Email marketing vs. lifecycle marketing - what's the difference?

If you're reading this, you're probably wondering as you may hear the terms email marketing and lifecycle marketing used interchangeably. Like so many things, it just might not be completely cut and dry.

It may be best to review them stand-alone.

Looking at them separately:

Email marketing could be defined as using the email channel to market to your customer, or prospects.

Lifecycle marketing could be defined as marketing to your customer, or prospects based on their specific phase in their buying journey in order to more appropriately serve their needs.

In lifecycle marketing you focus on different phases in the customer journey and serving their needs there in order to move them to the next stage.

So what?

Assuming you agree with my definitions, I would try and explain this in a couple of different ways.

First, Lifecycle marketing is a more advanced, or thoughtful approach to how a company markets to their customers, while email marketing is a more direct, channel specific activity.

Second, while email marketing is often a role in its own, it can also be a channel, or tactic used within a greater Lifecycle marketing strategy. In other words, email marketing is a channel, while lifecycle marketing is a greater approach to marketing, that happens to leverage the email channel heavily.

Other observations

One observation I've had, and it does seem to be changing some, is that across B2C (business to consumer) companies, their roles are often described as email marketing specific, while B2B (business to business) roles are often lifecycle marketing specific.

And like I said, it seems that companies are starting to realize that email marketing might not be enough, and that advancing their focus to a more lifecycle marketing approach/mindset is where they need to be.

P.S. This is definitely just my opinion based on my experience. Agree or disagree? We'd love to hear your comments.