Field notes on retention, written from inside the work
Playbooks, teardowns, and lessons from building lifecycle systems at Zendrop, Scratch, the PPA — and for clinics and service businesses since.
Rebuilding a Webinar Funnel From Registration to Revenue
A technical lifecycle case study on rebuilding Zendrop's webinar funnel across registration, reminders, SMS, attendance paths, replay, offer sequencing, urgency, purchase conversion, and exit logic.
Ronald DavenportBuilding a Research-Led Education Engine Before Black Friday
A technical lifecycle case study on using Typeform research, customer pain points, Q4 proof, and a multi-phase education campaign before Zendrop's Black Friday offer.
Ronald DavenportRecovering Abandoned Affiliate Trial Signups With Lifecycle Automation
How Zendrop recovered abandoned affiliate trial signups by capturing intent before payment friction, preserving attribution, and rebuilding trust through lifecycle automation.
Ronald DavenportBuilding a State-Aware Evergreen Nurture System
A technical case study on using customer attributes, behavioral branching, and dynamic CTA blocks to reinforce Zendrop activation milestones after onboarding.
Ronald DavenportDesigning Behavior-Based Onboarding Around Leading Indicators of Retention
A technical lifecycle case study on redesigning Zendrop onboarding around retained-customer behavior, activation milestones, customer state, and trial-to-paid conversion.
Ronald DavenportDesigning a Product-Qualified Lead Routing System Using Shopify Revenue Signals
A technical lifecycle case study on using Shopify revenue signals, Zendrop product events, CRM ownership assignment, sales notifications, rep-based email and SMS, lifecycle stage updates, and nurture suppression to route Product Qualified Leads.
Ronald DavenportHow I Accidentally Built an Email Newsletter Into One of Pickleball's Largest Owned Media Channels
A growth and lifecycle case study on creating Pickleball.com's Tips of the Week newsletter, a weekly instructional video franchise that grew into an owned media channel with about 16,000 clicks per week and sponsor demand.
Ronald DavenportBuilding an Interest-Based Sales Nurture System Without Lead Magnets
A lifecycle marketing case study on using email clicks, page views, ActiveCampaign tags, interest profiles, and education-first journeys to nurture Med School Headquarters prospects without traditional lead magnets.
Ronald DavenportDesigning a 160-Mile Geo-Targeted Tournament Promotion System for Pickleball.com
A lifecycle case study on using subscriber location and tournament location to build about 160-mile regional audiences for Pickleball.com and PPA Tour tournament promotion.
Ronald DavenportProtecting Deliverability During Zendrop's ActiveCampaign-to-HubSpot Migration
A technical migration case study on sending domains, DNS authentication, audience risk segmentation, warm-up sequencing, duplicate-send prevention, suppression logic, and revenue-critical lifecycle continuity.
Ronald DavenportRecovering Abandoned Kajabi Checkouts With ActiveCampaign and Behavioral Lifecycle Automation
A lifecycle case study on using Kajabi checkout behavior, ActiveCampaign product-specific journeys, UTM tracking, Google Analytics, and purchase suppression to recover abandoned Med School Headquarters checkouts.
Ronald DavenportDesigning a Demo Booking and Attendance System for Scratch's B2B Sales Motion
A lifecycle architecture case study on using HubSpot workflows, contact properties, sales ownership, demo-state management, reminders, attendance logic, and follow-up paths around Scratch's B2B demo motion.
Ronald DavenportBuilding Zendrop's Promotional Revenue System Across Email, SMS, Landing Pages, and In-App Messaging
A technical lifecycle case study on turning Zendrop promotions into a coordinated revenue system across audience eligibility, offer assignment, email, SMS, landing pages, in-app placements, purchase suppression, and reporting.
Ronald DavenportBuilding an AI Sales Intelligence Platform Across CRM, Retrieval, and Rep Approval
A technical product case study on AI reply classification, human approval, CRM context, retrieval from Gong and HubSpot history, multi-signal lead scoring, outbound generation, and territory intelligence.
Ronald DavenportDesigning an AI-Powered Modular Email Assembly Platform for Regulated Lifecycle Marketing
A product and systems-design case study on approved content atoms, layouts, borrower traits, AI-assisted selection, approval controls, audit logs, testing, and regulated lifecycle personalization.
Ronald DavenportReplacing Delighted With an Owned, Multi-Product NPS Infrastructure
A technical lifecycle case study on replacing Delighted with owned NPS infrastructure across borrower feedback, practice feedback, Checkout feedback, suppression, routing, response records, and reporting.
Ronald DavenportBuilding a Scalable Reporting Pipeline in Salesforce Marketing Cloud
How to design a Salesforce Marketing Cloud reporting pipeline with SQL transformations, cached dashboards, and A/B test analysis.
Ronald DavenportTurning Borrower Demand Into Clinic Prospects With HubSpot Custom Code
How HubSpot custom code actions, CRM search, confidence scoring, and routing turned borrower referrals into warm clinic prospects for Scratch sales.
Ronald DavenportBuilding Location-Aware Email Personalization with Liquid and Customer.io Collections
How to use Customer.io Collections and Liquid to render location-aware tournament recommendations without dozens of campaign branches.
Ronald DavenportBuilding Custom Journey Exit Logic in Salesforce Marketing Cloud
How to build custom Journey Builder exit logic with Automation Studio SQL, shared IDs, and contact attributes when conversion data lives elsewhere.
Ronald DavenportHow I Used AMPscript to Dynamically Render the Correct Financing Offer in Salesforce Marketing Cloud
A technical case study on using AMPscript in Salesforce Marketing Cloud to select the right financing offer and render dynamic payment messaging.
Ronald DavenportEmail Deliverability for SaaS: Why Your Lifecycle Emails Land in Spam
Why lifecycle emails have unique deliverability challenges, authentication setup, sender reputation, and a deliverability checklist.
Ronald DavenportLifecycle Marketing KPIs: The Only 7 Metrics That Matter
Why open rates are vanity metrics, the 7 KPIs that actually matter, how to set targets, and building a lifecycle dashboard.
Ronald DavenportWin-Back Email Campaigns: How to Re-Engage Churned SaaS Users
Why most win-back campaigns fail, the timing framework, 3 email templates with breakdowns, and when to stop trying.
Ronald DavenportThe Subscription Onboarding Email Sequence That Reduces Early Churn
Why the first 7 days determine retention, the 5-email framework, timing and behavioral triggers, with examples from subscription boxes and SaaS.
Ronald DavenportHow to Build a Customer Lifecycle Marketing Strategy From Scratch
Map the customer journey, choose your first 3 lifecycle flows, select tools, and build a measurement framework.
Ronald DavenportBraze vs Iterable: Which Is Better for Lifecycle Marketing?
Head-to-head comparison of Braze and Iterable for lifecycle marketing: pricing, features, journey builders, and which to pick for your stage.
Ronald DavenportSaaS Activation Rate Benchmarks: What Good Looks Like in 2026
What activation rate actually measures, benchmarks by category, how to calculate yours, and 3 ways to improve it.
Ronald DavenportLifecycle Marketing vs Growth Marketing: What's the Difference?
Clear definitions, where they overlap and diverge, the revenue math on retention vs acquisition, and how the two should work together.
Ronald DavenportChurn Reduction Strategies That Actually Work for SaaS
The real reasons SaaS users churn, a 3-tier churn framework, specific strategies for each tier, and how to build an early warning system using behavioral data.
Ronald DavenportWhat Is Subscription Lifecycle Management (And Why Most Companies Get It Wrong)
A definitive guide to subscription lifecycle management: the 5 stages, why most companies only focus on acquisition, and the framework for building a lifecycle program.
Ronald DavenportMarketplace Lifecycle Marketing: Balancing Supply and Demand Engagement
A practical guide to marketplace lifecycle marketing for SaaS and subscription businesses.
Ronald DavenportThe Lifecycle Marketing Audit: Find Your Biggest Revenue Leaks
A practical guide to lifecycle marketing audit checklist for SaaS and subscription businesses.
Ronald DavenportBehavioral Email Triggers That Drive 3x More Revenue Than Batch Sends
A practical guide to behavioral email triggers for SaaS and subscription businesses.
Ronald DavenportDTC Subscription Retention: Stop the Churn Before Month 3
A practical guide to DTC subscription retention strategies for SaaS and subscription businesses.
Ronald DavenportSaaS Onboarding Email Sequence: The Framework That Converts
A practical guide to SaaS onboarding email sequence for SaaS and subscription businesses.
Ronald DavenportLifecycle Marketing Case Study: How Zendrop Hit 367% Revenue Growth
Discover how Zendrop achieved 367% revenue growth using lifecycle marketing strategies. Learn proven tactics to boost customer retention and sales.
Ronald DavenportHow to Calculate and Improve Customer Lifetime Value
A practical guide to how to calculate customer lifetime value for SaaS and subscription businesses.
Ronald Davenport7 SaaS Welcome Emails That Actually Convert [Templates]
Not another "hey welcome" roundup. 7 tested welcome email templates with the exact structure, subject lines, and send timing that drive trial-to-paid conversions.
Ronald DavenportSubscription Lifecycle Automation: The Email Playbook for Reducing Churn
The 5-stage email automation framework for subscription businesses. Specific triggers, timelines, and benchmarks for trial conversion, onboarding, retention, and win-back flows.
Ronald DavenportWhy 70% of SaaS Signups Never Come Back (And How to Fix It)
Most SaaS products lose the majority of new users within 24 hours. Here's what's actually going wrong in the first session and the activation triggers that fix it.
Ronald DavenportTrial-to-Paid Playbook: 3% → Double Digits
Most SaaS trials convert under 5%. This playbook breaks down the 3 reasons users stay free — and the lifecycle fixes for each. Used with consumer SaaS clients.
Ronald DavenportLifecycle Emails That Actually Convert (Not Just Get Opened)
Open rates don't pay the bills. Here's how to write lifecycle emails that drive activation, conversion, and retention with real examples.
Ronald Davenport