Should we put more marketing effort into retention or acquisition?

Diagnose the constraint

If customers leave because the service disappoints them, more lifecycle emails will not repair the underlying problem. If qualified demand is low, retention work alone may not solve growth. Start with evidence from customer and operating teams.

Compare two concrete projects

An acquisition campaign and a customer onboarding improvement can each have a cost, owner and measurable outcome. Compare those projects, not abstract categories.

Project question	What to record
Who benefits?	Defined audience or customer cohort
What changes?	A specific experience or offer
What does it cost?	Staff, media and tooling
What would success mean?	Agreed conversion or retention measure
What else affects the result?	Service, pricing and seasonality

Illustrative editorial image, not a customer result.

Keep cohort definitions stable

Compare customers over appropriate periods and avoid treating revenue from an existing customer as proof that a reminder caused the purchase.

This week's action

Ask customer-facing colleagues for the three most common reasons people leave. Choose one fix you can test with them before building another automated sequence.

Discussion behind the question

This is original practical guidance prompted by a public discussion theme, not a claim that the poster represents all CMOs. Read the source discussion.

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