The customer lifecycle is the journey a potential customer goes through from pre-purchase to purchase to what happens after they become an actual customer.

The customer lifecycle is crucial to your business because, without customers, your business won’t succeed. Zip. Nada.

But, here’s the thing… not only do you need customers, but you need a COMMUNITY of loyal clients.

Loyal clients will support you and your business time and time again. They’ll keep. coming. back. for. more.

Why?

Because they trust you and want to see (and help) you succeed.

Knowing how to cater to your customers during each stage of the customer lifecycle gives you the upper hand—you can enhance their experience (and keep them coming back!)

In order to build a loyal community of the most amazing clients, you need to understand the stages of the customer lifecycle a little more in-depth.

Let’s break it down even further. 

Step 1: Reach/Awareness

This is what kicks off the relationship. Your potential customer meets you at an event, discovers you through a collaboration with another brand, finds your social media posts, or hears about you from a friend. This initial step raises awareness, and they think, “Huh. That person seems cool.”

Step 2: Engagement

Let’s move onto engagement. Your potential customer starts to interact with you by reading your blog, following you on social media, or subscribing to your newsletter. They’re consuming your content as much as possible. And, they’re most definitely checking for social proof to see what others say about working with you (which is why social media is the best investment you can make for your business.)

Step 3: Purchase

Here comes the fun part. Your potential customer is about to become an ACTUAL customer. They’ve heard from enough people and have read enough reviews to know they can trust you. They’re ready to make their first purchase from you!

Step 4: Retention

Now, it’s time to put in some work. You don’t just want someone to purchase your product or service once, right? No! You want them to keep coming back. Always continue to provide value for them through meaningful messaging, content, customer service, etc.

Step 5: Loyalty 

Remember when I said you want to build a community of loyal clients? Establishing a long-term relationship with your customers is what makes loyalty. But how? By staying consistent, providing value, and focusing on their experience.

Step 6: Advocacy

Now that you have the loyal clients you so so so deserve, you want them to become brand advocates and ambassadors for you. They refer their friends, post about you, and share your services—leading you to grow even more because they believe in you so much!

Loyalty = Community = Success

I want your brand to succeed more than anything.

It’s going to take work, but I believe in you.

Remember: loyal customers turn into a community of like-minded people who care about you and trust you. And most of the time, that feels better than financial success.