How can I afford to lose money on acquiring customers when I'm just starting out?

The smart marketer can afford to lose money on customer acquisition cost because they understand they’ll make it back over the coming months and years through additional sales. This is possible when you have a solid follow-up marketing strategy in place. You’ll always be able to pay more to acquire a customer than competitors who don’t have a post-acquisition plan, because you know what to do after you get the lead. Not every marketing effort will be profitable immediately—think of it like an archery target with concentric circles. The bullseye is high immediate ROI, but you can’t hit bullseyes every time. If you’re willing to hit all over that target (breaking even sometimes, losing a bit sometimes, winning big occasionally), you acquire far more customers. Blended together over time, with proper follow-up marketing, these all become profitable.

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Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2019-05-15