Mastering Lifecycle Marketing: Real-World Tactics from Leading B2B Teams

#253 Lifecycle Marketing | In this episode, we’re joined by two expert lifecycle marketers: Charlotte Hardin, Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Rebuy Engine, and Naomi West, Senior Product Manager at Customer.io. Charlotte and Naomi bring years of hands-on experience running email, onboarding, and retention programs inside B2B SaaS companies.They break down how B2B teams can use lifecycle marketing to drive more revenue, boost product engagement, and strengthen customer relationships, without needing a massive team.Charlotte and Naomi cover:How top B2B teams build high-performing welcome sequences, and why they’re constantly worth revisitingThe role of experimentation and how to prioritize AB tests that deliver learnings (even with small audiences)Strategic ways to keep users engaged post-onboarding, including behavior-based triggers and surprise-and-delight momentsTimestamps(00:00) - – Intro (01:30) - – Meet Charlotte and Naomi (03:15) - – How they define lifecycle marketing (05:00) - – What they’ve changed their minds about recently (08:10) - – Plain text vs. designed emails (10:00) - – Their frameworks for experimentation (12:30) - – How to test in low-volume environments (14:50) - – Common mistakes in A/B testing (16:00) - – What a day in lifecycle marketing looks like (18:10) - – How they (actually) use AI in their workflows (22:00) - – Building a reporting foundation for lifecycle (25:00) - – Naomi’s example of measuring aha moments (27:00) - – Quick definitions of lifecycle marketing (28:30) - – Tips for writing lifecycle campaigns that actually matter (29:00) - – Favorite lifecycle campaigns they’ve run (31:00) - – Why revamping welcome flows is always worth it (33:00) - - Frameworks they use for building new flows (36:00) - – What to do *after* onboarding ends (37:30) - – Using behavior-based triggers and milestones (39:30) - – Surprise and delight moments in B2B (41:00) - – Creating assets with a lean team (44:00) - – Systems and templates that save time (46:00) - – Navigating multi-year sales cycles with lifecycle content (49:00) - – Why benchmarks are often misleading (51:00) - – Final advice: audit often, talk to your team, and keep learning (53:00) - – Wrap-up and where to find Naomi and Charlotte Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, helping modern marketing teams build fully custom sites—no developer needed—that perform in AI search. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Markup AI - A content quality platform that scans your content against brand voice, preferred terms, messaging standards, and AI-search readiness before it goes live, right inside Google Docs. Learn more at markup.ai.Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/exitfive.Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more