In this interview, the Head of Retention at Medialab discusses the importance of customer retention, effective strategies, and the role of technology and data in driving long-term customer engagement.
By R. Larsson, Advertising Week
You’ve recently joined Medialab as Head of Retention, tell us about your role.
“There is currently a huge opportunity for brands to not only acquire customers, but keep them engaged for the long term – it’s a real untapped area. This focus on retention ultimately strengthens the customer journey, bridging the gap between acquisition and loyalty. Given the current cost of living pressures, with customers far more discerning with their spending, retention is even more critical. Brands need to ensure they’re consistently delivering value to keep customers engaged and loyal over the long term.
Medialab has a strong foundation in acquisition and data-driven decision making. Now, we’re building on that foundation to expand into retention, creating a comprehensive offering that drives measurable, enduring value for our clients. With its focus on data, twenty years of experience, and multi-talented team – carefully fostered by Co-Founders Marcus Orme, Alex Kirk and Ben Ennis – Medialab is in a great position to now combine customer acquisition and retention under one integrated proposition, helping brands maximise the ROI of their customer bases.”
What does an effective retention strategy look like?
“An effective retention strategy is all about building meaningful, long-term relationships with your customers – whether they’re shoppers, donors, or supporters. It’s about understanding their needs, anticipating their future behaviour, and consistently delivering value. A strong retention strategy should seamlessly integrate with acquisition, ensuring that every customer we bring in has a reason to stay engaged.
- Data: It starts with knowing your customers. A unified view of customer data allows for personalised interactions and anticipates their needs.
- Technology: The right martech stack delivers personalised, consistent experiences at scale. But it’s not just about having the tools – it’s about integrating them properly to unlock their potential.
- Strategy: Your retention efforts must align with your business goals, focusing on managing the customer lifecycle. By identifying key moments of truth, those points where loyalty is won or lost, you can guide customer behaviour through personalised engagement.
- Creative: Engaging, on-brand creative is essential across all channels. Your messaging and design must resonate with your audience, reinforcing your identity.
- Messaging: Timing is everything. Whether it’s a welcome email or a follow-up with donors, messaging should be data-driven and delivered at the right moment.
- Measurement: Tracking key metrics – like lifetime value (LTV), churn rate, and engagement – helps refine your approach and ensures long-term growth.”
What role does data play in customer retention? Which datapoints or insights are key?
“Data is the backbone of a successful retention strategy. In other words, to deliver personalised and relevant experiences, we need granular insights into customer behaviours and preferences.
Customer data unification is a vital step in this, allowing marketers to access a Single Customer View that enables them to understand exactly where each individual is on their journey. This ensures that marketers can act on key “moments of truth”; turning points where loyalty is either solidified or lost.
For ecommerce brands, a moment of truth might be when a customer abandons their cart. Here, data helps identify these customers and trigger personalised follow-up messages with tailored offers to bring them back. Similarly, after a purchase, data can be used to recommend complementary products, delivering a great customer experience and encouraging repeat purchases.
For non-profits, a moment of truth could occur after a donation is made. Charities can use this data to personalise follow-up communications, such as thanking the donor, updating them on how their contribution is being used, or encouraging recurring donations. Tailoring these interactions based on data insights ensures donors feel valued and engaged, increasing the likelihood of continued support.
The key point here is that data cannot just be collected for the sake of it – it needs to be turned into real insights that drive action and deliver results. The goal is to ensure retention strategies are tailored, effective, and make a real impact.”
What about lifetime value analysis, what are the key considerations here?
“Lifetime value (LTV) analysis is a critical tool in shaping both retention and acquisition strategies. LTV serves as a key indicator of long-term customer profitability, guiding decisions on how much to invest in acquiring new customers, while ensuring that customer acquisition costs (CAC) remain lower than the LTV. This CAC ratio is vital for driving profitable growth.
Marketers must focus on several key LTV levers:
- Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC): Aim to balance CAC with LTV to ensure that growth is both efficient and sustainable.
- Retention Rate: Enhancing retention means improving the customer experience and engagement at each “moment of truth”. By ensuring that customers have positive, relevant interactions – whether it’s during onboarding, post-purchase, or at critical decision points – marketers can build stronger relationships and directly increase LTV.
- Average Order Value (AOV) and Purchase Frequency: For ecommerce, this could involve recommending complementary products or running targeted campaigns to encourage more frequent purchases. In financial services, cross-selling additional products can significantly enhance LTV.
LTV also allows marketers to segment customers based on value, enabling them to identify high-value customers and potential VIPs. This segmentation allows for targeted strategies – including personalised offers for top-tier ecommerce customers or tailored campaigns to increase donor retention in non-profits.”
What role can martech play in customer retention?
“Martech isn’t just about having the latest tools, it’s about using them to build meaningful, lasting relationships with customers. The right martech stack, when integrated effectively, allows brands to deliver personalised, consistent experiences at scale.
I’ve seen brands invest heavily in large-scale migrations, thinking new tech will solve their problems, only to realise the value often lies in optimising how they use their existing tools. My experience with Salesforce, Braze, Bloomreach, and many others has shown that success isn’t just about the technology – it’s about how well it’s integrated and aligned with the strategy.
Data integration remains a key hurdle. Many companies struggle with siloed data, making it difficult to create a true Single Customer View. There’s also the challenge of balancing automation with personalisation – ensuring automated messages don’t feel generic – as well as the implementation of proper training for new technologies to avoid overwhelming the marketing team.
When these challenges are addressed, martech becomes a powerful enabler of retention.”
How can brands develop their cross-channel personalisation strategies? How does linear TV fit in?
“Cross-channel personalisation involves creating seamless, consistent experiences across platforms like email, SMS, in-app, and on-site interactions. Many brands haven’t even scratched the surface with basic personalisation in direct marketing. But, with the right data, tools, and tech, the opportunities are huge.
When it comes to how linear and advanced TV fits into this strategy, there are addressable solutions, like Sky AdSmart and ITV, that allow us to personalise ads to specific households. This brings a level of precision I hadn’t previously associated with TV; one that complements traditional CRM and direct marketing channels perfectly.
While TV is traditionally seen as an awareness and consideration channel, we’ve seen great results with one of our national online retail clients. Their TV ads have been driving repeat purchases from existing customers, which is not something you’d typically expect. Spotting insights like these is one of the key benefits of having an integrated marketing team.
However, for consumers there is little distinction between a linear TV ad and a Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVOD) ad. BVOD, which includes streaming services from broadcasters like ITVX and Channel 4, lets brands deliver personalised ads during on-demand content. This makes it crucial to align messaging across linear TV, BVOD, and digital platforms to ensure consistency and engagement.
GDPR compliance is also hugely important in personalisation, where tools like clean rooms allow for privacy-safe use of data across all channels.
By integrating linear TV with digital and direct marketing efforts, brands can create personalised, impactful campaigns that combine the scale of traditional TV with the precision of digital. And with the right strategy, there’s never been a better time to get started!”