All digital marketers are sluts

I have a theory. I’m sure it’s true. And it goes like this – Digital marketers are sluts! That’s right… sluts. They love jumping in to bed with new customers… they love the thrill of the chase… so much so that a range of sub industries have emerged to fulfill this primal urge (think SEO, Pay-Per-Click, Affiliate marketing etc). But when it comes to the development of meaningful long-term customer relationships, they’re out the door before the sun has risen…

Perhaps I’m bitter & jaded. Perhaps I’m just feeling a little used myself. You see… I thought I was in a serious relationship. I thought they actually cared… I thought they were different.

The web site’s name was Juno. We met about 7 years ago. Juno satisfied my need for electronic music in vinyl format. Everything about Juno was perfect – low prices, an unmatched product range and depth, excellent product categorization and browsing features, a simple user interface, weekly email alerts based on my favourite music genres & convenient RSS feeds. It was love at first site (pun intended).

My affair with Juno seemed to last forever. I was loyal and never contemplated ‘cheating’ on them. Why would I… it was young love. For over 5 years I willingly parted with my hard earned cash after every pay check for the latest vinyl releases. I had a vinyl addiction and Juno satisfied my craving.

But then something happened. At the start of this year I got busy… real busy. I took on a part-time role along with my full-time job. And I began this blog. Life became hectic and regimented, and I had far less time for leisure activities. Poor Juno suffered my neglect as a result. And while my passion for Juno never waned, we slowly drifted apart.

It wasn’t long before my Juno addiction seemed to have almost disappeared (replaced by a blogging addiction). I fell out of the habit, and maybe even fell out of love. Juno maintained token contact via weekly product release newsletters, but where was the personal touch…? Wasn’t I special…? Didn’t I deserve a little special attention…? After all, I’d given Juno over 5 years of my life… and 5 years of my income. I had poured thousands and thousands of dollars into Juno. Where was the love…? Didn’t our relationship meaning anything to Juno…? Was I little more than a booty call…?

By all accounts I should have been ‘special’ to Juno. I would have scored through the roof on a customer RFM model. My purchasing habits were recent, frequent and of monetary significance. But Juno turned out to be just like the rest of them. In fact, I suspect the relationship would have ended a long time ago had I not made the effort… perhaps even after the first date… sob.

So here I am… bitter and twisted… and convinced that all digital marketers are the same. And while I may be emotional, the proof is on my side. Marketing Sherpa’s 2008 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide indicates that just 18% of email marketers track the life time value of their database. And if just 18% are tracking lifetime value, how many have processes in place to catch their best customers before defection? Not many…

So for all you digital marketers out there – I say take a leaf out of Jim Novo’s book. Because we all know that sluts end up with empty and shallow relationships. Is that the type of relationship you want with your customers…?

Tagged as: customer life cycle, Customer relationships, customer value, database marketing, Relationship marketing