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How to Create Content for Lifecycle Marketing

Your content is more likely drive engagement when it is targeted to a particular stage of the customer journey. By making sure each piece of content has a particular customer in mind and contains guidance on a problem they are likely facing, you can ensure that your marketing is relevant and effective. Your audience is going to be more inclined to engage with content that matches their needs at that particular moment in time.

So how do you create content to match your customer’s needs? The first thing you should do is start with each stage of the customer journey. For starter’s there are typically four stages in lifecycle marketing: awareness, consideration, decision/purchase, and retention/advocacy. From there, figure out what types of questions or help a customer needs at each stage of their journey. Here is a quick overview:

1. Awareness Stage: This is when customers are just becoming aware of your brand, product, or service. They're probably also starting to realize they have a need or problem that must be solved. Content for this stage should aim to educate and create awareness about your brand and the problem it solves.

• Content types: Blog posts, social media posts, explainer videos, infographics, ebooks, podcasts, free resources (like tools, templates, and guides), webinars, and press releases.

2. Consideration Stage: At this stage, customers are evaluating different products or services to find the best one for their needs. Your goal is to show them why your product or service is the best choice.

• Content types: Case studies, product comparison charts, demo videos, detailed product descriptions, FAQs, whitepapers, webinars, customer testimonials, and reviews.

3. Decision Stage: This is the stage where customers are ready to make a purchase. Your content should aim to make the decision process as easy as possible and reassure them that they're making the right choice.

• Content types: Special offers, discounts, free trials, product demos, consultations, guarantees, return policies, customer testimonials, and final comparisons.

4. Retention/Advocacy Stage: After the purchase, your focus shifts to retaining these customers, ensuring they get the most out of your product or service, and turning them into advocates for your brand.

• Content types: User guides, how-to videos, tutorials, exclusive content or deals for existing customers, customer appreciation events, loyalty programs, referral programs, customer surveys, newsletters, and community forums.

Once you have your content built out, the next step is deciding how to deliver each piece of content. Ideally you should take a multi-channel approach, but start small and build over time if necessary. Here are some guidelines for promotion based on stage of the customer journey:

Promoting content for each stage of lifecycle marketing requires understanding the needs of your audience at each phase and identifying the channels and methods where they are most likely to engage.

1. Awareness Stage: Your goal is to reach as many potential customers as possible, build brand recognition, and position your company as a thought leader.

• Promotion Methods: Social media promotion (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter), search engine optimization (SEO) for blogs and website content, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, guest blogging on relevant websites, public relations and press releases, influencer marketing, podcast appearances, and content partnerships.

2. Consideration Stage: Here, your target audience is smaller, consisting of people who've shown interest in your brand. You're trying to demonstrate why your solution is the best option.

• Promotion Methods: Email marketing (segmented and personalized), retargeting ads, advanced content promotion through LinkedIn or industry-specific forums, webinars, virtual events or workshops, and influencer collaborations that offer in-depth discussions about your product.

3. Decision Stage: At this point, your audience is ready to buy. Your promotion should make it easy for them to purchase and reassure them about the value they're getting.

• Promotion Methods: Direct sales outreach, personalized emails, shopping cart reminders, product demo invites, remarketing campaigns that focus on the product's benefits, features, and customer testimonials, and offering trials, discounts, or exclusive deals.

4. Retention/Advocacy Stage: The focus here is on keeping customers engaged, satisfied, and willing to advocate for your brand.

• Promotion Methods: Email marketing (newsletters, product updates), user groups or online forums, exclusive events for customers, loyalty or referral programs, social media groups, personalized re-engagement campaigns, and customer satisfaction surveys to get feedback and improve.

It’s also important to deliver your content at the appropriate time. Doing so will not only help address your audience’s needs, it will help them progress to the next stage.

Lifecycle Marketing with Social Media

Lifecycle marketing is so effective because it nurtures customers throughout the stages of the customer journey: awareness, consideration, evaluation, purchase, post-purchase, and advocacy. Social media can be leveraged in each of these stages to maximize customer engagement and drive business growth. Here are some strategies to help you successfully use social media for lifecycle marketing:

1. Awareness

• Content Marketing: Share valuable, informative, and entertaining content to catch the attention of potential customers. Blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts can be shared on your social media channels.

• Targeted Advertising: Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram offer detailed targeting options, allowing you to reach the right audience with your brand message.

2. Consideration

• Interactive Content: Host live webinars, Q&As, online workshops, and use interactive features such as polls and quizzes to engage your audience.

• Community Building: Build a community around your brand by encouraging discussions, sharing user-generated content, and responding to comments and messages.

3. Evaluation

• Social Proof: Showcase testimonials, case studies, and positive reviews from customers on your social media channels. This can help build trust and influence purchase decisions.

• Influencer Partnerships: Collaborating with influencers who resonate with your brand can help expose your products or services to a wider audience and generate credibility.

4. Purchase

• Exclusive Offers: Offer social media exclusive discounts or incentives to convert followers into customers.

• Shoppable Posts: Platforms like Instagram and Facebook allow businesses to create shoppable posts, making it easier for customers to buy directly from a post.

5. Post-purchase

• Customer Support: Use social media as a platform to answer questions and provide support. This can improve customer satisfaction and retention.

• Loyalty Programs: Promote loyalty programs on social media to encourage repeat purchases. Reward customers for their loyalty with discounts, exclusive content, or early access to new products. You can also grow social proof around your brand by encouraging social sharing of recent purchases,

6. Advocacy

• User-Generated Content: Encourage happy customers to share their positive experiences on social media. This could be through reviews, testimonials, or tutorials/videos featuring your product/service.

• Referral Programs: Leverage your loyal customers to bring in new customers by implementing a referral program and promoting it on social media. Campaigns that encourage your audience to tag a friend can be highly successful and drawing in an audience that will already have a positive impression of your business.

Taking your lifecycle marketing campaigns to social media makes sense for most businesses given the large audience. The trick is to build meaningful relationships with your audience at every stage of their customer journey.

Optimizing Success with Lifecycle Marketing Campaigns

Every business, regardless of size or industry, shares one universal goal: to succeed. However, achieving this goal often involves a wide range of complex strategies and processes. Among these, Lifecycle Marketing Campaigns are critical to securing long-term success. Taking a customer-centric approach like lifecycle marketing can help your messaging stand out during a time when customers are being overwhelmed with marketing messages. But what exactly does this term mean and how can you leverage it to boost your business's performance?

Understanding Lifecycle Marketing Campaigns

Lifecycle marketing campaigns are strategically designed initiatives aimed at addressing the needs and interests of customers at each stage of the customer lifecycle. This comprehensive approach takes into account the entire customer journey from initial awareness to purchase and beyond, to build a loyal customer base that drives recurring business. Click here to learn how lifecycle marketing differs from traditional marketing.

By recognizing that customers have different needs, preferences, and behaviors at each phase of their lifecycle, businesses can deliver more personalized, relevant content that fosters stronger customer relationships and optimizes conversion rates. The three early stages of a typical customer lifecycle include awareness, consideration, and decision. Click here to see some specific examples of how to execute a lifecycle marketing campaign.

The Impact of Lifecycle Marketing Campaigns on Business

Effective lifecycle marketing campaigns can provide substantial benefits for businesses:

• Improved Customer Retention: By targeting your messages based on the needs of your customers, lifecycle marketing can help reduce churn rate and improve customer retention.

• Increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): When customers value your brand and have positive interactions with your company, they are more likely to stick with your business for a longer period. This enhances the Customer Lifetime Value, a critical metric for business profitability.

• Boosted Revenue: Lifecycle marketing can boost sales by sending automated messages based on actions customers have taken on your site, including personalized content based on what you know about the customer, leading to higher conversion rates and increased revenue.

Building Effective Lifecycle Marketing Campaigns

Given its immense potential to positively impact your business, it's essential to understand how to build a robust lifecycle marketing campaign. Here are some steps to get started:

1. Understand Your Customer Journey:

The first step in creating a lifecycle marketing campaign is to map out the customer journey. The broad categories are awareness, consideration, decision, retention and advocacy. Learn more about these stages in this article. You need to understand how a customer goes from being a potential lead to a loyal customer. Use analytic tools to study their behavior and preferences, segmenting customers based on their current lifecycle stage.

2. Create Personalized Content:

Once you understand your customer's journey, you can start developing personalized content for each stage. This content should be engaging, informative, and aligned with the customer’s needs at that specific stage. Ideally, the call to action will move the customer to the next stage of the user journey.

3. Use the Right Channels:

Identify the best channels to reach your customers. These could include email, social media, blogs, webinars, or even direct mail, depending on your target audience and their preferences.

4. Measure and Optimize:

Just like any other marketing strategy, it's important to measure the success of your lifecycle marketing campaigns. Monitor key metrics like conversion rates, customer retention rates, and CLTV. Use this data to continually refine and optimize your campaign for better results.

In conclusion, lifecycle marketing campaigns offer businesses a strategic approach to engage customers throughout their journey. When effectively implemented, these campaigns can greatly enhance customer loyalty, boost profitability, and facilitate long-term success. Remember, the journey of your customers is as important as the destination. Make the most of it with effective lifecycle marketing campaigns.

Campaign Execution for Lifecycle Marketing

Perhaps you’ve heard about Lifecycle Marketing, and the approach of sending marketing based on where the customer is in their journey with your business makes intuitive sense, but you aren’t sure how to get started. If that is the case, this guide can help you take your first steps with executing these campaigns.

Let’s get started.

The Foundation of Campaign Execution

Let’s start by looking at all of the key elements of implementing your Lifecycle Marketing based on where the customer is in their customer journey with your business.

Audience Segmentation

Bucketing your audience into clearly defined groups helps you understand who your customers are and where they are at in terms of their relationship with your business. These segments are critically important because when they are done correctly, they represent the stages in the customer journey, and will naturally guide which marketing messages each member of your audience should receive. For example, let’s take these examples of segments and how you would market to each of them:

New Audience Member Segment

• Segment: New website visitor or email subscriber

• Campaign: Build confidence in your brand or business and highlight items they have browsed as well as best sellers

• Goal: get them to continue shopping with you and make that first purchase

First Purchase Segment

• Segment: Customer who has placed first order

• Campaign: Thank them for their purchase and make sure they get the most out of their new purchase

• Goal: make them feel good about being a customer and prime them for product review and rewards program

These two segments flow naturally and as a result the messaging changes based on the customer’s growing relationship with your business. There are many more segments you can build out, but in order to send the appropriate message you must first create these segments and use the data you have on hand to build them. Always think through the segment, then begin to stress test it by understanding the type of campaign that segment should receive and how that campaign helps you accomplish the goal of moving that customer to the next stage of the customer journey.

Customer Journey Mapping

Next, build out the key stages of the typical customer journey, from awareness and then purchase, through to retention and eventually advocacy. In broad strokes, these stages typically involve awareness, consideration, purchase, and retention. Get into the nitty gritty here and create as many stages as you can, from there you should prioritize the ones that are going to have the biggest impact on your business. Does your business have a low conversion rate? Focus on the awareness and consideration stages to fix that. Do you get a lot of first time customers who never return? That signals you need to focus on retention. This mapping should feel very aligned with the segments we mentioned in the previous section.

Here are some examples:

• New audience member / email subscriber

• Engaged email subscriber / social media persona / site visitor with no purchase history

• Engaged email subscribers / social media persona / site visitor who has recently abandoned a shopping cart

• Email subscriber with no opens or website visits in 90 or more days

• First time customer with recent purchase

• First time customer with purchase 30 days out

• First time customer whose purchase was 60 or more days out

• Customer with 2+ purchases and $XXX spend with recent purchase

Some of these stages of the journey indicate the contact has very high value, some have moderate value, while others have little or no value. Once you understand the user journey, you can focus your efforts and drive customer lifetime value.

Personalization

The underlying theme that has gone nameless up to this point is that the goal behind Lifecycle Marketing is personalizing your marketing messages in order to improve their effectiveness. The heavy lifting is made easy once you have a system in place for segmenting customers based on where they are in the customer journey. Beyond that, your messaging should include the customer's name, recommend products based on past behavior, and obviously tailor content to their specific interests or needs.

This first step of campaign execution was focused on building the foundation for your Lifecycle Marketing strategy. Once you have this dialed in to the point you have clearly defined profiles that match the stages of your customer journey (or at least the stages you want to focus on), you are ready to build out your messaging and sending those messages when appropriate.

Let’s turn our attention to the tools that will help us run these campaigns efficiently.

Campaign Execution Tools

Automation

Since Lifecycle Marketing involves sending out many different messages to different segments at different times, you will want a tool that can help you manage this level of complexity. Marketing automation software manages this effortlessly by ensuring that the right message is sent at the right time without manual intervention. If you have marketing automation tools you like, now is the time to ensure you have created automated messaging that will trigger based on your segments, confirm that the content is appropriate for the stage of the customer journey, and that the Call to Action (CTA) is consistent with moving the customer to the next stage of your customer lifecycle.

Channel Approach

Customers interact with brands in many ways, such as email, social media, your website, and physical stores. Your Lifecycle Marketing campaigns should incorporate these channels when appropriate, ensuring that the right message is delivered wherever the customer is interacting with your brand. Focusing your campaigns for each channel based on segmentation and stage of the customer journey can help you improve your conversion rate and in turn improve your ROI for your advertising spend.

Measurement and Analysis

The importance of measuring the success of your Lifecycle Marketing campaigns is two-fold: you can see how they are performing in comparison to your other campaigns, and you can prioritize and optimize these campaigns based on business objectives. These campaigns are typically automated, which requires less time on your end once you have these high engagement and high conversion campaigns created.

Reviewing Campaign Execution

Once you have these Lifecycle Marketing campaigns built out and running in the background, you will spend most of your time reviewing analytics and engaging in A/B testing to try to improve your KPIs - clicks, conversions, average order value, items per order, etc. Always frame your review of your analytics by keeping the big picture goal in mind: growing customer lifetime value.

For instance, it can be easy to game engagement, but you must always ask yourself at what cost are you moving the needle? Customers can be turned off by tactics that they deem onerous, so be sure to use segmentation to understand which contacts are actively shopping with your brand and which are not.

By building a brand that has favorable sentiment and focusing your Lifecycle Marketing on those who fit your customer segments and the stages of your customer journey, you should be well on your way to building a successful business.

Lifecycle Marketing with Email

With Lifecycle Marketing, your messaging is always focused on one particular segment of your customer base. Email is one of the best tools when it comes to sending relevant, personalized messaging to your customers. If you are a seasoned email marketing professional, you are likely familiar with many of these types of campaigns, but it is worthwhile thinking about other forms of marketing and how you can target it to customers based on where they are in their lifecycle with your business.

First, let’s take a look at the stages of the customer journey and how email addresses each of them.

Emailing based on the Customer Journey

Think about what the customer is seeking or experiencing during each stage

Stage 1: Awareness

Email Tools: Email Capture, Welcome Campaign Message 1

How does a customer learn about your business? The most common ways are an online search using a search engine like Google or perhaps they see your ad on Instagram. This person is either actively searching for a solution or they are scrolling and find your product or service interesting.

In some cases, they will make a purchase on their first visit to your site, but that is often not the case. This is where lifecycle marketing via email comes in handy. If you can collect their email address you can continue to communicate with them with no additional costs in terms of ad spend and you can control when the message is sent.

The easiest way to get them to subscribe to your emails is to ask them to sign up! You can offer them some form of incentive, whether that be a promotional discount or a piece of free content. The offer will largely depend on whether you run a B2C or B2B business.

Email Marketing Tools for the Awareness Stage

• Landing Pages: Create dedicated landing pages with clear, compelling copy and attractive visuals to encourage visitors to sign up for your email list. The sign-up form should be prominent, easy to understand, and easy to complete.

• Pop-ups and Slide-ins: Use pop-up forms or slide-ins to capture the attention of your visitors. Be careful not to overuse them, as they can potentially annoy visitors if not implemented well. Tools like Sumo, Hello Bar, or OptinMonster can help in creating these.

• Content Upgrades: Provide additional, highly relevant content (like an eBook, white paper, or checklist) as a bonus for signing up to your email list. Tools like Leadpages can help create these incentives.

• Exit Intent Pop-ups: These pop-ups are shown when a user is about to leave the website. Tools like Exit Mist or OptinMonster can help you set up these.

• Inline Forms: These are forms that can be embedded within your blog posts or on specific pages. Tools like MailChimp or ConvertKit can help you create these.

• Chatbots: AI-driven chatbots can engage users and persuade them to sign up. Tools like MobileMonkey or Drift can help you create these.

• Social Proof: Tools like Proof or Fomo can display recent sign-ups, purchases, or actions from other users, creating a sense of trust and validation.

The goal is to create a “conversion” which in this case is to get the person to opt into learning more about your business and offerings via your email campaigns. Be transparent about what subscribers should expect from your emails in terms of content and frequency.

Stage 2: Interest

Email Tools: Welcome Campaign Message 2, Browse Campaign

Once the customer has signed up for your email list, it’s time to put your best foot forward! You should immediately confirm that their signup was successful and give them a quick intro to your business and/or brand and deliver whatever you promised during the Awareness stage. If you offered a promo code, include it in this confirmation email. If you offered a free book, include the link to download or attach it within the confirmation email.

Include a CTA to get the customer back shopping on your site. If you have the capability, include a link to the items they previously browsed on our site so they can pick up where they left off and also highlight your best-selling products.

Best Practices for Newsletter Confirmation Email

• Clear Subject Line: The subject line of the email should be clear and precise. Use phrases like "Please Confirm Your Subscription" if you require a double opt-in (the gold standard for high engagement) or "Thank You, You Have Successfully Subscribed" to clarify the email's purpose.

• Warm, Friendly Tone: While you will want to maintain your brand’s voice, it is never a bad idea to communicate via a friendly, approachable tone to make your brand more relatable.

• Provide Assistance: Enhance the customer experience by including links to items they previously viewed on your site and consider including links to your best-selling products.

• Express Gratitude: Thank your subscribers for choosing to engage with your content. This can help you build a positive relationship with them.

• Clear Instructions: Make sure to provide clear, concise instructions on how to confirm the subscription, to utilize the coupon code, or to download the free digital guide or ebook. If they have to click a link, tell them explicitly. The easier you make it, the more likely they are to follow through.

• Benefits of Subscribing: Briefly remind them why they signed up in the first place – what benefits will they get from being a subscriber? Highlight those benefits to motivate them to confirm the subscription.

• Include Contact Info: Provide information about how they can reach out if they encounter any issues or have questions. This could be a customer service email or phone number.

• Privacy Assurance: Let them know that their information is secure and will not be shared with third parties. This gives new subscribers peace of mind.

• Link to Your Privacy Policy: To back up your privacy assurance, include a link to your detailed privacy policy. This helps to build trust with your new subscribers. Termly is a good site for crafting privacy policies.

• Responsive Design: Your confirmation email should be easily viewable and usable on any device, including smartphones and tablets. Make sure to test your emails on different screen sizes and devices.

• Speedy Delivery: Send the confirmation email as soon as possible. Ideally, it should be sent immediately after they submit their email. This helps to keep your brand fresh in their mind and increases the likelihood that they'll confirm their subscription.

• Re-sending Option: Provide an option for users to have the confirmation email resent if they didn't receive it, or if it went to their spam folder. This ensures that they have every opportunity to confirm their subscription.

The confirmation email is one of the first interactions a subscriber will have with your brand, so make it count. Be sure it's on-brand, friendly, clear, and respectful to start the relationship off on the right foot.

Stage 3: Evaluation

Email Tools: Welcome Campaign Message 3, Cart Recovery Campaign

If a customer is looking for a solution to a problem they are facing, they are probably considering multiple businesses or products. This is where the second email in a Welcome Series campaign really shines. At this stage you want your business or brand to stand out. Customers buy for a wide variety of reasons, but if you can draw them in by telling the story behind your business and provide social proof to validate your brand that will likely help you stand apart.

Keys to a Successful Value Proposition

There are a variety of factors that a customer will weigh when determining the value of your product or service. Here are some of the key characteristics to keep in mind in during this stage of the customer journey:

• Price: Cost can be the primary driver if the customer views all options as being relatively equal. So if you compete on price you want to highlight that your product or service offers the best value for their money.

• Quality: High-quality products or services often attract customers who value durability, performance, or other markers of quality over price considerations.

• Customer Service: If a company provides excellent customer service, it's likely to win the loyalty of its customers. This can include post-purchase support, easy return policies, and prompt, helpful responses to inquiries. Highlighting any accolades you have received can play a big role in having the customer select your business.

• Brand Reputation: The reputation of a company also plays a major role in the decision-making process. This can be based on personal experience or the experiences of others, online reviews, or the general public opinion about the company. Including testimonials is a great way to differentiate your product or service. Social Media presence is a good way to convey the popularity and appeal of the brand via social proof.

• Product/Service Features: Customers often compare features between different offerings. If one product or service has a unique feature or meets a specific need better than its competitors, it may be chosen over the others.

• Convenience: The ease of buying from a company can significantly influence a customer's decision. This can include factors like the simplicity of the company's website, speed of delivery, and the availability of products or services.

• Company Values: More and more consumers care about the values of the companies they support. If a company is known for being environmentally friendly, socially responsible, or supportive of certain causes, it can attract customers who align with these values.

• Trust: Customers need to trust that a company will deliver on its promises, whether that involves the quality of its products or services, its delivery times, or its handling of personal data. Trust is often built up over time through consistent positive experiences, but it can also be influenced by factors like endorsements from trusted figures or certifications from reputable bodies.

• Marketing and Advertising: The way a company presents itself and its products or services through marketing and advertising can also influence a customer's decision to buy. This can be particularly impactful when customers are not deeply familiar with the product or service category and thus rely more on perceived value.

You should always benchmark your performance when sending follow up emails. A/B testing your value propositions from your emails is the key to determining which factors are most likely to influence their purchasing decisions.

Stage 4: Purchase

Email Tools: Post-Purchse Campaign Message 1, Rewards Campaign

Once the customer has decided to buy from you, the next step is to make them feel confident about their purchase. Consumers can sometimes have a sense of buyer’s remorse, so your follow up communications with them can help reinforce their decision was a wise choice.

Best Practices for Building Customer Trust

• Clear and Transparent Communication: Describe the product or service in detail, focusing on how it addresses the customer's specific needs or problems. Be transparent about all costs, policies, and what the customer can expect after purchasing.

• Offer a Money-Back Guarantee or Warranty: This reduces the risk associated with the purchase and demonstrates that you believe in the quality of your offering.

• Provide Testimonials and Reviews: Sharing positive experiences of other customers can be very persuasive. These could be written testimonials, video reviews, case studies, or star ratings.

• Utilize Social Proof: In addition to testimonials, other forms of social proof like showcasing your large customer base, endorsements from influencers or experts in the field, and positive media coverage can also build confidence.

• Offer Excellent Customer Support: Be available to answer any questions or concerns. Show that you'll be there to assist them even after they've made the purchase.

• Provide Detailed FAQs and Product Information: Anticipate questions and concerns customers might have, and address them proactively.

• Allow Product Trials or Demos: If possible, allow customers to try the product or service before they buy it. This can greatly increase their confidence in the purchase.

• Educate Customers: Providing valuable and relevant content about your product/service, how to use it, and its benefits can help customers make informed decisions.

• Build a strong brand: Your brand’s reputation can instill trust and confidence in your customers. Having a clear mission, consistent messaging and an ethical approach to business can greatly enhance a customer's trust.

That first purchase is the start of the relationship, and instilling confidence is about creating a positive overall experience, from their first interaction with your brand through to post-purchase support. The goal is not only to convince them to buy once, but to turn them into repeat customers who advocate for your brand.

Stage 5: Post-Purchase

Email Tools: Post-Purchase Campaign Message 2, Cross-sell Campaign, Review Campaign, Social Share Campaign

The primary goal in this stage is to make sure your customer gets the most out of their purchase so they feel great about the decision to buy and feel confident they are getting the most value possible out of the product or service. This is the time to convey tips but to also be available to onboard and provide guidance to address the customer’s reason for purchasing your product or service.

How to Gain Customer Loyalty

• Excellent Customer Service: This is fundamental. Customers appreciate when their needs and concerns are prioritized. Always ensure your customer service is friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient.

• Quality Products or Services: Customers are more likely to be loyal if they are satisfied with what they are buying. Make sure your product or service meets or exceeds customer expectations.

• Reward Programs: Loyalty programs, rewards, and incentives can encourage customers to keep coming back. This can take many forms, like points programs, VIP status, exclusive sales or discounts, and more.

• Transparent Communication: Keep customers informed about any changes to your services, pricing, or policies. Honest communication builds trust, and trust is a cornerstone of customer loyalty.

• Personalization: Tailoring customer experiences to individual needs and preferences shows that you value them as individuals, not just as sales numbers. This can be done through personalized emails, product recommendations, or customized user experiences on your website.

• Ask for Feedback: Regularly ask your customers for feedback to understand what they like or don't like about your business. This shows you value their opinion and allows you to make improvements where needed. Request they share on Social and tag your business and use your hashtag.

• After-Sales Support: Offering support even after a purchase is made can greatly enhance a customer's perception of your business. This can include follow-up emails, customer satisfaction surveys, or providing resources that help customers make the most of their purchase.

• Stand for Something: Customers are increasingly loyal to brands that share their values. Whether that's through sustainable practices, charitable giving, or taking a stand on social issues, showing that you're about more than just profits can build a deep, emotional kind of loyalty.

• Consistency: Ensure consistency in your product, service, and interaction with customers. Consistency builds credibility and trust with your customers, making them more likely to stay loyal.

• Exceed Expectations: Always aim to go above and beyond what your customers expect from your business. This could mean delivering orders before the promised date, or throwing in an unexpected freebie or discount.

While your primary goal is to retain customers, you also want to turn them into advocates for your business. When customers feel truly valued and appreciated, they're not just more likely to stay loyal themselves—they're also more likely to recommend your business to others.

Stage 6: Re-Evaluation

Email Tools: NPS Campaign, Rewards Campaign

One of the best ways to gauge the likelihood of a first time customer becoming a recurring customer is through a Net Promoter Score. An NPS helps you understand how the customer feels about your business and the product or service they purchased. If the customer gives you a good NPS, you can feel confident about a repeat purchase. If the score is low, now is the time to try to make it right. A low score is usually a sign that the customer is not happy and not likely to buy from you again so it’s worthwhile to understand what went wrong and try to address that in the Purchase and Post-Purchase phases.

Maximizing Your Net Promoter Score

• Customer First: Always prioritize your customers. Understand their needs, desires, and concerns. Encourage feedback and open communication. Use the feedback received to improve your products or services and customer experience.

• Quality Products/Services: The quality of your products or services is paramount. Ensure that you are delivering the best possible product/service to your customers. This means taking the time to refine your offerings, addressing any potential issues, and constantly looking for ways to improve.

• Excellent Customer Service: High-quality customer service can significantly impact your NPS. This includes quick and effective responses to queries, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and policies that are designed with customer satisfaction in mind.

• Follow-up: After a customer interacts with your business, follow up with them to see if they're satisfied. This can be as simple as a quick email or phone call. This not only makes the customer feel valued, but it also provides you with the opportunity to rectify any potential issues that may have arisen during the interaction.

• Close the Loop: When customers provide feedback, they want to know that it's being heard and taken into consideration. Communicate any changes that are made based on customer feedback. Let them know that their opinion matters and that it can effect change.

• Consistency: Customers value consistency in service delivery. Strive to provide a consistently excellent customer experience. This applies to all aspects of the business - from the initial sales process to after-sales support.

• Train Your Team: Every member of your team should understand the importance of NPS and how they can contribute to it. Invest in training to ensure your team has the necessary skills to deliver an exceptional customer experience.

• Use NPS Data Wisely: Collecting NPS data is just the first step. Use the insights gained from this data to drive continuous improvement across your business.

• Personalize the Experience: Personalized experiences can go a long way in improving customer satisfaction. This can range from simply addressing the customer by their name in communications to tailoring the services or products to their specific needs or preferences.

• Transparent and Honest Communication: Always be transparent and honest with your customers. If there are issues, let them know what's happening and what steps you are taking to resolve them. This can help maintain trust even when things go wrong.

The Net Promoter Score is a great tool for measuring the level of satisfaction and loyalty of your customers, so be sure to set a benchmark and focus on optimizing your NPS score over time.

Stage 7: Repurchase

Email Tools: Reorder / Renewal Campaign

It’s no secret that having a successful and sustainable business relies upon having repeat customers. A healthy amount of retention is the key to growing and sustaining your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). If you have been successful with your Lifecycle Marketing through the Purchase, Post-Purchase, and Re-Evaluation stages, you should have no problem garnering repeat purchases.

Maintaining High Reorders / Renewals

• High-Quality Products or Services: This is the core of any business. Offering a product or service that exceeds customer expectations will naturally result in more frequent purchases and a longer relationship.

• Excellent Customer Service: Quick, efficient, and friendly customer service can greatly influence a customer's loyalty to a business. If a customer has a positive experience with a company's customer service, they're more likely to remain a customer.

• Loyalty and Reward Programs: These programs incentivize customers to make repeat purchases. By offering customers rewards or exclusive benefits, businesses can increase both the frequency of purchases and the longevity of the customer relationship.

• Personalization: Personalizing the customer experience can significantly increase CLV. This can be achieved through personalized marketing, product recommendations, and customer service. A personalized experience can make customers feel valued, increasing their loyalty.

• Understanding Customer Needs and Expectations: Use market research and customer feedback to continually adjust your product or service to better fit the needs and expectations of your customers.

• Customer Retention Programs: Invest in strategies that aim to retain customers, such as excellent after-sales service, customer onboarding, and regular check-ins.

• Upselling and Cross-selling: Once customers have shown loyalty by making repeated purchases, opportunities for upselling or cross-selling can be introduced. This can be a great strategy to increase the amount a customer spends during their relationship with the company.

• Regular Communication: Keeping in touch with customers through regular, relevant, and engaging communication helps keep your business top-of-mind. This could be through newsletters, social media, or personalized emails.

• Quality over Quantity: Focus on attracting high-value customers who are likely to have a high CLV, rather than a large number of low-value customers.

• Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Regularly engage with customers to gauge their satisfaction and seek their input on how to improve. This can also help to identify at-risk customers before they churn.

Businesses use CLV to drive profitability and formulate strategies for customer retention, marketing, sales, and customer support. It's generally more cost-effective to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones.

Other Lifecycle Email Campaigns

Winback Campaign

The campaigns outlined to this point fit in nicely with the stages of the Customer Journey. There are email campaigns that fit as part of the lifecycle approach to marketing, but fall outside of the 7 stages listed above. For instance, if a customer does not reorder or renew, there is the opportunity to send them a Lapsed Purchaser or Winback campaign. Here are a few key considerations when implementing this type of campaign.

Optimizing a Winback Campaign

• Segment Your Audience: First, segment your lapsed customers based on their behavior, purchase history, or reason for churn. This will help you tailor your approach to each group more effectively. For example, customers who stopped purchasing because of price might be swayed by a discount, while those who had a poor customer service experience might need an apology and assurance of improved service.

• Personalize Your Communication: Ensure that your emails, messages, and offers are personalized to the individual customer. Use data about their past interactions, purchases, and behavior to show that you understand their needs and preferences.

• Offer Incentives: Offering a tangible incentive such as a discount, free trial, or special offer can be an effective way to entice customers back. However, this should be used carefully, as excessive discounting can devalue your product or service.

• Address the Reason for Churn: If you know why a customer has churned, address it directly in your winback campaign. This might involve admitting a mistake, explaining how you've improved, or offering a solution to their problem.

• Highlight Product or Service Improvements: If your product or service has improved since the customer last used it, make sure they know about these enhancements. This can be particularly effective if the improvements directly address issues that led to churn.

• Multi-Channel Approach: Use multiple communication channels to reach your lapsed customers. Email is often the primary channel for winback campaigns, but you should also consider social media, direct mail, phone calls, or retargeting ads.

• Test and Optimize: Use A/B testing to see what type of messaging and offers work best with your audience. Continuously refine and optimize your strategy based on these insights.

• Focus on Customer Experience: Once customers return, ensure they have a positive experience with your brand. This involves not only delivering a great product or service but also providing excellent customer service and building a positive relationship.

Timing is important, as you want to reach out sooner rather than later, but be mindful not to be too aggressive, which could lead to alienation. A balance between persistence and respect for the customer's decision to leave should be maintained. A/B test to find the sweet spot for your outreach and to know when is the appropriate time to give up if you cannot regain a lost customer.

Last Chance Campaign

To be frank, this type of campaign typically does not generate much in the way of conversions, but it does give you a last chance to see if the customer is still interested in your product or service. It can work best as a way to confirm the customer is no longer actively shopping. This may be due to them purchasing from another vendor or they have eliminated your product or service from consideration. This is to be expected and with the right approach you can use this campaign to optimize your product and marketing strategy.

Key Elements to a Last Chance Campaign

• Limited Time Offer: Given the customer has visited your site recently and signed up for email, a limited time offer may help them decide to buy. There can be downsides to relying too heavily on promotional offers as they erode profit margins, so be sure to track these customers who convert from the promotional offer to see if the CLV makes it worthwhile to offer this discount in the future.

• Survey: A survey can provide important information about the customer experience on your site. Questions can focus on pricing, product range, ease of use, or any other relevant factors, and you can use this data to improve your product and/or marketing based on feedback received.

• Customer Service: Sometimes customers just want to talk to someone via chat or phone call, so providing them an option to talk directly may ease any hurdles that have prevented the customer from converting.

• Social Media: Even if the customer has bought from another vendor, you can encourage them to follow you on Social Media, which gives you a non-intrusive way to build a relationship with them

• Lead Magnets: Offer the customer something of value for no cost. Psychologically, when people are given something with perceived value for free, it makes them more likely to do business with you. This can be something along the lines of an ebook or other digital item that can be easily shared.

So long as you approach this campaign with humility and seek to understand why the customer has not made a purchase, you may be able to gain valuable information to help you continue to refine your product line and marketing, which in turn may result in improved conversion rates in the future.

Guide to Lifecycle Marketing

What is Lifecycle Marketing? What differentiates it from standard marketing approaches? How do you market based on stages of the lifecycle? What types of businesses benefit from lifecycle marketing? And what are some easy steps for getting started with Lifecycle Marketing? Read on to find out!

What is Lifecycle Marketing?

Lifecycle Marketing is a marketing approach that takes into account the different stages of a customer's relationship with a brand or product. Lifecycle Marketing is designed to target your marketing messaging to customers at the most appropriate point in their journey or 'lifecycle' with your brand or product. This is different from traditional marketing which is designed to get the marketing messaging in front of as many people as possible, regardless of where they are in the customer journey.

The main stages of a typical customer lifecycle include:

1. Awareness: This is when a potential customer first becomes aware of your brand or product, often through advertising, word-of-mouth, or a search process. They have a problem they need to resolve or a need they are looking to fulfill.

2. Interest: Once aware of your brand, a customer might start to show interest in your products or services. They might start following your brand on social media, sign up for your newsletter, or visit your website frequently. The goal is to figure out whether your product or service can fulfill their need or solve their problem.

3. Evaluation: At this stage, customers are considering whether to make a purchase from you. They're likely comparing your products or services to those of your competitors.

4. Purchase: The customer decides to buy your product or service. This is often the main goal of traditional marketing efforts, but when it comes to lifecycle marketing it's not the end of the lifecycle.

5. Post-Purchase: After a customer makes a purchase, your marketing efforts should focus on creating a positive experience to increase customer satisfaction.

6. Re-Evaluation: After the purchase, the customer decides whether to continue with the relationship, usually when they’re considering another purchase. They might consider other factors such as the customer service they received or the quality of your products or services.

7. Repurchase: The customer decides to make another purchase, essentially restarting the cycle. Building customer loyalty and encouraging repeat purchases is a key goal in lifecycle marketing.

Lifecycle marketing is about delivering messaging that is most appropriate for each person based on where they are in their lifecycle with your business, and it works! Truly effective Lifecycle marketing campaigns understand the customer's needs at each stage and provides them with any necessary info to help them feel supported and confident about shopping with your business.

How is Lifecycle Marketing different from Traditional Marketing?

That Super Bowl ad you see while scarfing down nachos? That’s traditional marketing. The idea behind traditional marketing is to get that message in front of as many people as possible. In the case of a Super Bowl ad, it has the potential to be seen by a billion plus people for 30 seconds. There are very few businesses willing to place so much of their marketing budget on a single 30 second ad, so what they do is spread their marketing spend over multiple channels (TV, radio, print) and through volume hope to get enough people to see their marketing messaging.

What about that email welcoming someone who visited your site and signed up for your newsletter? That’s a textbook example of a Lifecycle marketing message!

How Traditional and Lifecycle messaging differ:

• Customer focus: Traditional marketing often focuses on attracting as many customers as possible without specific regard to their individual needs or where they are in their purchasing journey. The goal is to get their attention and then deliver your message. Lifecycle marketing takes a much more customer-centric approach. It seeks to understand customer needs based on where they are in the customer journey, including their problems they are trying to solve, behavior or steps taken up to this point, preferences based on actions taken to this point, and where they are in the purchase process —whether they're just discovering the brand or product, considering a purchase, have already bought something, or are returning customers.

• Marketing stages: Traditional marketing tends to segment the process into disparate parts, such as creating awareness, promoting products, and driving sales. However, lifecycle marketing views the customer journey as a continuous cycle, which involves stages such as reach, acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty.

• Personalization: Lifecycle marketing emphasizes personalization, or taking what you know about the person and only sending them appropriate messaging. It tailors messaging to individual customers based on their lifecycle stage. In contrast, traditional marketing tends to use broad, one-size-fits-all messages.

• Long-term engagement: Traditional marketing can often prioritize short-term sales over long-term customer relationships. The messaging is most commonly centered around taking a specific action, but is also used to build brand affinity. In contrast, lifecycle marketing aims to engage customers over the long term, fostering loyalty and encouraging repeat business. With traditional marketing, the customer has little say over when they will receive messaging. In the case of lifecycle marketing, messaging is often based on an action the customer has taken to indicate some level of interest in interacting with the brand or product.

• Data-driven decisions: While traditional marketing can and does use data, lifecycle marketing is heavily reliant on customer data to determine where a customer is in their lifecycle and how best to engage them. This means making extensive use of analytics, predictive modeling, and other data-driven tools and techniques.

• Multi-channel approach: Lifecycle marketing typically involves a multi-channel approach, communicating with customers across a range of platforms (social media, email, SMS, etc.) in a coordinated, consistent manner. Traditional marketing can also use multiple channels, but may not always coordinate the approach as closely.

These differences make lifecycle marketing more adaptable to the current digital marketing environment, where customers expect more personalized, relevant interactions with brands. That said, traditional marketing methods can still be effective when appropriately used and can exist alongside lifecycle marketing strategies in a comprehensive marketing plan.

How do you use Lifecycle Marketing?

Traditional marketing is typically geared towards building awareness and brand affinity. Pay per click advertising leverages customer data (search terms, link clicks, likes given and pages followed) to help drive customer awareness. Once a customer becomes familiar with your product or service, it’s time to begin using your lifecycle marketing campaigns to build that relationship!

Examples of Campaigns Based on Customer Lifecycle

Here are some examples of the types of marketing campaigns that work best for each stage of the customer lifecycle:

Stage 1: Awareness

Goal: as the name suggests, the goal of the awareness stage is make consumers aware of your products or services. You want to attract attention and build trust. Selling is not the primary goal at this stage of the customer lifecycle.

Marketing Examples for the Awareness Stage

• Content Marketing: Share valuable content that can help solve problems or inform your target audience about a relevant topic. This can include blog posts, infographics, eBooks, white papers, and videos. The goal is not to sell directly, but to provide value and establish your brand as a trustworthy expert in your field.

• Social Media Advertising: With advanced targeting options, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn can help increase brand visibility to a highly targeted audience. The aim here is to create engaging posts and ads that increase your brand visibility and encourage social shares.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This involves optimizing your website and content with relevant keywords so your business appears in search engine results when potential customers are looking for information related to what you offer.

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Platforms like Google AdWords allow you to create ads that appear at the top of search results for certain keywords. This can be very effective in getting your brand in front of people who are actively searching for related products or services.

• Influencer Marketing: Partner with influencers in your industry who can introduce your brand to their followers. This can be a great way to build trust and awareness, as recommendations often carry more weight when they come from trusted sources.

• Public Relations (PR) and Media Coverage: Earned media coverage in magazines, blogs, and other publications can greatly increase your brand visibility and credibility.

• Webinars and Virtual Events: Offering free online events on topics of interest to your target audience can attract potential customers who may not yet be familiar with your brand.

• Email Marketing: While this is typically more effective in later stages of the customer lifecycle, a well-executed newsletter campaign can also be used to increase brand awareness and deliver valuable content to prospective customers.

Stage 2: Interest

Goal: help the consumer to understand your offering and how it can help them solve their problem or fill their need. The goal here is not quite selling, at least not usually, it is more about helping the customer on their path to making the decision that ultimately leads to buying.

Marketing Examples for the Interest Stage

• Content Marketing: Educating your potential customers about the industry, the problem you're solving, and how your product or service fits into the solution is crucial. This can be done through blog posts, whitepapers, e-books, webinars, and other forms of informational content.

• Email Marketing: Once a potential customer has shown interest in your product, email marketing can be a powerful tool to nurture that interest. You can send more detailed information, case studies, customer testimonials, and more.

• Retargeting Ads: Retargeting ads on social media platforms or through Google Ads can help keep your product or service top of mind as the potential customer researches their options. This can be particularly effective if the ads highlight your product's benefits, unique selling points, or customer testimonials.

• Social Media Engagement: Posting regularly on your social media channels about your product, its benefits, and how it compares to competitors can keep potential customers engaged and interested.

• Case Studies and Testimonials: Showcasing successful customers who have benefited from your product or service can provide potential customers with the confidence that your offering will meet their needs too.

• Product Demos and Free Trials: Offering a demo or a free trial allows potential customers to experience your product or service firsthand, giving them a better idea of how it works and why it might be the right fit for them.

• Stage 3: Evaluation

Goal: at this point, you want to establish your product or service as being credible, reliable and as such it should be viewed as a suitable choice for fulfilling a customer’s need or resolving their problem.

Marketing Examples for the Evaluation Stage

• Content Marketing: At this stage, consumers are hungry for information. High-quality, relevant content that answers their questions can drive interest. This could be blog posts, whitepapers, e-books, infographics, or video content. This will not only provide them with valuable information but also position your brand as an expert in the field.

• Email Marketing: If potential customers have given you their contact information, you can nurture their interest with email marketing. Share relevant content, case studies, and testimonials. Also, be sure to personalize emails as much as possible for better engagement.

• Social Media Marketing: Sharing your content on social media can also pique interest. In addition to your regular content, use platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn to share customer testimonials and behind-the-scenes looks at your company.

• Webinars and Workshops: Webinars and workshops provide value to the consumer and position your brand as an expert. These can be live, recorded, or even in a Q&A format to engage your audience and answer their questions directly.

• Retargeting Ads: Retargeting (or remarketing) allows you to show ads to people who have already interacted with your brand online. This helps keep your brand top of mind as they continue to research solutions.

• SEO: At the interest stage, many consumers turn to search engines for more information. Make sure your website is optimized for search engines so that these users can find your content when they need it.

• Influencer Marketing: If it's suitable for your brand and audience, consider working with influencers who can showcase your product and share their experiences. It can be an effective way to build trust and credibility.

Remember, the goal at the interest stage is not necessarily to push for a sale, but rather to educate potential customers, build trust, and position your brand as the best solution to their problem or need.

Stage 4: Purchase

Goal: now is the time to reassure the customer that they are making a wise decision to use your product or service and help convince them that they are ready to convert!

Marketing Examples for the Purchase Stage

• Promotional and Discount Campaigns: Special offers, discounts, or promotional campaigns are highly effective at this stage. They can push potential customers to complete their purchase by creating a sense of urgency or by increasing the perceived value of the product or service. Udemy does a nice job showing discounted rates with expiration dates to help nudge those who are ready to purchase to make their decision on the course they are interested in buying.

• Remarketing/Retargeting Campaigns: These campaigns can be extremely effective at targeting users who have shown interest in your products but haven't yet made a purchase. Display ads, social media ads, or email marketing campaigns can serve as reminders and can provide additional incentives to complete the purchase.

• Trust-Building Campaigns: Customers may need reassurance about product quality, payment security, or your company's reputation before they finalize their purchase. Share testimonials, product reviews, secure payment badges, and guarantee seals. Make sure that your website design also conveys professionalism and trustworthiness. Third party sites like Trust Pilot can also help the customer feel comfortable with their decision.

• Abandoned Cart Email Campaigns: If you're an e-commerce business, consider setting up an automated email campaign for customers who leave items in their shopping cart without completing a purchase. These emails remind customers of what they left behind and can provide extra incentives (like a small discount, free shipping, or a bonus item) that could convince them to complete their purchase. These campaigns have very high open and conversion rates!

• Personalized Recommendations: Use customer data to offer personalized product or service recommendations. This can be done via email, through website product recommendations, or via personalized ads. When customers see products that align closely with their interests and needs, they're more likely to make a purchase.

• Trial or Demo Campaigns: If your product is complicated or high-investment, offering a free trial or demo can help customers understand the value of what you're selling, and can move them toward making a purchase.

• Content Marketing: Providing useful, relevant content can build a relationship with potential customers and convince them to buy. This could take the form of blog posts, how-to guides, webinars, videos, and more.

Stage 5: Post-Purchase

Goal: once you have completed the sale, you want to make sure your customer has a great experience with your product and is happy with the purchase. The key to successful post-purchase campaigns is to make sure the customer feels great about their experience with your product. Any sales content should feel very natural and tie into the product or service the consumer has purchased. This is a great spot for free support content as it reduces any lingering distrust or doubts the customer may have had when placing their order.

Marketing Examples for the Post-Purchase Stage

• Replenishment Reminders: For products that run out (like cosmetics, groceries, or supplements), a reminder email or notification to repurchase can be very helpful. Automated emails that remind customers when it's time to reorder can help increase repeat purchases.

• Cross-Selling and Upselling: Promote complementary products (cross-sell) or higher-end products (upsell) based on the customer's past purchases. This can be done via personalized emails, app notifications, or targeted ads.

• Loyalty Programs: Rewards or loyalty programs can help increase repeat purchases by providing incentives for continued patronage. Points systems, VIP benefits, exclusive deals, and gamified rewards can all be effective.

• Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Sending out a survey to gather customer feedback shows that you care about their experience and are actively working to improve. It also provides valuable insights for your business.

• Educational Content: Depending on the product, customers may benefit from continued guidance on how to use, maintain, or make the most of their purchase. This can be done through blogs, webinars, how-to videos, tutorials, or even automated email sequences.

• Referral Programs: Encourage customers to refer friends and family to your business by offering a discount or bonus to both the referrer and the referred.

• Community Engagement: Foster a sense of community among your customers. This could be through social media groups, forums, or customer events.

• Personalized Recommendations: Use data about a customer's past purchases and browsing behavior to provide personalized product or service recommendations.

• Special Offers on Future Purchases: Offering a discount or special deal on a customer's next purchase can help to bring them back to your business. The customer may have had their eye on another product but didn’t make the purchase, so an incentive can bring them back to buy that item they held off on during their most recent purchase.

• Re-Engagement Campaigns: If a customer hasn't made a purchase in a while, you can send out re-engagement emails to remind them of your brand and encourage them to come back. Tread lightly, let your typical purchase cycle be your guide here.

Stage 6: Re-Evaluation

Goal: to understand the customer’s current satisfaction with their purchase and your company or brand. Doing so can help you understand your chances at a renewal for your services or for which customers would be the best ones to ask for a referral or testimonial.

Marketing Examples for the Re-Evaluation Stage

• Customer Satisfaction Surveys: This campaign allows you to measure and understand the level of customer satisfaction with your product or service. The survey can provide insights into areas of improvement and opportunities for up-selling or cross-selling. A Net Promoter Score is an example of a satisfaction survey.

• Loyalty Programs: These campaigns reward repeat purchases and foster customer loyalty. Rewarding customer loyalty might involve offering exclusive discounts, early access to new products or services, or other incentives.

• Email Marketing: Regularly communicate with your customers via newsletters, product updates, helpful content, and personalized recommendations. This keeps your brand at the forefront of their minds and makes them feel valued.

• Re-Engagement Campaigns: These are targeted towards customers who have not engaged with your brand in a while. Re-engagement campaigns might include "we miss you" messages or special offers to encourage them to return.

• Upselling and Cross-Selling Campaigns: Provide relevant product recommendations based on the customers' previous purchases to upsell or cross-sell. It's not only about selling more, but also about providing value by showing customers products or services that complement what they already have.

• Social Media Engagement: Encourage customers to interact with your brand on social media. This could involve sharing user-generated content, holding contests, or providing customer service through these platforms.

• Educational Content: Share helpful content that educates your customers about your products or industry. This could be in the form of blogs, webinars, eBooks, or video tutorials.

• Personalization: The more you know about your customers, the more personalized your marketing can be. Use data and analytics to deliver messages that resonate with their unique interests and needs.

Stage 7: Repurchase

Goal: while the repurchase stage is clearly about generating that next sale, it is also incredibly important to focus on deepening the relationship, as repeat customers and customer lifetime value (CLT) are the bedrock of any successful business.

Marketing Examples for the Repurchase Phase

• Loyalty Programs: Customers who have already made a purchase are more likely to do so again, especially if they're rewarded for it. Create a loyalty program that offers points, discounts, or special perks for repeat customers. It's a great way to make customers feel valued and incentivize them to come back.

• Re-engagement Emails: If a customer hasn't made a purchase in a while, send a personalized email reminding them of your products or services. This email could include a special offer or discount to entice them to come back. If they don’t engage or buy, honor their decision and focus on the customers who are engaged with your brand.

• Cross-sell and Upsell Campaigns: Recommend relevant products or services that complement what the customer has already purchased. This not only increases your sales but also enhances the customer experience by making their life easier or better. Be smart here, only offer recommendations that truly make sense.

• Feedback Campaigns: Ask customers for feedback about their previous purchase. This shows you care about their opinion and are willing to improve. It also gives you valuable insights into how to improve your product or service.

• Referral Programs: Encourage customers to refer friends or family members to your business. This can be done by offering them a discount or other incentive for each successful referral.

• Exclusive Access: Offer your repeat customers exclusive access to new products or services before they're available to the general public. This makes them feel special and appreciated, which can encourage them to make more purchases.

• Personalized Offers: Use the data you have about the customer's preferences and buying habits to offer them personalized deals or products. This can be done through email, social media, or your website.

What Types of Businesses Perform best with Lifecycle Marketing?

While Lifecycle Marketing makes sense for a wide variety of businesses, here are a few industries where Lifecycle Marketing has made a very big impact:

1. Retail Businesses (Both online and brick-and-mortar stores): These businesses have a huge potential for upselling, cross-selling, and repeat purchases. A well-structured lifecycle marketing strategy can help them identify the right timing and product to suggest to their customers, and in turn, increase their overall sales and customer lifetime value (CLT).

2. Subscription-Based Services (Such as streaming services or Software as a Service companies): These businesses thrive on maintaining a loyal customer base over a long period of time. Lifecycle marketing can help them minimize churn and maximize customer lifetime value by continually delivering relevant content and offers, and addressing potential issues before customers decide to cancel their subscription.

3. Financial Services (Like banks or insurance companies): These businesses have long-term relationships with their customers. Lifecycle marketing can help them enhance these relationships and provide relevant services at the right moments in a customer's financial life (like offering a home loan to a recently married customer).

4. Businesses with High Customer Acquisition Costs (Such as car dealerships or luxury brands): In these industries, retaining existing customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Lifecycle marketing can help them stay in touch with their customers and make them feel valued, which can drive repeat business and referrals.

5. Tech Companies (Including tech startups): For companies that provide technology products or services, customer education and adoption are key. Lifecycle marketing allows them to nurture customers throughout their journey, from onboarding to advanced usage, and to promote upsells and upgrades when the time is right.

6. Travel and Hospitality Industry: This industry can benefit by targeting customers at different stages in their life or year, for instance, offering honeymoon packages to newlyweds or reminding customers of summer vacation packages.

How to get Started with Lifecycle Marketing

Two words: start small! Then slowly grow your campaigns. The nice thing with many of these campaigns is they can be automated to send personalized, relevant messaging when a customer takes an action on your site. It makes sense to start with the following campaigns:

Welcome or Onboarding Campaign

The Welcome or Onboarding campaign is sent automatically when a customer signs up for your email or SMS campaign. It serves two purposes: it confirms this person has successfully opted into receiving messages from you and it gives you a chance to introduce your brand and products or services. It is not uncommon for this message to have a greater than 50% open rate, which is very successful when it comes to email messages.

You can start off with a single Welcome message with a CTA that sends the customer back to your website, and then build this campaign over time. It is not uncommon to have 3 messages in this series. But to keep things simple, start with that first Welcome email.

Cart Recovery Campaign

If you have a shopping cart on your website, you should have an automated campaign that notifies someone when they have left something in their shopping cart. This message has an extremely high open rate, oftentimes over 60%, and the conversion rate is also well above any other message you send. This is why it should be one of the first lifecycle campaigns you run.

Start simple with a single message. Send this customer back to the shopping cart to complete the order! You can eventually build this into a multiple message campaign but that first message is the most important one. Get it up and running!

Building your Lifecycle Marketing Campaigns

From there the sky is the limit! There are a wide variety of Lifecycle Marketing messages that are effective based on where the customer is in their lifecycle with your business. Build them out and before you know it your list of first time customers, repeat customers and customer lifetime value will grow.

Back to School Email Marketing

When it comes to email marketing, you need to understand when consumers are preparing to make purchases. By understanding those time periods and events, you will be able to get your messaging in front of shoppers when they are already inclined to spend money. The fact they have signed up for your email campaigns puts you in a great position to have them consider buying from you.

While consumers are currently enjoying travel and trips to the beach or the local pool, next month they will turn their attention to gearing up for the upcoming school year. School supplies have changed quite a bit from back when we were kids, although new clothing, binders, pens and pencils are still necessary. When shopping for my kids I noticed that Trapper Keepers are still a thing! Kids these days need headphones, tablets or laptops, and of course a new backpack to hold all of their books and supplies.

Families are expected to spend an average of $850 on school supplies, so this is a great opportunity to highlight your products that appeal to back to school shoppers.

In this guide, I will go over the timing for Back to School campaigns, the messaging, and opportunities to leverage automated campaigns to help you optimize your conversions as we get ready for summer to turn into autumn.

Timing for Back to School Campaigns

School starts at different times based on the school district, while colleges tend to begin a week or two later, closer to Labor Day. So it is a good idea to check the calendar for your local school district to identify the actual start date for your local elementary, middle and high schools.

Generally speaking, primary schools tend to start somewhere between mid and late August, while universities start sometime around the first week of September. So it’s a good idea to plan your campaigns on or around August 1st. Most families do not plan Back to School shopping very far in advance so 2-4 weeks before the school start date tends to work out nicely.

So in the case of a monthly email campaign, you would send out your email right around the first of August. This would give your subscribers the biggest window to visit your site while your inventory levels are high and shop your promotion.

For a Bi-Weekly campaign that would include two messages, your first message will announce your Back to School promotion and then the follow up email would remind people that your promotion is about to end. I like to send the reminder email 48 hours before the promotion ends; this creates a sense of urgency and prompts those who were meaning to shop your site to stop what they are doing and take a look at your promotion.

In the case of a weekly campaign, you can use your first message to promote your sale and then use the next two messages in the series to promote specific categories or bestsellers. Trending products are always popular as everyone wants to know what is currently popular. Finally, with your fourth and final message you would send out a “last chance” message to remind your subscribers that the promotion is about to end.

Back to School Messaging

As kids get ready to head back to school, they want products that are cool and also show off their personality and interests. Whether it’s a Stranger Things backpack, a Ryan’s World lunch tote, or an Odd Squad shirt, kids want items that show the world what they are all about. While you may not carry items that feature intellectual property, you can keep this principle in mind as you craft your messaging.

Colors or colorways are a simple way to allow kids to select an item that they feel tells the world who they are. Backpacks come in a wide variety of designs, allowing kids to find the pack that best suits their needs and signals what they are into: sling style packs for bikers, hiking style kits for outdoor types, laptop bags for hardcore gamers, and packs made from recycled materials for environmentalists are just a few examples of how you can market your products to appeal to specific customers.

For the young environmentalist, there are stores and brands that will offer used clothing at a discount or will give you credit for turning in clothing that you or your family no longer uses. The appeal here is not so much a particular design or brand but more the impact your shopping has on the earth. Think through what it is that your customers find most interesting or unique about your brand and values and do your best to convey this through your messaging.

Leveraging Automated Campaigns

One of the biggest assets you have when it comes to optimizing the conversion rates for your Back to School messaging is the use of automated campaigns. As you send out your emails, you should have Abandoned Cart and Browse Recovery automations live on your site. So as subscribers respond to your campaign and visit your site, they will be eligible to receive these automatons which gives you another chance to get someone to convert if they did not do so the first time they visited your site.