When you find leads who are the right fit, it’s easier (and less costly) to market to them, convert them into customers, and make them happy so they stick around and buy from you longer. The only problem? You might not be sure how to find them.
If you’re unclear on exactly how valuable different types of customers are for your business, it’s also very difficult to know just how much you should be investing in your marketing and even harder to know which channels to invest in most.
Not all customers are equal, and different investments of your time and resources will attract different groups. The decision-making process would be much easier if you knew who to put first.
Measuring Customer Value Can Get Complicated
Most entrepreneurs know that to tackle these problems, they need an accurate measure of CLV, or Customer Lifetime Value, but it’s not always easy to figure out what this is. According to Econsultancy’s Graham Charlton, “For companies looking to improve retention rates, customer lifetime value (CLV) is a crucial concept but one which companies find hard to measure.”
Research by Econsultancy shows that although 76% of companies agree that CLV is an important concept for their organization, only 42% said that they were actually able to measure it. Without the ability to measure this crucial stat, many businesses also find it difficult to improve their CLV. There are several reasons why: 35% said that information silos within their company hindered their ability to increase CLV, while 34% felt that poor systems affecting the customer experience were negatively impacting CLV.
The complexity of a business’s customer information, and the scattered nature of data sources used to keep track of it, make measuring CLV a formidable challenge for most organizations.
There’s an Easy Way to Measure CLV
Finding an accurate measurement of CLV is actually much easier than it seems. The truth is, many marketers and business leaders actually overcomplicate this stat. While you may someday hire a data analyst who can pinpoint your CLV to the penny, for now all you need to get a finger on the pulse of your business is a few basic formulas.
With a reliable understanding of both average company-wide CLV and CLV by segment, you can solve problems across your entire business. Here’s how.
CLV SHOWS YOU COMMONALITIES BETWEEN YOUR BEST BUYERS
To find more people who will be ideal customers, you need to find out what all of your existing ideal customers have in common.
Although CLV can be calculated as an average for all of your customers, if you separate out your best buyers (those who have spent above a certain threshold, have the highest number of transactions, or have been around the longest) and find out which group has the highest CLV, you’ll know which leads and prospects to focus your energy on attracting: those who are most similar to the group with the highest CLV, which will also be the group who is most likely to refer new business to you. By placing the focus on your best buyers, you’ll also be earning word-of-mouth marketing.
CLV LETS YOU KNOW HOW MUCH TO INVEST IN MARKETING
Not sure how much you can safely spend on marketing? Understanding CLV gives you a reliable frame of reference.
For example, if you know that on average a new customer is worth $100 to your business over the long term, it’s probably a safe bet to spend $20 acquiring that person. However, a $20 cost per acquisition does not make sense if your average CLV is only $15.
You can also divide this up according to marketing channels. For example, if it costs you $20 to acquire a customer on Facebook, but Facebook customers end up spending $200 on average, that’s a great sign. If that was the case, you would know with certainty that scaling your Facebook ad investment was the right decision.
CLV GUIDES YOU TOWARDS THE RIGHT PRODUCT AND CUSTOMER JOURNEY IMPROVEMENTS
Even if your resources for expanding your product or serving customers in new ways is limited, with an understanding of which customers yield the highest value for your business you can make those difficult choices with confidence. By prioritizing improvements that cater to your highest value segment, you can attract more people like them.
Case Studies Show That Placing the Focus on CLV Yields Results
There are many case studies showing exactly how a focus on CLV drives revenue growth.
IBM successfully multiplied its revenue 10x by correctly identifying its high-spending customers and marketing directly to them. SurveyMonkey identified its most profitable demographics and successfully increased its CLV by 150%.
Even Netflix has used CLV to accelerate its growth. According to Kissmetrics, in the early days of Netflix its average CLV was calculated at $291. By understanding this, Netflix was able to spend more money attracting new clients to grow faster — betting that they would stick around long enough for the company to recoup those higher marketing costs.
According to Neil Patel, “Because they know their lifetime value metrics well, they can keep on dumping money into marketing.” And it has paid off. Netflix is now worth $70 billion, and by focusing on CLV to an individual customer level, it has reduced its churn rate to only 9% — the lowest of any mainstream media content subscription service out there.
HERE’S EXACTLY HOW CALCULATING YOUR CLV WILL BENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS
Here are six specific ways that an accurate CLV calculation will improve the way you approach business growth:
- You’ll know exactly which of your existing customers are the most valuable so that you can narrow your focus to better serve them and find more people like them.
- You’ll be able to understand how lifetime value varies among different segments within your business, making it easier to prioritize services for high-value segments.
- You’ll get a clear picture of which marketing channel generates customers with the highest lifetime value so you’ll know where to focus your marketing budget for best results.
- You’ll be able to figure out what factors lead to a higher lifetime value so that you can increase the value of all segments within your business.
- You’ll understand the cost of acquiring one new customer in the larger context of that customer’s value over time so you can adjust your ad spend for maximum ROI.
- You’ll know exactly which customers to focus on for the highest chances of earning a referral so that you can benefit from the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
Ready to get started calculating CLV? All you need are the formulas and some simple steps to follow. We put an easy guide together that includes all you’ll need to calculate your business’s CLV, and you can get it for free here.
