To continue what was said in our previous article ” What is the customer lifecycle: from reach to loyalty “, here we will delve into some aspects and tools that must be taken into consideration in the different phases of the life cycle .Best Practices for Customer Lifecycle Management.
1. Identify your audience
Before your ideal customer discovers your company, you need to determine who you are trying to reach. Instead of targeting everyone, you want to target a small segment of the audience. We are in the reach phase of the lifecycle.
The simplest way to define your audience is to create buyer personas . These are basically imaginary people who represent, demographically and behaviorally, your ideal target. They have names, stories, and even hobbies. Everything you need to know about your audience should be found in your buyer persona, to then define the customer journey .
2. Quality and tailor-made content How to Manage the Customer Lifecycle: Tips and Tools
One of the most important parts of a customer’s life cycle is ensuring that each interaction with the brand is personalized . One of the most useful tools is therefore a CRM . Thanks to data analysis, you can create a series of tailor-made contents and solutions for each customer or segment.
You should give your customers a compelling reason to trust you before they invest in you. One of the best ways to do this is to create content that is useful, attention-grabbing, and SEO- friendly . This includes blog posts, newsletters, infographics, and other marketing tools. This will help you because when your ideal customers are looking for certain products or services, your company or agency will be the first thing they think of.
These are the basics of inbound marketing . If you want to dive deeper, check out our article ” What is inbound marketing “.
3. Self-service resources
Once the customer is familiar with your brand and content, it is time to provide them with self-service tools. By providing as much information as possible, and easily accessible, the customer will have the tools they need to complete their cycle. Here we are in the acquisition phase .
4. Use customer service proactively
Even if people haven’t bought your product yet, they may have questions about your company: for example, they don’t know how it works, or even what you really offer. To avoid losing these customers, you need to focus on customer service , so that it promotes the right products for that customer and establishes a relationship, directly. We are still in the acquisition phase.
5. Make the purchasing process smooth
When it comes to finalizing the purchase, the customer should be faced with a simple , intuitive and dry layout . As obvious as it may seem, the simpler this phase is, the more easily a customer will be led to complete a purchase. A very interesting category to investigate are users who have not completed a purchase.
If you could get in touch with them and ask what the reason is that didn’t lead them to complete the purchase, you would obtain fundamental information to improve your offer… In any case, with retargeting actions , those who have not become your customers today, can be re-engaged through targeted content, via other channels.
6. Provide support during the purchasing phases
Depending on the product/service you sell, the purchase phase is a stressful time for the customer. Light and non-invasive tools such as widgets can be very useful , creating a point of contact for support in this delicate phase. Here we are still in the purchase phase of the customer life cycle.
7. Personalize the customer experience after purchase
The life cycle of a customer does not end at the moment of purchase, on the contrary. No one is looking for occasional customers. The ideal would be to make them feel, after the purchase, exactly as before. Asking for feedback, or if everything went well, is always a useful move, regardless of whether we will receive an answer or not.
Mobile marketing has become crucial for companies looking to more successfully contact their target audiences in the current digital era. A trustworthy mobile phone number list is one of the most vital resources for mobile marketing, particularly europe cell phone number list when utilizing apps like WhatsApp. These lists, which are essential for a variety of marketing endeavors, typically contain contact information, including phone numbers, as well as demographic data.
The importance of customer retention is remarkable
Because the more customers phone number list library you can keep over time, the more reliability and social proof will increase. Furthermore, staying in touch with users who have completed one or more purchases on your platform is an asb directory excellent tool to strengthen customer retention .
Nurturing your customers and the relationship you build must be done periodically with follow-up messages, emails or phone calls . To help you do this, a CRM system is essential to segment and divide different customers and contacts into lists . Follow-up tasks can be assigned to sales managers to remind them when to get back to their customers or contacts.
8. Create an omnichannel experience
Only by offering an omnichannel experience to your customer will you be sure to reach them at every stage of their life cycle . Being only on a few platforms means missing out on many opportunities.
9. Invest in automation How to Manage the Customer Lifecycle: Tips and Tools
Managing all of these aspects is easy if your customer base is small. But when it starts to grow, you will need to scale the activities you need to perform to keep up.
This is the time to use marketing automation . By relying on CRM software , you can easily access user information and convert it into personalized content.
10. Invite customers to leave reviews and feedback
A customer often needs a little final push to be encouraged, and to fully trust your brand. You can use surveys , links to review websites or ask for feedback via email . Don’t be afraid to ask for an opinion from your target audience. Especially those who have already completed purchases on your website or have already interacted with your sales force . One of the best tools is the direct survey but there are also other methods. Even in this phase, with a CRM system to support customer relationship management, you can do these activities faster and more easily, involving the sales team and customer service .
Customer Lifecycle Management Software
Using customer lifecycle management software is essential, and it’s easier.
Let’s discover some of them.
1. Content Management System
With a CMS you will be able to reach your customers through tailored offers and convert them with an easy-to-navigate website that facilitates the purchasing phase. As we have said many times, access to customer support should be as simple and intuitive as possible.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
What is a CMS and why should you care?
The 13 best CMS today
2. Marketing Automation Tools
After completing the purchase, it’s time to retain the customer. You need a marketing automation tool that allows you to send emails, collect content, analyze data, and provide personalized experiences to your customers based on their habits and attributes.
These links can help you:
Marketing Automation: What it is, what it is for, why it is indispensable
The 14 Best Marketing Automation Software
3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM tools track user information and activity in a database. One of the most valuable tools for understanding your audience and their habits, and continually improving their experience with your brand.
Here they are:
CRM and marketing tools
Top 11 CRM Tools
4. Customer Service Software
As we have seen, a software that helps you with customer service management is a valuable tool. Such a tool helps you create tickets, communicate with customers through platforms, manage surveys and much more.
Here are some useful links:
What is customer experience and why is it so important?
Top 16 CSS Tools
Download the free guide
“CRM – For an experience-oriented marketing”
Grow your business with customer lifecycle management
While the customer lifecycle may seem random, you can actually control all of its stages, as we’ve seen. Using customer lifecycle management tools can help you grow your brand and business, as well as build a solid base of loyal customers .
In conclusion, the advice to keep under control and manage the customer lifecycle effectively and efficiently , is to try HubSpot , the all-in-one marketing software , where you can manage from the website to emails , to social media posts , in a single integrated platform . You can have everything you need: CRM , CMS , Marketing Hub , Sales Hub and advanced analytics tools .
