Beefree blog

Beginners Guide to Lifecycle Email Marketing

Beefree team
Beefree team
Jul 19, 2024
Beginners Guide to Lifecycle Email Marketing
Beginners Guide to Lifecycle Email Marketing

What is lifecycle email marketing?

Lifecycle email marketing is the act of segmenting your email subscribers based on where they are in the customer lifecycle. 

The customer lifecycle is the set of stages your customers go through, from when they first hear about your brand to making a purchase and everything in between. 

The stages of  the customer lifecycle are typically known as:

  • Awareness
  • Consideration
  • Conversion
  • Retention

A survey conducted by Econsultancy found that 74% of marketers experienced an increase in their overall customer engagement rates when using targeted emails. While there are many ways of segmenting your audience, lifecycle email marketing stands out as one of the most effective strategies allowing businesses to send highly relevant content that moves readers to the next stage in the customer lifecycle ending in ideally, unbound brand loyalty. 

Mapping Out Your Lifecycle Email Marketing Key Stages

Lifecycle email marketing is all about customizing emails for each customer’s depending on their familiarity with your brand. Before you can jump in, you’ll need to map out your customer lifecycle stages. The stages are similar for most businesses but they can vary based on the type of product or service you offer or your industry. 

The most common stages within lifecycle email marketing are:

  • Awareness: In email marketing, this is when someone first signs up for your email newsletter. 
  • Consideration: This subscriber has become highly engaged in your welcome series emails and has a desire to learn more. 
  • Conversion: This is when the subscriber has completed the desired action. 
  • Retention: Once a customer has completed the desired action, it’s important to keep them engaged in your brand to encourage a repeat conversion. 
  • Advocacy or referral: In this stage, you want to encourage them to share their experience with the brand through word of mouth of leaving testimonials. 
  • Re-engagement: After a while, subscribers may experience email fatigue and stop engaging with your brand altogether.

As mentioned, these are some of the most common stages of lifecycle email marketing and this might look differently for you. We suggest diving into user behavior, patterns, and data to better understand your customer base and how they move through the lifecycle. 

Getting started with lifecycle email marketing

As mentioned above, your lifecycle email marketing stages may differ depending on your business and industry. Here are some key considerations that will help shape what your cycle looks like. 

Step 1: Understanding your customer lifecycle

We suggest diving deep into user behavior, patterns, and data to better understand your customer base and how they move through the lifecycle. Start by analyzing how your customers first discover your brand, what keeps them engaged, and the touchpoints that lead to conversion.

Look at the entire journey, from initial awareness to post-purchase behavior, and identify key stages where customers might drop off or need extra engagement.

By understanding these nuances, you can tailor your email campaigns to meet your customers' needs at each stage, ensuring a more personalized and effective approach.

Step 2: Audit your existing email karketing

Take a look at your recent email marketing and take stock of what stages you’re nurturing most and which ones may not be targeted as well. You might find that you’ve been sending plenty of emails for the conversion stage but not enough for retention, or maybe you haven’t sent any emails directly for the advocacy and referral stages. 

Identifying gaps like these can show you where to be more focused and strategic in your email marketing moving forward.

Building out your lifecycle emails

Awareness

Customers in the awareness stage are just learning about and getting familiar with your brand. Your goal in this stage is to build a relationship with the customer, introduce them to your products or services, and tell them what you’re all about. 

This is when customers decide whether your brand is a good fit for them (think of it as a first date between your brand and the customer), so it’s important that you make a positive and authentic first impression.

A welcome email to those signing up for your mailing list is an excellent opportunity to make a strong impression and build familiarity. It’s also a great time to send emails highlighting your brand story, mission statements, and other introductions to your brand.

Consideration

In the consideration stage, customers decide whether your business is the right fit for them and compare it to similar solutions. At this stage, you want to compellingly show them what you have to offer and how you stand out.

One way this manifests is through comprehensive emails on your products or services. This means highlighting key benefits, features, and use cases. This is also a great place to show vs. tell. Include animations, videos, and gifs that easily illustrate the value you bring. 

Conversion

In this stage, a potential customer is on the verge of taking action. Emails in the conversion stage significantly influence that decision to buy. 

Personalized special offers can resonate really well with recipients as they can be tailored to their specific needs and interests. This can look like offering deals on items they’ve recently viewed on your website or first-time purchase discounts. 

Retention

This stage is where brand loyalty blossoms. Engaging customers beyond the initial conversion is crucial for retention and repeat purchases. During this stage, you can send service or product announcement emails to regularly communicate what’s new with your offer. A monthly or weekly newsletter is also a great way to keep your audience up to date on your brand’s activities and encourage them to explore other resources you may offer. 

Regardless, the emails you send at this stage should be strengthening and affirming the customer’s connection with your brand.

Advocacy

When a customer has developed trust in your brand and offer, they start recommending your brand or organization to others. Referrals are the one most effective way B2B businesses acquire new customers, and according to Nielsen, people are four times more likely to buy a product if they’re referred by a friend. 

When a customer is in the advocacy stage, you’ll want to send them review requests to encourage them to post testimonials, as well as educate them about any referral incentives you have.

Re-engagement

This is a period when your brand has fallen off their radar—they haven’t necessarily decided to stop following you, but they’re not actively interested in your services, products, or messaging. To continue to remain top of mind, we suggest doing regular re-engagement campaigns.

These types of emails could include special incentives like an exclusive discount, or simply “we’ve missed you” emails to show them what’s new. This is a good time to also reiterate the benefits of your offer as they pertain to their unique interest and preferences.

Best practices for lifecycle email marketing

Here are some best practices we recommend to ensuring that your lifecycle email marketing is optimized to build lasting relationships with your customers and drive ongoing engagement.

Segment your audience

The core of lifecycle email marketing is identifying what stage the individual is at any given time. Specifically for lifecycle email marketing, you'll want to segment your audience based on behaviours. This could include purchase history, website interactions, email engagement, or product usage. Patterns in these areas will help you best determine where to place an individual in the lifecycle stages.

Create personal and relevant content

Once you have an understanding of your users behaviours and patterns, use this to personalize your emails. Address recipients by their names, recommend products based on their past purchases, and tailor content to their preferences.

Ensure your emails provide value to your customers that helps move them to the next stage. Offer exclusive discounts, share useful tips, and provide relevant updates.

Timing and frequency

For lifecycle emails timing is crucial. Set up automated emails that are triggered by specific actions, such as welcome emails for new subscribers, cart abandonment reminders, and post-purchase follow-ups. These timely emails can significantly enhance engagement and conversions.

Monitor and measuring success

Along the way, make sure you’re tracking your metrics for each lifecycle stage to see how successful you are in moving folks through the customer lifecycle. Use these insights to refine your strategies and improve your overall strategy.

Testing

You can also conduct A/B tests to see how different email content, subject lines, and other details perform for people in specific lifecycle stages. For example, in your segment of customers who are in the consideration stage, run a test where half of them get an email every two days while the other half get an email every four days and see which group tends to engage more or convert more. This can tell you how frequently to send emails to this segment.

Just make sure you’re comparing apples to apples by comparing the two email versions for the same lifecycle segment, because customers in different lifecycle stages could have different reactions to the same email version.

Ensure brand consistency

Consistent branding helps recipients quickly recognize your emails, which builds trust and familiarity. According to a study conducted by Edelman, "81% of buyers need to trust a brand in order to buy from them," making trust and familiarity two crucial elements of efficient lifecycle email marketing.

Additionally, consistent branding helps differentiate your brand from competitors. This is crucial in the consideration stage to ensure you remain top of mind.

Designing emails for each stage of your lifecycle email marketing

The tips and strategies above can help you get started with lifecycle email marketing, but the success of your campaigns will also depend on how well you design and target your emails for specific stages and audiences.

That’s where Beefree can help. Our extensive email template library includes templates for many different types of emails that align with each lifecycle stage, and our easy HTML email editor lets you seamlessly customize them for your audiences.

You’ll be able to incorporate all the elements of your brand identity which helps you create brand recognition and build brand loyalty throughout every stage of the lifecycle. Interested in seeing how these templates can make your lifecycle email marketing simpler? Sign up for Beefree and start exploring.

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Email is king when it comes to talking directly to your customers. Sure, we might send texts or share voice notes, but we all still check our emails. It’s how we keep in touch with work and the businesses we connect with. 

As an email marketer, this puts you in prime position to get your business’s brand right into the hands of your customers. The problem, however, is that you must first get past the metaphorical guard dog known as the secure email gateway (SEG). 

SEGs use sophisticated methods to identify and block spam and phishing emails from ever entering a person’s inbox. While your email newsletters should go through, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will. That’s why businesses need to know what a secure email gateway is and how it works. Know this key info, and you’ll be able to improve the chances of your emails reaching their destination. 

What are email security gateways? 

Protecting yourself from cyber threats is the basis of all cybersecurity risk assessment services. One of the biggest gaps in any security armor is phishing emails. If they get through and someone clicks a link they shouldn’t have, it’s almost impossible to stop the damage. 

The victim could be anyone. The link could lead to a ransomware virus that holds your data captive or be the start of a data breach. It could even lead to a traditional scam that has you input your credit card details so a thief can steal them. 

For all these reasons and more, email providers consistently invest in security features to help protect their customers. One such feature is an email security gateway. 

A secure email gateway uses AI and machine learning to screen incoming emails, identify spam, and stop it from entering. If there’s any doubt, the system quarantines the email in your spam box for review. 

Why are secure email gateways important?

While we are getting better at filtering out spam emails, an estimated 45.6% of emails sent in 2023 were still spam. This poses a massive security risk for consumers, businesses, and governments alike. 

According to IBM, businesses are hit the hardest, with the global average cost of each successful phishing attack increasing to $4.88M USD. The attacks don’t just hit businesses, either, with attacks targeting individuals and even charities.

Just as phishing and spam emails have become more sophisticated, so have the tools designed to protect against them. All providers, including big names like Gmail, use SEGs to secure communications and other features, such as Gmail’s unsubscribe feature

What do SEGs flag as spam? 

SEGs continually update their parameters. This means that what they check for is constantly in flux. What SEGs look for today, for example, could include: 

  • Strange or suspicious subject lines
  • Highly urgent capitalization or excessive exclamation points
  • Strange URLs
  • Poor grammar and/or spelling
  • Generic greetings that don’t address the recipient 
  • Suspicious email addresses
  • The volume of emails sent at once
  • Attachment types 
  • Image-heavy content 

SEGs are far more advanced than just ticking boxes, but that doesn’t mean your emails can’t get blocked or sent to spam. After all, you might put together a great email campaign, but if your email is too image-heavy, it might get quarantined or sent to spam. 

The good news is that once you know what the SEGs look for, you can work to design better emails. Beefree can help you get started, with a range of templates for responsive email designs.

How to create newsletters with secure email gateways in mind 

The good news is that you can implement and send out most, if not all, of your newsletter ideas without issue. So long as the emails are well-made and are sent at a reasonable frequency, you’ll be golden. 

Start by first improving your security methods

In general, you should always look at ramping up the security measures in your business. You can use one of the top types of risk assessment matrix to understand your business's threats and how to resolve them. Then, since you already have that information, you can use it to create better newsletters and emails. 

Make sure the personalization feature works

One of the biggest red flags for an SEG is a generic greeting. Adding Dear Sir/Madam at the start isn’t going to fly in today’s world. Even if your email gets through, it’s unlikely the recipient will open it. 

That’s why you need personalization. Linking your email marketing tools to your customer relationship management system means you can offer easy personalization, like addressing your customers by name, or even offering personalized recommendations based on their order history. 

Avoid image-only emails 

Image-only emails are tempting for an email marketer. They’re striking, they look good, and you can fine-tune what they look like in Photoshop or another image editor. 

They can also be a red flag for SEGs.

Thankfully, the solution is simple: enrich your emails. The best part about this approach is that it also improves the accessibility. Improving email accessibility will help ensure that all your customers can engage with your emails on their terms. Those emails will also load faster, look great on all devices, and be more engaging. 

Align your emails with the landing pages 

SEGs look out for suspicious links. A link might be suspicious if there’s a misspelling or if the link doesn’t sound like the content in the email. So, how do you ensure that SEGs don’t see any of your links as suspicious? 

You make them predictable. 

An easy way to do this is to create a landing page from an email. On top of aligning the landing page with the content of the newsletter, you’ll want to: 

  • Make a custom URL for every link that matches the content of the page 
  • Ensure there’s no misspelling
  • Don’t use urgent language around your link

Use 2FA to boost security

Do you need 2FA to get past SEGs? No, but it’s a great way to help protect you and your customers. 

You can protect sensitive data by adding user identity verification. For example, a customer may get an order confirmation email but wants to cancel or change the delivery details. Including a two-factor authentication step ensures only the customer can request changes. 

Building in extra security features puts your customers at ease. It also protects your endpoints and, in turn, your business. So, no, you don’t need 2FA to get past SEGs, but it’s worth looking into for you and your customers’ protection. 

Avoid urgency 

Urgency can be a flag for SEGs. So: 

  • DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS
  • Minimize the use of exclamation points

Think of the copy in your newsletter as a chance to win over your audience, not scare them into clicking the link. Doing this will improve your relationship with your customers since they’ve come to you on their terms. It’s also essential to get emails past the SEG.

Key takeaways 

Secure email gateways are a primary defense against spam and phishing attacks, but they can pose a problem for email marketers. By working to understand the security risks associated with email scams, you can then understand what your email needs to make it into inboxes. 

From there, you’ll want to make your emails more personable, accessible, and secure. Once you’ve found that sweet spot, your newsletters will be more likely to get past the secure email gateway and into your audience’s inboxes. 

Getting Started with Beefree: A Guide to Streamlined Email and Landing Page Creation

Whether you're designing a newsletter, promoting an event, or driving a marketing campaign, ensuring that your emails and landing pages are visually appealing, engaging, and efficient to produce is no small task. That’s where Beefree comes in.
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Creating professional emails and landing pages can be challenging for businesses of all sizes. Whether you're designing a newsletter, promoting an event, or driving a marketing campaign, ensuring that your emails and landing pages are visually appealing, engaging, and efficient to produce is no small task. That’s where Beefree comes in.

Beefree is a robust tool for designing emails and landing pages with ease, offering templates, automation features, and seamless integrations. Regardless of your industry or goal, Beefree empowers you to craft high-quality communication and marketing materials quickly and effectively. By providing an intuitive and user-friendly experience, it helps businesses transform their creative ideas into polished campaigns without requiring extensive technical expertise.

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Why use Beefree for professional email campaigns?

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of using Beefree, let's quickly go over why this tool is worth your time. There are a lot of email marketing tools out there, but Beefree stands out from the crowd for a reason. Let’s break down the unique benefits that make it an invaluable asset for anyone serious about email marketing:

Design made easy:

According to HubSpot, well-designed emails can drive open rates as high as 30%. Maybe you’re following up with leads from a recent webinar or you want to reach potential clients after a product launch. But you're finding yourself stuck because crafting professional emails and landing pages that capture attention is no easy feat.

With Beefree’s intuitive design tools and a library of over 1,700 templates tailored for various industries and purposes, you can achieve professional results without the guesswork. The wide variety of pre-designed options ensures that you can find a solution that aligns perfectly consistent with your brand.

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Time-saving features:

Speed is key, especially if you’re running time-sensitive campaigns. Beefree simplifies the design process with reusable content blocks, real-time collaboration tools, and the ability to transform emails into landing pages with a single click. These features enable you to produce high-quality materials in less time, allowing you to focus on strategy and content rather than struggling with technicalities.

According to a Beefree report, 82% of users report faster email creation. The ability to save and sync reusable content blocks means you can replicate what’s working without reinventing the wheel each time. Once you find a winning format, you can use it again and again with minor tweaks to fit the audience or campaign.

Maybe you’re following up with leads from a recent webinar or you want to reach potential clients after a product launch. With Beefree’s templates, you can get those messages out quickly and make sure your brand stays top-of-mind for your audience.
Using email cadence software like QuickMail ensures that outreach campaigns maintain a structured and effective flow, preventing overwhelming inboxes while keeping engagement high.

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Increased engagement:

A significant 64% of Beefree users report an 11% or more increase in click-through rates after using the platform. By enhancing the visual appeal and personalization of your emails, Beefree helps you achieve better engagement with your audience. The ability to test and iterate your designs ensures continuous improvement in performance.

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Getting started with Beefree templates

Alright, now that you know why Beefree is so powerful, let’s talk about how you can get started with their massive library of templates. This section will walk you through choosing and customizing a template that works for you.

1. Choose your template

The first thing you want to do is pick a template. Beefree’s catalog has templates for just about every sector—whether you're in retail, healthcare, SaaS, you name it. With a variety of options, you can find something that suits your goals perfectly, whether for a simple newsletter or detailed marketing report templates. Say you're promoting a webinar—just pick a template that’s built to highlight your CTAs, and you're off to the races.

The best part? You’re not starting from scratch. You save hours by picking a pre-designed template, and then it’s just a matter of customizing it to fit your brand. Beefree's templates are super flexible—add or remove elements, change colors, switch up the fonts, rearrange layouts—make each email uniquely yours without the hassle. This flexibility is especially beneficial for maintaining a low code architecture in website design.

2. Personalize

Consistency is key to building trust, and when your emails have a cohesive look, it helps recipients recognize your brand. It is also important to follow a brand style guide for your email campaigns so that the audiences can associate elements like your logo, colors, and fonts easily with your brand.

When using a template, customization is key to making your emails and landing pages feel unique and relevant. With Beefree’s drag-and-drop editor, you can easily tweak templates to align with your branding. Adjust colors, fonts, and layouts, or add personalized content such as recipient names and company details. The flexibility ensures that your final output is as distinctive as your brand’s voice.

Plus, with so many people opening emails or landing pages on mobile devices, Beefree’s mobile design builder guarantees that they look great no matter what device they’re on. When your emails look good, people trust your brand more, and that makes them more likely to click through and take action.

Personalization isn’t just a nice touch; it’s essential for engagement. According to Campaign Monitor, personalized subject lines can increase open rates by 26%. By tailoring your designs to speak directly to your audience, you can create a more impactful experience. Furthermore, the platform’s collaborative features allow team members to provide input and make edits in real-time, enhancing efficiency and creativity.

1. Export

So, you’ve picked and customized your template—now it’s time to send those emails.

One of the coolest things about Beefree is that it plays nice with just about every major email platform out there—Mailchimp, HubSpot, Outlook, Quickmail—you name it. This means you can create a killer email in Beefree, connect it to your favorite email platform, and schedule it all from one place. For more advanced needs, many businesses choose a CRM with email integration, to seamlessly combine customer management and automated outreach.

Start designing for free

Beefree simplifies the process of creating visually appealing, professional emails and landing pages, saving you time and boosting engagement. Whether you’re looking to streamline your workflow or enhance your marketing efforts, Beefree offers the tools and flexibility to meet your needs.

The best part? You’ll save time and see increased engagement, connecting with your audience in a meaningful way. In a world where everyone’s fighting for inbox space, Beefree helps you stay ahead of the game by simplifying the process while delivering professional results. So, why wait? Dive into Beefree today and see how it can transform your email campaigns.

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