Building Brand Advocates: Secrets to Low-Cost Customer Acquisition

Unlock the secrets to maximizing your marketing efficiency and driving growth with expert customer retention strategies. Learn how to engage existing customers, boost loyalty, and optimize your marketing ROI for long-term success.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Val Geisler, previously the Director of Retention and Lifecycle Marketing at ByHeart and currently the VP of Customer and Lifecycle Marketing at Digioh. Val is an email marketing conversion copywriter and strategist immersed in customized, successful retention strategies on a daily basis.

For about a decade, Val Geisler ran a consulting firm that worked mainly with subscription-based ecommerce businesses, focusing on what she calls “the big 3”:

• Customer experience
• Customer onboarding
• Customer retention

During her tenure at ByHeart, an infant formula subscription service, she saw customer acquisition costs (CAC) increase, necessitating a robust and operationally efficient retention strategy.  To combat these rising costs, ByHeart led with a no-cost/low-cost CAC strategy. Val and her counterpart in customer acquisition created a constant feedback loop that drives down both CAC and operational efficiencies in the customer lifecycle. Here’s how they did it.

Acquiring new customers with existing customers

Want to attract new customers? The simplest place to start is with the ones you already have. Creating customer avatars and mapping audiences is a great starting point, but you can do even more. Dive deeper into your data to pinpoint which customers have the most lifecycle success and what you need to do to attract more like them.

But there’s more potential out there.

For about a decade, Val Geisler ran a consulting firm that worked mainly with subscription-based ecommerce businesses, focusing on what she calls “the big 3”:

Imagine someone compliments your watch band. If you got it from a marketplace, you might brush it off with a “Thanks.” The brand isn’t important to you, so the conversation typically stops there. Now imagine someone compliments your socks, and it was a brand that gave you a great experience. Then, you’re ready to tell them all about their phenomenal customer service. You tell them the package never arrived, so they sent a new one without questions. Or you can say how funny their emails are (something Val might say) and share their latest pun-filled email about socks. They left a lasting impression on you that’s now turned into a full-blown conversation about a sock brand. That’s the goal, says Val. You want to create experiences that allow customers to have those conversations. The product and the customer experience work together.

We are now at a crucial stage in our evolution with enterprise generative AI. While consumer generative AI has captured the imagination of millions, executives are developing the practices that can deliver an effective and responsible strategy for enterprise generative AI.

According to our CEO survey, 60% of organizations are not yet developing a consistent, enterprise-wide approach to generative AI. IBM® is in a unique position to help. The company has a rich history of innovation, combined with a deep understanding of what organizations need. It has a legendary track record of building great technology and helping clients deliver business transformation reliably. It makes it the perfect place for me to contribute to shaping the future of our industry.

In 25 years of working in the world of data, AI and analytics, I’ve seen how technology can reshape businesses, industries and even the way we live our lives. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the most innovative teams in the industry: four startups, a few “scale-ups” and hyperscalers (Microsoft, Oracle and Google) and customers and partners of all sizes. I’m thrilled to have joined IBM to help drive the company’s data, AI and analytics strategy and its execution.

I recently joined Sanjeev Mohan and Ritika Gunnar in a podcast episode to share why I chose IBM and how I believe the company is uniquely positioned to lead the next wave of transformation through generative AI.