The other day an email subscriber asked me:
“What’s the fastest way to learn retention marketing?”
I thought the question was so good I had to write a separate newsletter on it.
It made me reflect on the stuff I had consumed when I first started my freelancing journey, which has been a few years already.
Truth is, I’ve wasted a ton of time and money on stuff that didn’t really matter. Courses that taught me nothing. Books I read that ended up being entertainment more than anything.
If I started today, here’s what I would do to learn retention marketing:
The 28-Day Retention Marketing Learning Plan
- Go to Alexandra Greifeld’s No Best Practices blog and write out 50 of her blog posts by hand.
- Get Alexandra Greifeld’s Retention Beyond Email course. Go through it 10x and take notes.
- Listen to The Boring Ecom Podcast’s episode on “How Product Selection Makes or Breaks Your LTV Potential” and take notes.
- Get a Mailboard subscription. Pick out 100 of your favorite email campaigns and analyze them, one-by-one.
- Create a separate email address. Subscribe to 25 of these brands and carefully study their monthly content calendar.
- Go on Amazon and buy Chris Orzechowski’s The MOAT book. Re-read it 3x and take notes.
- Go on Thomas Lalas’ website and order his Retention Economics book. Re-read it 3x and take notes.
- And finally, use all this knowledge you’ve gained on your clients, because without application, you’re just entertaining yourself.
Now, if I had to start from somewhere, it would hands down be Alexandra Greifeld’s blog.
For one, it’s a great place to learn direct response marketing, Meta ads, not just retention.
Here are three unexpected takeaways I had from her Retention Beyond Email course, which are fundamental knowledge to any retention marketer:
1. You Can’t Please Every Customer
You might’ve heard of the saying “the customer is always right” or “customer is king.”
While there’s obviously some truth to that, I think it’s largely a bunch of horse-you-know-what.
Here’s why…
You can’t profitably scale by trying to please every customer segment that buys from you.
Take the same brand I mentioned before — Grüns, for example.
Which customer do you think is likely to spend more over a lifetime on their vitamin gummies?
- Health enthusiasts obsessing over routines
- Unhealthy individuals looking for a quick wellness hack
PSST… (pick a… it’s a!)
And the reason is simple:
These people are heavy users. They have healthy habits, and likely identify themselves as “healthy individuals” in their mind.
On the other hand, take person b who likely bought on a whim after scrolling IG at 3am while munching on Cheetos.
They might buy once, but it’s much harder for them to stick to a routine.
And the problem is… these people will complain. If they don’t see results within a week, they will leave you a bad review.
They also don’t want to pay $54 for one-month’s supply. They might want to “try it out” and pay $10 instead…
Don’t listen to them.
Instead, learn to analyze your customer cohort reports, and create acquisition offers that attract heavy users.
2. Don’t Blindly Trust Your Klaviyo Dashboard
I’ve had numerous clients come to me saying “we believe 30% of our revenue should come from Klaviyo.”
It was baffling to me, until one day I logged into LinkedIn and saw every other email guru preach this as gospel.
Here’s something you need to know…
There are customers who would buy from you again even if you did zero re-marketing.
I suggest you re-read that last line.
By nature, there are people who would’ve bought from you anyway, even if you didn’t send that email/SMS campaign.
But generous attribution settings will always attribute the sale to Klaviyo.
That’s why when I audit email accounts, attributed revenue isn’t even a top 5 metric I check.
On top of that, there are multiple other variables that impact your ability to drive repeat purchases. If you want to read my rant on this subject, you can do so here.
3. There’s More To Retention Than Just Email
There’s a clear distinction between people who send emails and call themselves retention marketers, and those who actually take the time to understand your business and customer base.
One posts screenshots of subject line tests on social media claiming 10x ROI.
The other sees subject line testing as the lowest form of strategic thinking.
Want Someone To Do This For You?
If you don’t have the time (or the motivation) to learn all this yourself, apply to work with me here and start making more money from your existing customers.
Or if you’d rather keep learning, subscribe to my weekly newsletter — every Friday I share retention systems and strategies for DTC brands.
Good luck!
