The Stages of Consumer Lifecycle Marketing: Everything You Need to Know

Lifecycle marketing encompasses all the strategies businesses utilize to attract new customers, convert them, and retain them. These strategies exist to engage consumers throughout the various stages of their buyer journey. When it comes to your business, you must factor in the steps a buyer takes from the first discovery of your products or services through purchase, loyalty, and retention.

A lifecycle can be short or long. Some brands have shorter cycles and need to draw consumers back in directly after they make a purchase. Other companies, however, play the long game of retention and advocacy to encourage repeat customers. Regardless of cycle length, there are stages that make up a lifecycle marketing plan. Knowing what these stages are and understanding how they work will help your business attract and retain consumers.

The stages of lifecycle marketing include:

Awareness

 This is the step where consumers first learn about your business. Now is your chance to capture people’s attention and draw them further into the funnel! Awareness strategies include:

• Researching and using keywords to help people discover your business while browsing the web.
• Sharing your products or services in a visually appealing paid or organic social ad or post.
• Partnering with industry influencers to cross-promote content.

Engagement

Consumers begin interacting with your business at this stage. People are interested in your brand and want to learn more about your products or services by subscribing to your email list, following you on social media platforms, and perusing your website. Example strategies include:

• Engaging landing pages that are easy to navigate.
• Video demonstrations that highlight features of your products or services.
• Creating blogs, email blasts, or social posts providing solutions to common customer questions or problems.

Evaluation

At this stage, consumers are deciding whether or not to purchase from your business. Make this stage easy for them to choose your brand over your competitors by providing them with everything they need to know, from your features, pricing, and value. Strategies for this level can include:

• Ensuring your site outlines clear pricing and feature information so consumers can accurately and quickly review offerings.
• Sharing customer testimonials and user-generated content to build trust in your brand.
• Offering discounts for first-time shoppers/clients on products or services to increase confidence in the consumer investment.

Purchase

Success! Consumers who make it to this stage are officially a customer. At this point, you don’t want to promote your brand – you simply want to make purchasing your products or services as easy as possible so that people follow through.

Support

Now that you have acquired new customers, you need to provide them with excellent service. This stage is focused on following up with shoppers to ensure they are happy with their purchases. Ways to follow up with consumers include:

• Providing always-on community management across all social platforms, website live chat, etc.
• Creating a targeted ad campaign highlighting additional products someone may need based on their previous purchase.
• Sending discount codes for future purchases.

Loyalty

 At this stage, happy consumers share with their followers, friends, and family members that they are fans of your business. You want to nurture these individuals so that they continue to be brand loyalists and help draw in new consumers.

So, how does consumer lifecycle marketing increase marketing profit, you ask? According to Gartner, about 80% of a company’s future profits come from 20% of its existing customers. Retention is so crucial for business growth! Your marketing strategies – especially across digital platforms – that improve loyalty through consumer engagement increase the odds that people will be repeat customers. Ways to encourage loyalty include:

• Providing incentives for users who are sharing social content and written testimonials.
• Offering referral programs for customers who bring in new consumers.
• Running reactivation campaigns for customers who drop off.

Ready to build valuable relationships with current and potential customers? We can help. Contact Us to get started. We can’t wait to help grow your business!