Optimized customer lifecycle

Touchpoints durch Trigger-Mails im optimierten Customer Lifecycle

Touchpoints in the Customer LifecycleOccasions for automated email communication in the customer lifecycle

From newsletter sign-up to regular customer, a lead goes through several phases in the customer lifecycle. In each of these phases, there are numerous opportunities to contact the recipient – automatically or manually – via email. The better you know them, the more individual touchpoints there are for trigger-based communication.

An optimized customer lifecycle results when you use the touchpoints in the customer lifecycle and, even when the customer is at risk of becoming inactive, use the existing knowledge about the customer to reactivate him or her with the help of customer retention campaigns.

Definition:

Customer Lifecycle describes the chronological sequence of a business relationship between consumer and company – from the first customer contact to the termination of the business relationship – from the first customer contact to the termination of the business relationship.

Typical Customer LifecycleA normal customer life cycle usually describes the following curve:

In a normal customer lifecycle, there are different occasions that can be used for individual, automated trigger mails. The better you know the recipient, the more touchpoints there are. You can therefore divide the lifecycle into different phases. During this time, the lead passes through the Lead Warming, Lead Nurturing, Customer Engagement and Win-Back Offering phases. All phases offer individual touchpoints to get in touch with the lead.

In the beginning, you usually know very little about the new prospect. During the first two phases, the goal is to get to know the recipient and his or her interests better, thus evolving from a Marketing Qualified Lead to a Sales Qualified Lead. If your content and offer are relevant to the addressee, they will become a customer in the next phase. The peak of possible touchpoints for automated email communication is reached in the phase as an active customer. If you don’t work sufficiently on your customer relationship, it cools down and the customer eventually becomes inactive and is lost to the company. When it gets to that point, it’s the end of the customer lifecycle. In this post, however, we focus on postponing the end as long as possible with the support of automated trigger emails.

Touchpoints in the individual phases of the customer lifecycle

Lead warming phase in the customer life cycle

As can be seen clearly from the touchpoint curve, there are not yet too many individual occasions for trigger-based communication in the lead-warming phase, as we generally still know very little about the lead. But it is precisely in this phase of the customer lifecycle that we need to establish an initial relationship with the prospect in order to reach a higher level of customer attraction in the first place. Since the first impression has a significant influence on the further course of events, you should place particular emphasis here on the appearance and quality of the content.

In the lead-warming phase, the effect of the regular newsletters also plays a significant role, as these help shape the first impressions and open the door to more knowledge about the lead, e.g. through reactions. This is how the initially unknown prospect develops into a marketing qualified lead.

Typical touchpoints in the lead-warming phase:

Double Opt-in Mail
Welcome mail
Onboarding mails, e.g. tips & tricks, contact & help offers, product range presentations
Incentives, e.g. vouchers for newsletter registration
Invitations to enhance the customer profile and interests
Regular newsletters

Lead Nurturing Phase in the Customer Lifecycle

In the Lead Nurturing phase, we already know our prospect a little better. We have already created an interest profile based on their opening and click behavior, and ideally we also know their surfing behavior on our website. Now the interesting phase in the customer life cycle begins: the more he interacts with us, the more individually we can respond to his needs and use suitable trigger mail campaigns.

We can also use personal events such as birthdays or anniversaries (e.g. 30-day streak, 1-year newsletter subscriber, 1-year app user, etc.) to deepen the connection, build in rewards, and use incentives to encourage purchases.

Typical touchpoints in the lead nurturing phase:

Birthday mail
Name day mail
Shopping Cart Dropout
Product recommendation
Last seen products
Interest based mails
Anniversaries
Regular newsletters
Target group specific newsletters

Customer engagement phase in the customer life cycle

Ideally, lead nurturing is followed by the customer engagement phase. In this phase of the customer lifecycle, we have already convinced the lead to buy from us. As a result, the lead now has the status of an active customer, which automatically results in a large number of additional touchpoints for contacting the customer via individual trigger mailings.

The goal is to maintain the customer engagement phase for as long as possible and to motivate the customer to make new purchases again and again.

Typical touchpoints in the customer engagement phase:

Birthday mail
Name day mail
Shopping Cart Dropout
Product recommendation
Last seen products
Transaction mail
Product review
Cross- and upselling
Next-best-offer
Loyalty mail
Anniversaries and anniversaries
Interest based mails
Regular newsletters
Target group specific newsletters

Touchpoints in the Win Back Offering phase

In very many cases, it happens that customers stop shopping for a long period of time and eventually drift into inactivity. This is where the win-back-offering phase in the customer lifecycle begins. There are many causes for inactivity. However, unless a customer dies or leaves the sales territory, it is worth to remain persitent. Especially in this phase, you have to invest more time in the lead again in order not to lose it completely.

But the effort is worth it in many cases and a reactivated customer is usually significantly cheaper than acquiring a new customer – various sources state that a new customer is between twice and 6 times as expensive in comparison.

Typical touchpoints in the Win Back Offering Phase:

Birthday mail
Name day mail
Product recommendation
Loyalty mail
Regular newsletter
Target group specific newsletter
Incentivization as a purchase incentive
Causal research survey

Successful reactivation measures lead to an optimized customer lifecycle

If the full potential of the knowledge about the lead is used, then the customer engagement phase usually follows the win-back offering phase again. This results in an optimized customer lifecycle. In the renewed customer engagement phase, the same contact points are offered again as in the first customer engagement phase.

As you can see, some occasions extend through the phases. Once you have gained the knowledge about the recipient, you can and should use it permanently. However, it is advisable to regularly quality control trigger mails used in the long term as well. After all, not only style and taste change over time, but also technical circumstances.

With the E-Marketing Manager (EMM) we offer an intuitive Marketing Automation Software for creative Multi Channel Campaigns. With EMM you can create individual touchpoints in the customer lifecycle via email, Web Push, SMS or Fax and Print . The award-winning software meets individual data protection requirements as an Inhouse or Cloud Solution passt sich flexibel Ihren Bedürfnissen an. flexibly adapts to your needs. From open source to high-end, we have the right variant for every budget.

When Martin Aschoff founded the company in 1999, AGNITAS was a pioneer of email marketing in Germany. Today, AGNITAS is one of the most renowned and innovative providers of high-quality marketing automation software, which is used around the world for customer-oriented communication.

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