But They're Easy To Acquire!

Look, I get it. You've got a budget you have to hit so acquiring a new customer between 11/15 and 12/15 at 50% off makes a lot of sense, right?

Do you measure the downstream value of customers acquired between 11/15 and 12/15?

Often, the results look like this:

• Acquired Rest of Year = $24.00 Profit.
• Acquired 11/15 to 12/15 = $12.00 Profit.

Print-based marketers are particularly guilty of fueling this dynamic ... mailing way too many catalogs to customers acquired 11/15 to 12/15, driving down long-term value in the process. It's bad enough customers acquired 11/15 to 12/15 have lower annual rebuy rates to begin with, don't amplify the process by harming long-term value by over-marketing to customers.

So don't do that. If you have to acquire Christmas customers in large quantities, at least manage lifetime value properly, ok?