AARRR model’s new customer acquisition methodology

After two weeks of sorting and reviewing materials, I have compiled some experience summarizing on attracting new customers using the AARRR model , which is popular in my work, and would like to share it with you.

AARRR Model: Attracting New Customers

6 Experiences in Finding New Channels

• At each stage of a product life cycle, there is a core channel that dominates the number of users.
• Each channel has a limit, so we need to foresee bottlenecks and find new channels in time.
• If you have one channel working properly, you can achieve great success
• A more successful approach is to use less competitive channels and strategies. If your competitors are all using one channel, you'd better switch to another.
• You can try to use newer and rapidly growing platforms, which may bring you unexpected benefits.
• Don’t forget to brainstorm other types of channels and see how they can be used to support the core channels.

New customer acquisition goals at different stages of development

• Phase 1: Product 0 to 1 phase - [Build products that users need] Attract seed users and prove that the product has potential
• Core work: Use a small amount of customer traffic to find out where the product functions are not perfect and need to be optimized
• Phase 2: Product 1 to 10 [Promote the product] to attract more users and achieve sustainable development
• Core work: Match products with the market, optimize imperfect functions, and adjust operational goals and means
• Phase 3: Product 10 to 100 [Expanding business scale] Increase revenue, expand channels, and create a truly sustainable operating model
• Core work: A sound operating model has been developed, and the product has a certain market share. At this time, it is necessary to take into account both market share and profit.

13. Channels for attracting new customers and how to use them

1. Soft advertising

method

1) Place soft ads on content communities read by target users - How to find a soft ad publishing platform with greater influence?

Search engine: Search for "top community of xxx", "best xxxx community"

Video websites: Search product keywords to find the most popular videos in the industry. These videos can often help you find influential bloggers.

Social media platforms: Search product keywords to easily find influential bloggers

Communicate with people: Find bloggers who influence your target users by researching them

2) Providing limited experience opportunities to influential platforms or self-media people in exchange for the opportunity to promote products

3) Release your products directly in communities or forums where target users are active

Low-cost testing method

1) Encourage 10 platforms in different market segments to write reviews of the product and provide some gifts/freebies/discounts to readers

2) Find a few platforms that have never advertised and ask if they can do a soft promotion for a certain price.

2. Mass Media

method

1) Publish valuable articles or stories on small websites and wait for journalists to come to you

• Publish stories on blogs or social media that attract media attention and amplify the impact through advertising
• Send the story to influential people in the industry and ask for their opinion, some of whom will share it with their followers
• Big media will contact you or write an article about you based on their news radar
• The authority will share his views on e-commerce based on your story
• Tips: Today, stories and valuable content move up the media chain, not down. Small websites compete to get stories, mass media compete to confirm stories, and authoritative figures compete to express their opinions on stories on TV.

2) Use social media to establish connections with mass media journalists and proactively offer them valuable materials to help them write articles

3. Creative Marketing

1) By playing unconventionally, the media reported on the game and brought in new users

2) Gain appreciation from existing customers through unexpected surprises, create a unique brand image and story, and generate word-of-mouth communication

4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

1) Advantages of search engine marketing

• Easy to operate and predictable acquisition of early user data (conversion rate of each page)
• The cost is controllable, and you can understand the basic cost of acquiring a converted user and the user's lifetime value

2) Methods of marketing through search engines

• Method 1: Buy long-tail keywords on search engines
• Method 2: Use a website alliance to place advertisements on a large number of websites
• Method 3: Use the retargeting advertising function provided by search engines to increase conversion rates (retargeting advertising: let people who have seen your ad at least once see your ad again)

3) Steps to carry out search engine marketing

• According to the core value of the product, formulate the "long tail keywords" to be tested, it is recommended to be within 4
• Write an ad (with an eye-catching title, long-tail keywords, and a call to action)
• Link ads to keyword pages, such as landing pages, product detail pages, etc. to increase conversion rates
• Determine which are the "best keywords" based on promotion data, and continuously optimize related ads, and stop keywords with poor results
• Based on the "optimal keywords", determine which aspects of the product are attractive to target users and improve the product

5. Online promotion

1) Method 1: Social Media Advertising

• Create good content about your product (make it engaging)
• Put it on the Internet to determine whether the target audience really likes this content and is willing to share it
• If you have verified that the content is good, start paid placement on social media
• Tips: Social advertising focuses on attracting the target audience's attention to the brand rather than direct conversion, so the content should have nothing to do with conversion, but let them understand why you developed this product (forum trial sharing)

2) Method 2: Create a social experience for public participation

6. Offline promotion

1) Magazine

• Purchase relatively accurate user mailing information
• Mail it yourself or through a third-party service company
• Tips: Classification of magazines - mainstream magazines, professional magazines, free magazines

2) Direct Mail

• Purchase relatively accurate user mailing information
• Mail it yourself or through a third-party service company
• Tips: Handwritten envelopes or openings can increase the open rate and provide a way to find you

3) Leaflets

Tips: Including local flyers, phone books, calendars, community announcements, etc.

4) Non-traditional strategies

For example: Put up banners in places where target users often pass by (the core is to surprise and attract attention)

5) Billboard Advertising

• Decide where and to whom you want to advertise
• Find a local agent to buy billboards
• Creating controversial advertising content
• Tips: The biggest disadvantage of billboards is that it is difficult for people to take immediate action when they see the ad.

6) Transportation advertising

• Find an agency that specializes in mobile advertising
• Work with them to determine where to advertise and how to create memorable ads
• Tips: 1) Placement: buses, taxis, benches, bus stops; 2) Most ads can cause direct reactions from people and attract a lot of attention

7) Radio and TV advertising

• Tips 1: It is difficult to achieve direct conversion by improving brand image
• Tips2: It is cheaper to buy advertisements in small places
• Tips3: Purchasing satellite TV advertising space can cover a large number of user groups at the same time
• Tips 4: The production cost of TV commercials is extremely high and the communication cycle is very long

Choose a promotion channel: The best way to determine which channel is right for you is to ask your target users

• Read those magazines
• Listen to those radio stations
• Which advertisement impressed you the most?

Tips: If you are not sure whether offline advertising is effective, you can first test it by cooperating with a small advertising supplier.

7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

8. Content Marketing

1) Steps

• Create great content: Infographics are shared 20 times more often than traditional articles and are more likely to be reprinted by other publications
• Post on social platforms
• Ask for feedback from influential users (KOLs)
• Interact with users on websites where target users are active (to attract the attention and favor of the audience)
• Until the content starts to spread on its own, the influence of attracting new users will continue

2) The benefits of having a strong content blog

• The most prominent voice in the industry, giving the company the opportunity to express its views at large conferences and speak in front of the media to lead the direction of the industry
• This means that more people will share your content, so it is very important to build brand influence on social media based on content.
• Helps to establish cooperation with big companies, they only like to cooperate with well-known enterprises
• Positive impact on at least 3 new customer acquisition channels: SEO, mass media, push, soft copy, social media, offline events, existing platforms, and business development

Tips: This strategy takes a long time to take effect (usually marketing content is released once a week, and the effect will not be seen until half a year later, but the effect is more lasting)

9. Push

1) Several major links in which push takes effect

Attract new users: Find users - ① Ask users to register with email or mobile phone to get a push list; ② Give away valuable things for free, and users need to provide email and mobile phone information before getting them

2) Activation: Driving user engagement - guiding users to complete key behaviors (knowing the core functions of the product) based on push notifications

3) Retention: Retain users - ① The best channel to bring back users; ② The best channel to provide users with surprises and pleasure

4) Conversion: Revenue generation - ① The probability of purchase by email subscribers is 70 times that of other new customer acquisition channels; ② The promotion effect of pushing retargeting ads is very good. For example, for a user who gave up payment, pushing a coupon the next day will greatly increase the conversion rate

5) Key points of testing: reach, theme, copy, pictures, time, etc.

Tips: Reach is the core of push; providing customized services for individuals is the most effective

10. Gadget (Mini Program) Marketing

The key to strategy

1) Potential users can use it easily

2) You can reach potential users a second time after they use the app (keep them or leave contact information)

3) Tools can promote forwarding and sharing by potential users

4) Potential users are willing to embed the tool into their own website (to improve search engine marketing effectiveness)

5) Develop more than one tool. Develop different tools based on different events, time nodes, and needs to continuously attract targeted users.

6) Ensure the value provided by the tool is closely related to the core value of the product

11. Existing Platforms

1) Method 1: How to improve the ranking of the app store

• Use advertising to get your app into the rankings
• After entering the rankings, it was seen by many people, and the number of organic downloads increased
• The app's position in the rankings continues to improve, more people see it, and the number of downloads increases further
• People like the app and recommend it to their friends, and the ranking continues to improve
• Repeat the process

2) Method 2: Intercept traffic from social networking sites

• Find out which platforms your potential users frequent
• Develop specialized features for platform users to fill gaps
• Focus on new, unexplored platforms

12. Build a core community

1) The core of community work

• Build relationships between users
• Maintaining these relationships
• Encourage them to bring more people into your community

2) Community/community operation strategy

• Use existing users as the starting point for community building
• [Powerful Mission] will give the community a sense of common mission and motivate members to contribute
• Being open to the community is the best way to get members to buy into your mission. For example, Xiaomi’s sense of participation, each iteration refers to the opinions of community members
• Facilitating [building relationships] within the community (through forums, events, and user groups) is important. When you encourage your customers to rally around your company, they’ll feel more connected as a group and be able to make suggestions you might not have thought of.
• Community members like to hear from other members. But they would rather hear from you. You need to connect with your own enthusiastic promoters and show them how much you value them.
• Sending emails and giving gifts are both good ways, but the best is [face-to-face communication]. It’s easier to build lasting relationships if you laugh, eat or drink with others
• Ensure [community quality]. From the types of articles to be published to how conflicts of interest should be resolved. Focus on quality from the beginning and set standards that can be followed as the community grows

Tips: Another function of the community is recruitment. These are the people you really want to include in your team.

13. Offline activities

• Method 1: Attend large conferences organized by third parties
• Method 2: Organize a one-day small conference (especially suitable for startups)
• Method 3: Organize a gathering or party

8 steps to find your core channel

STEP1 Understand the product features

1) Target users: consumers, small and medium-sized enterprises, large enterprises...

2) Product form: mobile applications, SaaS software, hardware products…

3) Industry: social networking, gaming, community, finance…

4) Profit model: free, advertising, monthly fee, in-product purchase...

5) Unit value: average lifetime value of a user

STEP 2: Understand the target users

1) Determine who your target users are and how to find them (user portraits)

2) Group different types of users and test and analyze them separately

STEP 3: List channels for growth experiments

STEP4 Preliminary screening channels

1) Based on business model

2) Based on user behavior

• Do people use search engines to find solutions? ——Channels to consider: SEO/SEM
• Are existing users sharing your product with their friends through word of mouth? ——Channels to consider: Viral channels/referral programs
• Will an increase in the number of users improve the user experience? ——Channels to consider: Viral
• Are your target users already using other platforms? ——Channels that can be considered: integration and cooperation
• Does the user have a high lifetime value? ——Channels that can be considered: paid channels

STEP 5: Determine the priority test channels

1) Score each channel from 1 to 10 for the following 6 aspects and take the average value

2) Cost: How much is the estimated cost of conducting the trial?

3) Targeting: Targeted audience, how detailed the information and data can be about the people reached

4) Control: To what extent can you control the progress of the experiment, open and close it, adjust the details, etc.

5) Time: How long does it take to start the experiment?

6) Output: How long does it take to see results (successful outcomes)

7) Scale: The size of the population covered by the experiment

STEP6 Analyze the test data to determine which is the core channel at this stage

1) When conducting an experiment, it is important to divide the subjects into an experimental group and a control group.

2) When testing, be sure to collect data on key indicators

• Must: User Lifetime Value > New User Acquisition Cost

• LTV > CAC (LTV, Life Time Value, user lifetime value; CAC, Customer Acquisition Cost, new user acquisition cost)
• CAC = (Total marketing expenses + Total sales expenses) / Number of new users in the same period
• LTV = average order value x number of purchases per year x average lifespan (taking e-commerce products as an example)
• Otherwise, the more users the company attracts, the more it loses.
• The higher the LTV/CAC ratio, the more profitable the business

• Which channel has the lowest user acquisition cost CAC? Which channel has the longest user retention time and the highest LTV?
• How are other key operational indicators performing?

STEP7: Concentrate resources to maximize the value of core channels

1) Step 1: Set user acquisition goals

2) Step 2: Determine the allocation of marketing budget

3) Step 3: Continuously optimize the performance of existing channels through advertising design testing and user positioning testing

4) Step 4: Until this core channel fails due to saturation or cost increase

STEP8 When the core channel fails, find a new core channel

10 key points of user portrait

1. Demographics

• Basic information: name, gender, place of origin, education, date of birth, marital status
• Registration information: mobile phone, email address, registration channel, registration method

2. Social attributes

• Family information: family type, family size, family elder label, family child label
• Company information: company type, company industry, company position, company address

3. User Behavior

• Active data: number of logins, duration, and depth within 3/7/15/30/60 days
• Preference attributes: price preference, category preference, time preference, interest preference
• Behavior data: comments, likes, favorites, mutual followers, and number of followers within 3/7/15/30/60 days
• Daily data: life rhythm, what to do at what time, what products to use, where to spend money, people and things to pay attention to

4. Consumption attributes

Consumption amount, number of times, breadth, consumption interval frequency, payment method, after-sales evaluation, return and exchange, first consumption time, last consumption time within 3/7/15/30/60 days

5. User Type

• Benben: The demand is not clear, just look around
• Daming: Clear demand, compare prices, and look for solid goods
• Small leisure: killing time, video and games

6. Purchase scenario

At what time, at what place, and under what triggers did customers make purchases?

Case: Get to sell books – Creating a scene (Location: Get community; Time: Fragmented time; Needs: Mutual support within the community, feeling strong cognitive anxiety, and solving anxiety)

7. Login Port

• PC
• move

8. User attributes

• New Users
• Old User

Author: Zexue Notes V

Source: Zexue Notes V