The first thing you need to know is that Lifecycle Marketing transcends Infusionsoft. It’s a stable concept for small businesses everywhere. The common mistakes I’m going to outline here are not unique to Infusionsoft users. They’re prevalent throughout the small business community at large.

Lifecycle Marketing (or LCM as I’ll call it) is the strategy around which Infusionsoft encourages you to build your business. As a consultant and trainer at Infusionsoft, I saw it work time and time again. And, I also got to see plenty of businesses who couldn’t stay afloat, or just struggled because they didn’t adopt it. Well, they either didn’t embrace it, didn’t understand it, or didn’t execute it. Let me outline 3 icebergs that could sink your LCM ship.

For those who don’t know, Lifecycle Marketing involves designing a process, or several, that will take your customers experience into account during every single step along their customer journey. This means that everything from opting in to your list, all the way to making repeat purchases has been planned for. Learn more here.

1. LCM isn’t Static

It needs to evolve. As your business changes, so to should your lifecycle marketing strategy. Too many businesses work through their LCM strategy, and then never revisit it. The reality is that small business lives in a constant state of flux. Your business looks different today than it did three months ago, or a year ago. It’s important to carve out regular time to revisit your LCM strategy and make sure that it reflects your current needs.

Action: Carve out a full day once a quarter to revisit and audit your LCM strategy. See what has changed in your business, and if anything needs to change in your LCM approach.

 2. Too Simple to Work

I’ve seen it happen over and over. A small business owner is presented with the concept of Lifecycle Marketing and they’re underwhelmed by the graphic, or the explanation, or both, and so they dismiss it.  Well, the reality is that the graphic isn’t all that impressive. I don’t think too make people look at it and say “Oh, SELL, that’s the piece I’ve been skipping.”  But I do think there is value in the LCM graphic, and to me it’s in the connections between the stages. Far too often people tend to look at Lifecycle Marketing as these independent stages that comprise a strategy. When in reality, the real magic of an LCM strategy is in how the stages tie together. The intentional focus on transitioning prospects from one stage to another can be the difference between prospects becoming customers, or slipping between the cracks.

Action: Don’t take the graphic at face value. Look at how your LCM stages tie together, whether or not they were designed with respect to one another, and whether or not you’re creating a cohesive customer experience.

3. No Natural Nurture

To me, the easiest thing you can do to get more customers is develop and implement a nurture funnel. There are generally two ways to get more customers- either by getting new leads, or by converting the leads you have at a higher rate. Nurture is all about doing more with what you already have. (I feel like I’ve said that before) The reality is that most people agree with this, but very few actually do it. The biggest reason people aren’t doing this is because they don’t know HOW to do it. They’re confronted by questions like: Where do I begin? And What do I say? How much is too much? And if they can’t immediately answer, then they end up paralyzed and nothing gets done.

Well, I’ve got 11 questions you should walk through to help design a nurture funnel that works, and it starts with “What is the GOAL of my nurture?” (Hint: It may be more complex than ‘buy something’) If you’re looking to build, or refine, a nurture process, you can download the 11 questions here.

Action: Start with these 11 questions. Then find a tool (I recommend Infusionsoft) and build a nurture funnel that automatically follows up with prospects, and builds a relationship, provides value, and fosters trust.

There isn’t a single surefire indicator for whether or not a business is going to become a wild success, but having a solid Lifecycle Marketing strategy, and executing on it, will certainly set you up for smoother sailing.

Oh, and if you use Infusionsoft, check out my LCM: Real Life course – it’s all about bridging the gap between LCM theory and the actual campaigns that support it. And you can get the first module for free!