It’s no secret that customer loyalty is one of the most significant factors of a successful business. While it’s important to attract new customers, it’s the ones who come back again and again who are most responsible for sustaining your revenue. 

Lifecycle marketing provides numerous ways to impress your customers through every stage of the marketing cycle and keep them coming back. These include:

  • Launching email marketing campaigns
  • Maintaining a lively, brand-specific social media presence
  • Using marketing automation tools that streamline the process of disbursing marketing messages to your customers

An optimized lifecycle marketing strategy enables you to better understand your customers’ needs and purchasing patterns, identify inefficiencies in your own operations, and improve the customer’s overall experience. As a result, you increase your chances of converting first-time buyers into long-time fans of your brand, who spend 31% more on average compared to new buyers.

What is lifecycle marketing?

Lifecycle marketing refers to the total combination of marketing techniques that a customer experiences during their interaction with your marketing funnel. It harnesses the power of customer communication for a more thorough understanding of their psychology, motivations, and concerns, as well as the unique solutions your products or services offer them. Then, it uses those insights to develop solutions that enable you to influence their purchasing decisions. 

Lifecycle marketing begins with advertising and brand-building to make your company stand out in your industry and continues long after a customer makes their first purchase. The ultimate goal of lifecycle marketing is to build a network of loyal supporters who become long-time customers. Plus, lifecycle marketing strategies encompass just about every marketing tactic you can think of, including:

  • Online marketing, like pay-per-click advertising, content marketing, and your company’s website and social media accounts 
  • Direct-to-consumer methods such as lifecycle email marketing, text message marketing, and direct mail campaigns
  • Programs that add consumer value, like customer support, community forums, loyalty programs, and much more
  • Promotional events such as sweepstakes, free trials, and special discount offers 

Overall, lifecycle marketing is a method that utilizes each stage of the marketing cycle to deliver user-specific marketing messages.

For example, potential customers who are just learning about your brand need information that explains why your product offers more value than your competitors. Likewise, customers who are further along in their journey require messaging that affirms their decision to choose your company. That’s where things like customer support and loyalty rewards programs come in handy. They ensure that your customers derive longer-term value beyond the quality of your products and services. 

Consumer lifecycles may be long or short, depending on how often consumers need your product or service. This is a critical aspect you should consider to optimize your lifecycle marketing strategy. 

Just a few examples of businesses that typically experience short lifecycles include: 

  • Clothing boutiques
  • Toy stores
  • Electronic manufacturers

These businesses have short lifecycles because fashion changes with the seasons, children quickly outgrow their games and gadgets, and tech developers are constantly introducing new devices with innovative features. 

On the other hand, if you sell furniture or automobiles, for example, you should expect a lifecycle that’s a bit more protracted. These are goods that consumers tend to hold onto for longer before repurchasing. 

Key benefits of the lifecycle marketing model

While there are several compelling benefits associated with lifecycle marketing, at the top of the list lives its proven potential to help you positively impact your customers. It does this by offering a seamless, satisfying, and personalized consumer journey, whether they’re potential or repeat customers.

At its core, lifecycle marketing is a simple way to source valuable data that reveals crucial insights into your customers and their purchasing decisions. You can then turn those insights into actionable plans for devising a customer experience that’s easy, enjoyable, and customized regardless of where a consumer is in their marketing journey.

Growing a base of reliable, loyal customers is the sole objective of the lifecycle marketing model, and fostering a customer-centric experience is among the most important elements. Doing so begins with providing quality products and flawless customer service, but it doesn’t end there. 

Modern ecommerce shoppers have high expectations of the companies they buy from. These include quick and easy purchasing and reliable websites and programs that reward them for choosing your brand.

This diagram shows how the customer journey, customer experience, and the value your brand offers overlap in customer-centric marketing. (Source)

Once you’ve leveraged lifecycle marketing to fine-tune the experience you provide, you’re on your way to unlocking the full range of benefits of the lifecycle marketing model. Those benefits include: 

  • You derive more value from customers over their lifetime — Loyal customers are huge contributors to the success of your business, spending up to 67% more money than those who make only one or two purchases. One reason for this is that repeated interactions with customers allow you to win their trust, which can influence them to buy more of your products or shop at higher price points.
  • You save time and boost profits — Attracting new customers is more difficult and about five times more expensive for businesses than retaining previous shoppers. Plus, leaning into repeat customers can boost your profitability by as much as 75% on average.
  • You improve your marketing efforts — Lifecycle marketing relies on data-driven insights that let you (re)create more efficient marketing campaigns. When you understand consumer behavior, you’re better able to craft customer lifecycle marketing that’s relevant to your customer’s needs, increasing customer engagement. Consumers who are engaged contribute as much as a 23% share of wallet — the dollar amount they spend with you over your competitors — compared to those who are less engaged.
  • Your customers feel valued — These days, consumers want more than just brands that speak to their personal needs and situations; as many as 66% of consumers expect brands to reach them with personalized marketing messages.
  • You sharpen your competitive edge — Lifecycle marketing contributes to enhanced customer service, better customer experiences, and more successful marketing campaigns that give you greater influence over customer behavior. This helps you to stand out in the market.

Understanding the marketing lifecycle stages 

The marketing lifecycle includes six stages. Each stage finds the consumer at a distinct point in their journey with your brand and requires specific marketing strategies to ensure success. As such, optimizing your overall lifecycle marketing efforts is dependent upon a thorough understanding of the unique features that each stage presents.  

Stage 1: Awareness 

Consumers in this stage of the marketing lifecycle are just discovering your brand. At this point, consumers are edging ever closer to the entrance of your brand’s marketing funnel. This refers to a visualization that helps brands conceptualize a customer’s path to a product purchase.

A marketing funnel helps brands visualize how customers move through the marketing cycle. Image source: (Source)

During this stage, your marketing strategies should focus on setting yourself apart from your competitors and enticing consumers to enter your marketing funnel. 

Stage 2: Desire

During this stage, potential customers are developing an interest in your brand and acting on their “desire” to know more. They may take several actions during this stage, such as:

  • Searching your brand on social media
  • Visiting your website
  • Signing up to receive promotional emails 

Stage 3: Intent  

In the third stage, consumers are familiar with and interested in your brand, but they haven’t made up their minds about purchasing — yet. This is your opportunity to convince the consumer to choose you over your competitors by showing them why they should. You can take advantage of this moment by providing them with a simple way to compare your value and prices with the competition. 

Stage 4: Decision 

At this point, potential customers make their purchase decision. If you’ve efficiently managed the first three stages, it’ll be your product that they add to their cart. Keep in mind that providing a seamless process is likely to factor into this decision. 

Stage 5: Action

During stage five, show the customer that they’ve purchased value beyond the product or service itself. That means guaranteeing satisfaction by following up with the customer, providing convenient options for customer support, and using special offers to entice them to return.

Stage 6: Loyalty 

Stage six of the marketing lifecycle is when your strategy starts to pay off. Wowed by an uncommonly pleasant experience, first-time buyers become loyal customers who spend more with your business and spread the word about their satisfaction. 

The sixth stage may be the last, but the marketing lifecycle doesn’t end there. Once you’ve successfully made brand ambassadors of your freshly-minted fans, you need to keep their loyalty alive by continuing to exceed their expectations as they return to the beginning stages.

5 ways to optimize your customer lifecycle marketing strategy

Now that you know the full lifecycle marketing definition and what it can do to improve brand loyalty among your customers, you must be anxious to build a plan from scratch or overhaul your current model. To help you get started, here are five lifecycle marketing ideas that can boost your customer retention and profits.

1. Gain a deeper understanding of your audience with buyer personas

Buyer personas also referred to as customer avatars, are fictional stand-ins of your ideal customers that allow you to more fully imagine their psychology, including their thoughts, feelings, concerns, expectations, and beliefs. In short, they’re a type of role-playing that enables you to use information from customer purchases to inspire marketing ideas that work for your brand.

These personas share descriptions with distinct segments of your target audience and are cleverly named to evoke the consumer type that they represent. They may vary from business to business, but it’s helpful to think of buyer personas in terms of a few classic archetypes, such as:

  • The Bargain Hunter
  • The Brand Loyalist
  • The Impulse Buyer
  • The Innovator
  • The Value Shopper

It’s important to consult a variety of sources to collect the consumer data you need to build personas that effectively represent your customers. That data should include the following: 

  • Demographics and psychographics
  • Their purchasing habits, including where they spend (e.g. online, in-store, etc.) and how often
  • The solutions your brand provides
  • Their preferred method for receiving marketing communications
  • The factors that might make them hesitate before purchasing

2. Set goals for each stage

As you’re plotting your lifecycle marketing process, be sure to set clear goals for each of the cycle’s six stages. Yes, your overall objective is customer retention. But by breaking the project down into smaller, more specified goals, you’ll have an easier time tracking your performance according to the metrics that matter most to your brand. 

3. Segment customers based on milestones 

As mentioned earlier, lifecycle marketing is all about tailoring your outreach so that it meets your customers where they are. To achieve that sort of personalization, it’s helpful to categorize consumers according to flash points that are specific to their journey. For example, you might consider offering promotional discounts or rewards for milestones such as:

  • First-time purchases
  • Repeat purchases
  • Loyalty anniversaries

4. Identify and resolve friction

Be on the lookout for points in each stage where friction occurs that threatens the quality of the customer’s experience. Does the layout or functionality of your website make it difficult to navigate? Are you making it easy for potential customers to find the information that convinces them to buy your product? Are there communication gaps or service inconsistencies during the post-purchase stages that could discourage consumers from returning? 

Creating a customer journey map is among the most helpful lifecycle marketing tools you can use to weed out the friction points in your plan. Customer journey maps enable you to visualize how customers progress through the cycle, particularly at import points like:

  • Discovery
  • Purchase
  • Post-purchase use 

Once you’ve identified these pain points, it’s time for you and your team to brainstorm solutions. This way, when your plan is up and running, you can easily spot and fix issues that seem minor but, in truth, act as a deterrent to winning loyal customers.

5. Use marketing automation tools

Automating marketing tasks at every stage of the marketing cycle is an effective way to bolster efficiency and maintain the personalized outreach consumers expect. Strategies like advertising, email marketing, and social media marketing, among others, are some lifecycle marketing examples that are easily automated. 

Lifecycle marketing automation tools feature numerous benefits that are in line with the principles and objectives of the lifecycle marketing project, such as: 

  • Improving customer experiences
  • Driving conversions
  • Analyzing data collected from every channel of your marketing plan

And when your efforts start bearing fruit, automation tools make it easy for your brand to scale up.

Get the tools to take command of your customer lifecycle

Build campaigns that reflect your brand at every point of the marketing cycle

Now you know what lifecycle marketing is, how it works, and the principles that guide it. You’ve also got five ideas for optimizing your lifecycle marketing strategy, like using a customer journey map to fine-tune your procedures and setting brand goals for each stage of the marketing cycle. That means you’re ready to start brainstorming solutions that make sense for your brand. 

As you start, read up on adjacent topics, such as influencer marketing and the differences between lifecycle marketing vs. growth marketing. 

Then, you can begin applying the optimization strategies from above. Start by reconsidering the goals you’ve set for your team and whether they’re reflected in your current marketing approach. Then, review the customer data you’ve collected to develop fuller buyer personas. With this, you’ll be even more prepared to launch a lifecycle marketing campaign that’s in sync with every aspect of your brand, garnering you loyal customers and more sales.