What is lifecycle marketing?

Lifecycle marketing is the practice of attracting, engaging, and converting your customers at every step of their journey with your brand, from their first interaction through retention and advocacy.

For B2C businesses, this means creating meaningful, personalized experiences that drive trust, loyalty, and repeat revenue across several touchpoints and micro-moments.

Why is lifecycle marketing important for B2C businesses?

Building strong, lasting relationships with customers is more challenging than ever. Consumers today expect personalized, cohesive experiences across every brand touchpoint. This includes social media messages, welcome series emails, SMS messages, chatbots, in-store experiences, and more.

Lifecycle marketing addresses this need by going beyond the transactional—it’s about nurturing more valuable relationships with the goal of fostering more loyalty and sustainable growth.

Businesses that create exceptional experiences for their customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle often experience the following as a result:

Increased customer retention and lifetime value (CLV)
More flexibility in the face of changing customer expectations
Maximized ROI with more resource efficiency
More brand advocates who can help grow your business organically (i.e., word of mouth)

The 5 stages of the customer lifecycle

1. Awareness

The awareness stage is when potential customers first learn about your brand. Whether they use social media, search engines, or word of mouth, the goal is to capture their attention and spark curiosity.

Here are some awareness strategies to consider:

Targeted advertising: Use pay-per-click (PPC) ads and social media campaigns to reach your audience.
Educational content: Share articles, videos, and infographics that address people’s pain points and goals.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Optimize your website for search queries related to your product or industry.

2. Consideration

Once they’re aware of your brand, customers enter the consideration phase. They compare products, read reviews, and consider prices before deciding.

Here are some consideration strategies to consider:

Social proof: Showcase social proof, such as user-generated content (UGC), reviews, and case studies, on your website and in marketing assets.
High-converting email forms: Encourage email sign-ups with compelling offers to nurture people through personalized messaging.
Social media engagement: Interact with people and share valuable content to keep your brand top of mind.

3. Conversion

At this stage, consumers are about to become customers. Your focus is on nudging those people toward a sale.

Here are some conversion strategies to consider at this stage:

Offer incentives. Provide limited-time discounts or free shipping to nudge hesitant buyers.
Tackle objections. Use surveys or feedback to understand common concerns and address them in your messaging.
Feature UGC. Highlight real customer experiences on your marketing channels to build trust.

4. Post-purchase

After the sale, you’ll want to make sure customers feel good about their decision and that they get the product they ordered in a timely fashion. This stage of the customer lifecycle lays the foundation for repeat business and long-term customer loyalty.

Here are some post-purchase strategies to consider:

Send transactional emails. Send clear order and shipping confirmations. Use these emails to show appreciation and build excitement.
Offer proactive support. Make it easy for customers to contact your support team if they have questions or concerns.
Enhance the unboxing experience. Invest in thoughtful, sustainable packaging that aligns with your brand values and leaves a positive impression.

5. Loyalty

The loyalty stage is technically the last stage of the customer lifecycle. It’s about turning satisfied customers into loyal advocates and repeat purchasers. When customers love your brand, they’re more likely to buy again, recommend your products, and join loyalty programs.

Here are some loyalty strategies to consider:

Retention campaigns: Use personalized email and SMS campaigns to engage customers with exclusive offers.
Loyalty programs: Reward repeat purchases with points, discounts, or VIP perks.
Reviews and referrals: Satisfied customers are often happy to share their experiences or recommend your brand.

Remember that your customer lifecycle stages may extend beyond loyalty. For some businesses, the lifecycle can even start over again after this phase, or jump around between stages non-linearly.

Challenges in lifecycle marketing

Marketing throughout the entire customer lifecycle is critical for business success, but it’s not without its challenges—especially for B2C businesses dealing with diverse customer bases and high expectations.

Here are some of the most common problems businesses face:

Data silos: One of the most significant challenges in managing the customer lifecycle is getting a unified view of the customer. With data spread across multiple tools and platforms, you may not have the information you need in one place to personalize brand experiences across all customer lifecycle stages.
Lack of automation: Without automation, reaching and engaging with customers across lifecycle stages can be time-consuming and inefficient. Manual processes increase the risk of delays and inconsistent messaging.
High expectations: Today’s customers expect brands to deliver personalized, timely, and frictionless experiences. Falling short of these expectations can lead to churn and negative word of mouth.

What makes good data the solution to lifecycle marketing challenges

Personalized experiences that are cohesive across the entirety of the customer lifecycle are dependent on data to work.

When someone interacts with your brand online or states a preference about your products, it’s important to collect that data so you can use it to create the experiences people have come to expect. When you gather all that data in a single, centralized spot, that’s when it’s easier to segment audiences based on commonalities—and scale those personalized experiences to thousands or even millions of people.

Imagine a pet food company that uses customer data to group together people who buy only organic pet food. When they develop messaging and offers for that particular segment, they’ll likely suggest health-conscious products that speak to the well-being of their pets. People who buy based on price won’t necessarily be interested in that messaging, but it’s okay—that group can receive other offers that speak to price-conscious shoppers.

How data impacts each phase of the customer lifecycle

Data plays a huge part in shaping how your business interacts with customers throughout each phase of the customer lifecycle. Here’s how:

Awareness: Data makes it easier to identify key channels and messages that resonate with prospective customers. With high-level insights, you can start to test ad and content strategies to maximize reach and engagement.
Consideration: Data helps you create personalized engagement experiences, from tailored product recommendations to custom offers. This increases the likelihood of conversion by aligning offers to shopper preferences.
Conversion: This is when you can finally start taking advantage of the transactional and behavioral data you’ve been gathering. By analyzing this data, you can offer personalized deals and incentives, address potential objections, and steadily guide customers toward making a purchase.
Post-purchase: Data can help create smooth customer experiences with personalized updates about a purchase (such as shipping and delivery alerts). And when customer service agents have full access to customer data, they can address inquiries much faster and with more depth.
Loyalty: Customer satisfaction data helps you increase loyalty and retention. By analyzing this data, you can strategically create loyalty programs best suited to your customers’ preferences and offer personalized incentives that boost loyalty.

Lifecycle marketing best practices

Here are a few best practices for each phase of the customer lifecycle:

Awareness best practices

Grow your email list.
Optimize your website for SERPs.
Collaborate with influencers.

Consideration best practices

Optimize your product pages.
Build trust with social proof.
Send a personalized welcome series.

Conversion best practices

Segment your email lists.
Set up automated abandoned cart flows.
Make customer service available on every channel.

Post-purchase best practices

Send transactional emails with personalized shipping updates.
Teach people about the product they purchased.
Add a thank-you note or free sample to their order.
Encourage another purchase—at the right time.

Loyalty best practices

Respond to customer reviews.
Create a loyalty program.
Win back disengaged customers.

Klaviyo for lifecycle marketing: built for B2C businesses

Klaviyo is the only CRM built for B2C businesses. As an all-in-one platform for customer data, marketing automation, customer service, and analytics, B2C brands can use Klaviyo to manage the entire customer lifecycle with a single tool––and maintain a real-time, 360-degree view of every single customer in the process.