The most valuable prospect often isn’t a new face.

It’s more likely someone who already KNOWS you.

Seth Godin captured this perfectly in a recent post:

“Marketers face a choice every day: hustle for new people or serve the ones who care. Activation is much more productive than persuasion.”

This hits at a super important truth most businesses ignore:

Activating people who already know and trust you creates better, cheaper, more reliable results than persuading complete strangers.

Just starting out with no customers yet? This still applies to you.

Your early followers, newsletter subscribers, social media audience, and even friends and family who support your vision — these are your proto-customers. They’ve already shown interest. They’re already in your orbit.

Think about your marketing resource allocation. How much energy goes into chasing strangers versus delighting people who already know your name?

The math makes this painfully obvious. Converting a cold prospect typically costs 5-7 times more than activating someone familiar with your brand.

Your success rate with warm leads hovers around 60-70%, while cold outreach conversion rates often languish in single digits.

Yet businesses regularly neglect their existing relationships while pouring resources into increasingly expensive acquisition channels.

In I Need That, I explore how the most successful products create what I call the “loyalty loop” – turning awareness into interest, interest into purchase, and first purchase into enthusiastic advocacy.

This is all about transforming your base into a growth engine.

People who already know you have cleared the first hurdle — they’ve granted you attention.

They speak your language.

They just need to be activated.

Product Payoff: One outdoor brand has built a really devoted community by deeply serving existing customers. Patagonia‘s apparently self-destructive “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign ultimately increased sales by 30% as it resonated with their base’s environmental values.

Patagonia’s Worn Wear program, which repairs customers’ old Patagonia gear instead of pushing new products, generates 40% higher lifetime value from participants. By serving their existing community authentically, they’ve created a customer activation rate twice the industry average, with 80% of revenue coming from repeat buyers.

Action for today: Pull out your marketing calendar and your budget allocation. What percentage of your spend goes to nurturing existing relationships versus cold outreach?

For most businesses, a healthy ratio would be at least 40% focused on those already in your ecosystem. Create specific activation campaigns for different segments based on engagement level, interest areas, and potential lifetime value.

When was the last time you felt legitimately VALUED by a brand you already follow?

Slap the reply arrow and share that experience — I’m collecting examples of brilliant relationship activation strategies.

Or reach out to my team of product marketing specialists at Graphos Product.