Tag Archives: lifecycle marketing

Marketing professionals are well educated on the typical sales funnel.

In short, the funnel moves prospective leads through a sales process with the end goal being a purchase, download, or sign up.

While simple enough to understand, it is quickly being phased out in favor of lifecycle marketing. This is forcing marketers to take the time to understand lifecycle marketing and how to map to email campaigns.

While it may look a bit overwhelming at first, learning how to map emails to your lifecycle marketing isn’t nearly as difficult as you think.

However, before jumping into the steps needed to map your email campaigns to the customer lifecycle, it’s crucial to take a moment to define the term “lifecycle marketing.”

Defining lifecycle marketing

Lifecycle marketing is very similar to the typical sales funnel marketers have come to know and love. The most significant difference, however, is lifecycle marketing doesn’t have an endpoint. For example, this is what the standard sales funnel looks like:

Standard Sales Funnel

Source: Campaign Monitor

In this example, a lead enters the sales funnel at the very top of the funnel as they first become aware of the brand. Based on interactions and communications with the brand and its content, the lead will hopefully be funneled through each of the phases and convinced to make the final conversion from lead to customer.

Create a customer journey using our guide.

Lifecycle marketing does much of the same, but it never truly ends. Instead, once the lead makes the desired conversion, it starts all over again by making the consumer aware of new products, services, or other news simply to keep them engaged with the brand.

 Visual of the customer lifecycle

Source: Alexa

How does email play into lifecycle marketing?

Lifecycle marketing relies almost entirely on constant communication between you and your consumers. While this communication can (and should) come in several different forms, one of the most effective forms is email.

Not only does email net marketing teams the most ROI of all available digital channels, but it’s also the most preferred method of communication between customers and their favorite brands.

According to a recent study, 83% of consumers stated that they preferred to communicate with their favorite companies via email, beating out SMS/text messages, popular messaging apps, social apps (such as Facebook and Twitter), and even a brand’s own mobile app.

Consumer communication preference

Source: Twilio

Lifecycle marketing: how to map to email campaigns in 6 steps

With email being the most preferred method of communication between consumers and brands, marketing teams must prioritize email marketing, as well as email automation.

Email automation is the practice of setting up email campaigns to send out automatically to lessen the daily load of marketing teams and keep consumers engaged with your brand.

Not sure where to get started? Here are six ways to get started with lifecycle marketing and how to map to email campaigns.

Get the email automation guide.

1. Potential lead to engagement

The first step in mapping your email campaigns to your lifecycle marketing is the awareness stage. At this stage, the goal should be capturing the lead’s attention and convincing them to start engaging with your brand.

This can be through a free campaign, an email signup, or a download. The idea here is to get the consumer interested enough to supply you with their contact information, primarily their email address.

New lead to engaged subscriber

It’s by collecting this information that you’ll be able to continue forward and build/nurture your relationship with this lead. This relationship-building process is essential to moving any lead through the lifecycle marketing process.

2. Engagement to evaluation

Once you’ve captured the lead’s information, it’s time to get them to seriously consider performing an action such as a download or making a purchase.

One way to do this is by sending them an automated welcome email that thanks them for signing up for your content or providing you with their email address. Not only will your new lead feel appreciated, but they’ll be intrigued to see what you have to say.

From there, you can consider giving that lead a special incentive to encourage them to visit your website. Again, this can be in the form of a free download, a discounted webinar, or even a special discount on their first order.

Welcome email example that encourages new customers to make a purchase

Source: Really Good Emails

The idea in this stage is to show your new lead that you’re a brand that cares about its community and a brand worth investing in.

It’s important to note that, while the incentive may be good enough to get your new reader to click through to your website, it doesn’t guarantee that they’ll make a purchase or follow through on your desired action.

Studies have shown that approximately 98% of consumers won’t purchase anything during their initial visit to your website.

3. Evaluation to purchase

Since you aren’t likely to get that initial purchase after you’ve sent out your welcome email, you’ll want to continue encouraging a purchase by “reminding” your reader that something’s waiting for them.

This can be through a cart abandonment email (if they viewed a particular product while visiting your site after your initial welcome email) or simply sending a second email in your welcome series.

In the following example from the brand Rue21, they sent out an email informing their subscribers of some outstanding deals and then followed it up the next day with a reminder email.

Sale and Reminder email to encourage purchase

Source: Rue21

While these two emails are practically the same, they serve as important reminders for the sale and why you need to visit the site. Although they have a similar setup and message, they understand that their readers may not remember all the details and want to make sure they aren’t missing out on something spectacular.

Ideally, the follow-up email will be enough to get your lead to head on over to the store and make a purchase. Although, if it’s only good enough to get them to the website and viewing products, then a good next step is a cart abandonment email.

This example from Adidas was brilliant because, while it was a cart abandonment message, they made creative use of their subject line and email body text to truly pique the reader’s interest.

Creative cart abandonment email message

Source: Really Good Emails

When done correctly, an abandoned cart email or email series can help you recover anywhere between 5-15% of your abandoned carts.

4. Purchase to post-purchase

If you’ve reached this point, then congratulations. You’ve officially turned your new lead into a customer. Where the traditional sales funnel would’ve ended here, lifecycle marketing takes it another step.

Once a conversion has been made (a purchase, download, signup, etc.), you should always follow it up with a “thank you,” at the very least. In the case of a purchase, you should always consider including an automated transactional email to the mix.

Transactional/post-purchase email example

Source: Really Good Emails

In the example above, not only does the brand thank the consumer for their payment, but then follow it up with details about the transaction. In this case, the details include the order dates, the order number, and the order/payment amount.

Other transactional emails may include important shipping or tracking information that may be relevant for the consumer.

5. Post-purchase to advocacy

Once the purchase has been made and you’ve thanked them for their support and provided any pertinent information to them, it’s time to encourage them to advocate for your brand. Encouraging brand advocacy can be as simple as asking for a review of the service or product that your consumer received.

An excellent example of this can be seen in the following post-purchase email from Walgreens.

Post-purchase advocacy email

Source: Walgreens

Walgreens is not only asking for brand advocacy in this email, but it’s showing its consumers that they genuinely want to hear the opinions of shoppers by initiating this post-purchase email contact.

While consumers have no problem leaving negative reviews when they’ve had a bad experience, they also enjoy it when a brand checks in on them and asks for their honest opinion about a product or service.

6. Back to awareness

Whether your consumer leaves their review or not, the cycle still doesn’t come to an end. The final step is to re-engage your subscribers and keep them interacting with your brand.

This can be through regular newsletter updates, holiday well wishes, or product launches/sales updates. It’s your responsibility to continue nurturing the relationship between you and each of your subscribers.

For example, Grammarly keeps its users engaged by providing them with regular tips and tricks to help them continue improving their writing skills.

Email newsletter example

Source: Really Good Emails

Bonus: inactive subscriber re-engagement

Now, what if you’ve been sending automated messages, yet you haven’t received any interaction from a subscriber for some time?

While it’s true they may have become inactive because they received whatever it was they wanted from your brand, there could be other reasons why your subscriber hasn’t been around.

That’s why you should always consider re-engaging with a subscriber before you write them off as a lost cause and remove them from your email list.

 Re-engagement email example

Source: Really Good Emails

Wrap up

Defining lifecycle marketing and how to map to email campaigns isn’t as difficult as you may think. Simply keep in mind the following six steps:

  • Engage with a potential lead
  • Pique the lead’s interest, so they’ll consider acting
  • Encourage action
  • Follow up once the lead makes the conversion
  • Encourage brand advocacy
  • Re-engage with your consumer

Curious how small businesses should be utilizing lifecycle marketing in their email campaigns? Check out our short guide on lifecycle email marketing for small businesses.

Article first published in August 2017, updated June 2019

Marketers understand that people rarely purchase after their first touch with a website or brand. Consumers need nurturing at multiple stages throughout the purchase funnel.

Lifecycle marketing allows companies to send multiple emails with the goal of educating prospects so they understand what the company offers and how it can help them succeed. In other words, companies use lifecycle marketing to increase the likelihood of purchase, increase retention, and lifetime value.

But, as Anthony Nygren, from EMI Strategic Marketing, says, “Lifecycle Marketing isn’t just about sending messages customers might like—it’s about positively influencing their behavior.”

Lifecycle marketing campaigns aren’t one-size-fits-all tactics that you can just plug and play. You must adapt each campaign to your industry, your personas, and your specific goals. With that said, let’s take a moment to touch on the basics of lifecycle marketing and what it means for your brand and your prospects.

What is lifecycle marketing

We touched on what lifecycle marketing is; however, there’s so much more to it. Lifecycle marketing helps marketers guide potential customers through specific milestones in their sales funnel or brand relationship.

What is the marketing lifecycle?

In short, the marketing life cycle is designed to help marketers address their audience’s specific needs as they go from a prospect to a subscriber through to a loyal customer. Of course, the cycle isn’t that simple—while we wish it went that smoothly, the marketing life cycle also must include the indecisive customer, lapsed customers, repeat customers, and more.

This lifecycle marketing model shows us just how complicated the cycle can be, especially once you’ve aligned it to your many marketing channels.

This lifecycle marketing model shows us just how complicated the cycle can be, especially once you’ve aligned it to your many marketing channels. Source: Smart Insights

What are the stages of the customer lifecycle journey?

Now, as intimidating as that model may look, that’s the reality of having a business with multiple channels to it. For those starting small, you’ll want to begin by addressing the most common stages of the customer lifecycle journey, and then align it to your brand’s marketing goals.

The typical stages of the customer lifecycle journey look a little something like this.

The typical stages of the customer lifecycle journey look a little something like this.

Source: Alexa

Each stage is an essential piece of the lifecycle marketing process, so having a basic understanding of each is crucial.

  • Brand awareness – your prospect first learns of your brand and products/services
  • Brand engagement – your prospect begins interacting with your brand, possibly through subscribing to your email list
  • Customer evaluation of the brand – Prospects will evaluate what you have to offer them and decide if it’s worth making the conversion.
  • Customer purchase – After the evaluation process, they’ll hopefully choose to make a purchase.
  • Post-purchase experience – The brand will want to reach out to the consumer to ensure their expectations have been met.
  • Customer advocacy – If all goes well and your brand has a happy customer, then they’ll begin to spread the word of their experience to those around them.

In this post, you’ll learn ten examples of companies that use lifecycle marketing to communicate with their subscribers and customers.

Software

Campaign Monitor

A great way to learn about lifecycle marketing is from Campaign Monitor. I’ve been using it to promote my personal blog for some time and, recently, I decided to use it to launch a new email-based personal project of mine.

After I signed up, I immediately received a welcome email. It starts with a warm thank you that includes some social proof.  Then it recommends three clear ways to get started. Since it’s common for people to have questions before getting started with any tool, Campaign Monitor also offers customer support help, in case you need it.

After I sent my first campaign, I was reminded to analyze the results, which was both helpful and useful.

A day after I sent my campaign (which had been scheduled), I received a second email with a direct link to the analytics reporting, and a link to Worldview and the iOS app.

 

E-Commerce

Allbirds

Allbirds is a shoe company from New Zealand that sells wool shoes that are all the rage with tech folks, millennials, and nearly everyone else.

The first email I received was a brief explanation of what they do and what they stand for. The email shared the company’s values rather than just talking about the product itself. They talk about their shoes, but from a value perspective (environmental sustainability, benefits of their shoes) and not about specific features. What I love about Allbirds is their values, so it makes sense they talk about them before they talk about their shoes.

After I submitted my order, I received a standard order confirmation email. Simple and effective.

After my order shipped, I received another email providing me the tracking number.

What I didn’t receive is a product review email or education about the importance of wool and sustainability. It would’ve been great if I had but, so far, they’re a small company and their lifecycle marketing campaign is simple and effective.

Bodybuilding.com

Bodybuilding.com is an online retailer specializing in dietary supplements, sports supplements, and bodybuilding supplements.

After I signed up for their newsletter, the first email I received was a thank you, with simple 1-2-3 steps: Browse their most popular products, see what new content they have, and find a training plan.

A few days later, I received an extensive news update with information about training, nutrition, and motivational content. Lastly, it contained a promotion.

The last email I received was purely sales-focused. It contained a large array of products available with a discount, mostly focused on pre-workout products.

All the subsequent emails I received were either news-focused or sales-focused.

Just Eat

Just Eat is one of the largest online food delivery companies in the world, with a market valuation of over $5 billion.

After signing up for their service, I received a welcome email with my login credentials. This email could be even more effective if it recommended places close to my location, steps to order for the first time, and FAQs, among other things.

After I placed my first order, I received an email order confirmation with the details of the order, including the time of delivery, the food ordered, and the shipping destination.

A few hours after I received the order, I received an email with an offer for my next order to incentivize a repeat purchase.

A day after my order, I received an email asking for a review. This is a smart move, as reviews are one of the most effective content types people use to make a purchase.

Nonprofit

Note: The example emails were sourced from Really Good EmailsPinterest, and Charity Email Gallery.

Charity Water

Charity Water is a nonprofit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing countries.

The first email they send after signup says “Welcome, world changer.” It touches on one of Charity Water’s user goals: helping to change the world for the better. The image is quite emotional and shows the results of a potential donation, which motivates potential donors. It also uses the typical 1-2-3 steps we’ve seen, with three recommended actions to take: learning more about how they fund the projects, how they prove their donations, and how they rely on local experts.

The second email is simple and specific: Donate water today and help someone in need. It’s simple but works well, given they know their subscribers care about the cause and it’s tied to Giving Tuesday, a specific nonprofit holiday.

The third email focuses on stories of children who’ve done the impossible to donate to the charity. It’s inspiring and emotional, which works great for nonprofits like Charity Water. By focusing on the importance of their cause, they persuade people to donate.

American Red Cross

American Red Cross is an important nonprofit organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and education in the United States.

The first email engages new subscribers with the values of the organization. They also set the expectations for what you can expect by being a subscriber, which is a great email marketing best practice. Surprisingly, they offer a discount for their online store, in which they sell emergency and first aid kits, among other related products. They close the first email with links to follow them on their social media channels, to donate, and volunteer.

The following two emails sent are focused on donation campaigns. Both emails mention other donation and volunteering opportunities and news about their organization. Both emails are good, as they’re true to their organization’s goals (i.e., to get donations and volunteers).

WWF

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is one of the largest nonprofits in the field of wilderness preservation and environmental protection.

The first email is a perfect example of a well-thought-out welcome email. It starts with a powerful message about protecting elephants and how you can help achieve the goal. Then WWF suggests a specific action: talking about why you want to help them protect the earth. Thanks to the power of commitment and consistency, this small action makes people more likely to continue volunteering and donating. It closes with the signature of an executive of the organization, which makes it even more compelling and powerful.

The second email is focused on making a donation to an important cause. Once again, they start with a visual picture. Triggering imagination and emotions help move people towards action. If they focused on the rational side (e.g., “You should donate because there are 1,000 turtles left), people may have a harder time doing something about the problem. They focus on the why (the purpose), not the what (the problem).

The third email focused on selling merchandise. What makes it effective is that they package up the merchandise in the form of a donation and focus it around a holiday.

Travel and Hospitality

Agoda

Agoda is travel fare aggregator selling destinations around the world.

After signing up, I didn’t receive a welcome email. But, after booked my first trip for a hostel in Singapore, I received a booking confirmation email. Besides the standard booking information, Agoda also suggests tasks for managing my booking details, customer service, and their site’s mobile apps.

A few days after my stay in the hostel, I received a second email asking for a review. This email is very simple and focused on encouraging me to write a review. They also explain how to write a review, which made it easier for me to do so.

Booking

Booking.com is one of the world’s largest travel fare aggregator websites and travel metasearch engines for the travel industry.

The first email I received wasn’t a welcome email, but a booking confirmation I made after opening an account with them. The email is long and detailed; most of the email is a mix of booking information and suggestions for changes in the booking. They mention everything about the reservation, including details of the hotel and its reservation rules and their own rules for changes, cancellations, and returns.

Later that day, I received a discount offer for other trips close to Kuala Lumpur, the location of the hotel I booked. This was one of the many offers I’ve received since then. That same day, I received a referral link to give out to my friends, which would help them both get a discount on a reservation. In this last email, they mention how the referral process works and why it matters, which makes it easier for me to use the referral link.

A day later, I received yet another offer and a reminder of the booking details, which was a few days away. They also suggested attractions in the city, which is useful for most tourists.

One day after my booking ended, they sent me an email asking for a review. After I gave a review, I received a thank you email. Both emails were simple and focused on the review.

AirAsia

AirAsia is one of the largest low-cost airlines in the Southeast Asia market.

The first email I received was a welcome email, which, like most of these emails, focused on giving help to new subscribers. In this case, they explain a few simple ways to accumulate points and how to redeem them, as well as how to make it easier to book and log in. Overall, it’s a useful email that helps a potential customer be more efficient in their bookings.

After I had booked a flight, I received a booking confirmation email. It’s simple and focused on the most basic links to manage my booking and check in. A few days before the flight, I received another email with the travel itinerary and the things I needed to bring to the airport.

Once I made the flight, I received a customer satisfaction survey with the option of loyalty points. The reward ended up being enough incentive for me to take the survey.

Wrap up

The companies you’ve seen in this post come from entirely different industries and all benefit from lifecycle marketing using email and automation. What they share is that they follow through on the basics of lifecycle marketing, meaning they consider and address each of the stages included in the customer lifecycle journey:

  • Brand awareness
  • Brand engagement
  • Customer evaluation of the brand
  • Customer purchase
  • Post-purchase experience
  • Customer advocacy

Now that you’ve gotten a chance to learn about lifecycle marketing, it’s time to focus your attention on creating customer journeys to help move them through the lifecycle marketing stages. Start by reading our guide on getting started with customer journeys and learn not only the basics, but how to set up customer journeys with the help of Campaign Monitor’s helpful tools.

Email marketers are some of the finest out there. They know how to use advanced tactics such as personalization, email automation, and behavioral marketing to get results. But today’s email marketers do a lot more than write and schedule emails. They’re focused on lifecycle marketing.

Marketers are often responsible for finding new customers, as well as for keeping them around. After all, repeat customers are extremely valuable to a business. According to Adobe, 80% of companies’ marketing budgets are spent on acquiring shoppers; however, for every 1% of shoppers who become repeat customers, a company’s revenue will increase by about 10%.

The tide is moving away from simply focusing on acquisition and retention as marketers find way to improve the customer experience at every touchpoint. According to Kapow, 68% of customers leave a business because they perceive that brands are indifferent to them. Lifecycle marketing seeks to disrupt the this unfortunate perception.

Marketers are now finding ways to engage and communicate with prospects before, during, and after their purchase process. So, why the focus on lifecycle marketing now more than ever, and what does this mean for marketers that want to continue to get results from channels like email?

Understanding lifecycle marketing

Lifecycle marketing is looking at every aspect of your customer journey and creating interactions at key touchpoints and milestones. Ultimately, when a prospect or customer does something or feels a certain way or needs something, it’s our responsibility to listen and respond. Lifecycle marketing works to guide potential customers through identified milestones in the sales funnel or brand relationship.

This form of marketing is meant to tailor messages based on the stage of the customer. Marketing stages can include the “member” as someone who signs up for a newsletter list; a “single purchase customer,” who makes one purchase and may not come back; an “active customer,” who makes repeat purchases, an “at risk customer,” whose repeat purchase cycle begins to slow; or a “lost customer,” who no longer purchases.

Each step in this lifecycle requires a different message in order to keep a customer engaged and avoid losing them.

Here are the 5 stages of lifecycle marketing companies typically see:

5 Stages of lifecycle marketing

The Lifecycle Mapping Method For Email Marketing, designed by Philip Storey, copyright Enchant Agency.

 

  1. Acquisition phase – where you try to identify prospects
  2. Consideration phase – where you try to convert prospects
  3. Customer excitement phase – when a prospect becomes a customer and is awaiting delivery or is currently experiencing the product
  4. Retention phase – when the customer has purchased and you have an intention to generate a repeat purchase, loyalty or advocacy
  5. Win-back phase – when a prospect has stopped engaging with your marketing or a customer has purchased that has lapsed and you have a desire to bring them back

How to implement lifecycle marketing

If you’re not already doing lifecycle marketing at your organization, you can start by mapping your phases to specific actions. For example:

  • Acquisition – Customer enters email address on website
  • Consideration – Customer opens cart abandonment emails
  • Excitement – Customer opens shipping notification email, and clicks tracking button

The key is to identify the most lucrative and most important gaps in your lifecycle strategy. At which points are you communicating effectively? Where do customers drop off? Where are the opportunities?

Implimenting Lifecycle marketing

The Lifecycle Mapping Method For Email Marketing, designed by Philip Storey, copyright Enchant Agency.

 

Once you assess your current communication strategies, you should be able to fill in the gaps with messaging that makes sense. Always make sure you’re keeping tone and context in mind.

Wrap up

The shift to lifecycle marketing, which covers a customer’s entire journey, is a by-product of the rapid development of technology in marketing. Now that marketers have so much data at their fingertips, they can expertly target prospects and customers at different stages of their customer journey. This is an opportunity for the marketer to own the customer lifecycle like never before.