Scaling your marketing outreach as a small business? Then you may be familiar with the concept of lifecycle marketing. Here's the non-technical definition: it is a form of marketing that targets your audience based on their behavior across the entire customer journey.

What is a customer journey? 

It's a roadmap that starts with awareness, leads to purchases, and hopefully cultivates long-term value for your business.

A successful lifecycle marketing approach involves building brand trust and crafting content that resonates with customers across each stage of their relationship with your business.

Ready to get started with lifecycle marketing? Read on for your quick-start guide.

Build your ideal audience

If you think your audience is "everyone" — think again. Creating a well-defined audience will help you maximize your marketing dollars.

First, build 3-5 brand personas — detailing the characteristics of your ideal buyer. Selling athletic socks? Perhaps your target personas can include mountain sports enthusiasts in their 30's-40's Selling SaaS? Your personas may include chief marketing officers in mid-sized corporations.

Avoid making too many personas and stick with several that encompass the type of customer who can be best served by your brand. Each persona should identify:

• Motivators: business needs and concerns
• Factors that will make or break the sale
• Decision-making process and purchase style

Once you have personas in place, it's time to map out their behavior across the customer lifecycle. How long should a customer lifecycle be It varies by industry. 

Typically these stages are:

• Awareness — educating and community-building
• Consideration —  decision making
• Purchase — closing the sale
• Post-Purchase — nurturing long-term relationships

Get a feel for how long your customer lifecycle should be by analyzing competitors. Sign up for their marketing lists and scope out how they are timing and positioning specific promotions. You can also consult market intelligence sources — from analyst reports to business media. 

A deeper dive into lifecycle stages

Awareness

The awareness stage is your opportunity to edge out competitors. Think beyond social media — there are other ways to build brand awareness. B2B clients can emphasize online listings, accolades, and awards. Small businesses and major retailers may benefit from optimizing online reviews and local PR outreach.

Consideration

This is the make-or-break stage where customers follow through on a purchase or abandon their cart. Be sure to answer their frequently asked questions about your products and services — while reassuring them that they are making the best decision for their needs. That extra nudge may mean showcasing a customer testimonial or case study — or detailing your guarantees and policies. 

Purchase

Don't underestimate the power of thank-you messaging. If you're looking to build a brand in a competitive market, this is your chance to reinforce your brand. To encourage future conversions, make it easy for customers to share their experience with friends and family. And make it easy to customize how they'd like to interact with your brand moving forward. Always provide an incentive for joining a list and make it easy to update their marketing preferences.

Post-Purchase

Unfortunately, brands are likely to hear from unhappy shoppers. Make a change by adding seamless ways to review and share your brand across the customer lifecycle. Surveys and share buttons are popular ways to gather insights while growing follower count and engagement. 

When potential customers see their community partaking in your brand, it plants a seed in their minds when the time comes to make a purchase. You can amplify this effect by implementing a solid customer loyalty program.

Choose the right tools

Once you've established brand personas and mapped out your customer lifecycle stages, it's time to choose the right mix of marketing tools. Today's customer is largely mobile — they have a lot of choices, are highly informed, and seeking brands that align with their personal identities.

What types of marketing tools should you invest in initially? At a minimum, be sure to choose a tool for:

• Customer relationship management
• Email
• Social media

For e-commerce businesses, an SMS (text messaging) platform is highly recommended. For B2B businesses, a solid content management platform is ideal.

Sweeten the sale with content

You've all heard content is king/queen. But exactly how do you personalize content for the customer lifecycle? 

Start with a good content calendar. It will help your team — brand, PR and comms, email, creative, legal, and leadership — all get on the same page. Today's digital buyers are seeking a diverse mix of marketing content that answers their questions and delivers on their needs.

The ideal content calendar covers all the types of content you want to deploy — from blogs to social media. Create a cadence that naturally flows with consumer demand. If your peak seasons are fall and winter, it makes sense to deploy more overt calls to action during that period.

Make sure to leave room in your content calendar for creative outreach and one-off campaigns. As consumer needs and preferences change, you'll need to have the ability to deploy custom messaging to ensure that they receive the right information at the right time.

Ready to evolve your lifecycle marketing?

As you improve your lifecycle marketing outreach, it's time to make the most of the rich data you've gathered. Don't let this information sit out for too long or save it for end-of-the-year business planning. A well-organized dashboard is essential to helping your team make informed decisions. 

As you iterate and optimize your process, you'll ideally create an effective process that adapts to your target customer's evolving needs, while achieving your business goals.

Contact Marina Bay Media Today

If you are a business owner interested in creating a robust online and social media presence — and protecting your business reputation, contact Marina Bay Media. Our team of certified branding, marketing advertising; reputation management; social media; and web development experts is here to help you reach your clients and customers.