Even At Recency = 22 Months ...

Here we are ... customers with Recency = 22 months ... the customers have not purchased in 22 months. That's a long time. They're lapsed buyers.

We're all trained to "target" lapsed buyers who have a lot of historical purchases ... they're "more responsive" and of course if they buy the are probably a "loyal buyer" ... so that's who we "target". Especially catalogers ... I'm as guilty of it as anybody.

But where is the biggest improvement in response? Going from a first to a second purchase. By an order of magnitude.

Spend your money trying to get a 22 month buyer with 5 life-to-date orders to buy for a sixth time, sure.

But how 'bout spending effort (not money) trying to get a 22 month buyer with 1 life-to-date order to buy for a second time? That's where the biggest gain is in terms of impact on your customer file.

Spend Money:  Higher Value Customers.

Spend Effort:  1x Buyers Who Could Become 2x Buyers.

We've forgotten how to "Spend Effort". We just pay folks (Google, Facebook, Instagram, Catalog Co-Ops). We need to "Spend Effort" on customer cohorts who have potential to improve the overall value of the customer base ... at low cost or no cost. Gee ... email marketing comes to mind here ... essentially free.

What stops you from "Spending Effort" on essentially free channels???