Your spend needs to be about much more than blindly throwing money at acquisition ads. It has to be wrapped up in a learning equation that involves elements such as the following: • Studying your customers • Understanding buying habits • Doing research • Analyzing post-purchase touchpoints • Customer journey optimization.

Acquisition marketing alone does not work long term for all business models. If what you sell gets bought multiple times, it may work for short bursts, but in the long run, it’s called “churn and burn” for a reason—you will burn yourself out.

way, as you acquire new customers, you create the right scenarios to invite them back.

For starters, how much can you earn from a newly acquired customer down the line, and how much can you afford to spend to acquire that customer?

the PECTI framework. It helps you invest resources as wisely as possible, as plot campaign initiatives. PECTI is a hybrid between two CRO prioritization frameworks: PIE (Potential/Importance/Ease); and TIR (Time/Impact/Resources). PECTI takes into account 5 different criterias, rated from 1 to 5: potential, ease, cost, time, and importance.

to improve CLV, my company, and all companies for that matter, must have three solid pillars: • What they sell (the product) • What they do (the customer experience) • What they say (their marketing)

The acquisition will always be tied to growth, but the mantra of “acquire, acquire, acquire” is ill-conceived. With CLV at its center, the new mantra is “acquire, inquire, acquire.” See what I did there? Inquiring into why your customers buy, whether you are reading the story of the data, or asking them directly, will help avoid churn and burn.

The most critical aspect of this step is expanding your view of the dominant numbers. Until you start to monitor and measure key metrics related to CLV, and build a game plan towards improving them, you will continue to over-optimize the two or three dominant numbers you’re used to.

The fact is CLV is not a fixed reality. Impacting it is well within your reach if you know where and how to look inside the numbers.