It’s critical, but it’s not sexy.
It’s something everyone knows about, but few make it their focus or priority.
It’s retention.
While everyone knows what it is, there’s still a problem – there is a lack of understanding why retention is the priority. Without realizing this, people end up working on the wrong things and missing the most significant opportunities.
Most people think retention is so crucial only because it means you lose fewer users than you otherwise would. Though this is true, it misses the critical point.
Retention is the core of your growth model and influences every other input to your model. This is important because if you improve retention, you’ll also improve the rest of your funnel.
Improving retention spurs growth in 4 fundamental ways:
1. Retention drives acquisition
2. Retention improves monetization
3. Retention builds an acquisition competitive edge
4. Retention accelerates payback period
The article has very detailed descriptions of each of the areas above, along with screenshots of website elements, tables with data, explanations.
There’s a lot of unsexy words and concepts there. Like cohorts, payback period, LTV.
(Well, it depends on who is it sexy for, to be honest. I find cohorts and LTV (Lifetime Value) to be extraordinarily enticing and sexy. But that’s me.)
As you walk through of all of the examples in the article, you’ll realize there’s much more to retention than meets the eye. It isn’t just about retaining more users, it impacts every facet of your growth model and has multiple layers of impact on the health of any business. In fact, retention is one of the key factors that determine the long-term success of any startup.
▶️ Retention will make or break your company. ◀️
