Growth Hack Strategies- Pirate Metrics – Stage 3

Summary: The following would be a part 3 of 6 part series- where we will dive into the various growth hacking strategies defined specifically for each stage. But wait, stages of what? Read more to find out !

Before we delve into the next stage, a quick recap on our previous blog (Pirate Metrics- Stage 1) that talked about the first stage of “Pirate Metrics (AAARRR)” for growth hacking strategies- divided into 6 stages, which are: Awareness, Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue and Referral. 

If you missed out on what we entailed in “Stage 2- Acquisition of Pirate Metrics” refer to our last blog (Pirate Metrics- Stage 2) for a detailed description!

So after we have created enough “awareness” of the product and brand within the target audience, and moved onto “acquiring” customers . Have the customers download the app to use the product/service once, it’s time to “activate” the customer into a regular customer. 

Stage 3: Activation

“How good is the user’s / customer’s first experience?”

Activation is about the first experience a customer has with the product. However, it is not enough to get people to just download the app/ or sign up, if they stop using the app, right after..!

This is the point where the company must create an ‘Aha Moment’ with its customers, as they realise the real value proposition the product has, for catering to their problem statement.

This time period taken by any user, from the first sign-up/ app download to when he / she deems the product/service of high usability, is “Activation” in a nutshell.

Step 1: Get potential customers to “try” the product:

 At this step, it’s important to make sure that the process of acquisition is concrete, by enabling users to start playing around with the product/ services.

A few strategies to do the same, are as follows:

• A homepage that converts, and that is optimized is essential to activate as many users that land on a site. This can be done through user sign-ups, creating user-profiles, subscribing to services, etc.
• Landing pages also help to create a controlled experience for users to take a set of actions you want them to take.
• Most importantly, to get users to the “Aha Moment” as quickly as possible it’s important to make sure that the on-boarding process is as seamless and enjoyable as possible.

Step 2: Convert customers into an “active user”. 

Activation happens when a specific lead spends a certain amount of time on the brand’s website, views a handful of pages, uses a promo code, or uses a free trial offered by the brand to new customers.

The crux of this step is that the brand is offering a solution to the prospective customer’s problem/ need.

But here lies the dilemma. Activation is tricky — while acquisition is getting people to download the store app, activation is getting them to not delete that app after using it once. In other words, an activated customer is someone who keeps coming back to use the product.

For eg- Facebook realized early in their growth that the “AhaMoment” for a user occurred when they acquired 7 friends in 10 days, which iswhy they synced your email account with Facebook to suggest friends.

Growth Hack Strategies for Activation: 

• To ensure a comfortable product tour for the customer, handhold him/ her through the process, via support tools such as live chat or customer care. However, this also needs to be done in moderation. Right after logging, use popups that let users skip the tour if they want.
• Short copy, easy-to-follow steps, and extremely direct CTAs are what can keep a user instead of scaring them away, resulting in a quick uninstall.
• To turn your “cold customers” into ones that actively use the product, send specific on-boarding emails to this identified target segment. One should also specifically conduct customer interviews with these “cold customers” to understand why they signed up but are not using their product.
• One can track activation by tracking event actions and buffing up the website’s user-friendliness and user experience.
• Keep a track on the “drop-off” points with users and experiments with solutions to fix them .

Conclusion: It’s crucial to understand that without a structured growth hack strategy in place, a fickle minded or unconvinced user, can drop out of the sales funnel, at any given point. Each stage needs to be curated keeping in mind, to increase the user association with the product/ service, to ensure customer retention.

Which brings us to the next stage of “Retention”. Brand visibility can only be achieved, through loyal customers, which is where our Stage 4 comes into play..!

Tune in for the part 4 of this series coming next!!

Author:

Swadha Agarwal