What is the primary goal of the customer-lifecycle-marketer skill?

Turn new customers into loyal advocates and grow revenue by focusing on onboarding, expansion, retention, and advocacy.

Which metrics matter most for this skill?

Activation Rate, Time to Value, Net Revenue Retention, Gross Retention, NPS, and Referral Rate, plus a health-score breakdown.

When should you invoke this skill?

When designing onboarding, planning upsell/expansion, preventing churn, or building referral programs and lifecycle emails.

customer-lifecycle-marketer

npx machina-cli add skill ncklrs/startup-os-skills/customer-lifecycle-marketer --openclaw

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SKILL.md

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Customer Lifecycle Marketer

Expert guidance for post-acquisition customer marketing — from onboarding through advocacy. Turn new customers into loyal advocates who grow your business.

Philosophy

Acquiring a customer is just the beginning. The real value comes from:

Onboarding that sticks — First 30 days determine lifetime value
Expansion over acquisition — Growing existing customers is 5-7x cheaper
Retention as growth — Reducing churn by 5% can increase profits 25-95%
Advocacy as acquisition — Happy customers are your best salespeople

How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in rules/ organized by:

onboarding-* — New customer activation and time-to-value
expansion-* — Upsell, cross-sell, and revenue expansion
retention-* — Churn prevention and customer health
advocacy-* — Referrals, reviews, and customer marketing
lifecycle-* — Segmentation and automated sequences

Core Frameworks

The Customer Lifecycle

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                              │
│  ACQUIRE → ONBOARD → ACTIVATE → RETAIN → EXPAND → ADVOCATE  │
│                                                              │
│     ↑                                                   │    │
│     └───────────────── REFERRAL ────────────────────────┘    │
│                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The Expansion Revenue Model

Type	Description	Example
Upsell	Higher tier of same product	Basic → Pro plan
Cross-sell	Additional products	Add-on features
Seat expansion	More users	Team growth
Usage expansion	Increased consumption	More API calls

Customer Health Score Components

Factor	Weight	Signals
Product usage	30-40%	Logins, feature adoption, depth
Engagement	20-25%	Email opens, support tickets, NPS
Growth signals	15-20%	Seat additions, usage trends
Relationship	15-20%	Exec sponsor, champion strength
Payment	5-10%	On-time, expansion, contract length

Lifecycle Stages

Stage	Timeline	Goal	Key Metric
Onboarding	Days 1-14	First value	Activation rate
Adoption	Days 15-60	Habit formation	Feature adoption
Retention	Day 60+	Ongoing value	Renewal rate
Expansion	Varies	More value	Net revenue retention
Advocacy	Post-success	Share value	Referral rate

Key Metrics

Metric	Formula	Target
Activation Rate	Activated / Signed Up	60-80%
Time to Value	Days to first "aha" moment	<7 days
Net Revenue Retention	(MRR + Expansion - Churn) / MRR	100-120%+
Gross Retention	Retained MRR / Starting MRR	85-95%
NPS	Promoters - Detractors	30-50+
Referral Rate	Referred / Total Customers	10-30%

Customer Segmentation Matrix

Segment	Characteristics	Strategy
Champions	High usage, high NPS	Advocacy, referrals, expansion
Healthy	Good usage, satisfied	Expansion opportunities
At-risk	Declining usage, low engagement	Intervention, support
Dormant	Minimal usage, no engagement	Re-activation campaign
Churning	Cancel signals, complaints	Save team escalation

Anti-Patterns

Onboarding ends at signup — Real onboarding is 30-90 days
Treating all customers the same — Segmentation drives relevance
Reactive churn prevention — By cancellation it's too late
Selling before value — Earn the right to expand
Ignoring advocates — Your best channel left untapped
One-size-fits-all emails — Lifecycle stage matters
NPS without action — Survey fatigue with no follow-up

Source

git clone https://github.com/ncklrs/startup-os-skills/blob/main/skills/customer-lifecycle-marketer/SKILL.mdView on GitHub

Overview

Expert guidance for post-acquisition marketing across onboarding, activation, retention, expansion, and advocacy. Helps turn new customers into loyal advocates through onboarding programs, upsell strategies, churn prevention, referrals, and lifecycle email content, with emphasis on NPS programs and win-back campaigns.

How This Skill Works

When invoked, follow the guidelines organized by onboarding-*, expansion-*, retention-*, advocacy-*, and lifecycle-*. Rely on the core frameworks: The Customer Lifecycle, the Expansion Revenue Model, and the Customer Health Score components, plus defined lifecycle stages to drive programs and metrics.

When to Use It

Design onboarding programs that drive activation and time-to-value
Create upsell/cross-sell and expansion strategies within existing accounts
Prevent churn by monitoring health signals and intervening early
Build referral programs and customer advocacy content (reviews, referrals)
Design lifecycle email sequences and run NPS or win-back campaigns

Quick Start

Step 1: Map lifecycle stages (Onboarding, Adoption, Retention, Expansion, Advocacy) and define success metrics
Step 2: Build a simple Customer Health Score with the five components and weights
Step 3: Create three automated sequences: onboarding activation flow, health/retention nurture, and advocacy/referral sequence

Best Practices

Prioritize onboarding that sticks to achieve activation in the first 14 days and aim for measurable activation
Favor expansion over new customer acquisition to maximize ROI
Build a Customer Health Score with components: product usage (30-40%), engagement (20-25%), growth signals (15-20%), relationship (15-20%), and payment (5-10%)
Segment customers into Champions, Healthy, At-risk, Dormant, and Churning; tailor actions per segment
Align advocacy programs with referrals, testimonials, and lifecycle emails

Example Use Cases

Launch an onboarding program designed to achieve Activation Rate of 60-80% and Time to Value under 7 days
Implement an expansion playbook targeting upsell to Pro, cross-sell with add-ons, and seat expansion
Run an NPS program alongside win-back campaigns to re-engage at-risk customers
Create a champions program to drive referrals and advocacy
Deploy lifecycle emails for Dormant and At-risk segments to drive reactivation and continued engagement

Frequently Asked Questions

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