AARRRR model: the underlying logic model of the marketing process!

We have seen too many marketing routines and cases, but have not formed our own effective knowledge; we do not need to plagiarize, but to find some of the essence of marketing and the underlying logic of marketing, such as the AARRRR model.

Every marketer likes to find some marketing tactics and routines targeting consumers. For example, when I first started learning marketing, I liked to look for marketing-related cases everywhere and read some classic marketing routines. I would study whoever was popular. We have seen too many marketing tactics, but when we use them ourselves, we often mistake a horse for a zebra and go astray, resulting in no results.

What is the reason?

We have looked at too many marketing cases, but ultimately failed to form our own effective knowledge; we only have the form, not the theory.

So we should learn from good marketing examples, but not copy them. We need to find out some of the essence of marketing and the underlying logic of marketing, such as the nature of demand generation, consumer psychology, the essence of the marketing process, etc.

After so many years of hard work, I have analyzed the underlying rules of the marketing process and would like to share them with you here.

When it comes to marketing, we often refer to the leading brands in the industry to do marketing, copy their copywriting, and copy their communication methods. In fact, as long as you understand the AARRRR model, any marketing becomes very simple.

The AARRRR model I am talking about here is: acquire users (Acquisition), increase activity (Activation), increase retention rate (Retention), obtain revenue (Revenue), self-propagation (Refer), and repeat purchase (Repeat).

1. Acquisition

Acquiring users is the first stage of the marketing process. Only after acquiring users can we make corresponding conversions.

• For public account articles, acquiring users means getting users to click on the title of your public account article, so all major operation experts use "title party" and "hot topic party" to acquire users;
• When e-commerce first emerged, the "traffic thinking" was very popular, because a few years ago, e-commerce users had little competitiveness and traffic was cheap. For example, bidding, ranking, and advertising space were also used to acquire users.
• Traditional enterprises place advertisements on TV, magazines, high-speed rail and other channels, choosing some high-end media with large user bases, also to acquire users;
• In APPs, the red envelope model of software such as Ele.me and the sharing red envelope model are all aimed at acquiring users at a lower cost.

When marketing, all major companies need to analyze carefully: What are my customers like? Where are my customers? What do my customers like to watch? Where do my customers like to shop?

After understanding all of this clearly, we will be able to acquire users that are suitable for our own business through certain marketing methods and channels.

2. Increase Activation

After we obtain traffic and potential users, we need to increase their activity. Improving activity is something we must think about.

In the traditional marketing model, such as letting users taste your products and letting users try your products, these are all about increasing activity.

In the Internet APP stage, increasing activity means that users frequently log in to browse products, and users frequently check the information and news in the APP. In social APPs, activity may mean users looking for friends, etc.

For example, for a public account, increasing activity means allowing users to browse and read your articles, which is activity. Many public accounts attract a large number of users by offering free services or giving away gifts, but in the end it is discovered that all of them are "inactive users". How to increase readings, replies, etc. through various activities and articles is a point to think about.

From a commercial perspective, the value of user activity is often very high; this is a constant and foreseeable future benefit conversion for VCs and PEs in your business plan.

3. Improve retention

We want to improve user retention rate. Retention can reflect the attractiveness of a product to users and whether the product solves the core needs of users. It is related to whether users can become dependent on your product and whether users can think of you first when they want to solve a problem, thereby improving user loyalty and maximizing benefits.

Let’s take a simple example: when users want to shop, they will go to Tmall and JD.com first. When users want to order takeout, they will go to Ele.me first. When users want to travel, the first thing they think of is Didi, and then they will consider other brands.

Daily check-ins and points systems, which are common in some apps, are ways to improve retention rates. Some membership card systems like those in offline stores are also ways to improve retention rates.

We must always pay attention to consumer scenarios, then optimize products and services and improve retention rates.

4. Revenue

When we reach the stage of generating revenue, our basic conversion goal has been achieved; generating revenue can also be called conversion. Users calling, users placing orders online, users purchasing products, users applying for membership cards, etc. can all be considered as generating revenue. It depends on the business model.

Whether it is a traditional enterprise or an Internet enterprise, whether it is online or offline, the stage of obtaining revenue is what we analyze the most. Only when users reach this step, any marketing promotion activities we do will be effective.

5. Self-propagation (Refer)

The so-called self-propagation means that users spontaneously share something through their common social networks, and users sharing an app on social platforms is called App self-propagation.

Self-propagation can reduce user acquisition costs and improve product promotion and dissemination effects. Users are willing to share app products with their friends or relatives, which is equivalent to old users bringing in new users. The dissemination effect is better than that of general institutional dissemination. For example, in common APPs, sharing rewards and activities are all considered "self-propagation" from the perspective of the enterprise.

Word-of-mouth marketing is also a form of self-propagation. When your product is good enough or cost-effective enough, users will willingly share your product with their friends and colleagues. This form of self-propagation is better.

When marketing their products, every company needs to think of some active or passive ways of self-propagation, such as thinking about how to inspire people to voluntarily forward and share based on the appeal of an event, a product or a marketing campaign itself; thinking about how to cause the product itself to propagate itself.

Jiang Xiaoping expression bottle can be customized privately. Users can customize their own expression bottle by scanning the QR code on the Jiang Xiaobai bottle. Together with the expression bottle itself, the product is marketing. This is the self-propagation of the product.

6. Repeat

Repeat purchase, also known as repeat purchase rate, refers to the number of times consumers repeatedly purchase the brand's products or services. The higher the repeat purchase rate, the higher the consumer's loyalty to the brand, and vice versa.

The purpose of issuing membership cards to offline barber shops is to encourage you to repurchase, and the purpose of text message push notifications from online e-commerce companies is to encourage you to repurchase.

After many products reach a certain scale, they will start to build their own membership system, one to enrich the services for members; the other to increase member stickiness. Common practices include membership level system, exclusive member activities, points redemption, membership growth system, etc. These are all ways to get you to repurchase quickly.

The above content is my simple thinking about a marketing process. Different products involve different points or names. For example, for official account copywriting, we call it attracting clicks, browsing articles, and following official accounts; for e-commerce, we call it diverting traffic, browsing products, clicking to buy, and repeat purchases; for offline stores, we call it customers coming to the store, customer scenarios, customer purchases, and repeat purchases.

In fact, the AARRRR model is based on user processes, user scenarios, and user experience. I have given you a logic and direction for thinking, which is also one of the underlying logics of the marketing process. I hope that everyone can think about marketing from the perspective of AARRRR when doing any marketing.

Source: Miao Liwei