The Repurchase Wheel in the Sand-Mill Model

The Repurchase Wheel is one of the elements that characterizes the Sand-Mill Model.

Many companies focus only on the path to convert new users into leads and these leads into customers. However, it is time to recognize the importance of the phase following the first purchase, where the company has the opportunity to continue creating extremely relevant touchpoints.

In the Sand-Mill Model, the post-purchase experience assumes particular relevance and is represented by a Wheel.

Each rotation symbolizes a new purchase, while the rotation speed is a result of user engagement with the brand: Engagement.

Let's see in detail the characteristics of the Repurchase Wheel.

Customers in the Repurchase Wheel

Users enter the Wheel after the moment of purchase, when they become customers.

They are therefore separated from Leads found in the Funnel, for two main reasons:

Profitability in customers

If the Funnel represents a cost (customer acquisition cost), revenues are manifested in the Wheel.

The real value is in the Rebuy Wheel.

The customers segment is a very important part of the company's database, which deserves to be treated separately.

Indeed:

• It is less expensive to communicate with them: We already have our customers' contact information and therefore we can communicate with them in a very cost-effective and direct way.
• They are easier to convert: If we have managed to truly satisfy them after the first purchase, we will have generated trust towards us.
• We know them better: Over time, we have collected a series of information from them (both provided spontaneously in forms, and behavioral information and related to specific interests).

Increases the relevance of communications

Knowing our customers allows us to make communications more and more personalized and effective.

We can personalize communication strategies, incentives, and frequency of messages based on the characteristics of different segments, such as spending volume and time since the last purchase.
We can suggest relevant products for each customer, based on behavioral data (visits, items added to cart) and purchase history.

Relevant communications are read with greater interest by customers and this influences the level of engagement.

By increasing the number of rotations performed by each user we will maximize the Life Time Value.

 

Each rotation is a new purchase

Every complete spin of the Wheel represents a new purchase.
This means more value for the customer and more value for the company.

The role of satisfaction

The content, in the Funnel, has created some expectations in the user.
But for the company, the first purchase should not be the final goal, but a test to overcome: will we live up to what we promised?

If the user experience disappoints the promises, dissatisfied consumers will result, who will not make repeat purchases, nor will they contribute to strengthening the Advocacy Base.

It will be our task to ensure that the experience equals (or even exceeds) the initial expectations.
We must ensure that customers are pleasantly surprised by the experience.

Indeed, after the first purchase, companies have the opportunity to continue shaping customers' Customer Journey, creating a complete Sand-Mill, with a functioning Wheel and profitable, rather than just a Funnel incapable of generating a sufficient return to justify the investment made to turn a visitor into a customer.

To start the journey in the Wheel on the right foot, it is necessary for the company to ensure that the user smoothly achieves the results and objectives for which he purchased the product.

But how to do it in practice? We can leverage automated communications to support the customer in each phase: anticipate issues and share tips to provide a pleasant and smooth purchasing and usage experience.

 

The levels of value in the Reacquisition Wheel

 

Maximize the LifeTimeValue

In the Reacquisition Wheel, the relationship between customers and brand reaches a deeper level of interaction.

We can stimulate the spins of the Reacquisition Wheel, predicting specific touchpoints and working to remove frictions.
We also have the opportunity to keep users increasingly engaged, in order to make the spins faster.

Let's see how to structure the Reacquisition Wheel.

 

Building reacquisition cycles

Upsell and Cross-sell serve the same (double) purpose: helping the customer get more value from the company and helping the company get more revenue from the customer.

Many businesses do not take advantage of these techniques and find themselves with satisfied customers (and therefore willing to repurchase), but who have nothing else to buy.

To build an effective and automated system, we need to design Reacquisition Cycles.

Repurchase Cycles may vary depending on the business model, market, and products we sell.
To have an effective Sand-Mill, it is essential to always foresee them at a strategic level.

Here are some examples of tools for building Repurchase Cycles:

#1 - Value Scale

consists of leveraging automations to guide customers towards the next levels of value.

#2 - Periodic Purchase Products

We use automations to recommend users the products they have purchased in the past when we believe it's time for a repurchase.
Some examples: detergents, coffee pods, running shoes.

I discuss this in depth by analyzing the Refill Automation.

#3 - Subscription

Automation of periodic payments with the construction of subscription systems.
Some examples: Saas, gyms, Product as a Service models.

Here is an in-depth look at subscription models.

#4 - Automatic cross-selling

It consists of sending automatic communications to suggest relevant products to users, based on previous purchases.
Fundamental in e-commerce.

#5 - User re-segmentation

Through the proposal of contents and lead magnets, we can re-segment the database, discovering new interests of our audience to which we can propose new product categories.
These strategies allow us both an implicit segmentation (based on the theme of the lead magnet) and one based on data explicitly communicated by the user in filling out a form.

#6 - Suggestions based on digital body language and purchasing behavior

They consist of automated communications based on the analysis of user visits. They can also involve the use of RFM parameters (Recency, Frequency, and Monetary) that allow for dynamically segmenting the database based on overall purchase frequency, the value spent in an e-commerce, and the date of the last purchase.

#7 - Implementing a Loyalty Program

With a Loyalty Program, we implement gamification dynamics in managing customer relationships, through points, levels, and rewards.
For example, it allows setting up reactivation emails by leveraging point incentives instead of discounts and setting up automations to remind customers of expiring points, suggesting how to use them.

I have analyzed the 8 fundamental automations for an effective loyalty program in this article.

#8 - Implementing a VIP Program

A VIP Program helps you give your best customers the attention they deserve.
Don't risk losing them: focus on them by building a system of exclusive benefits (no, I'm not talking about  discounts) through automations.

I have shared some examples in this article.

Combining different tools

The tools for generating repurchase cycles can be combined with each other: think of a subscription business model that offers different subscription levels and leverages the value scale to drive users to the next levels.

This aims to keep users within the Wheel, which becomes sticky and adhesive in this way.

An "adhesive" Wheel is able to keep satisfied customers inside, making them take more consecutive spins and at the same time making these spins faster and faster.

To achieve this result, it is essential that the brand maintains a stable presence in the user's daily life.

Continuing to create relevant touchpoints directly (with automated communications sent at key moments for each user) is not the only way to do it, and it is not the best way either in terms of dialogue or communication frequency.

It becomes crucial to enable users themselves to create touchpoints on the Basis of Advocacy: companies can ensure that conversations arise around the brand by creating dedicated spaces, real communities.

 

Conclusion

Using the Sand-Mill Model as a framework for developing a marketing strategy allows us to think differently from the classic funnel. This awareness allows us to develop strategies for different user segments, based on the level of spending, monitoring behavioral data, and purchase history. Remember that repurchase cycles allow us to maximize the Life Time Value extracted from each of our customers, to get the maximum return on investments made in our acquisition Funnel. Having satisfied customers is essential not only to bring them back for repurchase but also to have allies in building touchpoints in the Sea of Micro-Moments, the very important touchpoints that make up the Base of Advocacy. If you are interested in delving deeper into how to make the most of the Repurchase Wheel and the other components of the Sand-Mill Model, you can't miss the Sand-Mill Model Newsletter.

With an email per month I share the latest news in the marketing landscape, obviously analyzing them through the lens of the Sand-Mill Model.

In the newsletter I gather strategies, examples of automations that I have tested and success stories to inspire your Marketing strategies.