Misaligned marketing strategies can fuel customer churn
Let’s talk about the classic trap of marketing to everyone and anyone. It sounds great at first—more people, more sales, right? This scattergun approach can actually weaken your entire business structure. When you misrepresent your product or target unsustainable customer segments, you’re effectively digging a financial hole for yourself. The ClassPass story is a textbook case.
ClassPass came out swinging with an irresistible offer: unlimited boutique fitness classes for $99 a month. For fitness enthusiasts in major cities, this deal was like striking gold. And ClassPass saw explosive growth, signing up users in droves. The problem? The users they attracted—let’s call them “super users”—were taking 20 or more classes a month. Every one of those classes cost ClassPass money to pay the partner studios.
You don’t need to be a financial expert to see where this went wrong. Instead of creating a sustainable revenue stream, ClassPass bled cash to subsidize its heaviest users. Within three years, they had to raise prices, drop the unlimited plan, and introduce tiered pricing. This pivot triggered massive customer backlash and churn. Sure, ClassPass survived, but only because they had enough scale and resources to adapt. A smaller company wouldn’t have been so lucky.
“The lesson is clear. Attracting the wrong customers is just as bad—if not worse—than attracting no customers at all.”
Misaligned marketing strategies can tank your margins, damage your brand, and, in some cases, sink your business entirely.
Obvious marketing solutions can be counterproductive
The allure of simple, obvious solutions is hard to resist. They’re easy to explain, they generate quick buzz, and they often deliver fast results, at least in the short term. But relying on these quick fixes can blind you to the bigger picture. This is what I call the “barbershop fallacy”: taking advice—or implementing strategies—that seem universally appealing but fail to align with your specific goals and constraints.
ClassPass’ initial offer is the perfect example of this phenomenon. They created a product that was irresistible to everyone, but especially to the wrong customers. The “obvious” solution of offering unlimited access drove growth but ignored the financial reality of their business model. They were losing money and losing control of their product and audience.
Here’s the thing: obvious solutions often prioritize short-term wins over long-term sustainability. What works for one company may be disastrous for another. Instead of chasing what seems like a surefire win, businesses need to evaluate strategies through the lens of their unique goals, costs, and customer behaviors.
Successful marketing starts with understanding the ideal customer
If you don’t know who you’re selling to, you might as well be shouting into the void. Yet still, so many marketing teams skip the basics, relying on gut feelings or executive intuition to guide their campaigns. Spoiler alert: this rarely works. Instead, successful campaigns require a detailed understanding of your ideal customer—what they want, how they think, and what they’re willing to pay for.
Here’s the process:
- Start with profitability metrics. Not all customers are created equal—some are more valuable than others. Segment your base to identify who contributes most to your bottom line.
- Break down roles within the customer ecosystem. You have payers (the ones writing checks), users (the ones actually interacting with your product), and decision-makers (the ones giving the green light). Each group has different needs, and your messaging should reflect that.
Skip this step and you’re bound to miss the target. Take the time to understand your audience at a granular level, and you’ll create campaigns that resonate deeply and deliver consistent results.
Customers, not internal teams, should define product value
Here’s a hard truth: what you think is amazing about your product doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what your customers think. Too often, internal teams focus on flashy features or technical specs that sound cool in meetings but don’t address real customer needs. This misalignment is a recipe for wasted time, resources, and marketing dollars.
If you really want to know what makes your product valuable, go straight to the source: your customers. Forget the corkscrew analogy—a feature is only as useful as the problem it solves. Gather feedback, listen to their frustrations, and find out what they actually care about. Then, build your messaging around those insights.
The key takeaway here? Stop trying to dazzle people with features they don’t need. Focus on solving their specific problems, and you’ll have a much easier time converting leads into loyal customers.
Marketers need firsthand product experience to refine messaging
It’s amazing how many marketers don’t actually use the products they’re selling. They’ll read a spec sheet, maybe watch a demo, and then assume they know everything. But here’s the deal: you can’t effectively market what you don’t understand.
Take the time to role-play as your customer. Use the product. Try to solve a real problem with it. Pay attention to what frustrates you, what feels intuitive, and what surprises you in a good way. This process will give you insights you can’t get from a PowerPoint deck.
Immerse yourself in the user experience to uncover details that resonate with your audience on a deeper level. Whether it’s a pain point you can address or a unique selling point you hadn’t considered, this hands-on approach bridges the gap between assumptions and reality.
Reducing churn requires a holistic, customer-centric approach
Churn isn’t just a sales problem, a support issue, or a marketing challenge—it’s all of those things. If you’re only focusing on lead generation and ignoring the bigger picture, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Sustainable growth happens when every part of the business works together to attract and retain the right customers.
ClassPass offers a cautionary tale here. Their marketing team brought in leads by the truckload, but they weren’t the right leads. This mismatch created a ripple effect across the entire company, from financial losses to damaged public perception. It took years for them to recover—and many businesses don’t get that second chance.
The solution is straightforward but requires effort:
- Target customers who value your product for what it truly offers, not just for a flashy deal.
- Align marketing, sales, and support to create a seamless customer experience.
- Regularly revisit and refine your customer insights to stay ahead of shifting needs.
In the end, reducing churn isn’t concerned with keeping people around, it’s focused on building a business that people want to stick with. Focus on the right audience, deliver on your promises, and you’ll create a foundation for long-term success.
Final thoughts
Are you chasing growth or building something that lasts? It’s easy to focus on quick wins and flashy campaigns, but if your marketing isn’t aligned with the right customers, you’re burning through resources and trust. Take a step back. Are you creating value that truly resonates with your audience, or are you just trying to shout louder than the competition? The brands that endure are the ones that solve real problems, connect authentically, and stay relentlessly focused on their mission. So, what kind of company are you building?
