What Is a Customer Lifecycle? Stages + Tips for Entrepreneurs

Seasoned marketers recognize in the ongoing connection between business and customer, it’s normal to leave through multiple stages. Called customer lifecycle stages, they span everything from initial awareness of your brand to becoming a paying customer and maybe even a word-of-mouth advocate for your corporation’s products or services. Unlocking the potential in each of these stages, however, requires a thorough understanding of customer needs.

With the correct way to your customer lifecycle, your business can turn your target spectators into faithful customers and existing customers into brand advocates.

What is the customer lifecycle?

The customer lifecycle is the stages a customer cycles through in their connection with a business, from initial awareness to brand advocacy. Businesses manage each stage of the customer lifecycle with customer connection management (CRM) methods and CRM software, with a objective of turning a target economy into a throng of repeat customers.

Will all your potential customers turn into faithful brand advocates if you shepherd them through the customer lifecycle? No—in truth, most will not. But every prospect represents a chance for you to make a sale and make an ongoing connection.

Jeremiah Curvers, the co-founder and CEO of mattress brand Polysleep, knows how significant it is to nurture customer relationships. On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, Jeremiah explains that his corporation’s most effective advocates are its customers.

His objective was to “construct a very powerful customer base that, even though they don’t buy a mattress every three years, whenever they have the chance to talk to their household or friends, will most likely refer your brand.”

That’s the aspiration outcome of customer lifecycle management.

Stages of the customer lifecycle

1. Awareness
2. Consideration
3. Conversion
4. Retention
5. Advocacy

These are the five stages of the customer lifecycle:

1. Awareness

This first stage describes the period when someone develops awareness of your brand, products, or services. At this point, you’re helping prospective customers discover you exist and get a feel for your brand values. achievement in the awareness stage will hinge on how effectively you construct brand recognition through digital ads, social media activity, your blog SEO schedule, and traditional advertising (TV, radio, and print). Established businesses may also boost brand awareness via word-of-mouth referrals from existing customers.

2. Consideration

In the consideration stage, you’ve captured the attention of your target spectators; now it’s period to convince them to visit your website or swing by your store. The objective at this stage is to convince prospective customers that your product or service is the perfect answer to their problems. Use targeted marketing campaigns, informative email marketing, customer testimonials, and comparative infographics, to provide consumers the information they require to choose your brand over your competitors.

3. Conversion

The conversion stage (also known as the purchase stage or purchase stage) involves turning prospects into actual customers by closing the sale. Ease this procedure (and boost conversion rates) by providing a seamless purchase encounter so there’s no friction during checkout. Otherwise, a negative encounter may prompt a prospective customer to abandon their cart or shift to a competing brand.

You may discover that closing the first sale with recent customers is the most challenging. Repeat sales may be easier, provided that you provide your clients a top-notch customer encounter.

4. Retention

The customer retention stage focuses on nurturing the customer connection to inspire repeat business. propose excellent customer service and respond to customer feedback quickly and proactively. Distribute customer satisfaction surveys to assist you comprehend what people do and don’t worry about.

Other ways to retain customers include issuing personalized offers, running loyalty programs, and providing free resources like downloadable templates or recipes. These tactics can inspire customers to yield to your business knowing they’ll have a positive, consistent encounter.

5. Advocacy

In the customer loyalty and advocacy stage, satisfied customers have developed an emotional connection to your brand. Not only are they faithful repeat purchasers, but they’re also starting to advocate for your brand and steer recent prospects into your sales funnel.

joyful customers display brand loyalty by leaving positive reviews for your product or service and taking period to note the product features, prices, or customer back that made their encounter so positive. They may also write about their customer experiences on their social media pages, or inform friends and household about your brand. These valuable customers can do a lot to develop your customer base.

What is customer lifecycle management?

Customer lifecycle management (CLM) is the procedure of optimizing the buyer trip so as many prospective customers as feasible can make it all the way through to the loyalty stage. CLM is as much about taking action and reducing friction as it is about learning from your customer data.

Determine which marketing techniques work so you can amplify those tactics. Identify where users dropped off during website visits so you can enhance those pages. Each stage feeds into the next, so the work you do to enhance brand awareness will also assist enhance conversion rates down the line.

How to optimize the customer lifecycle

• Develop a powerful brand awareness schedule
• propose seamless onboarding with self-service resources
• Engage with consistent, personalized communication
• make personalized offers and promotions
• Use retention-concentrated marketing campaigns
• Gather and act on customer feedback
• Implement a referral program and loyalty incentives
• propose rewards for reviews

Consumers just becoming aware of your brand require something different than those returning to your store to make another purchase. Nurture the procedure at every stage of the customer lifecycle with these tips:

Develop a powerful brand awareness schedule

Use search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, digital marketing campaigns, and engaging educational content to boost visibility and draw earnings to your brand. inform your corporation narrative when feasible to differentiate your brand from the rest of the pack. “You better have a very powerful narrative,” Jeremiah advises, “because it has to be very compelling for a customer to decide to leave with you rather than someone else.”

propose seamless onboarding with self-service resources

Provide customers with obvious guidance, tutorials, and a solid FAQ page so they can quickly comprehend and commence using your product or service without friction.

Engage with consistent, personalized communication

Instead of relying on one-size-fits-all messages, tailor your marketing to groups or person customers. You can do this through email marketing tools, social media marketing campaigns, and targeted on-site messaging.

“You can pump as much content as you desire and have amazing traffic,” Jeremiah says, “but if it only dilutes your brand … and makes the customer question your capacity to write something compelling … you’re really not helping your brand.”

make personalized offers and promotions

When it comes to personalization, leave beyond mere messaging. propose exclusive discounts to repeat customers, using data insights from their history purchases and brand engagement to sweeten the deal.

Provide exceptional customer service. Every customer service operation should address issues quickly and make customers feel valued through empathy and proactive back. This boosts satisfaction, reduces churn, and promotes loyalty.

Use retention-concentrated marketing campaigns

Employ drip email campaigns, retargeting ads, and personalized landing pages to re-engage existing customers and advance their purchasing procedure.

Gather and act on customer feedback

Collect insights through customer surveys, reviews, and social media interactions. Act on this data to enhance the customer encounter and tailor upcoming offerings.

Implement a referral program and loyalty incentives

“It’s just so expensive nowadays to acquire a customer,” Jeremiah says.

Referrals from existing customers will be one of your most expense-effective options, so reward repeat customers and inspire them to bring in recent customers with referral programs.

propose rewards for reviews

This has a doubly positive result: The reviews entice recent customers, and the discount code rewards incentivize existing customers to make additional purchases.