Helpful Tips from Webolutions Digital Marketing Agency
Marketing Strategy
As contacts move from prospects to loyal customers their needs and relationship with your business naturally change. Your messaging and marketing tactics should also change. That’s where lifecycle marketing thrives.  The three phases for most businesses are attract, sell and wow. Within each of these, there are specific actions (and unique marketing messages) to maximize your reach and grow your business.
1st Phase of Lifecycle Marketing:Â Attract
Before anyone becomes a customer, they first need to develop interest in your brand. The attract phase focuses on targeting ideal customers and eventually collecting leads. To begin this stage, it is important to take the time to create an ideal customer profile, then attracting interest and collecting leads.
3 Steps to Attract:
Target: Who is most likely to be your best customer? To determine this, create personas and define a very specific target market. What do they enjoy? Where do they spend their free time? The more you know, the more effectively you can target them.
Attract Interest: Now that you know your target, you need to get their attention. Attract your target market through great content marketing, referrals and word of mouth. You can also use social media, advertising, SEO and events. Be sure leverage the places your target market spends their time in a manner that would interest them.
Collect Leads: By this point, you’ve spent time and money targeting and attracting interest. Make sure you make these count by gaining contact information via locked content, email sign ups, etc.
2nd Phase of Lifecycle Marketing: Sell
Once you’ve earned the attention of a lead, the second phase of lifecycle marketing is selling. This is often where many businesses struggle – converting a lead to a customer. To help with this process, we’ve broken it into three parts.
3 Steps to Sell:
Educate: Start off the experience right by connecting your lead with the solutions they need. Be sure to answer their questions and address their concerns through blogs, emails and conversations. The focus should always be on their specific and unique needs
Offer: Create a compelling offer by highlighting solutions to their pain points. This is a great time to provide case studies, ROI analysis and testimonials. Make sure your pipeline aligns with your target’s buying process and methodology. Frequent touch points allow for the greatest success here.
Close: This is the final phase (and most important) to move your lead to a customer. Ensure you make it as easy as possible for your soon-to-be customer to close the sale. Consider electronic documents, easy payment options with comprehensive merchant services, and procedures designed with them in mind.
Webo Tip: A CRM system with marketing automation (like Infusionsoft) can automate the entire sales pipeline – sending emails, scheduling reminders and tracking conversations.
3rd Phase of Lifecycle Marketing: Wow
Converting a prospect to a customer means a lot has been done right.  However, the journey’s far from over. To retain the customer (and even gain more leads from referrals), you’ll need to wow them. Usually over and over again. So often, businesses focus on leads and closing and forget about continuing to impress their existing base.
So how do you make the most of current customers? Like the other two phases, there are three steps:
3 Steps to Wow:
Deliver & Wow: You’ve sold them on your promises, now’s your chance to go above a beyond. The first 30 days are crucial in this new relationship. Thank you notes, welcome messages and exceptional customer service are a great way to start. You may also want to consider using surveys to ensure you are exceeding their expectations.
Offer More: Once a customer has been wowed by your services, they may be ready for more. Develop a strategy to make the most of your loyal customers. Train your team on cross-sells ad up-sells – making sure it fits the customer’s needs. Let your current customer base know about new products first – they’ll be the almost likely to try them – and provide honest feedback.
Get Referrals: Happy customers love sharing their experience. If your business succeeds in wowing, your existing customers provide the best outlet for new business. Don’t be afraid to ask your loyalists for referrals – just be sure to make it easy and worth their time. Always follow-up with a customized thank you and possibly an incentive.
Webo Tip: Consider automating activities for existing clients to keep them engaged. Surveys, follow-up calls and notes are a great way to continue to wow. Based on survey responses, you can even ask for referrals from only your most satisifed customers.
Accelerate Your Business – Automatically
Once you begin receiving referrals, the whole process begins again, with a whole new group of leads.
If this seems like a lot, focus on one phase at a time. Marketing and sales automation are essential tools to make this process effective and efficient. As a customer enters each phase, messaging, actions and tasks can all be automated to ensure your customer is receiving the right message at the right time.
Ready to accelerate your business with lifecycle marketing? Webolutions marketing agency can help. Sign up for a free consultation today – we’ll analyze your needs and work with you to grow your business. Just call 303.300.2640 or sign up here.
