Lifecycle Marketing: Stages, Examples and Strategy

Your customers go through different stages in their journey with you. Just as our needs change in life, customers respond better to different email marketing tactics at each stage of their lifecycle.

What if you could guide your customers through every step of their journey?

Actually, you can! That's where lifecycle marketing comes in. By mapping your customer's journey and adjusting your strategies for each stage, you can create a seamless and engaging experience that drives better results.

Want to learn more? We'll show you how to master lifecycle marketing and keep your customers engaged from awareness to loyalty.

What Is Customer Lifecycle Marketing?

Lifecycle marketing involves tailoring your promotional tactics to each stage of the marketing funnel or sales pipeline. Rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach, you remain responsive and ready to provide your customers with exactly what they need based on their familiarity with your brand.

It revolves around understanding that your customers go through different stages in their relationship with your brand. As such, you need to employ targeted strategies tailored for each phase.

This is important because acquiring new customers costs five times more than retaining existing ones. By catering to their needs throughout their lifecycle, you can improve retention rates and build long-term loyalty.

The email marketing benefits of aligning with the customer lifecycle include:

• Better customer experience since their needs are consistently met
• Higher conversions at each stage due to tailored messaging
• Better ROI from marketing spend

Marketing Lifecycle Stages: Mapping the Customer's Journey

We know lifecycle marketing is a game changer. But what are the actual stages we're dealing with?

Imagine your potential customers at stage zero - they're like unborn babies who haven't yet encountered the world (in this case, your brand). They don't even know you exist. This is where lifecycle marketing begins.

Awareness

In this initial stage, potential customers first become aware of your brand's existence and offerings. Marketing efforts here focus on expanding your reach and getting your brand in front of as many eyes as possible. You're casting a wide net, but you also need to target a specific audience to avoid wasting resources. Creating buyer personas helps you zero in on your ideal customer.

Paid social campaigns are particularly effective for raising awareness. The goal is to introduce your brand on a surface level without aggressive sales tactics. Keep your messaging high-level and straightforward by simply highlighting your unique selling points. This is about making a friendly first impression, not pushing for a sale. Just focus on becoming their friend first because they're unlikely to make a purchase immediately.

Engagement

Now that people know you exist, the next phase is to persuade them to interact more with your brand. The trick here is that if they have an immediate need, they'll also be comparing you to competitors.

That's why marketing now revolves around differentiating yourself by providing value. You need to present extra value to get their attention. Here are some ideas:

• Host webinars
• Write blog posts
• Send targeted email campaigns
• Run retargeting ads
• Showcase customer testimonials and case studies

This is also the stage where you should begin tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of your strategies. Your can also try to acquire their contact information, such as email addresses or phone numbers, during this engagement phase. This can help to nurture the relationship further.

Consideration

This is the stage when shoppers are weighing the pros and cons of purchasing your offerings. They're very close to buying but just need a little nudge to press the "purchase" button.

The good news is there are tons of ways to encourage them. Offering a promo code or free trial can be the perfect incentive for hesitant leads, as it reduces the risk and makes the decision easier.

For bigger ticket items, try offering personalized attention, like demo calls, one-on-one consultations, etc. When you take the time to cater to their specific needs, people notice.

Additionally, providing tutorial videos can help them envision using your product, which helps tip them toward a purchase.

Purchase or Conversion

This is the moment of truth for your business. The customer has made their decision and is ready to purchase. At this stage, it's important to have a seamless and easy purchasing process to reduce friction.

After the purchase, they've officially transitioned from lead to customer. On the marketing front, there's not much to do but enjoy the moment.

But this also an excellent opportunity to upsell or cross-sell related products or services. Targeted ads for complementary offerings might also work well here.

Finally, a simple thank you email goes a long way. In fact, thank you emails have an average open rate of 68.3%, much higher than other types of emails.

If you're shipping products, provide real-time updates to keep the customer informed. Making the post-purchase experience pleasant helps build long-term loyalty.

Support or Retention

The trick to satisfied customers in the long-term is to provide stellar customer support.

Don't make people come to you frustrated with problems. Be proactive! Give them everything they need to make the most of their new purchase, like training guides, instruction manuals, and an online support center.

A great strategy here would be to put together a great customer service team customers can reach out to when they need help. The top three support channels to master are:

1. Email for in-depth troubleshooting and conversation records
2. Phone for urgent "I need this fixed now" situations
3. Live chat for quick fixes and minor issues

Make sure you provide responsive support as 90% of customers consider an instant response crucial when they need assistance. What's more, 60% expect resolution within 10 minutes.

Finally, ask for feedback through a simple survey or ratings system. Keep it simple with just a star rating or a mini survey.

Loyalty

The final stage of the marketing lifecycle is loyalty. By now, your customers love your products. Obviously, you’ve created something great!

Now it's time to secure their loyalty and make the most of it. You can keep them loyal by offering incentives for repeat purchases, like discounts or a rewards program. Once they’re loyal, encourage them to become advocates for your brand. Ninety-two percent of people trust recommendations from friends and family over ads.

To promote loyalty, consider using user-generated content (UGC) like customer posts, reviews, and testimonials. This builds social proof, where customers rely on others people's recommendations to make decisions.

Brands like GoPro and Airbnb excel at this, with fans' photos and videos becoming their marketing. And it works perfectly!

B2B Customer Lifecycle Example

In this section, we're going to explore how a fictional B2B company called Acme Accounting guides customers across their entire journey, from stranger to loyal customer.

Acme Accounting is a company that creates cloud-based accounting software for small businesses. Their platform automates tasks like invoicing, expense tracking, and reporting.

The customer lifecycle would look something like this:

Awareness

Acme runs LinkedIn ads that introduce themselves to financial decision-makers at potential customer companies. The ads pitch Acme as an easy way to save money and hours on accounting tasks.

Engagement

On their website, Acme provides an ROI calculator so leads can calculate the time and cost savings of using their software. To capture lead contact info, they offer a free ebook on accounting best practices in exchange for work emails.

Consideration

During product demos, Acme answers prospects' questions about features, integration capabilities, and pricing options. They highlight reviews and strong satisfaction scores from current customers as social proof.

Purchase

Acme offers flexible month-to-month contracts to encourage trials from hesitant prospects. Their user-friendly onboarding checklists and video tutorials make the setup process smooth and straightforward.

Support

Post-purchase, Acme assigns customer success managers to each client for white-glove service. The managers quickly resolve issues and questions via email and phone. They also conduct regular educational webinars to keep customers informed.

Loyalty

For loyal repeat customers, Acme offers VIP early access to new feature releases. These brand advocates often provide quotes and testimonials, which Acme prominently displays on their website and in their ads.

Building a Lifecycle Marketing Strategy

We’ve just explored the customer journey and how marketing evolves at each stage. Now, let’s develop a lifecycle marketing strategy to implement these insights effectively.

Discover Your Target Audience

Avoid wasting effort on the wrong people by clearly defining your ideal customer first. Conduct market research to identify their demographics, interests, values, and needs.

Also, create detailed buyer personas through surveys and interviews with existing customers. These fictional representations of your best customers will help you tailor content better across the lifecycle.

This isn't a one-and-done deal either. As your business evolves, keep tabs on your audience to make sure you're still in sync.

Understand the Relevant KPIs

Even the best-laid marketing plans need some tweaking. To know what's working (and what's not), you need cold, hard data. That's where key performance indicators come in handy.

KPIs serve to help you set concrete goals and measure your success. Keep an eye on metrics like:

• Churn rate: Percentage of customers who end subscriptions.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): Total revenue per customer.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Cost of acquiring a new customer.
• Net Promoter Score: How likely are customers to recommend you?

Monitoring KPIs allows you to double down on what works and cut ineffective tactics.

Create Valuable Content for Each Stage

The next vital step is preparing relevant content tailored for each phase before customers get there.

For the initial awareness stage, you could create a series of informative blog posts that clearly communicate your brand story, values, and products to potential new audiences. Share these on social media with eye-catching graphics and videos that capture attention and entice the user toward the engagement stage.

For consideration, you could produce a series of in-depth tutorial videos showcasing exactly how customers can incorporate your product into their daily workflows. These should spark that lightbulb moment where potential customers can envision the benefits of purchasing.

For loyalty, a common tactic is offering VIP content "just for members," like insider newsletters that give sneak peeks at upcoming products.

Having quality content ready to distribute across the entire customer journey lets you proactively lead customers from one stage to the next rather than scrambling to catch up.

The key is understanding buyer needs ahead of time at each level so your content provides real value. Tailor the format and messaging specifically for each phase. Generic blasting won't nurture conversions.

Build Customer Trust: Engage

Wanna know the secret sauce to lifecycle marketing? Two words: customer trust. When people trust you, they're way more likely to stick around (95% more likely, to be exact).

Reply to comments and DMs with lightning speed. Host Q&As and AMAs. Shout out your customers in your content. Personalize your marketing.

No one wants to be just another name on your email list. Show your customers you know them, you get them, you care about serving them, and you appreciate them.

Use the Right Tools

How do you level up your lifecycle marketing without losing your mind? The answer is simple: invest in the right tools. A smarter software stack can transform your marketing efforts.

A customer relationship management (CRM) platform is essential for keeping all your customer data organized in one place. You'll also need email marketing software to communicate with customers. And so much more.

Choosing the best tools for your needs and budget can be challenging. That's where Softailed comes in. As a software aggregator, we make it easier. Our email marketing software comparison tool lets you compare various software types side-by-side based on key metrics.

We also developed a curated lists of top email marketing software, and you can filter that list based on what matters most to you. This takes the research burden off your shoulders and helps you find the best tools for your marketing needs.

Measure and Adapt

Treat lifecycle marketing as an ongoing optimization effort that requires continuous monitoring. Regularly track key performance indicators across the entire customer journey to make data-driven decisions on where to allocate resources.

Focus on strategies, offers, and channels that successfully move audiences to the next phase and eliminate those that don't impact conversions. Experimentation is crucial here.

For example, if basic feature demos don't nudge prospects during the consideration phase, try introducing limited-time discounts or free trial extensions to tip fence-sitters toward making a purchase.

The key is to closely listen to feedback from your efforts at each stage and adjust your approach as needed. Meet customers where they are, not where you hoped they'd be.

Customer Lifecycle and Email Marketing

As we saw, customer lifecycle principles apply well to email campaigns. No matter where your customers are in their journey, you can always slide into their inbox with the right message at the right time. Welcome emails start relationships post-acquisition. Newsletters cross-sell to existing users.

Here are some other types of lifecycle emails:

• Promotional: Discount codes for repeat purchases.
• Retention: Surveys asking about the customer experience.
• Re-engagement: Win-back offers for dormant email subscribers.
• Community: Roundup emails highlighting user-generated content.

For best results, ensure your emails follow the best practices for email marketing, including:

• Write like a human, not a corporate robot
• Use an optimized subject line to boost opens
• Make your CTA clear and clickable
• Segment like a champ for personalization
• Stick to a consistent sending schedule
• Use merge tags to incorporate names, past purchases, etc., into the copy.

Having the right email marketing platform makes executing these best practices easier. Check out our detailed comparisons of top email marketing solutions to choose the software that best suits your needs.

Incorporate Lifecycle Into Your Marketing Strategy

We covered the fundamentals of customer lifecycle marketing, including stages, examples, and building a strategy. Now it's time to apply these learnings to guide your audience through their journey with your brand!

Start by mapping your customers' phases from initial awareness to ultimate loyalty. Identify triggers that mark transitions from one stage to the next. As you plan content and campaigns, think about tailoring them to the relevant phase.

Finally, KPIs across the funnel must be constantly tracked to measure impact and optimize efforts. Experiment with the right offers and channels for each stage.

And don't forget, Softailed is here to make your life easier. From CRM to email to social, we have the software you need to achieve your lifecycle marketing goals. Check out our Finder Tool to discover the best tools to make lifecycle marketing easier.