Prodege is a customer acquisition giant and has quietly become one of the world’s largest non-social, non-search marketing channels. How? With brands like Swagbucks, MyPoints, ShopAtHome, CouponCause, and Shoply. VP of revenue and business development, Lenny Rabin, stopped by Retention Masterclass to talk about how a company with this kind of massive scale approaches retention by creating “Rewarding Moments” for over 120 million registered members worldwide.

The retention magic of “Rewarding Moments”

Prodege finds itself at an interesting intersection in the consumer journey. “We sit in an interesting space where we are trying to create a rewarding moment for our members who are coming to our site, while at the same time satisfying an acquisition need for our advertising partners. And we’re sort of the middleman in the middle,” says Lenny. For Prodege, this means “we want consumers to have joyous and rewarding experiences when engaging with the brands that they would on a typical day-to-day basis, or when engaging with new brands and new services that they may not be familiar with, to create that positive interaction.”

So how does this emphasis on a great user experience translate to retention? As part of the acquisition team Lenny says, he often experiences “a disconnect between ‘I’m bringing a user to your product or service,’ and ‘It’s on you to retain that user wholesomely.’”

“And what we find [is important] to retain our users is obviously new content all the time and delivering on our promise,” says Lenny. “I think that delivering on the promise is the universal thing that’s really for all marketers.” As the middleman between brands and buyers, Prodege is in a unique position – they can create retention for their own products but have to rely on brands to satisfy customers after the purchase.

What brands are missing about customer retention

“Now, we can affect different tactics to encourage the best retention, but at the end of the day, we’re bringing someone over to your product and it’s really going to be on you to create that rewarding experience, that joyous occasion with that consumer to keep them retained,” says Lenny. As with many aspects of marketing, Lenny says, it’s all about being flexible.

“I think successful campaigns happen when you have an open mind and when you test different strategies and tactics to find the sweet spot for your cost per acquisition, coupled with an acceptable LTV.” He adds, “And I think that when you sort of go in single mindedly, knowing what works on one channel and believing that that should be easily replicable across all other channels, you’re going to tend to have an issue, both on your CAC and on your LTV. “

Remember, each campaign is unique, and “the key to a successful campaign, is getting under the hood and finding what that [important] KPI is on an individual basis.”

Check out the full feature and podcast episode here!

Featured image