Lifecycle marketing: a powerful approach. 

A customer’s start-to-finish journey with your—or any—company is long, and it’s up to you to make a memorable impression at every step. You need a strategy that addresses every stage of the customer journey. Enter lifecycle marketing—a powerful approach designed to build lasting relationships from initial awareness to brand advocacy. 

In this blog, we’ll cover what lifecycle marketing is, the six stages of lifecycle marketing, strategies to use at every stage, and how to build your own strategy with the right help.

What Is It And Why Does It Matter?

Lifecycle marketing refers to the strategies and tactics used to engage and retain customers at every stage of their journey with your brand. This approach is all about understanding where a customer is in their journey—from discovering your brand to becoming a loyal advocate—and tailoring your marketing efforts to meet their needs at each phase.

But why should you prioritize it in your overall marketing strategy? Lifecycle marketing ensures that you’re capturing attention and nurturing relationships to maximize customer value.  By aligning your marketing efforts with the customer’s journey, you can increase engagement, reduce churn, and turn satisfied customers into enthusiastic advocates for your brand.

Related: E-Commerce Customer Journeys: Optimize Your Strategies

Turning a Lead Into a Customer

You can think about your customers’ journey in six key stages: awareness, consideration, decision, onboarding, retention, and advocacy.

Let’s break down how lifecycle marketing aligns with these stages by applying tailored strategies to meet the needs and behaviors of customers at each point in their journey. For this blog, we’ll split the six stages into two—focusing first on converting leads to customers and then on how to support and retain those new customers.

First up, let’s cover the awareness stage. Here, your goal is to introduce potential customers to your brand. High-quality content is key to capturing attention. Focus on creating content that addresses your audience’s pain points, provides solutions, and showcases your brand’s unique value proposition.

Here are some strategies you should prioritize:

• • Content marketing: Create valuable, engaging content that resonates with your target audience.
  • Social media: Leverage platforms to reach a broader audience and drive traffic to your website.
  • Paid media: Use targeted ads to increase visibility and attract potential customers.

Next, let’s talk about the consideration stage. Once you have captured interest, nurture leads by delivering content tailored to their needs and interests. This could include:

• • Educational resources: Whitepapers, case studies, and webinars that provide deeper insights into your offerings.
  • Comparison guides: Help prospects understand how your product or service stacks up against competitors.
  • Email marketing: Segment your email lists and send personalized messages that address the specific interests and behaviors of your leads.

From here, you can move on to focusing on those in the decision stage. To convert leads into customers, streamline their decision-making process by making sure that your product details, pricing, and benefits are easy to find. You’ll also, if applicable, want to give your prospects a free trial or a demonstration of your offering.

Ultimately, the goal here is to get your soon-to-be customers to act, so focus on strong calls to action (CTAs) that prompt leads to take the final step and make a purchase. Highlight time-sensitive promotions or exclusive deals to create urgency.

With that, congratulations! You’ve converted a lead into a customer. And now, the purpose and process of your marketing strategy will switch to keep that customer on board. Let’s talk about how that works.

Related: Why Understanding Your Customer is the Key to Marketing ROI

Nurturing and Retaining New Customers

Now that you have a new customer, you’re ready to focus on the onboarding stage. This is your chance to make a strong first impression and set the tone of the customer experience. 

Start strong with a warm welcome of some kind. That can be an email or even an in-person mailer. With that message, make sure to provide clear instructions on how to use your product or service effectively. Make the transition as smooth as possible by addressing any initial questions or concerns promptly and providing ongoing support.

From there, you’re on to the retention stage. This, ideally, should be where your customers camp out for the longest time. Maintaining customer satisfaction is key to retention. You can try strategies like:

• • Regular check-ins: Periodically reach out to customers to gather feedback and address any issues.
  • Loyalty programs: Offer rewards or incentives for repeat purchases.

You’ll also want to make sure that customers in this stage get personalized communications that address their preferences and behaviors to make them feel valued and understood.

Here’s a handy resource for building and maintaining customer loyalty.

With good customers on your side, you can focus on helping them become advocates for your brand. Advocacy is an excellent way to build your reputation even when you’re not doing the work, and a good word from a peer tends to go further than a paid advertisement from a brand.

You can encourage your customers to leave positive reviews on your website or third-party platforms by providing incentives for their feedback. Likewise, you can implement referral programs to incentivize customers to spread the word. You can then use those reviews, testimonials, and referrals to build credibility and attract new leads.

Related: How to Develop a Customer-Focused Strategy for B2C Marketing

Get Professional Lifecycle Marketing Help

Lifecycle marketing works, but it’s long and can come with challenges like data management issues, integration difficulties, or resource constraints. Of course, investing in your team, using the right tools, and keeping a keen eye on data can help—but building a strong plan from the start can help you avoid many of these challenges entirely.

You can try doing it yourself, or you can get help from a seasoned fractional CMO. You get the expertise and strategic guidance you need to implement and optimize your lifecycle marketing plan effectively—without having to pay a full-time CMO package.

Ready to elevate your customer engagement and retention strategies?

Click here to schedule a free, 30-minute consultation with one of our fractional CMOs today.