If you’re trying to figure out what to measure in your business, use the Pirate Metrics: “AARRR!”

Whether you have a website, an app, a retail store or a service business, make sure you’re not focusing on “vanity metrics” (like ‘visits’ or ‘likes’). Instead, focus on these five “actionable metrics” (which allow you to take immediate action to improve traffic, engagement and revenue).

Founder of 500 Startups, Dave McClure, is the creator of the Pirate Metrics: AARRR:

Acquisition – How do users find you?
Activation – Do they have a great first experience?
Retention – Do they come back?
Referral – Do they tell others?
Revenue – Do they buy from you?

By focusing on these 5 key metrics, you can keep improving your customer experience, increasing your routes to market, your customer engagement, loyalty, spend and actions.

Acquisition – Measure your cost of new lead by dividing your marketing spend by the number of new leads who visit your service or app – keep increasing visits while reducing your cost per lead.

Activation – Measure the number of leads who become subscribers, and measure your cost of new subscribers – keep increasing your activation conversion rate and reducing your cost per subscriber.

Retention – Measure how many of your subscribers check in with you (by visiting your app or opening your messages) at least 2 to 3 times each month – keep increasing your active subscriber base and know who your raving fans are.

Referral – Measure how many of your subscribers are referring and how many of your new subscribers are from referral – by maximising referrals, you maximise your viral growth.

Revenue – Measure your revenue per subscriber – how many of your community (paying with their time) become customers (paying with their money) – and based on their average spend and frequency of spend, what is the lifetime value of each customer?

We treasure what we measure. By simply tracking these five metrics every week, you can zoom in on the best actions each week to improve your business for both you and your customers.

“What gets measured, gets managed” ~ Peter Drucker

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