It’s not easy to run a business or sell a product especially when there’s a lot of competition – both online and offline. However, with changing times and technologies, people are making big decisions on their smartphones and laptops. And it has become harder than ever to attract new customers, and most importantly, retain them.
To make your business a successful brand, you must focus on establishing and managing better customer relationships. This is the reason why customer relationship management has become the talk of the town. It is almost impossible to run a successful business without having loyal customers. Whether you are a CEO, a digital marketer, or a product manager, it is essential to understand your customers and their journeys with your product or services.
What is customer lifecycle marketing?
Customer lifecycle marketing can be defined as the process of providing personalized customer communication at each stage of a customer’s journey in order to attract, convert and retain them, and eventually develop a better relationship with them. The ultimate intention of this type of marketing is to maximize the overall buying experience of customers while working towards boosting revenue and contributing to the growth of the brand.
To expand your business and improve profitability, one must know about the various lifecycle stages that customers go through and strategize for providing a better customer experience to retain them for as long as possible.
Stages of customer lifecycle marketing
It is interesting to know that when the term “customer lifecycle marketing” was originated, it comprised of only three stages: attract, sell and wow. Today, not only the stages have different names but marketers have also expanded these stages and their definition as per the present needs of the time.
Below are the six main stages of customer lifecycle marketing:
Attraction
It is the first stage where your potential customers find or discover you for the first time. Some of the most common channels or mediums that enable you to be seen are through social media, content marketing and SEO.
Consideration
It is this stage that customers are looking out or considering their options. At this stage, you should focus on influencing them to form a preference of your brand and start considering purchase options. This could be done through welcome campaigns, product descriptions, product comparisons and reviews.
Conversion
Since marketing is all about making people act, it is this stage when you have to literally persuade your customers and encourage them to take the final call i.e. to make the purchase. The two most used methods are product recommendations and call-to-action (CTA).
Retention
At this stage, you have to work hard to win the loyalty of customers and make sure they stay with the brand always. Marketers use special discounts and come up with different loyalty schemes to retain customers.
Advocacy
During advocacy, digital marketers have to come up with processes and methods to make your loyal customers endorse your brand. The most trusted method would be to create campaigns that help you to display user-generated content on social media channels.
Win-back
There are scenarios where customers lapse; it is during this stage that you come up with different ways to get them back.
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How to win at customer lifecycle marketing
After learning about customer lifecycle marketing and various stages in the marketing cycle, it’s the right time to know how to win in the marketing lifecycle.
Here are some tips you can use to your advantage to come up with a kickass marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at them:
1. Create multiple channels
The first step should be to provide multiple channels to customers. The more the availability, the happier they are to get options to choose from. Bear in mind that whether customers are engaging with you on an app, a store, or through your official website, make sure they are getting a smooth experience via each and every channel because anything less could lose you a potential customer.
2. Welcome campaigns
Welcome campaigns are an effective marketing strategy to get new customers and thus, boost profitability. Whenever someone (a potential customer) joins your email list, you should send him an automated list of emails as a part of your marketing strategy. It gives you an opportunity to introduce your brand to him and tell him the difference it could make to his life.
Create some messages and emails with content that helps you to build a relationship with them and get them excited about the product and, eventually, make a purchase.
3. Connect on a personal level with customers
These days, people have excellent customer experiences and service, and they have gotten used to it. However, there are so many organizations that haven’t yet mastered this art of going an extra mile to wow their customers.
This can only be done if you know them or have some data that tells you about their preferences. Start focusing on making a personal connection with customers to win their trust.
4. Browse and cart abandonment
Oftentimes, customers put an item in their cart or basket but leave the site without making a purchase. Whenever something like this happens, you get a cart abandonment email. Such information could be helpful to improve your conversion rates by knowing what could be the possible reason for their exit. You can entice the customer to come back and buy by offering a discount or something similar.
5. Add value through call-to-actions
The whole point of creating a marketing strategy is to make the customers act. It depends on your needs that what action you want them to take. Make use of customer lifecycle marketing strategy to let your current customers, prospects and lapsed customers to take a step that is profitable to the brand. Thus, one should never underestimate the power of a well-placed call-to-actions through every phase of the customer journey.
Final thoughts
It could be a bit difficult to understand and get used to the concept of customer lifecycle marketing but it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to be taken care of. More and more brands and organizations are realizing its importance and are coming up with innovative ways to incorporate it into their existing marketing strategy and increase profits.