It costs 5x more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing customer.

Re:It costs 5x more to attract a new customer than to retain... by jcklnruns on Monday November 25, 2013 @09:13AM (#6794082)

We've had this issue with our startup since our competitors are either a Goliath in the space or well-funded startups. Yet we probably get at least a few emails each week from users who just love what we do. We've also had a fair share of users email us asking us how they can give us money, because they don't want us to disappear. So, I guess, we're doing something right.

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Re:It costs 5x more to attract a new customer than to retain... by gk1 on Monday November 25, 2013 @09:18AM (#6794108)

Do you have some sort of referral system in place? If people like you enough to email you, I bet they'd email their friends too if you give them a hint and way to do so.

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Re:It costs 5x more to attract a new customer than to retain... by jcklnruns on Monday November 25, 2013 @09:26AM (#6794142)

Yup. People even earn silly badges for referring their friends and, actually, we do get a high conversion rate from user invites. There's just not enough eyeballs hitting the site outside of users that search for us directly.

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Re:It costs 5x more to attract a new customer than to retain... by mnw21cam on Monday November 25, 2013 @09:17AM (#6794102)

Well, you need to work out how to convert "we're doing something right" into actually being popular and making buckets of money. There are countless companies that folded even though they were "doing something right". It's hard.

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Re:It costs 5x more to attract a new customer than to retain... by jcklnruns on Monday November 25, 2013 @09:30AM (#6794161)

Gah... don't I know it. We're prepping for a major release that should give us a nice push. Could be the first step on the road to capital, albeit, another trying test in and of itself.

[ Parent | on HN ]