preaching to the converted

The always enlightening Mike Speiser on why it pays to target your messaging at the most dedicated 20% of your customers/audience, rather than trying to speak broadly to everyone. An excerpt:

Another big learning was that, for most companies, the average cost of moving a customer from the second most loyal to the most loyal category was extremely small while the cost of going from a new customer to the most loyal customer was often a money losing proposition. That is, the costs of acquisition exceed lifetime value, on average. Most companies focus on customer acquisition way too much! Even very early stage businesses are best served by having evangelists amongst their early adopters.

If you're in the digital media industry, and aren't reading his blog "Laserlike" regularly, you are a damned fool. I know you're busy, but just this once, close your door, skip the Team Spirit Meeting and read up; it's not often ideas this good come free.