Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Lifecycle Marketing Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Lifecycle Marketing Manager is the architect and guardian of the customer journey. This strategic role focuses on developing and executing comprehensive communication strategies that engage customers at every stage of their relationship with a brand—from initial awareness and onboarding to long-term loyalty and advocacy. By leveraging data, personalization, and multi-channel communication, the Lifecycle Marketing Manager aims to maximize customer lifetime value (LTV), reduce churn, and transform satisfied customers into vocal brand champions. This position typically reports to a Director of Marketing, Head of Growth, or Head of CRM and collaborates extensively with product, data, sales, and customer support teams to create a cohesive and value-driven customer experience.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Email Marketing Specialist / Coordinator
Marketing Automation Specialist
Digital Marketing Generalist
Customer Success or Engagement Associate

Advancement To:

Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager
Director of CRM & Retention
Head of Lifecycle Marketing
Senior Manager, Growth & Retention

Lateral Moves:

Product Marketing Manager
Growth Marketing Manager
Marketing Operations Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop, execute, and continuously optimize a comprehensive, end-to-end lifecycle marketing strategy across all customer stages: acquisition, activation, engagement, retention, and reactivation.
Map the entire customer journey in detail, identifying key touchpoints, friction points, and opportunities for meaningful communication and intervention.
Own the strategy, execution, and performance of multi-channel marketing campaigns, including email, in-app messaging, push notifications, and SMS.
Build and manage sophisticated customer segmentation and targeting strategies to deliver highly personalized and relevant content and offers.
Design, implement, and analyze a rigorous A/B and multivariate testing roadmap to optimize campaign performance across all key metrics, including open rates, click-through rates, conversion, and churn.
Establish key performance indicators (KPIs), create dashboards, and deliver regular, insightful reports on campaign performance and its impact on overall business objectives to stakeholders.
Act as the primary owner and expert for the marketing automation platform (e.g., Braze, HubSpot, Marketo, Iterable), managing its configuration, health, and integration with other systems.
Collaborate closely with Product and Engineering teams to define data requirements, ensure proper event tracking, and unlock new capabilities for personalization and automation.
Drive the strategy for all triggered and transactional communications, ensuring they are timely, on-brand, and optimized for customer engagement.
Develop and refine the new user onboarding experience to drive initial product adoption and maximize customer activation rates.
Conceptualize and launch loyalty, referral, and advocacy programs designed to reward high-value customers and encourage word-of-mouth growth.
Create and maintain a detailed content calendar for all lifecycle communications, coordinating with content and design teams to produce compelling assets.
Monitor customer health scores and behavioral data to proactively identify at-risk customers and deploy targeted retention campaigns.
Conduct in-depth qualitative and quantitative customer research, including surveys and interviews, to uncover user needs and communication preferences.
Partner with the data science team to build and refine predictive models for churn risk, customer lifetime value, and next-best-action recommendations.
Lead the development and implementation of dynamic content and advanced personalization logic within communication templates.
Define, monitor, and report on the performance of customer cohorts to understand long-term value and behavioral trends.
Manage the budget and vendor relationships for all tools and platforms within the lifecycle marketing technology stack.
Ensure all marketing communications are in full compliance with global regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and CAN-SPAM.
Work with the customer support team to align on messaging and create a seamless experience for users who interact with both marketing and support channels.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to uncover new customer insights.
Contribute to the organization's broader data governance strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with various business units to translate their communication needs into effective lifecycle marketing campaigns.
Participate in sprint planning, retrospectives, and other agile ceremonies within the marketing and data teams.
Assist the content team by providing data-backed insights on messaging that resonates with different customer segments.
Work with web and app development teams to ensure proper tracking and event implementation for marketing automation tools.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Marketing Automation Expertise: Deep, hands-on proficiency with at least one major marketing automation or customer engagement platform (e.g., Braze, Iterable, HubSpot, Marketo, Customer.io).
Multi-Channel Campaign Management: Proven experience managing campaigns across email, push notifications, SMS, and in-app messaging.
Data Analysis & Reporting: Strong ability to analyze campaign and customer data, with proficiency in tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, or Tableau.
A/B Testing & Experimentation: A rigorous, methodical approach to designing, executing, and interpreting A/B and multivariate tests to drive incremental gains.
Customer Segmentation: Expertise in building complex audience segments based on demographic, behavioral, and transactional data.
Basic HTML/CSS: Familiarity with HTML and CSS for troubleshooting and customizing email templates.
SQL for Marketing Analytics: Foundational to intermediate SQL skills for querying databases to pull custom lists and perform deeper analysis.
CRM Platform Knowledge: Experience working with data flowing to and from CRM systems like Salesforce.

Soft Skills

Analytical & Data-Driven Mindset: A natural curiosity to dig into data, identify trends, and base strategic decisions on quantitative evidence.
Customer Empathy: An ability to deeply understand the customer's perspective, needs, and pain points to create user-centric communications.
Strategic Thinker: The capacity to see the big picture and design long-term strategies while also managing day-to-day execution.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Excellent interpersonal skills and a proven ability to work effectively with product, engineering, data, and creative teams.
Project Management: Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple complex projects, stakeholders, and deadlines simultaneously.
Exceptional Communication: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with a talent for crafting clear, compelling, and persuasive copy.
Problem-Solving Acumen: A proactive, solutions-oriented approach to identifying challenges and implementing effective fixes.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in a quantitative or business-focused field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Marketing
Business Administration
Communications
Economics or Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3-7 years

Preferred: Proven experience in a dedicated lifecycle, CRM, or email marketing role, with a strong portfolio of successful campaigns that measurably impacted key business metrics like activation, retention, and revenue. Experience in a B2C, SaaS, or mobile-first company is highly valued.