Venture capitalist, Dave McClure, coined the acronym AARRR which is a simplified model that enables to understand what metrics and channels to look at, at each stage for the users’ path toward becoming customers and referrers of a brand.

This funnel goes through:

• Acquisition
• Activation
• Retention
• Revenue
• Referral

It is important to highlight that this is a model, and as such, it doesn’t represent the actual behaviors of users or customers. Instead, that is a simplification that helps identify the crucial actions and marketing tactics to implement to make sure a user becomes a paying customer.

Acquisition

How do potential customers get to know us?

The acquisition stage is usually when a user or potential customer gets to know a brand. A single touchpoint isn’t often enough at this stage. That is why organizations use several channels to gain visibility. Some of those are:

• SEO or search engine optimization is a critical channel as it enables us to gain visibility through Google, primarily. When a user finds your website or service through Google, it is a great first touchpoint to bring it closer to the activation stage. Again the process is not given, and it might well happen that users acquired through SEO might become customers right away. In general, though SEO is a good starting point. 
• SEM, or search engine marketing, is the ability to gain visibility through Google by paying the search engine to show up on specific queries that users type. For instance, if you sell clothing and shoes, you might pay Google to enable your site to show up on its search results pages when people search for “shoes” or “sport’s shoes.”
• Social networks have become a massive distribution channel for most companies. That is why organic and paid campaigns on social are critical to gain visibility and traction for the brand. 
• Blogging has become a critical element for brands to build trust with their audience. That’s because ongoing blogging is a good substitute for an ongoing conversation with a broad audience. People get to know your brand, intimately. 
• Email marketing is also a key distribution channel in the acquisition stage. 
• BizDev is about creating the proper distribution for your product and services to scale up the business. 

Other channels for acquisition comprise:

• PR
• Affiliates
• Apps and Widgets,
• TV, and more…

Activation

How do potential customers get to try our product?

At this stage, you need to make the acquisition concrete by enabling users to start playing around with your product or service:

• A homepage that converts, and that is optimized is essential to activate as many users that land on a site. 
• Landing pages also help you create a controlled experience for users to take a set of actions you want them to take. 
• Product features empower your clients, but they also work as a magnet for new, potential customers. 

Retention

How many potential customers will stick around?

At this stage, it’s essential to look at the user engagement and how to make her stick around:

• Emails & Alerts, to enable users to understand the benefits of your product and help them benefit from it, thus reducing the churn at this stage, which brings the user closer to becoming a paying customer.
• Blogs and content help build that kind of trust and ongoing relationship with the audience, to make your product sticky. 
• System Events and Time-Based features.

Revenue

How many will actually become customers?

At this stage, it is essential to focus on how to make the potential customer or the users that are already engaging with your app, service, or site to become a paying customer:

• Ads and switching on the paid engine at this stage makes sense to speed up the growth process. 
• Lead generation and a continuous stream of qualified prospects are critical to keeping the business going.
• BizDev operations help a business capture as much business value as possible. That is even truer for enterprise businesses. 
• Subscriptions and more

Referral

Will those customers invite other potential customers?

At this stage, you want to make sure to trigger network effects so that existing customers can bring you more customers too:

• Campaigns,
• Contests,
• Emails & widgets

The full presentation below:

Business resources:

• What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
• The Complete Guide To Business Development
• Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
• What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
• Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
• What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
• What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
• What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
• Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
• Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
• How To Write A Mission Statement
• What is Growth Hacking?
• Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

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