5 key flows you need for amazing lifecycle marketing
A deep dive into parts of lifecycle marketing, and the 5 key flows to get started with.
Hi everyone,
There are a few critical lifecycle marketing flows for email & SMS that you should consider adding to your marketing mix. While customer acquisition is critical, but once you reach early stages of product market fit, it’s likely much of your growth will come from doing more with who you acquire. This is where lifecycle marketing comes into play.
While not universal, for 90% of startups out there – especially consumer facing ones – there are 5 to 10 essential flows that you’ll need to develop to drive predictable revenue. Below we’ll take a deep dive into what each one is, why it’s important, and we’ll show examples that we use here at Growth Minded in our everyday marketing.
Each of these examples were pulled directly from our own product called LifecycleOS that we use internally (and externally), which we built to save countless hours of ideation and content production work. Our “ICP” for these flows are companies that have product market fit and are in expansion mode, usually above $1M in revenue, and who have some email and SMS campaigns that they send, but not a fully optimized lifecycle marketing program in place yet. 👇
Lead Nurture Flow
Lead nurture sits between customer acquisition and the product or PLG components of monetization. A strong lead nurture flow helps bridge the gap between interest and purchase. It can help you build trust, educate prospects, and keep you top of mind while your buyers are in consideration phase.
Flow Overview Example
This strategic 5-email sequence targets service-based retail, eCommerce, and B2C companies over $1M revenue who signed up for the free content generation offer but haven’t completed onboarding. Delivered over 10 days with a quirky, bold brand voice, this flow systematically demonstrates lifecycle marketing value, addresses integration concerns, and creates urgency around revenue opportunities. The sequence emphasizes proven ROI, time savings, and the competitive advantage of having a complete lifecycle marketing foundation rather than relying solely on campaigns.
Quick Notes
Maintain LifecycleOS’s fun, quirky, and bold brand voice throughout while addressing B2C/eCommerce decision makers. Focus on the shift from campaign-only marketing to complete lifecycle foundations. Address the top objections systematically: budget constraints, integration complexity, and resource limitations. Emphasize time savings and proven ROI with quantified results. Create momentum by showing immediate value through the free content generation offer while building toward full platform adoption.
Here’s an example of what our product produced for the content brief for step 1 of this flow:
Here is the email content generated, that we can then edit and launch in our CRM:
Onboarding
Great onboarding has one of the highest correlations to strong retention. A great onboarding experience – from both the product and through smart and personalized email and SMS flows – reduce time to value, and personalization can have a step function difference for retention.
Flow Overview Example
Free trial users who have signed up and accessed their one free flow – targeting service-based retail, eCommerce, and B2C companies over $1M revenue plus growth startups. The goal is to convert trial users from their free single flow experience to purchasing the complete flow maps and content package. This 7-day onboarding sequence focuses on demonstrating value, addressing integration concerns, and showcasing the comprehensive lifecycle marketing foundation that LifecycleOS provides.
Quick Notes
Focus on value demonstration over features – show how lifecycle marketing drives measurable results. Address integration and ROI concerns proactively. Use the fun, quirky brand voice while maintaining professional credibility. Emphasize time savings and revenue impact rather than technical complexity. Create urgency around completing their lifecycle marketing foundation.
Here is what our flow mapping generated – I made minor edits before taking this screenshot:
And here is what we built for content:
Abandoned Cart
Over 70% of actions that lead to purchase go unfinished. This isn’t just for eCommerce companies – this can be for consumer retail, even services. This type of flow recovers lost revenue and helps reveal why people are not buying – data that you can use for the steps above and below.
Here’s the corresponding email:
Upsell Flow
It’s 5–25x cheaper to further monetize existing customers than to acquire new customers. But it’s hard work. Great upsell flows help expand AOV, LTV, and make your company more profitable on a unit basis.
And here is the built out content – for this example I’m showing the 6th touch point with the user:
Sunset Flow
This is almost always overlooked, but it allows for the graceful exit. A great sunset flow protects your brand, can help you collect user feedback, and leaves the door open for future reactivation.
And finally, our email content for the first send:
As you can see, LifecycleOS takes some pretty complex work and simplifies it down to a set of inputs you control, and outputs you can edit. Lifecycle marketing is a whole world to explore, but way too many marketers ignore it. In reality, most of the big wins I’ve seen from marketing teams have come from the middle funnel part of the business – once you figure out how to get some awareness on your brand, you then need to drive conversions.
And while the product (or service) you offer should do a lot of that work for you, lifecycle marketing can help you maximize your conversion rates, drive more revenue, and ensure you are getting the highest ROI out of your marketing.
Reply back if you are finding success or failure with your lifecycle programs, or if you have anything you’d like me to add that I may have missed.
Also, if you’d like to be an early adopter of LifecycleOS (and by early, I mean very early…there may be bugs still) - all you need to do is visit LifecycleOS and get started. If you create an account and build your first flow (which is free) and you want a 2nd flow for free, just reach out to me and I’ll grant you access to whichever one you want.
Feedback is welcome!
Cheers,
Craig