Pirate metrics: how to create an AARRR email campaign from Dave McClure. Part 1

Original author: sendwithus
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In the blog of Pechkin on Habré we write a lot about interesting techniques for working with email newsletters . Previously, we examined common errors when creating forms in mail letters, and today we present to your attention an adapted translation of the Sendwithus service team notes on which approaches to developing letters help to increase their conversion. The second part is published here .



Introduction


This article talks about developing trigger letters that will help your customers get through the sales funnel and become satisfied, interested, and paying customers.

Most likely, the letters you send now do not affect the conversion. Our article will help you fix this. In drawing up this plan, we used Dave McClure's AARRR: Metrics for Pirates model because it is a great conceptual framework that is easy to apply. At each stage of this model, we will provide understandable and feasible examples that you can use to create your own series of transactional letters aimed at making a conversion.

Why pay attention to transactional letters? Sometimes your best, new marketing channel is not new at all.

Transactional letters are sent automatically in response to user actions on your site, enhancing the effect of all your other marketing channels at once. When fewer users drop out of the funnel on the way to the last stage (“Income”), you will get much more time and money, spent in the first place just to bring customers to the last stage.

But you send these letters for a reason, and people are waiting for them, open and read them, so why not make these letters useful to you?

Transactional letters are a mechanism by which you keep in touch with your customers, and the fact that they are created automatically does not mean that they should look like they are composed by a robot.

Pirates Metrics Model - Short Version


There are many good explanations for the “pirate model,” including Dave McClure’s original explanation (which doesn’t accidentally mention letters sent automatically), but if you don’t know these concepts, you will find a summary of what we’ll talk about below.

The model of “metrics for pirates” is called so because it is based on five stages of the user’s life cycle: attraction, activation, retention, recommendations, income — the first letters of the stages in English add up to “AARRR”, similar to the pirates battle cry.



Attraction

People learn about you and go to your landing page. In order to plan your email distribution, we do our best to get the visitors email address.

Account activation)

People are starting to use your product. Everything becomes clear to them and is clear to them when they study the value proposition offered by your company.

Retention

People are coming back. They are faithful to your product and already understand how to use it and why they like it.

Recommendations

People recommend their friends try your product. They coolly describe it and offer others to buy your product, they also share your content or, perhaps, invite friends for a reward - this also counts.

Income

You get the money.

Everything is very simple. We like this model because it gives marketers and CEO the basis for planning and exploring growth strategies. Next, we will carefully consider all stages to the smallest detail, and for a start, a general understanding of the process is enough.

Chapter 1: Engagement phase and welcome letters


Introduction

You have just got a new client: he visited your page and subscribed to the newsletter. He is interested in what you write to him, and he left an email address. What to do next?

Send a welcome letter

Welcome letters are compiled and sent in order to provide the first user with the first positive experience associated with your product or service. These letters connect the first stages of the onboarding process (escorting new clients) - attracting and activating a user - it is important to go through them during the first personal contact with clients, when they are most likely to open your letter, read it and follow the link in it.

In fact, welcome letters open 4 times more often and click on the links in them 5 times more often than letters from a regular mailing list (caution: linkboring marketing research in pdf), so welcome letters are a chance to implement cross-promotion, increase the amount of the purchase or even collect information. So let them start working for you.

This chapter describes 10 proven strategies (writing welcome letters) for conversion. If your company has already set its goals and planned certain actions to activate users (after the attraction stage), skip this part and go directly to the strategies.

If not, then this part will help you step by step to shape the process of activating new users.

At the stages of attraction and activation

Ask yourself: “What to do with the user next?”

People subscribe to the newsletter for various reasons: someone is knowledgeable enough about your product to use it, but most subscribers do not know anything about you.

Take screenshots of each page your user has visited since subscribing while they use your product. Keep them.

Make a list of activation goals - specific actions that your user must complete in order to immediately start using your product. In this case, the user must get all the necessary information about the product, as well as know what to do.
Grasp this opportunity and get rid of optional (or intermediate) stages.

This process will help you determine the ultimate goal of your welcome letter (and, in the second chapter, the goals of your onboarding strategy). The meaning of the welcome letter: the visitor must complete the first goal of the activation stage for the least possible number of actions on his part.

Take a look at this example:



Instagram activation goals are simple: Sign in, Add friends, Take photos, View feed. After entering the service, it becomes clear that adding friends is the most important action for activating the user (three pages are designed to fulfill this goal). First of all, a welcome letter from Instagram will definitely offer the user “add friends”.

All companies have different activation goals. Your goals can be simple, for example, the user must read something, try to make the first order or subscribe to the service. Most importantly, your welcome letters should be related to your goals.
To make it easier to understand, the following are illustrative examples with clear and simple goals:



The required action of the Path welcome email is to watch this video.



The large blue STA button in the Vimeo welcome letter makes the next step very obvious.



Twitter picture shows the benefits of downloading their application and offers to go to the STA-button.



The Quora welcome email immediately identifies all activation goals for the new user.

Now that you’ve decided what your user should do, encourage him to act with a welcome letter.

10 strategies to create fabulous welcome letters


1. Create simple CTA buttons

Each letter should pursue a specific (read as “one”) purpose. Perhaps you want to fill out a letter with a bunch of CTA buttons - but you should not do this. When Whirlpool reduced the number of CTA buttons from 4 to 1, their clickability (CTR) increased by 42% (caution: another boring link to confirm this fact).

Focus on the first activation goal. The goal of Speek , an online conferencing service, is to invite the user to make the first call. Speek does not waste time activating users in his welcome letters.



The next step in Speek is very clear - "Try to call!"

Letters are a transition back to your website where you can complete the sale or activate the client. You might want to suggest making a purchase in a welcome letter, but if you request too much return on your first contact, the user may turn away from you. A large green button stands out against the general background and encourages you to perform a simple action without requiring serious efforts from the client.

This is exactly what SendGrid tested in a letter promoting one of their webcasts. They created two versions of the welcome letter. In one, the signature of the STA button read: “Register and receive a free webcast” (Letter A), in the other - “View our offer” (Letter B).



Letter A is so simple and straightforward - it asks for a conversion right now. Letter B offers nothing but to look at the sentence, just "this is what we have for you."

And letter B received 83% more clicks!

Why? There are two reasons:

  • Limit the number of tasks in your letter and CTA button. Let the action that will be performed by clicking corresponds to the rest of the contents of the letter and the purpose of activation.
  • Do not bind the STA-button to the transaction; place its [transaction] conclusion on the landing page.

2. Reward users for registration

This can be done in two ways:

  • Encourage your fulfillment goals with promotional offers or
  • Surprise and delight your new visitors with pictures of funny kittens. Seriously, do not underestimate the effectiveness of pictures sent with kittens on time.

Add a 20% discount coupon, a product description with a link to the page, offer a 30-day trial version, yes anything. Make sure that it really pushes the client to activate.



3. Personalize the newsletter: send different welcome letters to different people

There are many ways to get email addresses: events, orders, campaigns to attract potential customers, social media and much more. In the process, you may find out the name of the client, his place of work, or something else. Use it!

Add a pleasant personal appeal in the letter, writing the name of the client in the subject line or in the text. If you have data, segment all the subscribers into groups: how and where they subscribed, so you can reinforce the interest of users with a welcome letter.

Shutterfly, an image printing service, correctly composes welcome letters aimed at a group of users who have ordered cards for their first birthday. Shutterfly's welcome letters were tailored to the specifics of the groups in order to recommend a product intended for a specific group of customers - in this case (in the picture) these were thank-you cards for couples expecting a replenishment in the family.



Instead of just asking users to achieve your next activation goal, think about what might be important to them.

4. Set the tone for the conversation and speak on behalf of real people.

Welcome letters - not an indication to register with your service! Treat the welcome letter as an opportunity to establish a relationship with the client and learn more about him - avoid the phrase : "Do not reply to this letter."

Maybe your product is too complicated for intuitive use, maybe users need some background information. In the welcome letter, leave the users a link to the guide for using your product or even connect them directly to the support service.

In a very simple Groove application this is well implemented. After subscribing, new users receive welcome letters written in a clear, concise, and natural language that offer tips and directions for the next activation steps.



This letter is written on behalf of a real person with a real phone number. (We know for sure, because we tried to call [Sorry, Adam]).

5. Use HTML for smooth transitions.

Welcome letters should be in the same style as the landing pages of your site. The integrity of the brand in all media will leave a strong (positive) impression on the client about your company.

Return to the exercise above, where we outlined our activation goals using screenshots during the onboarding process. Does your welcome letter fit the landing pages? It’s likely that your site doesn’t have ugly web pages, so why are you sending ugly welcome letters?

HTML layout is not only to make letters look more attractive. When your welcome letter and website not only look, but also react to actions the same way, you simplify the path to activation for the user.

Finally, if your value proposition is difficult to express briefly, illustrate it. Pictures and large bright CTA buttons are hard to miss.



Readerrr visualized the value proposition and clearly indicated the next step for the user in the form of a CTA button.

Take a note: it is worth mentioning the long-standing confrontation between HTML-layout and text without formatting in letters. Some claim that text without formatting conveys information better and provides high clickability. In fact, it depends on your target audience. Sometimes text without formatting really works better, but you should not generalize. Test your letters to your target audience to determine which type of letter brings the best result.

6. Do not forget to thank

This section was written by our dear friend Jillian Wohlfarth of SendGrid. You have only one chance to make a first impression. Saying "thank you", you show that you value the interests of your users. Do not forget to show your concern - this simple word will be remembered for a long time, and not only in letters.



Thanks, Kate Spade.

7. Insert the “Unsubscribe” button to where it can be easily noticed

The presence of the “Unsubscribe” button forms the trust between you and customers. Although it’s quite unusual to include such buttons in the text of transactional letters, we still recommend inserting them, because this way you will learn much more about which letters your customers don’t like.

Of course, you must have thought: "I am afraid that people will unsubscribe from my newsletter." Yes, but the alternative is even worse - they will mark your newsletter as spam. By giving you the opportunity to unsubscribe, you can at least follow the actions of your subscribers and get information from them. If you are marked as spam, the problem will remain - you will not know anything.

Please note: from July 1, 2014, Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) approved that the Unsubscribe button must be present in every letter. This is another reason to let your readers unsubscribe from your newsletter. But even if you do not send letters to the residents of Canada, we advise you to turn on the “Unsubscribe” button and test your newsletter to find out your mistakes and understand how to write letters better.

8. Send letters within five minutes (from the moment you receive the user's email address)

Waiting for a letter to come is very unpleasant. Try not to bring this up.

9. Tell users what they will receive from your letters.

Step 1: Make a plan. Step 2: Tell the customer about it.



You create a target audience for long-term communication, so that your welcome letters should meet the expectations of the client. No matter what you send, whether it is newsletter / newsletter or a guide to using the product in four parts, you need to plan what exactly you will send out.

How often do your subscribers expect to receive emails from you? Creating a clear mailing schedule allows you to build trust between you and your audience.

10. Keep in touch

Remember, welcome letters are just the beginning. Be sure to submit relevant information that meets user expectations. Your business depends on this stage (at which you send such letters). There are two tricks:

  • Используйте последовательность Фибоначчи. Никто не утверждает, что эта последовательность – ключ к божественным тайнам Вселенной, однако формирование расписания отправки писем в соответствии с последовательностью Фибоначчи (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…) – хороший способ организовать email-кампанию. Письма следует посылать с большей частотой, когда клиент наиболее заинтересован в вас, то есть в начале общения. Затем можно присылать письма реже, но при этом не стоит бросать своих клиентов.
  • Начните активные действия в первую неделю с момента получения почтового адреса клиента. В течение этого времени пользователи будут привыкать к новой рассылке и радоваться тому, что подписались. Постарайтесь провести их через этап активации, не упускайте такой прекрасный момент!

Заключение


People receiving your welcome letters are interested in your suggestions, so continue the conversation that started on the landing page. Make the next step simple and obvious.

A clear and friendly welcome letter will help protect your users from the fate of being abandoned on the way from the attraction stage to the activation stage.

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