What is Lifecycle Marketing? 6 Strategies & Campaign Tips to Get Started

What Is Lifecycle Marketing?

Lifecycle marketing is a mixture of strategies designed to move customers through the different stages in the buying journey, from initial awareness and engagement to consideration and purchase, by creating content that resonates with them.

But lifecycle marketing doesn’t end when they click “Buy.” It also involves nurturing a customer even after their purchase to keep them returning for life.

Marketing Lifecycle Stages

To get the most out of customer lifecycle marketing, it’s important to understand your customers' stages. Without this knowledge, your marketing strategy won’t reach people in the right way or at the right time. The marketing lifecycle stages are your starting point when determining your strategy.

Customer Lifecycle Marketing Strategies

A lifecycle marketing strategy will probably look different from company to company. For example, your local craft brewery might only use a few strategies in each section we cover here and focus more on the local market. At the same time, a commercial brewing company will likely have more wide-reaching marketing tactics. Small business marketing strategies differ from those of large enterprise companies and can also change depending on your industry and the product or service that you're selling.

The bottom line is that you can use different lifecycle marketing strategies to nurture your customers, from awareness to brand advocacy, no matter your business or industry.

Take a look at the types of strategies — organized by lifecycle marketing stage — that you can use to carry your customers through their journeys, including tangible examples.

Awareness

The first stage in lifecycle marketing is awareness. This is the prime time to generate leads with targeted ads, content, and other strategies. To get customers, you need to attract them to your brand by meeting a need or piquing their interest.

Awareness Marketing

• Keyword targeting
• Blog posts and website content that answers audience questions, and provides high-level information
• Paid ads on Google, social media, podcasts, and local news or TV
• Out-of-home marketing, like billboards, benches, public transit stops vehicles, and so on
• User-generated or partner content
• Local events

Paid social ads are a great way to capture a user’s attention and boost awareness of your brand. When someone receives a targeted ad based on their preferences, like a spring marketing campaign for airfare, they’re more likely to click through to the brand’s social page and onto its website.

Engagement

Acure Skincare is doing it right when it comes to promoting engagement. When customers head to their website for the first time, they receive an opt-in email pop-up with a discount incentive to sign up. This keeps customers interested and helps prep them for the next stage: consideration.

Engagement Marketing Strategies

• Easy-to-navigate website that showcases your product or service
• Email or text message sign-up and live chat on your website
• Social media campaigns that encourage interaction, like polls or giveaways

As part of your lifecycle campaign in the engagement stage, it's important to ensure that what your customers see, from website to social posts to marketing communications, is cohesive and that the messaging is consistent from channel to channel.

Engagement Marketing Example

Acure Skincare is doing it right when it comes to promoting engagement. When customers head to their website for the first time, they receive an email opt-in pop-up with a discount incentive to sign up. This keeps customer interest and helps to prep them for the next stage: consideration.

Consideration

Okay, so your customers are engaging with your brand. What now? Provide more info and help them in their decision-making process. They must be delighted with your brand and understand how your product or service is better than a competitor's. In this stage of lifecycle marketing, you're providing customers with all the necessary information to decide.

Consideration Marketing Strategies

• Email and text marketing campaigns that promote top sellers or expand on what the customer has already searched for
• Webinars or video demos that walk customers through your offered service
• Blog posts and website content that take a deeper dive into customer problems/solutions and promote your product or service
• Website that highlights customer testimonials

Conversion

To convert non-paying customers into paying customers, you need to make it easy to make a purchase. Also, make sure that the customer understands why they should buy now.

For example, take advantage of mobile marketing strategies like text messaging. When you use an SMS marketing service like EZ Texting, you can send automated abandoned cart messages or share discount codes via text to customers in the conversion stage. This lifecycle marketing strategy motivates customers to take action and complete a purchase.

Conversion Marketing Strategies

• Personalized email and text marketing that encourage them to buy
• Clear prices or pricing plans on your website
• Products and services on your website that are easy to view and take action on
• Free trials

Conversion Marketing Example

This example of an SMS marketing message prompts the customer to act by giving them a sense of urgency. This message is friendly but to the point and is the last push toward a purchase.

Support

Purchase complete! Don't spend too much time celebrating; you need to follow up fast. This marketing lifecycle stage is about nurturing and supporting the customer post-purchase.

Support Marketing Strategies

• Email marketing messages that contain helpful tips and guides for the product or service
• Email and text marketing, plus ads, that highlight complimentary items to pair with the purchased product or service
• Customer support that is easily accessed on your website

The key in this lifecycle marketing stage is to make your customers immediately happy with their purchase and remind them that you’re here for them as they try out their new product or service. Give them a stellar customer experience that they won’t forget.

Support Marketing Example

Following up with targeted email or text marketing messages after a customer buys your product or service is a great way to personalize the purchase and turn them into happy repeat customers.

Loyalty

With outstanding customer service (in a good way), your brand paves the way for a loyal customer. But sending follow-up marketing messages and providing free returns isn't the only way to make your customers happy.

Keep customers returning by continually engaging them and offering perks throughout the year. The goal is for them to see your brand and instantly know it's the one for them.

Loyalty Marketing Strategies

• Birthday perks
• Community forum access
• Membership signup
• Email and text marketing that promotes new products, keeps customers up to date, and retargets customers who haven’t purchased in a while
• Loyalty programs
• Incentives for referring a friend, posting a product review, or taking a survey

Loyalty Marketing Example

By offering a referral program, you’re keeping customers engaged and loyal to the brand because the more they share, the more they get. Businesses can promote referral or other types of programs by email or SMS marketing.

When you activate customer lifecycle marketing, you’re implementing proven methods to increase awareness, boost retention, and maximize sales. Nurturing your customers every step of the way with lifecycle brand marketing tactics ensures that their needs are met, and your business can grow.