Six lifecycle flows worth building before your next campaign
Six flows generate most owned-channel revenue: welcome, cart abandonment, browse abandonment, post-purchase, replenishment and winback. They are triggered by behaviour rather than a calendar, so once built they keep producing without anyone scheduling anything.
Key takeaways
- Flows beat broadcasts because they run without anyone doing anything.
- Handle the objection before offering a discount, or you train people to abandon.
- WhatsApp outperforms email on attention and tolerates far fewer messages.
- Deliverability is infrastructure — authentication and warming come before campaigns.
Every other channel charges you again for the same customer. Email and WhatsApp do not. For most Indian businesses with an existing customer base, the fastest available revenue is a properly built set of flows to people who already bought once.
The six
| Flow | Triggered by | Doing |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Signup | Setting expectations while interest is highest |
| Cart abandonment | Abandoned checkout | Recovering revenue already paid for |
| Browse abandonment | Product viewed, no cart | Catching earlier intent |
| Post-purchase | Order placed | Reducing returns and support contacts |
| Replenishment | Time since order | Making the second sale free of media cost |
| Winback | Inactivity | Reviving customers you already acquired |
Cart recovery, in order
Three messages, then stop
- Within the hour — a simple reminder with the cart contents and one tap back to a restored cart.
- At 24 hours — handle the objection: delivery time, returns, sizing, payment options.
- At 48–72 hours — at most one modest incentive, with a genuine expiry.
- Suppress anyone who has since purchased — the most embarrassing and most common flow bug.
- Attribute recovered revenue separately, so the flow's contribution is visible.
WhatsApp rules that decide the design
- The 24-hour session window
- When a customer messages you, you can reply freely for 24 hours. Outside it you may only send pre-approved template messages, each charged. Almost every design decision follows from this rule.
- Templates
- Written and approved in advance, categorised as utility, marketing or authentication, and priced differently. Ten well-written templates beat forty nobody maintains.
- Opt-in
- Recorded with a timestamp and a source. Assume you will have to prove it — sending to a scraped list is how a business number gets restricted.
- Quality rating
- Falls when recipients report or block you, and eventually stops you sending. Restraint is the strategy, not a preference.
Deliverability is infrastructure
SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured, a warmed sending domain, and inactive contacts suppressed rather than mailed forever. Without those, the best campaign you write lands where nobody opens it, and no amount of subject-line testing fixes a domain reputation problem. The full engagement is on Email & WhatsApp Marketing.