Best Practices For Lifecycles

A few tips and tricks to get the most out of your automated lifecycles.

When it comes to lifecycle engagements, we have tried to showcase our best practices along the way, integrated into the building process. Just to be sure, we have put together some best practices to make the most out of your Lifecycle set-up:
  1. ​Take Advantage of Templates​
  2. ​How to Set-Up like a Pro​
  3. ​What's in a Name​
  4. ​Suggested Workflow​
  5. ​Takeways

👣 Take Advantage of Templates

Our templates are a big hint about the automation lifecycles we think you should be using.
All the awesome features and functionality of FT CRM are really showcased here. The more you automate, the more time and energy you save. Why not take a look at the areas of automation that we've outlined and plan more automation into your next months CRM planner.
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If you can't find an outline for automation that you need, build your own from scratch;
Building Lifecycles
/tutorials/lifecycles/building-lifecycles
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🗄️ How to Set-Up like a Pro

Using Lifecycles will undoubtedly make your automated projects so much better and easier than ever before. The new approach will increase productivity and efficiency. Before jumping in, take a look at your existing automated activities and pay attention to how they have been set up and segmented. Think about why they are set up as they are and the factors you need to take into consideration in order to optimise this process.
Functionality such as having multiple versions of one lifecycle can really help you to test performance and optimise what works. We’ve made it as easy as possible to clone and edit versions to make this possible.
Some considerations when setting-up your lifecycles;
  1. Time of communication - Do all your markets operate on the same time zone? Maybe it makes sense to have separate lifecycles for each time zone to avoid sending communication at a sub-optimum time.
  2. Conversion data - How do you want to analyse your results? What data will give you the best overview of performance? Is it more convenient to have information for each market?
  3. Jurisdictions - Different jurisdictions have different governance and regulations. Could it make sense to separate lifecycles based on jurisdictions?
  4. The way things are today - How have you set up your automation today? Does it make sense? Is it the best way to cope with potential future changes in strategy or compliance?
As you can see there are many ways to organise automation. One way isn't necessarily better than another. Find the best way that works for you.
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Example: Set-up one NRC-NDC lifecycle for each core market.
Reasons why we like to do it this way;
  1. Full control of performance overview and data
  2. Convenient to have multiple versions and AB test
  3. Compliant for different jurisdictions
  4. Easier to apply strategic changes to offers
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📛 What's in a Name

Once you've decided how you want to set up your lifecycles, you need to pay attention to how you name them.
How you name each and every lifecycle, version and segment will impact your ability to understand what they contain. Thoughtful naming will help to promote consistency within a team, remove ambiguity and avoid naming conflicts.
It's important to name your lifecycle in a descriptive way so that it's obvious to you and your team what each lifecycle does. Not only the lifecycle, but also the different versions and each segment you create.
Here are some tips for when you name your projects;
  1. Be consistent and descriptive
  2. Set up a clear structure that can be easily followed
  3. Format
  4. Don't deviate
Example: Lifecycle name is FI for Finland and outline selected is NRC - NDC
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🌊 Workflow

In case you didn't notice, lifecycles affords for a lot of flexibility to work exactly as you want it to. That means that you can work in a number of different ways. However, for optimum efficiency we suggest you work in the following way;
  1. Start by defining the lifecycle structure.
    1. Firing conditions
    2. Triggers
    3. Segments / Split Audience
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Define Structure
Define Structure
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  1. Then move on to creating the activities
    1. Actions
    2. Translations
    3. Action Scheduling
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Define Activities
Define Activities
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By focusing your efforts in this way, we think that you'll see the following benefits;
  1. Streamlined processes - think about the player journey and the end goal. How is the best way to target the player to reach the end goal of the lifecycle?
    1. Then move to how best speak to the player
  2. Improved communication - After you've focused on what you will do, improve communication by thinking about how you will speak to the player to be most effective
  3. Don't miss anything - You'll be dealing with many activities within one lifecycle. Make sure you don't miss a detail by structuring your workflow
  4. Confirm and confirm again! - you'll notice that we have introduced some strong confirmations. This is to make sure you don't accidentally do something that could harm your lifecycle.
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Confirmation
Confirmation
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🥡 Takeaways

If you put these tips into practice, you'll be setting up perfectly automated projects in no time. And not only that, you'll be inspired to automate more and more areas of your monthly CRM planner.
Imagine that! More automated projects and less time spent setting up single-use activities time and time again. You'll be more efficient and have more sophisticated automated campaigns.
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