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The Email Marketing Lifecycle Made Simple With Tips for Every Stage
Drive Engagement and Convert Leads With Optimized Email Campaigns
Megan Smith
April 3rd, 2025
When I was starting out as a marketer, someone told me to think of content marketing as dating. I'm still not sure how that's supposed to lessen associated stress, but it's not a bad analogy.
Your email relationship might start with a warm welcome (preferably without the awkward small talk), keep the spark alive with meaningful updates, and win them over with irresistible offers. And if they go quiet? Send them a smooth "we miss you" email.
Mastering the email marketing lifecycle means knowing when to make your move, so you can turn subscribers into loyal fans, one email at a time.
But keeping up with these stages manually can be overwhelming, which is why email automation strategies are so useful. Email automation sends customer journey emails to land in inboxes at just the right moment.
beehiiv can help you simplify the creation and automation of emails, and here's how you can get the most out of every message.
Table of Contents
My Breakdown of the Email Marketing Lifecycle
Tailor your emails for each phase of the email marketing lifecycle. Build stronger relationships, boost engagement, and increase revenue across these five stages.
Awareness: How I Capture Attention With Emails
As any decent content writer knows, cold emails can be effective. Sometimes, I'll need to message a publication or potential client without the benefit of a previous introduction.
The goal is to spark interest without coming across as spammy or pushy.
Here are the three pillars of a great cold email:
Personalization: Research your audience. Tell them where you got their information and why you think they're a good fit for your brand.
Brevity: Keep the message concise. It should be long enough to pique interest but short enough that the recipient can scan it quickly.
A Clear Call-to-Action: Give the recipient a next step to take after reading your email. Maybe they should click on a link to subscribe, set up a time to talk, or watch a video demo. Make the action simple to understand and easy to take.
Consideration: Nurturing Leads With the Right Content
Nurture new subscribers with meaningful communication, starting with a welcome email. Your first interactions will set the tone for what's ahead.
Share what subscribers can expect from your brand, highlight the benefits, and guide them toward resources they can use. This is also your chance to prove that you listen and care enough to only send them truly relevant emails.
Create email series tailored to different interests. You can offer educational guides, detailed how-tos, or customer success stories.
One of my clients is a beauty spa, and I often create several versions of an email, highlighting the most relevant ongoing promotion.
Every email in this stage should support the main goal, which is to guide subscribers into a deeper relationship with your brand and move them closer to buying.
Content should answer questions, solve problems, and showcase your business's style, plus whatever you sell.
Conversion: How I Use Emails To Drive Sales
Product awareness/promotion is the top objective for email campaigns.
These emails should generate motivation and a sense of urgency. Advertise limited-time offers, free trials, and new offerings or information.
For example, you can use cart abandonment emails to remind potential buyers what they’re missing, add an incentive (such as free shipping), or warn them that stock is low. Create the fear of missing out that turns maybe someday into definitely today.
Retention: Keeping Subscribers Engaged and Loyal
The work isn’t over. Building long-term loyalty requires ongoing communication.
Keep customers updated on order delivery, product tips, and personalized recommendations based on past behaviors.
A regular newsletter about everything related to your brand can contribute to all stages of the lifecycle, but it's perhaps most useful as a tool for retention.
Your email newsletter can remind subscribers about you and make them feel like part of your community, even when they don't have an immediate purchase in mind.
Loyalty programs also give old customers reasons to stick around. Offer rewards or exclusive to encourage them to continue buying from you and track customer progress or savings.
Advocacy: Turning Customers Into Brand Ambassadors
The final stage of the journey sees happy customers start spreading the word.
One of the easiest ways to tap into customer advocacy is to ask for reviews or testimonials. You should also include social sharing buttons to help readers pass along your top newsletters.
Another simple tip — say "thank you." Send a quick message thanking people for making a purchase or taking the time to leave a review. You can also give them a shout out or post their praise on your social channels.
A newsletter referral program takes your search for brand ambassadors further, establishing known rewards for sharing your products or services with friends and followers.
Here are some of the benefits of customer advocacy programs:
You can expand your audience while building credibility because people trust recommendations from those they know.
Just ask beehiiv successes like Tim Curran, who used beehiiv growth tools like the referral program to grow his publication to reach over 120,000 subscribers.
Some Email Types I Use in Each Lifecycle Stage
Every email has a specific purpose, and the best marketers know exactly what they want to achieve at each stage of the customer journey.
Welcome Emails: My First Impression Strategy
Set up a welcome email that's warm, approachable, and packed with value from the first line.
A great welcome email should accomplish three things:
Greet your subscriber: Add a personalized touch and confirm their signup.
Highlight what they can expect: What value will being on your list add to their lives?
Provide an actionable next step: All emails should include a call to action (CTA), particularly your welcome.
Automated welcome emails have the highest conversion rate of any single email. Take advantage of a new subscriber's fresh interest with a limited-time offer to nudge them towards their first purchase.
Nurture Sequences: Building Trust and Engagement
After introductions, it’s time to focus on building a relationship. A nurture sequence needs to educate, inspire, and deepen your subscribers’ trust in your brand.
Think about how you can get your channels to work together. For example, you can invite email subscribers to live events or refer them to a helpful post from the archives.
Eighty-five percent of marketers place social media links in their email footers. It's an easy way to remind them of other ways to connect.
Transactional Emails: Why They Matter More Than You Think
Many people underestimate the power of transactional emails, but the seemingly small messages have a big impact. Confirmations, receipts, shipping updates — they’re often the most opened messages in an inbox.
Thank customers for their purchase, provide helpful links (like tracking orders or product care tips), and include a light upsell or related product recommendation.
Re-Engagement Emails: Winning Back Inactive Subscribers
Re-engagement emails can bring lost subscribers back into the community. These emails remind inactive subscribers why they signed up and try to reignite their interest with a timely announcement or tempting discount.
Re-engagement emails are also an opportunity for list maintenance. Have subscribers update their preferences or confirm they still want to hear from you.
It’s okay to part ways — it’s better to have an engaged list than a bloated one full of people who aren't listening.
Survey Emails: Learning What Your Audience Wants
Survey emails are a part of customer nurturing and retention. They open up a two-way dialogue and show that you value your audience's opinions.
Ask your subscribers if they find your content helpful, what topics they want covered, and how often they want to hear from you. Their answers can guide content creation, help you come up with future promotions, and segment your audience by interest.
If you're struggling to get readers to take a survey, consider offering a small incentive like a discount or entry into a giveaway.
Milestone Celebration Emails: Commemorating Special Moments With Your Audience
Milestone emails show readers that you see them as individuals and value your relationship with them. Send them birthday wishes or celebrate your first year together with a small gift.
Invite your readers to celebrate your brand's successes, too. If you hit 10,000 subscribers or open a new location, thank them for their support.
You can include a special offer or discount, but don't push the sale. The primary focus should be the human connections.
How I Automate Lifecycle Emails for Maximum Impact
Email is the most commonly automated marketing channel. The magic of email automation lies in the ability to create campaigns that feel personal at scale.
Why Automation Is the Key To Scaling Email Success
Most marketers automate part of the customer journey, but 41% claim that automation handles most or all of it.
There's no way to maintain or time the regular communication demanded by the email marketing lifecycle without automation.
You don't have the resources to sit by your computer, eternally waiting for and responding to actions customers take.
Automation allows your brand to stay on top of new leads, give customers important information, strengthen relationships, and boost revenue. It also frees up your time to focus on the important tasks your platform can't handle, like high-level strategy.
Your subscribers also benefit from automation. It improves the customer experience, maximizing the value of each interaction for both parties.
My Favorite Email Automation Tools and Platforms
Always remember that automation should save you time in the long run. You need a tool like beehiiv, one that's easy to use and lets you customize subscriber journeys.
beehiiv may be the most intuitive platform, but it doesn't compromise on power or flexibility.
beehiiv’s customizable automation flows let you identify "trigger" actions such as a new sign up or purchase. You can then choose between pre-built flows such as welcome email sequences or design your own.
You can even set non-actions as triggers, reengaging readers who haven't opened a message in months or cleaning your list of inactive subscribers.
Automate between platforms and channels using beehiiv integrations powered by Zapier or Make, syncing tools with your email platform. You can automatically add buyers to a specific list or export information to a Google document or spreadsheet.
How beehiiv Helps Me Automate Lifecycle Emails
beehiiv's automation grid builder lets me outline the steps of each automation workflow, set time delays, and add conditional logic to tailor the subscriber experience.
The dashboard shows me where people are in the sequence and how they engage with each email, allowing me to tweak campaigns and content as needed.
All I have to do is write the emails (and beehiiv's AI assistant can even help with that). I can also create different emails for different segments of my audience.
Finally, the built-in referral marketing program gives beehiiv the edge over all other platforms for the email marketing lifecycle.
Using the program, I can automate emails related to customer advocacy — and the fulfilment of related rewards. Instant gratification ensures the best possible experience for subscribers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is email lifecycle marketing?
Email lifecycle marketing is about sending the right message to subscribers at each stage of the customer journey.
It involves tailoring your emails to the following stages:
Awareness
Consideration
Conversion
Retention
Advocacy
What are the 5 steps of email marketing?
The steps are sometimes called the five T's of email marketing. They outline essential strategies for a successful campaign:
Target: Direct your emails to the right audience by segmenting your subscribers based on their preferences, behaviors, or demographics.
Test: Experiment with different aspects of your emails, like visuals, subject lines, or calls to action.
Tease: Capture your audience’s curiosity, so they open your email. Use an intriguing subject line or preview text.
Teach: Provide value by educating your subscribers with useful, relevant content, such as tips, how-tos, or industry insights.
Track: Measure your success by analyzing key email marketing metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates.
What is the rule of 7 in email marketing?
The rule of seven in marketing is the idea that a potential customer needs to see or interact with your message at least seven times before making a purchase. It underlines the importance of consistent communication and brand visibility.
Don't overdo it. Sending too many emails can overwhelm your audience and lead to unsubscribes.
My Final Thoughts on Email Lifecycle Marketing
Email lifecycle marketing guides your subscribers through every stage of their journey with your brand — cold contacts and welcome emails to requests for reviews and other customer advocacy tactics.
The beehiiv platform lets you automate your messages and segment your audience for campaigns that are targeted and timely. It gathers everything you need in one convenient place.
Sign up for a free trial of beehiiv’s most popular plan to take its automations and editor for a test drive. See what a difference the right email marketing can make to customer experience and sales.
Why Trust Me
I'm a seasoned marketer with years of experience in email and other content marketing. I'm also an expert when it comes to the beehiiv platform and its features.
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