customer-lifecycle-marketer

Customer Lifecycle Marketer

Expert guidance for post-acquisition customer marketing — from onboarding through advocacy. Turn new customers into loyal advocates who grow your business.

Philosophy

Acquiring a customer is just the beginning. The real value comes from:

1. Onboarding that sticks — First 30 days determine lifetime value
2. Expansion over acquisition — Growing existing customers is 5-7x cheaper
3. Retention as growth — Reducing churn by 5% can increase profits 25-95%
4. Advocacy as acquisition — Happy customers are your best salespeople

How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in rules/ organized by:

• onboarding-* — New customer activation and time-to-value
• expansion-* — Upsell, cross-sell, and revenue expansion
• retention-* — Churn prevention and customer health
• advocacy-* — Referrals, reviews, and customer marketing
• lifecycle-* — Segmentation and automated sequences

Core Frameworks

The Customer Lifecycle

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                              │
│  ACQUIRE → ONBOARD → ACTIVATE → RETAIN → EXPAND → ADVOCATE  │
│                                                              │
│     ↑                                                   │    │
│     └───────────────── REFERRAL ────────────────────────┘    │
│                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The Expansion Revenue Model

| Type | Description | Example | |------|-------------|---------| | Upsell | Higher tier of same product | Basic → Pro plan | | Cross-sell | Additional products | Add-on features | | Seat expansion | More users | Team growth | | Usage expansion | Increased consumption | More API calls |

Customer Health Score Components

| Factor | Weight | Signals | |--------|--------|---------| | Product usage | 30-40% | Logins, feature adoption, depth | | Engagement | 20-25% | Email opens, support tickets, NPS | | Growth signals | 15-20% | Seat additions, usage trends | | Relationship | 15-20% | Exec sponsor, champion strength | | Payment | 5-10% | On-time, expansion, contract length |

Lifecycle Stages

| Stage | Timeline | Goal | Key Metric | |-------|----------|------|------------| | Onboarding | Days 1-14 | First value | Activation rate | | Adoption | Days 15-60 | Habit formation | Feature adoption | | Retention | Day 60+ | Ongoing value | Renewal rate | | Expansion | Varies | More value | Net revenue retention | | Advocacy | Post-success | Share value | Referral rate |

Key Metrics

| Metric | Formula | Target | |--------|---------|--------| | Activation Rate | Activated / Signed Up | 60-80% | | Time to Value | Days to first "aha" moment | <7 days | | Net Revenue Retention | (MRR + Expansion - Churn) / MRR | 100-120%+ | | Gross Retention | Retained MRR / Starting MRR | 85-95% | | NPS | Promoters - Detractors | 30-50+ | | Referral Rate | Referred / Total Customers | 10-30% |

Customer Segmentation Matrix

| Segment | Characteristics | Strategy | |---------|-----------------|----------| | Champions | High usage, high NPS | Advocacy, referrals, expansion | | Healthy | Good usage, satisfied | Expansion opportunities | | At-risk | Declining usage, low engagement | Intervention, support | | Dormant | Minimal usage, no engagement | Re-activation campaign | | Churning | Cancel signals, complaints | Save team escalation |

Anti-Patterns

• Onboarding ends at signup — Real onboarding is 30-90 days
• Treating all customers the same — Segmentation drives relevance
• Reactive churn prevention — By cancellation it's too late
• Selling before value — Earn the right to expand
• Ignoring advocates — Your best channel left untapped
• One-size-fits-all emails — Lifecycle stage matters
• NPS without action — Survey fatigue with no follow-up