How To Plan Your Lifecycle Marketing To Optimize The Customer Journey

The aim of every email marketing program is to turn prospects to customers and customers into loyal customers. But, to move people to the next stage, it’s essential that you target them with the right content at the right time. The emails you send to them should be personalized depending on every stage of the customer lifecycle along with their engagement status, whether the customer is interested, engaged, loyal or inactive.

Lifecycle email marketing is a great way to nurture your prospects and customers throughout the funnel and give them a reason to move forward. Given below is a table to show how to break your email campaigns into different series to make the transition seamless and meaningful.

Customer Lifecycle Email Series

Welcome Series

Welcome email is your best bet to start building a relationship with your subscribers. If you do this right then you’re off to a good start and your subscribers will look forward to your future emails.

Welcome emails have an average open rate of 58%, and they deliver 8x more revenue per email than promotional emails.

A welcome email is one of the most important tool in your email marketing arsenal, use it effectively to create a great first impression and increase brand awareness. Instead of sending a single email, send a “Welcome Series” to build the relationship with your subscribers before you start targeting them with your promotional offers.

Here is the welcome cadence from SaksFifthAvenue, check it out to get some inspiration for tweaking your own welcome series.

1^st Email from the series

Subject line: Your 10% OFF Welcome Offer Awaits…

Clean, simple, on-brand, includes a deal, this sort of welcome email you should send to your customers to entice them to make a purchase.

Why this email stands out

According to Digital River, 83% of consumers sign up for emails expecting to receive special discounts and offers. Mentioning your offer in your subject line is a great way to encourage them to open your email.

Clear and focused CTA with contrasting color that sets it apart.

In addition to the welcome offer, they’re also offering free shipping to make the deal more sweet for the recipient and have clearly highlighted it in the header as well as the copy of the email.

2^nd Email from the series

Subject line: See what’s new at Saks.com

Send an email like this after your first welcome email to keep your new subscribers engaged and remind them the benefits of getting on your email list.

Why this email stands out

Clearly highlight all the features, which is a great way to convince the subscriber to get into action and start exploring.

Super clean and visually appealing.

3^rd Email from the series

Subject line: Get Social @Saks

A simple email like this is a great way to encourage the new subscriber to connect with your brand across the social networks.

Why this email stands out

The primary CTA of this email is Shop Now, still the email does not look sales-y at all. Clean yet catchy in design, it really encourages you to become a part of the community and be in the know.

Just above the bottom of the email they’ve included a special feature “Text Saksnow” to motivate users to engage further.

Activation Series

It requires a lot of efforts to encourage people to join your email list, but once they are on it, you shouldn’t lose them.

An activation series is a great way to nurture your subscribers who haven’t converted yet and get them to convert.

Here is the activation series from SaksFifthAvenue, learn how to build momentum with the new subscribers and get them to take an action.

1st Email from the series

Subject line: Your 10% OFF welcome offer is waiting…

Target subscribers who haven’t made their first purchase after the welcome cadence sent to them. Remind them about the welcome offer to drive them back to your website and start shopping.

Why this email stands out

To the point subject line which clearly conveys what’s in it for the recipient.

Simple and straightforward copy along with a great imagery that depicts the brand’s personality beautifully.

2^nd Email from the series

Subject line: For us, it’s always personal…

This email from SaksFifthAvenue is a great example of how to motivate and inspire people to re-engage & update their preferences.

Why this email stands out

The subject line evokes a strong emotional bond and makes the message stand out.

Clean and straightforward message; instead of bombarding the subscribers with too many things it focuses on a single thing, which is a great way to encourage people to take that step.

Friction free CTA copy.

Retention & Loyalty Series

A 10% increase in customer retention levels result in a 30% increase in the value of the company. – Bain & Co

According to statics, “50-60% of customers don’t return after their first visit.“ Retention and loyalty campaigns are a great way to keep  your current customers happy and coming back for more, this will not only boost your conversions & revenue but will also improve the lifetime value of your customer. Given below are few real life examples to show how to woo your customer on a continuous basis:

Charles & Keith Notification Email

Subject line: Back-in-Stock Notification Request

Normally, brands send back-in-stock notifications when they have restocked that particular item the subscriber has shown interest in, but this one from Charles&Keith is different from them. They had sent me this email to confirm that they have received a back in stock notification request from my side. This is a good approach to connect with your subscribers and increase their appreciation towards your brand.

Why this email stands out

Clean and minimalist in design, the email includes few links to encourage the recipient to come back and check out the site again.

Also, they’ve included the links to their main social profiles and a link to their site at the bottom of the email, which is a great way to encourage the subscribers to stay connected.

DSW Birthday Email

Subject line: $5 off for the birthday girl. We ♥ you, RESHU!

Birthday emails are highly persoanlized messages and a great way to engage your customers and show how much you value them. Open rates for birthday campaigns are 235% higher with nearly 300% higher click rates.

Why this email stands out

Everybody likes birthday wishes.

It’s concise, offers an incentive and is personalized. As per Adestra, personalized subject lines are 22% more likely to be opened.

The copy of the email is well written, it encourages people to buy without looking sales at all.

Win-back Series

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” – Benjamin Franklin.

Acquiring customers is tough, but retaining them is even tougher. Win-back series plays a pivotal role in preventing customer churn and increasing customer retention.

It can be used to rekindle relationships with the valuable customers that haven’t engaged with your brand for a sustained period of time or the ones who have left the site without completing a conversion goal you have set for them.

According to Bain and Co., a 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%.

Here is the win-back series from SaksFifthAvenue, check this out to see how you can entice your disengaged customers to re-engage..

1st Email from the series

Subject line: WE MISS YOU!

SaksFifthAvenue clearly knew that retaining subscribers is easier and cheaper than acquiring new ones. They send this simple and straightforward email to re-engage subscribers who are about to become inactive.

Why this email stands out

Short and to the point subject line.

Clear and focused call to action.

2^nd Email from the series

Subject line: LONG TIME, NO SEE. See what we’ve been up to!

SaksFifthAvenue uses a soft win-back approach to re-engage inactive subscribers. To bring back an inactive subscriber, it`s a good idea to remind them the benefits of being on your list.

Why this email stands out

This email is sweet, simple and clean

It reminds subscribers about it’s useful features to regenerate their interest

The whole image is clickable and takes subscriber to their home page which is a great way to encourage subscriber to take action instantly

Customer lifecycle marketing is a more holistic approach that considers every step of a customer’s journey with your business. For a B2C business, it’s impossible to personalize every interaction with each of your customers, but lifecycle marketing ensures that you nurture your customer throughout to form a profitable relationship.