Activation flywheel
Connect acquisition, engagement, enrichment and sales into one programme that grows with every campaign.
The flywheel isn't a campaign. It's the plan above the other playbooks, and shows how each one feeds the next.
How the loop turns
| Phase | Goal | Playbook |
|---|---|---|
| Attract | Grow your contacts who accepted marketing | Customer acquisition |
| Engage | Build a relationship with them | Engagement and brand experience |
| Enrich | Learn who they are | Data enrichment |
| Convert | Turn them into visitors and buyers | Qualified footfall, Increased sales |
After each campaign, people come back into the loop as known contacts. So each new campaign can target better than the last.
Start with your biggest gap
- Few contacts who accepted marketing? Start with acquisition.
- Thin profiles? Start with enrichment.
- Contacts who rarely visit or buy? Start with footfall or sales.
Run one phase at a time, then move to the next. A single prize game is a good start; add footfall or sales once you have an audience. You don't need every app to make the loop work.
Hand each phase to the next
Here is one winter at Lindenhall, built from the other playbooks' examples:
| When | Campaign | Phase | Hands to the next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early November | Winter Wheel: a hot chocolate for every sign-up | Attract | New contacts who accepted marketing |
| Late November | Winter Games Arcade: games with a participation form | Engage, Enrich | How each player heard of the arcade, and their postcode |
| Early December | Winter Offers Pass: free gift wrapping | Convert | Shoppers who redeemed their code |
| Christmas | Spend and Win Christmas: a receipt game | Convert | Buyers, invited back to next winter's wheel |
Each campaign keeps its own participants and answers. To hand them on, send contacts to your CRM and invite them from there. Your CRM joins each person's campaigns on their email.
Measure the programme
Judge the loop on the Returning Visitors count, in each campaign's Acquisition block. It counts identified visitors who signed up in another campaign. Set a target count before the programme starts: it should rise as the loop turns.
Read it next to Acquired Visitors, the visitors who created a new account. Their shares of Identified Visitors mirror each other, adding up to about 100%. So a rising returning share may only mean fewer new people came.
Track the rest campaign by campaign:
- New contacts: Acquired Visitors. For new people you can email, count the addresses with Marketing Optin
truethat your CRM didn't hold before. - Profile depth: the facts filled in per contact, in your CRM.
- Spend: your shops' average transaction, against the same weeks last year: see Increased sales.
Studio reports one campaign at a time. To compare them, export each one: see Exports & reports. Expect results after a few cycles, not the first campaign.
Remove the friction
- Check who drops out. In your CRM, list the Winter Wheel's new contacts who joined no campaign since. Invite them to a different kind of moment.
- Check which facts you use. Stop asking any question that no campaign has used for targeting.
- Check for fatigue. If Returning Visitors falls as campaigns get closer together, space them out.