fbpx Your Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce Lifecycle
Marketing [2024 edition] - Chronos Agency

Your Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce
Lifecycle
Marketing

How do you achieve long-term and sustainable eCommerce success without burning out your business? Look no further than lifecycle marketing.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

What is customer
lifetime value?

Many eCommerce owners say that acquiring new customers has been getting more and more challenging on a month on month basis. Don’t you agree?

As an eCommerce DTC brand, you should already know that your
customers are your main source of your store’s income and growth.
With that said, you would believe that obviously it means you should focus your efforts in acquiring more customers, right?

While that makes sense, it’s not exactly the right move.
Retaining your existing customers is WAY more important than acquiring new ones.

What’s wrong with focusing on customer acquisition?

Customer acquisition focuses on investing in strategies and campaigns required to convert prospects into customers.
The keywords there are “gaining new customers.” This means starting from scratch every single time whenever you try winning over prospects to your store. In short, it would cost your store 5x more to attract new customers. So in this context, more doesn’t always mean merrier. Customer retention, however, focuses on retaining your current customers
and further improving their projected value to your store.



 

So, not only is customer retention more cost-efficient compared to customer acquisition, but it also contributes to your store’s sustainability and longevity. With that said, your efforts should now cater to your existing customers. What’s next? It’s time to calculate the practical value your customers can bring to your store. Customer lifetime value (CLTV) is a critical metric that can help you optimize your customer retention strategies. Calculating CLTV can give you insight on the future revenue your customers can potentially generate for you.

How can I calculate my CLTV?

You just need two things: Your average customer value and your average customer lifespan.
Then just put them through this formula:



CLTV = Average Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan

What does that have to do with your store growth? Tracking your CLTV can help tell you how effective
your marketing efforts are at winning over loyal customers.

 

Other things measuring CLTV can help you determine are

 

  • Customer pain points within your marketing funnel
  • Your customer churn rate and what causes it
  • How much you should invest in customer retention

 

You have a wide range of customer retention strategies to choose from that can 
help you improve your CLTV. To help save time, let’s bundle these strategies into an 
easy-to-digest topic called lifecycle marketing.

CHAPTER 2

Customer lifecycle
marketing:

How can I drive profitability with customer-centric marketing?


 

If you’re looking for long-term and sustainable eCommerce success, then lifecycle marketing are the keywords to help you get started. It involves leveraging strategies that focus on your customers’ needs and preferences.

 

This would mean diving into the nitty-gritty of customer data. You’ll need to gain a much deeper level of understanding of your target audience and center your marketing around them.


 

So, what are some key actionables you can do to get started with customer retention?

1. Optimize your marketing funnel

Do you feel your current segments are only scratching the surface of your target market? Basic segments can only get you so far—and that’s where advanced segmentation can help you push the envelope!

Do you feel your current segments are only scratching the surface of your target market? Basic segments can only get you so far—and that’s where advanced segmentation can help you push the envelope!

 

You must dive deeper than basic demographic data. You’ll have to start looking more into your target audience’s online purchase behavior. Here’s a quick overview of the advanced segments you should consider:

 

  • Product Interest
  • Purchase Frequency and Last Purchase
  • Price Sensitivity
  • Customer Lifetime Value
  • Exclusion Segments

Do you feel your current segments are only scratching the surface of your target market? Basic segments can only get you so far—and that’s where advanced segmentation can help you push the envelope!

Need help figuring out how to kick your business into high gear?

CHAPTER 3

Direct marketing
channels:

How Can I Drive Profitability with Customer-centric Marketing?



Direct marketing channels are great for bringing your products forward to the customers who need them. Usually, you would include CTAs with these product highlights to get your customers to act or take the next step in their customer journey.



As you can already tell, direct marketing works best when centered around valuable customer data. After all, the best way to attract prospects and convert them into buying customers is to feature products that fall under their range of interests.

Here are some examples of direct marketing channels you can leverage:

1. Email marketing

Do you feel your current segments are only scratching the surface of your target market? Basic segments can only get you so far—and that’s where advanced segmentation can help you push the envelope!

Do you feel your current segments are only scratching the surface of your target market? Basic segments can only get you so far—and that’s where advanced segmentation can help you push the envelope!

 

You must dive deeper than basic demographic data. You’ll have to start looking more into your target audience’s online purchase behavior. Here’s a quick overview of the advanced segments you should consider:

 

  • Product Interest
  • Purchase Frequency and Last Purchase
  • Price Sensitivity
  • Customer Lifetime Value
  • Exclusion Segments

Paid advertising on the digital landscape helps you with product placement. When people search for a product, you can use paid ads to make sure search results put you at the top of the page. Better SERP (Search Engine Results Page) ranking can help you break through the noise of countless other stores offering the same products as you.

Other than that, investing in paid ads can help you—

 

  • Generate instant targeted traffic to your store’s webpage
  • Get stable and consistent lead generation
  • Save on ad spend as you would only need to pay for when your targeted users actually click on your paid ad

There are two ways you can time your pop-ups. (1) Hard timers and (2) Scroll triggers. Hard timers are the most self-explanatory but are also, ironically, the hardest to nail the timings of.



 

“We observed the website of one of our clients and noticed visitors tend to leave their website after an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds without buying anything. So what we did was set their pop-up to appear just before their visitors leave.”


— Josh Chin

“We observed the website of one of our clients and noticed visitors tend to leave their website after an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds without buying anything. So what we did was set their pop-up to appear just before their visitors leave.”


CHAPTER 4

The lifecycle marketing
power triangle:

What’s a Lifecycle Marketing Formula that Works?

With all these lifecycle marketing tools and strategies available, you would wonder if you can use a combination of a few to help reach your goals faster.

The good news is that you can, and we already have a great formula you can go ahead and use!

We call it the lifecycle marketing power triangle, as it involves leveraging three marketing channels to make the dream work.

1. Email marketing

Do you feel your current segments are only scratching the surface of your target market? Basic segments can only get you so far—and that’s where advanced segmentation can help you push the envelope!

Do you feel your current segments are only scratching the surface of your target market? Basic segments can only get you so far—and that’s where advanced segmentation can help you push the envelope!

 

You must dive deeper than basic demographic data. You’ll have to start looking more into your target audience’s online purchase behavior. Here’s a quick overview of the advanced segments you should consider:

 

  • Product Interest
  • Purchase Frequency and Last Purchase
  • Price Sensitivity
  • Customer Lifetime Value
  • Exclusion Segments

Also known as mobile push notification marketing. This marketing channel takes advantage of consumers’ mobile lifestyle. If you haven’t yet, having an app for your DTC store can serve as a lucrative asset. In our case, we’ve observed our client stores’ apps generating 7% of their overall revenue leveraging push notifications. What makes push notification marketing particularly effective is that it’s a permission-based marketing tool. Meaning, your target consumers would explicitly give your store’s app permission to send them promotional content.

 

Why should I care about explicit permission from customers?

You’ll have a source of high quality customers who show genuine interest in your brand and products. You can confidently send these customers promotional material and have more returns in the long run. Compare that to sending to random users who may or may not be interested in your brand in the first place.

So, why these 3 marketing channels, specifically? Email marketing specializes in digging deep into your target audience’s data. In turn, you send personalized messages and optimized content catered to your customer’s preferences. You can seamlessly integrate SMS with your existing email marketing framework. 

There are two ways you can do this:

 

  1. have SMS compliment your email marketing making use of segmentation and automation strategies.
  2. you can offer promotional content exclusive to your SMS subscribers to promote list growth.

 

Finally, push notifications can help tie everything together. Recommend relevant products, minimize cart abandonment, and even engage with your customers more by sending educational content.

Need help figuring out how to kick your business into high gear?

CHAPTER 5

Are there other channels
I Can Explore to expand
my touchpoints with
customers?

You don’t have to restrict yourself to this power triangle. In fact, we highly recommend you expand your customer reach by exploring other channels. And one of the best first-steps to broadening your customer reach would be social media.

These are the town squares of the internet community. Countless people from around the globe have social media accounts, even multiple accounts per person to accommodate multiple social media platforms.

Okay, but why SHOULD you expand into social media?

Different platforms are great at funneling together groups of people who share similar interests. These can already help you get a head start when connecting with your target audience.


 

Remember, social media is a channel filled with pools of prospects you can dive into. With that said, here’s a list of social media platforms your marketing efforts can zero in on:

Facebook

Aside from being one of the top widely used social media platforms, it’s also pretty versatile when it comes to content and engagement. Simple engagement posts can help you connect with your target audience. From short one or two-liners giving your followers a quick ‘what’s up’, to longer posts where you share value-adding information about your brand.

Aside from being one of the top widely used social media platforms, it’s also pretty versatile when it comes to content and engagement. Simple engagement posts can help you connect with your target audience. From short one or two-liners giving your followers a quick ‘what’s up’, to longer posts where you share value-adding information about your brand.

Aside from being one of the top widely used social media platforms, it’s also pretty versatile when it comes to content and engagement. Simple engagement posts can help you connect with your target audience. From short one or two-liners giving your followers a quick ‘what’s up’, to longer posts where you share value-adding information about your brand.

Aside from being one of the top widely used social media platforms, it’s also pretty versatile when it comes to content and engagement. Simple engagement posts can help you connect with your target audience. From short one or two-liners giving your followers a quick ‘what’s up’, to longer posts where you share value-adding information about your brand.

Aside from being one of the top widely used social media platforms, it’s also pretty versatile when it comes to content and engagement. Simple engagement posts can help you connect with your target audience. From short one or two-liners giving your followers a quick ‘what’s up’, to longer posts where you share value-adding information about your brand.

Aside from being one of the top widely used social media platforms, it’s also pretty versatile when it comes to content and engagement. Simple engagement posts can help you connect with your target audience. From short one or two-liners giving your followers a quick ‘what’s up’, to longer posts where you share value-adding information about your brand.

If you’re not sure on how to properly set up your social media marketing, then don’t fret! there are social media marketing agencies out there in the digital space that can do the work for you seamlessly.



No need to go through the learning curve, just hire a team of experts!

CHAPTER 6

Multichannel and
omnichannel marketing:

What are the Key Differences?

On the other hand, omnichannel marketing involves leveraging your available channels and centering them around your target customers. Again, it’s all about shooting for that customer-centric approach in lifecycle marketing.

Omnichannel marketing works because you’re connecting with your customers and speaking in their language, regardless of their preferred platform.

You’re creating a seamless customer experience across your marketing channels. Enhance the customer experience by making all your channels feel like true extensions of your DTC store

To optimize your omnichannel marketing strategy,
consider these tips:

Need help figuring out how to kick your business into high gear?

CHAPTER 7

Lifecycle marketing
agencies:

How Can I Find the Right Agency Who Can Do it All for Me?

While 7 to 8-figure stores highly recommend lifecycle marketing, it can be quite tricky to get right. After all, you’ll be dealing with tons of customer data.
Sifting through information that makes up your target audience would require dedicated attention and experienced eyes.

Fortunately, there are eCommerce marketing agencies out there that can do it all for you.

Your next concern now is finding the right agency for your brand.

Consider this checklist when looking for your ideal digital
lifecycle marketing agency:

Need help figuring out how to kick your business into high gear?

Key Takeaways

Lifecycle marketing is responsible for the long-running and sustainable eCommerce success of many 7 to 8-figure brands.

Customer-centricity is key to future-proofing your DTC store.

Customer retention is more cost-efficient and overall presents a more long-term and sustainable growth solution for eCommerce businesses.

Leverage direct marketing channels to establish direct communication with your customers as well as bring forward products and services that they would be interested in.

Omnichannel marketing is important to help tie all your existing marketing channels together for a seamless and consistent customer experience.