Growth Marketing is strategy-based & data-driven marketing. It is an agile & iterative process.
The most widely used framework for Growth Marketing is the AAARRR framework. AAARRR stands for Awareness, Activation, Acquisition, Revenue, Retention, and Referral.
I like to follow a slightly different framework based on my experience with D2C Brand. Which is a little more customer-centric. It is based on How and What a customer is feeling along with what action we want the customers to take.
The 7 stages of Growth Marketing:
Let us now understand each of these stages in a little detail:
Stage 1 - Awareness:
In this stage, the customer becomes aware of the brand/ product or service.
Stage 2 - Consideration:
When the customer is feeling a slight inclination towards the brand/ product. They think that the product/ service it is useful for them or they resonate with the brand.
Stage 3 - Research:
In this stage, the customer is doing their research. For example if they are looking to buy earphones, then they might be comparing different brands or different products.
Research can also happen after they have finalised the product. It can be across channels Online (Company Website, Amazon, Flipkart, etc.) and Offline (Company Store, Multi-brand Stores, etc.).
They might be comparing Prices, Checking the product physically in the store (which they discovered online). They might even check Reviews, Content posted by Influencers, read blogs etc.
Stage 4 - Conversion:
The customer is finally going to the desired channel and making the purchase. Important services/ features for the customer are - ease of purchase, offers, different payments available, etc.
And important touchpoints are post-purchase communication, shipping and delivery experience & consumption.
Stage 5 - Retention:
In this stage, the customer is engaging with the brand in the form of Newsletters, Emails, WhatsApp Communication or through social channels.
For some categories, even upselling can be a part of this stage.
For example - If someone buys a razor then we can offer a subscription to buy a refill of blades. Hence as the subscribed product come every month or week the customer is getting in touch with the brand.
And the brand has an opportunity to communicate with the customer through every subscription parcel they send.
In this stage the customers might not be making additional purchases but definitely are associated with the brand in some or the other way.
Stage 6 - Repeat:
This is the stage where the customer is either buying the same product or other products from the brand.
Stage 7 - Loyalty/ Community:
In this stage, the customers have become part of the community. They are brand loyalists and feel pride in being associated with the brand. They will start referring the brand to their family and friends. They have a feeling of belonging to the brand or they really like the products.
For different brands, products & industry the definition of each stage can be different.
For example a D2C brand of food which consumed regularly & we know that most of the customers will need or buy the product every month or every 45 days.
They might define loyalists as customers who have bought their products twice or more, follow them on at least 1 social media channel or have subscribed to the newsletter, have interacted with the brand in some way at least once in last 1 month.
Another example could be of a fashion accessory where repeat purchase itself can take 3-4 months because the product is used occasionally.
They might define loyalists as people who have made the purchase once but are in touch with the brand though social media, retention marketing and have referred at least 2 people who have purchased with the brand.
Even stages like awareness can have specific definition in terms of the metrics we want to achieve.
For a new brand the definition could be potential customers who have seen or interacted with the brands ads at least 7 times. Out of which 1 is video, etc.
Which means that we should target a frequency of 7 in our awareness media plan and we should have video creatives.
For example, an electronics brand could define this as - people who have seen the ads with important features at least 5 times.
Consideration can be potential customers who are following the brand on social or have subscribed to the newsletter or have visited product pages on the website but have not made the purchase.