutions to the problems you address, even if those prospects haven’t yet visited your website.