Dose #128: Retention & Lifecycle Marketing Mastery

Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription 💊

This week we dive fully into retention marketing. Starting with what it is, and what it should be, we then discuss the disconnect between retention and growth teams. We then talk about size of retention teams, retention metrics, loyalty programs, and the future of retention (hint: big tip in the last section).

This week’s dose is a full interview with Al Salomon. If you’re looking for tips on retention and lifecycle marketing, then give it a listen on YouTube, Apple Podcast, or Spotify:

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Subscriptions vs. Retention Marketing—Where Are the Gaps?

I work in subscriptions and still don’t fully get what goes into Lifecycle and Retention Marketing. It feels so broad, and yet so basic how brands approach it. Many still lump retention in with email and SMS campaigns.

As my recent interview with Al Salomon uncovered, however, retention is much broader—covering every touchpoint a customer experiences, from their first purchase to customer support interactions.

For this week’s dose, we’re going to go broader than just subscriptions and look at the entire lifecycle of a customer to see where the gaps are and what you can do to retain customers better.

The Disconnect Between Growth and Retention

Retention marketing faces a big challenge: there is often a disconnect between growth and retention teams. Growth marketers focus on acquisition, while retention marketers typically take over after the first purchase. But the two functions should be more integrated.

Working together, these teams can uncover better revenue opportunities and profitability. For instance, customers acquired through influencers may have lower retention rates than those acquired through organic channels.

One thing we notice a lot in our subscription audits is that different products have stronger LTV, even though they may be the same price. When a retention team can give that information to growth, they can prioritize those products in campaigns and upsells. This makes the company more profitable and healthy.

Key action: Bring growth and retention teams closer. When acquisition strategies align with retention goals, you’ll see stronger lifetime value (LTV) and better customer experiences overall.

Why Your Retention Team is Often Too Small

It’s no secret—retention teams tend to be under-resourced. Even in large companies with 20+ marketing team members, retention teams are often only two people strong.

Is this because brands don’t think retention is hard? Or difficult to crack? Or that managing a CRM doesn’t take much work?

Many brands assume retention is “set-it-and-forget-it,” but that couldn't be further from the truth. Just like growth, retention requires ongoing strategy, optimization, and testing.

It makes sense for brands to put a strong focus on growth. New customers are often the model used for predicting revenue goals and how they’re evaluated by possible investors or loans.

But the truth is that there is a lot of missed opportunity for revenue in retention. Without a strong strategy, retention is just about pushing for a second purchase, and then a third. It isn’t really driving higher LTV in a way that is both sustainable and transformative for the business.

This is something worth evaluating at your team to see if you’re overlooking a revenue opportunity here.

Pro tip: Retention is not just about sending emails. Make sure your team has the resources to focus on customer experience (CX) and not just communications (CRM). When they are aligned with a long-term growth strategy, the better the customer experience—and retention—will be.

Retention Metrics to Live By

When it comes to retention, LTV is king. But don’t forget to segment based on real customer behaviors, not just generic data. Al shared some innovative ideas on segmentation, like asking customers where they use your product (in their home, for example) or what purpose they bought it for. This data can drive highly personalized email campaigns and improve retention.

We’ve talked numbers in the past, but it helps to frame LTV on a time-basis to make better decisions. Most brands we work with do this on a 90- or 180-day basis. It helps you understand what is happening for customers in the first few months, so you know if actions you’re taking on who you’re acquiring and how you’re nurturing them is working.

One of the best opportunities for growth within retention is segmentation. Getting into products, use-case, demographic data, purchase behavior… these segments will let you craft different experiences that unlock more revenue, or just make purchasing for them easier.

Key action: Dig deeper into customer behavior and use it to refine your retention strategies. This kind of data will help you not only retain customers but also upsell and cross-sell more effectively.

Is Your Loyalty Program Doing Enough?

If you’ve launched a loyalty program that simply hands out points, you're likely leaving value on the table. Al stressed that loyalty programs should have clear goals, like encouraging customers to reach a specific purchase milestone or rewarding them for sticking around longer.

Loyalty can’t live in a vacuum, and definitely shouldn’t be something you set and forget. The best brands view loyalty as a strong piece of their brand. Look at our past dose on how Milk Bar launched a new subscription just for their most loyal customers. It’s an eye-opener.

Great loyalty comes down to understanding what motivates your customers. Is it access to new products? Earning more product? Discounts? Merch? There are a lot of different ways to reward customers, but that strategy should be aligned with building up the brand and creating real revenue.

Pro tip: Make sure your loyalty program is simple and straightforward. If your internal team can't explain it clearly, neither will your customers. Think beyond points—consider creative perks like exclusive gifts at key moments in a customer’s journey.

What’s Next for Retention?

The future of retention marketing is evolving, but the fundamentals remain the same: test, optimize, and always focus on customer experience. New tools and tech are making it easier than ever to connect with customers across channels, whether through personalized emails, digital wallet passes, or in-store touchpoints.

The funny thing is, that no matter how new the tech is, your biggest opportunity is still sticking to the fundamentals. When was the last time you audited your abandoned cart flows? Looked at what your loyalty program is doing?

There is a massive opportunity in continuing to build out a cohesive strategy for retention marketing, but also reviewing the individual tactics that drive it. Think of it like this: you can buy a new pair of shoes thinking that will give you a faster marathon time, or you can keep up strong training and diet to make you a faster runner.

Final Thoughts

Retention isn't just about sending emails or offering discounts. It's about understanding the entire customer journey and delivering consistent value across every stage of that journey.

Within your own brand, look at where revenue is coming from and see if you’re not allocating enough resources to some of your money-making channels. If you think retention is fine as is, there’s a good sign you have money left on the table.

That’s it for this week’s dose! Don’t forget to check out Penmo for all your content needs. See you next Tuesday with dose #129!

 - Matt Holman 🩺

The Subscription Doc