Have you ever heard of the basic marketing funnel (Awareness - Consideration - Conversion)? Probably yes. How about the Pirate Metrics (AAARRR)?
I suppose many of you have heard of that one as well. But neither of them is good enough for businesses that want to shift their mindset toward
the long-term truth:

Acquiring a new customer is significantly more expensive than retaining the existing one.

(Read here if in doubt)

That truth is often forgotten, and the headless hunt for new customers doesn't stop (while losing the existing ones for lack of care). However, there are many stages and actions that can significantly help you improve the leaking bucket of your business.

So, are you ready to take your business to new heights? Let's explore the IRROPS model, inspired by the world of aviation. Let's answer the following questions:

• How can it help you enhance your marketing strategy throughout the customer journey?
• How can you improve customer loyalty?

Fasten your seatbelts, and let's take off! 🛫

The IRROPS Model

(I) Interest: Attract Your Target Audience 🎡

In the interest stage, the goal is to trigger potential customers' curiosity and make them aware of your brand. To do this, create engaging experiences that resonate with your target audience. When you consider the most basic funnel mentioned above, Awareness and Consideration stages would fit in here. As in all other stages, gamification and various branded online games can help you here. There are 2 possible approaches you can utilize to begin with.

(R) Revenue: Incentivize Purchasing Decisions💰

In the revenue stage, your focus is on turning the attraction you created into revenue. In other words, monetizing the interest of your audience without causing a loss of interest (mind, that's important - no short-sighted tricks!). At this point, you are moving from Consideration to Revenue stage, which means the very basic marketing funnel ends here.

If you go back to start, you'll cause your company avoidable cost. So, let's forget simple funnels. They spit something out at the end, but don't help you "reuse". It's time to start thinking in cycles, connected systems. This is where Pirate Metrics give you one more helpful stage, which brings us over to the middle of the IRROPS model:

(R) Retention: Give Your Target Audience Reasons to Come Back 🔄

In the retention stage, the objective is to start turning one-time customers into loyal, repeat buyers. Repetition builds habits, and it's important to build habits in your customers' minds. Retention only plants seeds of loyalty, but it requires a lot of watering to grow plants.

While retention can often be achieved by a great deal, it would generally only help you achieve transactional loyalty - the more great deals you bring, the more repetition you are able to achieve. But when someone else brings a better deal, you will understand you have not done anything to avoid seeing the back of your customers. They'll be gone.

(O) Obsession: Create Brand Love and Word-of-Mouth Triggers 💕

In the obsession stage, the goal is to make customers love your brand and products. What you aim for is that they will tell "everyone" about your brand and the experience they enjoyed. This is where it starts getting serious. You are building barriers that competitors cannot overcome so easily. One better-than-yours deal will hardly do anything. One-off (trying the competitor) will only prove the point - it was not worth it, your brand wins. The long-term mindset is important.

(P) Participation: Listen, Evolve, Innovate, and Solve Problems 🚀

In the participation stage, it's essential to be present, surprise, and evolve to keep your audience engaged. They may have some feedback to share, and you want to listen. The market may have been moving in certain direction, and you need to adapt, evolve. Customer expectations are also changing all the time, and a part of remaining relevant is to innovate. And finally, if anything goes wrong (no shame, no business or person can be perfect), you need to solve it. No lies and excuses, take responsibility and solve the problems. That's the way to remain relevant to your customers, because you can be sure that if you freeze in the past or remain inactive, it won't take long until you lose the customers.

(S) Separation: Prepare for the Inevitable and Learn⏳

In the separation stage, the IRROPS model reminds us that even the most loyal customers may eventually leave. Be prepared for separation by taking proactive measures to postpone the moment (a lot happens in the Participation stage!) and to learn from it when it happens. If somebody is moving out of the country and you have no presence in their new destination, you can't really do much about it. But if somebody leaves you because they sent you feedback 10 times to no avail (nobody responded, nothing had changed), you can be sure this was avoidable. And you may need to review relevant processes to fix the leak.

By incorporating the IRROPS model into your business operations and marketing strategy, you can create a more effective and customer-centric approach that nurtures leads, drives conversions, and fosters long-term loyalty. I hope it will help you review the mindset used in your company, because the regular approach is not enough. And you may find out that the potential to improve lies in other areas than just marketing.

While the regular approach is a bit of a flight-to-nowhere experience, you have an excellent opportunity to take your customers on an amazing and memorable journey!

Good luck and let me know if you need help!