A Lifecycle Marketing Program that Works - eMusic
Just to give a little background, lifecycle marketing is the practice of communicating timely messages to specific segments of your customer audience. By delivering relevant and meaningful marketing messages to customers in the manner in which they would like to receive them, you can build a loyal following of customers willing to take action. Lifecycle marketing does just that by employing various communication tactics such as email, SMS, voicemail and direct mail to customers in a relevant and timely manner.
As Mike mentioned in his post "Customer Lifecycle Marketing - More Than Email, And A Bigger Deal Than You Think" there are five stages a customer moves through in their relationship with you:
- Acquisition - includes the activity or communication that first introduces potential customer to products or services
- Conversion - occurs when customers purchase something or engage in services
- Growth - happens as customers expand their brand relationship through additional purchases
- Retention - when customers are loyal to a brand and become a repeat buyer and brand advocates
- Reactivation - occurs if customers have stopped interacting with a brand or have become disengaged from communications or services
If companies can better understand where their customers are within this lifecycle, they can create much more efficient and effective message. As an avid music fan (some would probably call me an addict) and lifecycle marketer I was extremely excited to see (yes, I am a geek) one of my favorite music shops, eMusic, utilizing lifecycle marketing as part of their overall marketing program.
As one of the first sites to offer MP3 downloads of music, I was intrigued to find out more...I was in the "acquisition" stage. I visited the web site, looked through their catalogue and read up on how it all worked. Their initial promotion was everywhere, I was never a click away from signing up and taking advantage of this offer. This is very important during this phase, as I am not yet a customer, but their goal is to entice me enough to move to the conversion phase...and that's exactly what I did!
Their larger than life banner for free music to try out the service was enough for me to move right into the next phase, conversion. I signed up, and was well on my way to musical bliss. Upon signing up I was welcomed to the "club." I received a welcome email with links to start digging in the store and finding some new music to download.
Over the course of time, they sent me ongoing emails with links to music I might like, or music that other people have purchased with similar tastes. While some of the recommendations were way off, I appreciated the fact they were giving me new bands and music to try out and add to my collection. They even had a nice personal touch by including my name!
They even sent me promotional emails to take advantage of their booster packs (additional downloads for small fee) to try and get me to increase my monthly subscription to their service. Again great email with clear calls to action, and reasons to take advantage of this offer. They knew I was already a customer, I was familiar with their services, and they were now moving me into some of their other services/products (Growth Phase).
As with most people nowadays, I needed to make some budget cuts...and my music addiction was one of those cuts. I was able to close my account without any problems or harassment. A couple months after closing my account, they sent me another email enticing me to return for this one time offer of more music. All the messaging was on point: it was all about coming back, what has changed at eMusic since I left, an offer to sign up again, and a limited time to redeem this offer. And as any good addict, I signed back up!
As many businesses continue to struggle it is time to look at the big picture and optimize your communications and email efforts to provide greater impact. Blanket email “blast” campaigns are proving ineffective as consumers expect relevance, demand a conversation, and want a relationship through individual communication and attention. Understanding the lifecycle marketing strategy will allow organizations to fulfill customers’ needs and provide relationships that are highly beneficial to both parties. This example covered an email marketing campaign, but lifecycle marketing is not limited to email...these communications can come through as an SMS message, direct mail, or even voicemail.
If businesses are truly concerned about their marketing dollars in this difficult economy, they will take the time to send the right message to the right customer at the right time and then gather the data to continue this cost effective process to solidify their customer profiles, accurately predict the future for their business and maximize dollars.
Look for Brynne's post covering a couple client case studies showing how a strategic lifecycle campaign can have a really big impact on company profits.
About the Author: David Hibbs
As the Customer Lifecycle Manager, David oversees online communication strategies including email marketing, text messaging, voicemail, direct mail, and retargeted banner advertising. He specializes in developing strategies to improve conversion rates, and building a one-to-one relationship with customers in order to reach the right customer, at the right time, with the right message.
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1 comment so far
Roger Hurni says:
Great post David. It only goes to prove the point that relationships with customers are far more important than selling to them.