Marketing

The lifecycle engine

Growing revenue from the customers we already have.

Sheran Gale, Head of Growth Marketing 23 September 2026

Where we started, and what changed

When I joined, Seatfrog had limited CRM maturity and no lifecycle engine driving activation or retention

Today the foundations are built: specialists in place of generalists, and our data making communications more personalised and relevant

By the end of Q4 the full lifecycle engine is live, moving customers through the funnel; the AI 1-to-1 decisioning engine follows in Q1 2027

March 2026when I joined
We are here todayTodaySeptember 2026
End of Q4 2026December
Q1 2027
Customer experience
The message
Channels
People and process
Data and models
FragmentedLaying the foundation
“You don’t know me”
One size fits all: one message to everyone
Email and push, batch sent to everyone
Teams operate in silos; no specialist skill set
No models, no segments, and nothing measured
EfficientBuilding capability
“You know my stage, and what I just did”
Right message, right group
Email and push campaigns, sent across different platforms
Specialist skills hired; a cross-functional team, processes starting to form
Life-stage segments, personas and recency-frequency-value scoring; a 5% global holdout reads all marketing over time
EffectiveEvery journey live, personalised from data
“You knew before I did”
Right message, right customer, at the right moment
All CRM comms triggered through Braze
Established process and turnaround times; end-to-end delivery run with AI agents
Churn-risk score live, propensity-to-return score Q4; every journey read against a 20% control group, the holdout
AgenticFrom manual to fully automated
“My personal travel agent”
Right experience: one conversation across every touchpoint
AI orchestration across every channel
End-to-end automation of the process and the ways of working
Real-time data and machine learning; the AI 1-to-1 decisioning engine, built in-house (needed)
THE FOUNDATIONSAll six foundations of customer value management are in place, and the content layer is run by agentsCUSTOMER VALUE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORKActionable customer insightAGENTICData-driven contact strategyFROM Q1 2027The AI 1-to-1 decisioning engine picks the message, offer and momentCross-channel journey managementEmailLivePushLiveIn-app cardsQ4Delivery and measurementReporting and attributionOFFER AND CONTENTTARGETINGBUILT AGENTICALLYLive, 7 SeptemberThe Q4 propensity scoredecides offer depth.1Actionable customer insightBUILTEvery send audited, qual and quant mapped, segments andpersonas built, and a moment map agents redraw.2Data-driven contact strategyBUILT. SECOND MODEL IN Q4Segment-led contact strategy to drive activation, nurtureand grow customer value across every life stage.3Cross-channel journey managementTWO LIVE, SIX BY DECEMBERThe strategy executed across all channels, forpersonalisation and relevance at every moment.4Offer and content targetingLIVE, 7 SEPTEMBERA journey brief goes in, a finished email comes out, and aperson approves every step.5Delivery and measurementBUILTRobust delivery and QA of CRM activity, on a standardisedapproach to measurement.6Reporting and attributionFIRST READS IN NOVEMBER20% held back on every journey and a 5% global holdoutacross all marketing, so we report the lift we caused.

How the journeys were built

60 moments where we can win or keep a customer, mapped here not bought from an agency

The Booking.com version below was built by an agency.

The moment map, all 13 stages of the customer's life
Ours · 60 moments across the customer’s life, built in-house in a quarter from the live record.
Booking.com experience map, VML
The agency version · the same map, built for Booking.com by VML.

One journey in depth · churn prevention, live from 22 September

One in four active buyers goes quiet every month, 40,276 in August, unnoticed for 49 days

Nothing at allDays 1 to 49

49 days

Nothing watches. Nothing is sent. The customer is quietly going.

Every one of those days is a save that was cheaper than the one after it

The same push to everyoneDay 50, on a calendar

09:41
Seatfrog nowGot a trip coming up soon?Let’s see if we have an upgrade for that… ⚡

A calendar timer, not a signal: it fires whether they slipped or not

The same email to everyoneDay 50, the same day

Today’s day-50 email, the same to everyone

The same to everyone, and the weekly seasonal email lands the same week

Catching that slip is sized at about £156k net a year at benchmark rates; the first measured read comes in November.

One journey in depth · churn prevention, live from 22 September

Quiet is 11 days for a commuter and 14 weeks for a leisure traveller; the model knows which

👔
IainThe commuter
Buys every 7 days

Day 11, past 1.5x his own gap; the journey opens the next morning

The save email
Found you a better seat
Found you a better seat
routeLondon Euston to Leedsfrom£24

Hey Iain! I’ve been keeping a lookout on your line. Check this out… London Euston to Leeds from £24. Yes, that’s for First Class. And you only pay if you win.

Place a bid
Not opened
SEATFROG nowFound a better seat, thought of youFirst Class, £24, London Euston to Leeds. Room to spread out and watch the fields go by.
🏖️
DirkThe leisure traveller
Buys every 9 weeks

Week 14, past 1.5x his own gap; the journey opens the next morning

The save email
Found you a better seat
Found you a better seat
routeLondon to Edinburghfrom£31

Hey Dirk! It’s been a while since the last trip. When the next one comes, First Class to Edinburgh is going from £31. More room, a table to yourself, and you only pay if you win.

Place a bid
Not opened
SEATFROG nowFound a better seat, thought of youFirst Class, £31, London to Edinburgh. Room to spread out and watch the fields go by.

What ships next · turning losing bidders into returning bidders, November

14,800 customers a month bid for an upgrade and lose; 81% never bid again*

The pushesIn the auction

17:41
Seatfrog nowYou’ve been outbid.
Seatfrog nowJust a few minutes left to bid.
Seatfrog nowBidding has ended.

Three fixed pushes, built into the app before Braze, the same words whatever they bid

The lost screenAt the close

The app today after a lost auction

One closed screen, the same for everyone: a buy-now price, and no reason to bid again

The recovery email30 minutes after

Today’s first-auction-loser email

One message, whoever lost and however they lost

Losing reads as a dead end: 81% of customers do not bid again after one loss*, and the one recovery email reached about 20 of the 14,800 who lose an auction each month, because its entry rule let almost nobody in.

Losing bidders into returning bidders, from November · a straight account of the close and one reason to bid again, from their own history

What ships when

Eight of ten journeys live by December; £43k of the £64k they drive lands in the quarter

Live Ships Waits on a model or a date

Upgrades only; incremental over a 20% holdout; nothing measured yet.

October
November
December
Q1 2027
ActivateDrive the First Win: turn intent into a first transaction
Turn losing bidders into returning bidders
Prompt the first purchase
Recover the abandoned upgrade
GrowBuild the Habit Loop: turn one win into a habit
Turn the first win into a second
Deliver the First Class experience, and referrals: sizing with Analytics
DefendReactivation: catch the first slip while a save is cheap
Churn prevention: catch the first slip
RecoverReactivation: win back the lapsed
Seasonal reactivation: the never-bought wave, sent
Seasonal reactivation: the buyers’ wave
Win back lapsed customers: offers wait on the propensity-to-return score
AcquireScale Efficient Acquisition: capture the demand that exists, then create it
Search and AI visibility on the current site, 31 October
App store page
Boosted organic social: £2,500 a month
Rebuilt website, phase 1, 19 December
Partner launch go-to-market, Trip.com first
What the engine needsBuild the Lifecycle Engine: who builds each piece, and what it makes possible
Churn-risk score: live, scores nightly (Analytics)
Propensity-to-return score: sizes the win-back offers (Analytics, Q4)
Live data feed, warehouse to Braze: real-time triggers
AI 1-to-1 decisioning engine, built in-house
Net revenue driven: £64k in Q4, £43k landing inside itby month of launch, modelled
£13.7k
£20.3k
£29.7k
the rest lands in 2027

The marketing funnel

The gap is mid-funnel consideration: customers and creators already reach a hundred times what we do, and we amplify none of it

AwarenessUPPER FUNNELConsiderationMID FUNNEL · THE GAPTHE GAPConversionLOWER FUNNELLoyalty loopTHE CUSTOMERS WE HAVE
The plan
Awareness
Not in the plan
Consideration
From November, about £2,500 a month behind the posts that already travel; then creators paid per referral
Conversion
Search and AI visibility in October, the app store page in November, the rebuilt website on 19 December
Loyalty loop
The full lifecycle engine live by the end of December, every journey behind a 20% holdout

What customers already post about us, unpaid

@holidayexpert on Instagram
752,000 playsMay 2024 · @holidayexpert on InstagramA creator with 660,000 followers on our Secret Fares with TransPennine Express: “I’ve found another secret train hack”
204,300 playsMay 2025 · a customer on TikTokA customer’s first-class upgrade, filmed for her followers, with her own Seatfrog referral code in the caption, unprompted
63,500 playsOctober 2023 · a customer on TikTok“The only way I want to travel from now on. It made my trip so much better”

Appendix

Appendix: from today to the north star
← → to move, N for notes, F for full screen
Draft 54, 22 September 2026, for review
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