What are the most common customer segmentation and lifecycle management mistakes and how can you avoid them?

I agree that you need just enough segments for your marketing to be as relevant as possible with the resources you have. I’ve never worked anywhere where the customer lifecycle was as personalized as I wanted it to be. I know that while I could create a thousand segments my team didn’t have the resources to create personalized content for a thousand segments. I like to create and nail segments one-by-one and get more granular as the business grows as well as my resources.

The world is colorful - and so are companies. Excessive segmentation only leads to complexity, processes and time. Depending on the approach of your customer success management (high touch, low touch, automated touch...) you should deal with automation, self-service, documentation & communities. Ideally, you can already supply 80% of your customers with this. And the remaining 20% receive individual support from their Customer Success Management.

Develop a segmentation approach that includes lifecycle triggers, recognizing that customers' needs and behaviors change as they move through different stages.

Failing to consider the dynamic nature of the customer journey is a common pitfall. Instead of static segmentation based solely on current behavior, businesses should adopt a more dynamic approach. This involves continuously analyzing customer interactions, both past and anticipated, to adapt strategies in real-time. By understanding evolving needs and preferences, businesses can tailor experiences at each touchpoint, maximizing engagement and conversion opportunities. This dynamic perspective ensures that marketing efforts remain relevant and effective throughout the entire customer lifecycle.

I see companies fall into this trap for two reasons. 1. They don’t have sufficient data to personalize. 2. They don’t provide their lifecycle marketing team the resources to do good personalization. Personalization is extremely hard in this age of the internet. On the one hand we have more personalization tools than we’ve ever had before, but we’re battling against the growing concern of online privacy. It makes the jobs of lifecycle marketers extremely tough. It’s important to make sure your team is properly resourced to overcome the challenges of personalization or you’ll never see your efforts make much traction.

Whilst failure to personalise communication is often due to lack of data or segmentation, it can often be a struggle even once these are in place due to people, process or tech limitations. I've seen this many times where a small team doesn't have the time to create many different variants, and the right tech and processes aren't in place to have this happen dynamically without the need for duplication. It's important to consider these factors upfront as companies often start down the data and segmentation route, before thinking about the practicalities of how the personalised variants will be activated through the existing marketing and comms teams.

Lifecycle marketing is one of the marketing teams most dependent on other teams and departments. It makes your lifecycle marketers well versed in your business but makes the job very hard because you need buy-in from so many people to be successful. Finding ways to streamline cross-functional collaboration has been a big boost for lifecycle marketing everywhere I’ve worked.

Absolutely agree! Collaboration across teams is very essential to ensure consistent messaging. Also forming a cross-functional team with representatives from all relevant departments can significantly enhance the effectiveness of customer segmentation. Additionally, it’s crucial to leverage data integration tools that unify customer insights across different systems. This not only helps in creating a cohesive strategy but also ensures that all teams have access to real-time, accurate data, enabling more informed decision-making and a seamless customer experience.

Ignoring Emotional Engagement: Focusing solely on transactional data and demographics may overlook the emotional aspect of customer relationships. Emotionally engaged customers tend to be more loyal and valuable. Incorporating emotional cues and triggers into segmentation and lifecycle management can deepen customer connections and enhance brand loyalty. Understanding customers' emotions can guide personalized messaging and experiences, fostering long-term engagement and advocacy.

In my experience, customer segmentation is not a one-time activity. It's an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and adjustment as your customer base evolves. By staying attuned to your customers' needs and preferences, you can create lifecycle marketing campaigns that resonate, drive engagement, and ultimately lead to long-term success.