What is lifecycle marketing?

Hundreds of thousands of brands exist worldwide, and they are all fighting for consumers' attention. Whether you're a SaaS platform, travel company, or fashion brand, you know that grabbing that attention is only half the battle.

The customer journey spans many touchpoints across the awareness, consideration, and decision phases, leading to retention and loyalty considerations — both crucial concerning long-term success. After all, overall profitability can increase by 25-125% when your churn rate is reduced by just 5%. 

To achieve this, one key strategy is tough to ignore — customer lifecycle marketing. When you nail a lifecycle marketing strategy, you can send your target audience the right marketing messages at the right time. Once you land a new customer, you work toward keeping them. 

The secret ingredients?

Real-time data, personalization, and marketing automation. That's often the winning combination. Let's dive deeper into this trending strategy, focusing on what it is, why it matters, and the next steps. 

What is lifecycle marketing?

A lifecycle marketing manager uses a combination of strategies to influence customer behavior. These strategies focus on the varying touchpoints throughout the marketing cycle, moving from the initial interaction between a prospect and your brand to the development of brand advocates. 

Put simply —  customer lifecycle marketing strategies involve relevant, timely communication with buyers based on their lifecycle stage.

Throughout this cycle, there are various stages. Some businesses focus solely on acquisition, retention, and loyalty. However, these stages can be broken down into several phases and involve different considerations based on a brand's business model. 

For example:

• Awareness is when customers first learn about your brand. This stage is your opportunity to capture the attention of prospective customers. This stage is based on a customer's problem or need. 
• Engagement or intent involves an interaction between potential customers and your brand — for example, people subscribing to your mailing list, following you on social media, or checking out your website. 
• Evaluation is all about decision-making, so you must provide potential customers with the information they need to choose your brand confidently. 
• Purchase is when a prospect officially becomes a customer. At this point, your goal is not to promote your brand but make it easy for people to buy. 
• Support means investing in customers post-purchase. Follow up to ensure customers are satisfied and maximize their purchase. 
• Loyalty is when customers become advocates for your brand — they're happy and willing to spread the love. Nurture those in this stage to retain them as customers while benefiting from new buyers. 

The classic customer lifecycle marketing strategy

This process is called the customer journey — from the awareness or acquisition stage to the customer loyalty stage. 

The benefits of customer lifecycle marketing

Research has found that marketers who ace lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost (source). Plus, leads that have been nurtured make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (source). Those are dream statistics! 

So it might be crazy to learn that still, 66% of marketers aren't using lifecycle marketing strategies.

Why lifecycle marketing matters

The most common benefits of lifecycle marketing are:

• Higher conversion rates: nurtured prospects convert more often than cold leads
• Lower acquisition costs: repeat buyers cost less to re-engage than new customers
• Stronger loyalty: brands with effective lifecycle programs often see higher repeat purchases

So why would any marketer avoid it? It could be because many marketers today are covering more roles and optimize, and don't have the time to set up an actionable lifecycle marketing strategy. So let's fix that.

How to build your own lifecycle campaign (step by step)

1. Map your customer journey

   First you need to visualize each touchpoint from click to checkout to repurchase. This is an opportunity to identify drop-off moments and opportunities for intervention

2. Define your messaging framework

   Your messaging framework will give you a way to shape all your communications. Start by crafting a core message and then adapt it to each stage. Use a consistent brand voice but tweak the tone. So you might choose to be playful at awareness, but helpful at activation, maybe rewarding at retention and so on.

3. Choose the right channels

   Select certain channels for each stage that reflect the user journey and feel smooth and flowing. It might feel natural to use paid social for more broad communication in awareness, and SMS for more personalized nurturing like in retention.

4. Set up trigger-based automations
   

   Trigger-based automations mean less work for your team. Tweak your flows to refine them as your performance data comes in and A/B test different flows.

5. Measure, iterate, and optimize

   A/B test subject lines, CTAs, send times, and monitor KPIs in real time (activation rate, churn, LTV). Then it's time to refine offers and frequency based on performance.

Boost campaign ROI with lifecycle marketing

As we've mentioned, there are many benefits associated with lifecycle marketing, including an increased return on investment (ROI). For example, if you invest in paid channels, you want your messaging to be as relevant and timely as possible to encourage higher conversion rates. With customer lifecycle marketing, you gain insight to craft personalized customer communications and boost your overall ROI. 

But, to ensure success throughout these cycles, you must develop strategies for:

• Data analysis 
• Personalization
• Automation

These three key ingredients are unique yet still reliant on one another. For example, improving personalization and automation without optimal data analysis is challenging — achieving this step at scale can be particularly difficult. For this reason, investing in advancing technologies and associated capabilities are crucial, ranging from AI-driven optimization to predictive marketing analytics and customer modeling.

Asking for a rating after a purchase is a classic loyalty tactic to help customers feel more connected to the company they purchased from.

How does lifecycle marketing differ from traditional strategies?

Traditional marketing efforts can be effective under the right circumstances. However, they do not accurately model the modern customer lifecycle. For example, the traditional sales funnel takes a linear approach (read all about sales and marketing funnels here). The issue is the modern customer's journey doesn't move in one direction, which is recognized in lifecycle marketing. This approach makes the customer the primary focal point, factoring in their experiences from the beginning until the end. 

So, while a traditional sales funnel involves overlapping stages, lifecycle marketing is more about the customer — not the sale. This strategy is used to help brands strengthen the customer experience to encourage greater retention and brand loyalty. 

This trending framework is about giving your audience what they want and need as they move through the customer journey. For these reasons, customer lifecycle marketing tends to be more accurate and is better aligned with trust-building and lead nurturing. The relationship is fairly straightforward — revenue increases when businesses convert and retain customers. This relationship is the core difference between a traditional acquisition funnel and lifecycle marketing, as the latter considers prospects and customers far beyond the initial acquisition stage.

Instead of just boosting revenue, you can significantly increase customer lifetime value (LTV) with lifecycle marketing. 

Does your marketing strategy involve customer lifecycle marketing?

Developing a customer lifecycle marketing strategy 

No two customers are equal concerning their history with your brand, buying behavior, expectations, etc. Some customers will visit for the first time, while others become frequent buyers. Lifecycle marketing leverages the customer lifecycle to ensure personalized, relevant value and messaging throughout each customer's journey.

So, where do you begin to create a customer lifecycle marketing plan?

First, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for lifecycle marketing or any other marketing-related approach. Lifecycle marketing varies for different brands. The key is meeting your customers where they are and creating personalized messages that convert. So, you must first begin by understanding and mapping out the customer lifecycle as it applies to your business.

Focus on any issues or friction within each stage so that you can brainstorm solutions. When you spot problems, you can implement them into your lifecycle model.

Customer lifecycle stages: a closer look

Break down your entire lifecycle marketing strategy into relevant stages and create specific milestones — then bring them all together into a big-picture plan. This plan could include personalized marketing automation linked to triggers, segmentation, and omnichannel marketing.

While the customer journey spans awareness, consideration, evaluation, purchase, support, and loyalty, it's essential to delve deeper into each stage to create a more targeted and effective lifecycle marketing strategies. By understanding the unique characteristics and needs of customers at each stage, you can craft personalized messages that resonate and convert.

Examples of relevant and timely messaging

A person who signs up for your email newsletter but hasn't bought anything yet is probably in the best position to receive emails that help them become more familiar with your brand. Conversely, if a person made three purchases in your webshop last year, you can send them specific email marketing campaigns with offers for similar products.

By understanding and leveraging the customer lifecycle stages, you can create a more targeted and effective marketing strategy that resonates with your audience at every step of their journey. This approach ensures that your marketing efforts are aligned with your customers' needs and preferences, leading to higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

Sample strategy for e-commerce brands

While not all companies use the same approach concerning the associated customer lifecycle stages, there is plenty of overlap. What makes the most sense for your brand is crucial and matters concerning your approach and messaging. For example, if you're an e-commerce brand, your stages may look something like this:

• Build awareness
  Anonymous site visitors kick off the initial awareness stage. Your goal is to convince these visitors to take action — whether to make a purchase or subscribe. Offer first-time purchase discounts via pop-ups that use the information you have. For example, provide an offer based on the pages visitors browse. You can also level up your SEO game, launch a paid search campaign, and run social media ads — like TikTok ads. 
• Make it personal
  Known or returning visitors further support the acquisition stage. The more data you have, the more personalized you can make your messaging, increasing your chances of customer engagement. This phase is a great time to send browse abandonment emails. 
• Evaluate intent
  Registered users who take action (e.g., sign up for your newsletter) but have not yet bought represent those with intent. You can send messages that nurture these leads through email marketing and retargeting. Focus on what you know — how did these visitors find your site, where do they live, and what products are they looking at? To encourage conversions, offer data-driven promotions and flash sales, share personalized product recommendations, and target cart abandoners.
• Polish purchase flow
  First-time customers represent those in the purchase stage and often need a nudge to make another purchase. While many first-time buyers will not make a second purchase, those who do will often make a third, and with each purchase, these buyers move closer to becoming loyal brand advocates. 
• Offer support
  Active and frequent customers require support to encourage customer retention — for example, you can provide personalized messages to reassure buyers they made the right decision and offer customized rewards. Here, you'll want to focus on recency, frequency, monetary (REM) segmentation, and other crucial KPIs to pinpoint those at the greatest risk of churning. 
• Nurture relationships
  Brand loyalists share your social content, recommend you to others, etc. Acknowledge these customers. On average, 80% of profits come from 20% of customers, representing the most loyal consumers! Offer them special perks, like free shipping, loyalty programs (i.e., points for every dollar spent), incentives to review products, etc. 

There are also phases involving risk-of-churn, churned, and reactivated customers. However, determining who these customers are can be more challenging, especially if you do not have accurate data. 

Types of lifecycle marketing campaigns

Here are the most popular types of lifecycle marketing campaigns, with some examples to show how they can be put to use – not forgetting a few handy tips on how to leverage the power of personalization.

1. Welcome campaigns (for onboarding or first purchase)

Engage new customers or subscribers with a warm introduction. For example, a SaaS e-commerce company might send a welcome email series for a new user about getting the most out of their new shop, or a beauty store could send a friendly welcome email to a first-time buyer suggesting other products they might be interested in, or with some social media links so they can get make-up tips.

Personalization ideas:

• Use the customer’s name and reference how they signed up.
• Offer product recommendations based on their signup preferences.
• Provide a step-by-step guide tailored to their interests.

2. Nurture campaigns (for leads or customer education)

Keep your potential customers engaged until they’re ready to convert with a nurture email campaign. For B2B company like we are, sending educational content about the products can help customers-to-be see the value, and to dispel any confusion about what we do.

Personalization ideas:

• Dynamic content based on the lead’s industry, role, or behavior.
• Retargeting emails with case studies relevant to their business.
• Personalized drip campaigns based on engagement level.

3. Cart abandonment campaigns

How many times have you added products to a cart on an e-commerce store only to get distracted and forget to complete the purchase? Chances are, a lot – because it's very common. Capture those lost sales with a cart abandonment campaign with automated emails to remind shoppers that there are products still saved in their cart.

Personalization ideas:

• Show images of the exact products they left in their cart.
• Offer personalized discounts or free shipping based on purchase history.
• Include urgency-driven messages (e.g., “Only a few left in stock”).

4. Post-purchase and upsell campaigns

An upsell campaign does exactly what it says: increases customer satisfaction and drives repeat purchases. For example, after a purchase on a furniture e-commerce store, a company could send a follow-up email with product care tips or complementary product recommendations.

Personalization ideas:

• Recommend products that complement past purchases.
• Send thank-you emails with exclusive discounts for future buys.
• Provide personalized loyalty rewards or referral incentives.

5. Re-engagement and win-back campaigns

Not seen an old customer in a while? Maybe it's time to rekindle interest from inactive customers or subscribers with a special offer or content refresh targeting disengaged users. A hotel chain, for example, might want to entice previous visitors back with a free glass of champagne or a reduced price package deal on their next stay.

Personalization ideas:

• Tailor subject lines with personalized greetings.
• Offer a discount on a previously viewed or purchased item.
• Use AI-driven recommendations based on past interactions.

Ripple Yogawear runs a countdown campaign for previous customers with items recommended that were previously viewed.

6. Loyalty and retention campaigns

When a business gets repeat customers, it's an opportunity to build brand advocacy, and turn your visitors into loyal brand advocates. Cafes, beauty stores and book shops often run a loyalty scheme that offers return visits discounts, special offers or early-purchase options. Our blog on gamification in marketing has some great examples! 

Personalization ideas:

• Custom rewards based on purchase behavior.
• Anniversary or birthday offers.
• VIP-tier segmentation for high-value customers.

7. Customer feedback and review requests

Once a purchase is complete, the lifecycle marketer's job isn't over. Now it's time to gather insights from your customers and use them to improve your products and services. An email asking for a product review or NPS survey can be super helpful in identifying your weak points, and showing you where you're doing great.

Personalization ideas:

• Reference the exact product the customer purchased.
• Offer incentives for completing a survey.
• Customize messaging based on their experience (positive vs. neutral feedback).

8. Renewal and subscription campaigns

Encourage customers to renew memberships or subscriptions.

• Example: A reminder email about an upcoming subscription renewal.

• Personalization Ideas:

• Show personalized usage stats (e.g., “You saved 20 hours using our tool this year!”).

• Offer discounts for early renewal.

• Include recommendations for plan upgrades based on usage.

A lifecycle marketing example

Let's look at how this could look in practice. Say you're a cosmetics monthly subscription company, let's call it Beauty Box, and you're looking to reduce churn by building loyalty. Let's look at a few ideas for what we can do.

1. Create a nice tempting special deal for a "welcome box" with a reduced price for new customers. When this is delivered physically, it could be nice to send out an email with some product tips or user-generated videos about how much subscribers love their monthly Beauty Box. 

2. If the customer cancels their subscription after the welcome box deal, we can send them a "we miss you" SMS or email, with a preview of what's in the next box. Perhaps we can give them another freebie if they resubscribe the same week. We'll use a time-boxed countdown so that they feel a bit of pressure to commit within 48 hours.

3. Create a loyalty point scheme in the customer account area where customers can earn points by inviting friends, posting on social media or leaving reviews. Rewards for achieving certain numbers of points could be extra products in their boxes, reduced prices or features on social media.

Sound familiar? Glossybox is a popular beauty subscription service that uses lifecycle marketing.

The link between lifecycle marketing and data

With lifecycle marketing, you benefit from data-driven decisions — but only when using data correctly. When you have access to relevant, accurate data, instead of making assumptions, you can review the data available to measure your successes (or failures). This data is needed to profile and predict where customers are within the lifecycle, providing intel on engagement level, lifetime value, spending habits, etc. 

Customer lifetime value is one of the most crucial KPIs within any lifecycle marketing strategy, as this approach largely focuses on retention. After all, retaining a previous customer is much more cost-effective than trying to acquire a new one. Depending on your industry, research shows that acquiring new customers can cost five to seven times more than retaining existing customers. As you look at vital KPIs, like LTV, you will better understand your customers and what changes you need to make. 

Other KPIs to consider, depending on your industry and overall marketing strategies, include:

• Impressions 
• Number of new customers 
• Click-through and unsubscribe rates (for email campaigns)
• Number of returning customers
• Customer acquisition costs 
• Return on ad spend
• Revenue per visitor 
• Conversation rates 
• Retention rates
• Upsells/cross-sells
• Adoption rates 
• Usage/purchase frequency 
• Advocacy KPIs (i.e., net promoter score and customer satisfaction score)

Discover more: 2023's top marketing KPIs explained

Invest in the right tools to optimize your lifecycle marketing strategy

Data is the foundation of successful customer lifecycle marketing campaigns, but only when that data has context. Without context, it's meaningless or misleading. Typically, the more data, the better. But that's not always the case. If you don't have the tools and systems to understand your data, the more data you accumulate, the more overwhelming it becomes. 

To address this concern, you must invest in solutions that ensure quick, confident decisions based on more accurate, unified insights. The ability to make sense of your data means that you will use it as a source of value instead of stress. 

Leveraging real-time data is a game-changer when aiming to hook potential customers and improve your bottom line. For example, the ability to access real-time data from Hubspot could mean the difference between gaining vs. losing a new customer or converting a first-time buyer into a loyal customer vs. a churned customer. 

So, by investing in the right tools, you can significantly boost ROI with minimal effort. These will allow you to use the available data correctly — extracting the metrics you need to propel your business forward. 

In summary:

Understand your customer lifecycle
The better you understand your customer journey, the better you can prepare your marketing. Mapping your customer flow and identifying the key landmarks gives you the best opportunity to plan what to do and when.

Be strategic in your communications
Offering things like first-time discounts, points for returning customers and personalizations in your marketing communications can make all the difference. Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and understanding their concerns can help them feel more supported and build future loyalty.

Manage data to drive better decisions
Gathering data is one thing, but using it is another thing altogether. Make sure that the data you’re collecting on your customers goes to good use – test, analyze, refine and use the right tools to track your campaigns.

Tips to optimize your lifecycle marketing efforts

About best practices 

In this blog post, we laid out some tips and best practices for lifecycle marketing. While these guidelines provide a solid foundation, it's crucial to remember that they are not rigid rules. Sometimes, innovation and intuition can lead to unique solutions that resonate with your brand and audience.

Experimentation is at the heart of data-driven marketing. Before fully implementing a new strategy, consider testing it with a smaller segment of your customer base. Analyze the results, iterate, and fine-tune your approach. By balancing best practices with continuous testing, you can make sure your customers have a positive experience, grow sales, and ultimately, increase profits. Good luck with implementing and experimenting!

Related reading: The formula for a winning full-funnel marketing strategy