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Lifecycle marketing isn’t just another buzzword; it's a strategic approach that involves tailoring your marketing efforts to meet customers' needs and preferences at every stage of their journey with your business. From attracting prospects to converting them into loyal advocates, successful lifecycle marketing campaigns can have a big impact on your business’s bottom line.
We asked thirteen marketers to share their number one piece of advice for crafting impactful lifecycle marketing campaigns, from setting measurable goals from the outset to the importance of building thriving communities for long-term loyalty and retention.
Set clear, well-defined goals
Determine what you want to achieve with your lifecycle campaign. Is it to increase customer retention, drive repeat purchases, onboard new customers, or re-engage inactive ones? Your goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). — Marc Bishop, Director of Business Growth WYTLABS
One of the most important steps in building a lifecycle marketing campaign is to determine the objectives. Setting clear goals will guide your campaign's direction and enable you to measure its success accurately. — Sahil Kakkar, CEO, WebSignals
Know your customer inside and out
Invest enough time and resources into mapping out the buyer journey. This isn't something that can be done within one function, make sure to involve all the customer-facing teams. — Yulia Olennikova, Head of Marketing, N.Rich and IntentHub.
Prioritize understanding the target audience thoroughly. Define buyer personas, identify pain points, and map the customer journey to create relevant content for each stage. Personalization and relevance are the keys to successful lifecycle marketing. By genuinely understanding the needs and interests of the audience, marketers can create impactful campaigns that engage and nurture customers throughout their journey, ultimately leading to improved conversions and customer loyalty. — Vaibhav Kakkar, CEO, Digital Web Solutions
Put the customer at the center of your strategy. Understand their needs, preferences, and pain points at each stage of their journey. Tailor your content and messaging accordingly to provide value and create a positive and memorable customer experience. Lifecycle campaigns are about building relationships, and by focusing on the customer, you'll be on the path to successful campaigns and long-term customer loyalty. — Ilia Mundut, Founder & CEO of HeftyBerry
Start simple and iterate over time
Begin with key lifecycle stages, develop a few key campaigns, and test, refine, repeat. It's better to do a few things well than many things poorly. — Aaron Gray, Founder and CEO, Pursuit Digital
Concentrate on one or two critical stages of the customer journey, create targeted messaging, and assess the outcomes. Use the insights gained to progressively broaden your campaign to encompass more stages and points of contact. Remember, lifecycle marketing is a marathon, not a sprint - it requires time to build and optimize. — Sudhir Khatwani, Founder of The Money Mongers
Start small and test often. Test different types of content, messaging, and offers to see what resonates with your audience. Taking this iterative approach will help you find the best strategies for reaching your goals and growing your business. — Tristan Harris, Demand Generation Senior Marketing Manager, Thrive Internet Marketing Agency
Try not to attempt too much too quickly. Instead, concentrate on developing a small number of effective campaigns that speak to particular audiences. Once these campaigns have achieved some level of success, you may start to scale them up and increase their complexity. — Mohamed Abd Elkhalek, Marketing Executive, Accessware
Build your brand—and a community
Integrate your unique branding throughout every lifecycle campaign. For instance, utilize brand fonts, colors, and elements to cohesively connect each step of the journey for your potential customer and tell your story. Ensuring your branding is identifiable means a memorable experience for your audience and a better chance of conversion. — Joshua Host, Founder of Thrivelab
Build a private community for your most loyal customers; we use Slack. This increased level of engagement, intimacy, and interactional will allow you to leverage your own customer's questions and thought leadership in your marketing. For us, it is has developed an incredible win-win outcome. — Zachary Murray, Founder of Foreplay
Emphasize building long-term relationships rather than focusing solely on immediate conversions. By prioritizing the customer experience and nurturing relationships, your lifecycle campaign will yield more significant results and foster customer loyalty, leading to sustained business growth. — Nick Musica, SEO professional
Always be ready to tweak things based on what your customers love. When you put your customers at the heart of your campaign, magic happens! You'll build meaningful connections and long-term loyalty, and that's the secret sauce in making your lifecycle marketing efforts a big success! — Lana Gerton, Founder of lanagerton.com
