Acquisition & Retention is a step-by-step guide created by Debra Ellis of Wilson & Ellis Consulting. It provides detailed information on calculating acquisition, retention, and costs.

The challenge of capturing data from multiple sources, compiling it into actionable information, and transforming the results into growth and profitability is overwhelming. The customer acquisition and retention initiative often becomes a perennial item on corporate “to do” lists.
Failure to launch the project didn’t matter too much when marketing teams were able to choose their customers by targeting specific profiles and demographics. Most customers acquired converted to loyal buyers.

Things have changed. Consumers use the Internet to find new companies to patronize. This appears to be a boon for business until you realize that most of the shoppers are looking for specific items and don’t match the profiles so carefully created.

Now, instead of acquiring new buyers with loyalty tendencies, companies are getting hit-and-run customers. These people choose the company for a specific item to fulfill a short-term need. They purchase once or twice and then disappear. And, they take profitability with them.

Using the same marketing techniques for a company’s target market and hit-and-run visitors wastes money. How much? It depends on the number of customers and the marketing plan.

For example, if 10,000 hit-and-run customers receive 12 catalogs at $0.75 each, it costs $90,000. While it is unrealistic to think that they can be flagged with their first order, the sooner they are identified as hit-and-run shoppers, the less money lost.

The first step in identifying hit-and-run customers is to evaluate customer acquisition and retention. How many customers purchased one time or two? How many people have reached the buyer status of three or more orders? What is the acquisition cost? How about retention costs? What data is needed to acquire this information? Where should one start?

"Analytics Made Simple: How to Measure, Rate, & Improve Customer Acquisition & Retention" is a step-by-step guide created by Debra Ellis of Wilson & Ellis Consulting. It provides detailed information on how to calculate acquisition, retention, and associated costs. It includes an Excel workbook already configured for convenience. The user provides the data; it transforms it into information usable for growth and profitability.

The guide is segmented into three missions. Once completed, the following information is available:

• Acquisition and retention rates.
• Average sales dollars by customer type (Onetimer, Twotimer, or Buyer)
• Costs for acquiring and retaining customers
• How direct marketing, Internet, and store customers compare to each other.
• If there is a hit-and-run problem
• How to balance customer acquisition, retention, and costs

"Analytics Made Simple" reduces the resources required to develop an acquisition and retention initiative. The process still requires effort, but the return is exponential.

The guide and workbook is available for presale at www.wilsonellisconsulting.com. Its release is scheduled for November 18, 2008.

About Debra Ellis: Debra Ellis is a writer, speaker, consultant and the founder of Wilson & Ellis Consulting. She has extensive experience as a multichannel company consultant and executive. She uses her experience and expertise to teach executives how to integrate departments, motivate employees, maximize return on investment, and successfully grow their business. She recently completed an e-book entitled The New Rules of Multichannel Marketing.