Jacalyn Beales

Copy.ai

Head of Lifecycle

Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager

Lever

Senior Manager, Demand Generation

Manager, Content Marketing

Sensibill

Head of Content Marketing

PHANTA

Director of Creative & Content

Kudos®

Bellwether X

Head of Creative & Content

Sugarpop Marketing

Creative Director

Photographers Without Borders

Journalist

York University

Assistant to the Director, Social Sciences

⚡️Leading lifecycle marketing @ Copy.ai | On a mission to find the best Moscow Mule | Em dash enthusiast

Hey, I'm Jacalyn 👋 I'm a marketer with a passion for emboldening brands and empowering their customers. My focus is helping companies solve common marketing woes with a human-first approach. 

I've spent 10+ years working alongside cross-functional GTM teams—ideating and executing demand-driven strategies that propel growth and brand recognition—to drive over $2 million+ in revenue for B2B and B2C companies. Big advocate for bridging the gap between companies and their customers—and breaking the confines of commonplace marketing 🙌

I believe:

⚡ Everything about a brand should be human-centric
⚡ Em dashes are the elite punctuation mark
⚡ Breakfast for dinner is a highly underrated combo👌 

When I'm not working, I can usually be found hunting down the best Moscow Mule and traveling wherever there are trails and a mountain.

If someone tells you that you need a clean CRM, years of historical data, or a big budget to test lifecycle campaigns...they're lying 😂 



Some of the most impactful lifecycle programs I've run have had literally ZERO budget, next to know historical insights to pull from, and messy data. 

Because...that's the reality for just about 99% of tech and other b2b companies ☺️ 

But that doesn't mean you should be deterred from testing campaigns and programs. 

Here are a few quick lifecycle tests you can run right now (and ones I've tried and tested myself) 👀 


⚡ Reply vs. click
 If you try swapping your CTA from “click here” to “just reply and I’ll send it over” you'd be surprised at the uptick in engagement. 
- measure replies vs. clicks and, more importantly, what happens after

⚡ Delay onboarding 
 What if you triggered your onboarding program 48 hours later than usual?
- some customers need breathing room after signing up or starting a trial
- plg users don't always need as much handholding as you think

⚡ Test your channels
 Pick a lifecycle moment (like a product tip), and try half as an email, half as an in-app message (for example)
- then, compare usage lift to see which channel drives more action with less noise

⚡ Try a simple behaviour split
 Take one campaign (say, a cross-sell email), and split your audience into high usage customers, and low usage customers
- monitor which group converts higher, and whether the same message resonates

Some more hot tips 🔥 
- keep the scope small
- define one success metric
- run the test(s) long enough to see results (say, 2 weeks)

Then, iterate from there based on the results you see ✨ 

Lifecycle folks are often sold this "pitch" that you need perfect data, a chonky budget, or the world's most organized CRM to run decent experiments. 

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I ran into a company that had all 3 😂 

The only thing you actualllyyyy need is a willingness to test, learn, and iterate.

Cuz sometimes, running small experiments compound into big wins 🤗 

#lifecyclemarketing #lifecycletips #lifecyclemarketingtips #lifecyclemarketingstrategy #lifecycle #lifecyclemarketers #customerretention

Growth & lifecycle leader 👋 | Em dash enthusiast | Always on the hunt for the best Moscow Mule

The most advantageous way I'm using AI right now has nothing to do with work 👀 👀 👀 



I'm using it to broaden my literary education 💁‍♀️ 

If you know me, you know I'm a classics gal—gimme an opportunity to wax poetic about The Brothers Karamazov or Wuthering Heights, and I won't stfu 😌 

Butttttt as many of us who work in marketing know all to well, reading has somehow become relegated to books about business, radical candor, and managing up 😵‍💫 

That stuff just isn't my vibe 😅 🫢 

So, instead, I've put together a uni-style course curriculum for myself for Fall'25, and I'm using AI to do it. 

Here's how 👇 

1️⃣ Start with your topic or theme
My Fall'25 course focuses on the interplay between chaos (evil), corruption, love, and redemption. 

2️⃣ Determine what and why you want to learn
I want to explore how classic literature reveals evil not as an antagonist, but as a force that unmasks hypocrisy, corruption, and human weakness (while also showing how love and faith persist as redemptive forces). 

3️⃣ Choose the type of literature you want to read
Ex. I'll be reading Faust (Part 1), Frankenstein, and The Bacchae. 
- I chose these works based on the underlying theme evident in novels I've read recently, like Master and Margarita. 

4️⃣ Pick what you want to cover
For my course, I want to ensure I'm diving deeper into new literary themes, devices, motifs, symbolism, and character traits. 

5️⃣ Use AI to create a full syllabi 
I used ChatGPT, but you could use other tools (like Claude), too. 

Then, get to prompting ✍ 

(I'll drop my full prompt in the first comment, because it's a tad long 😂)

Start by:
🔖 brain dumping your thoughts around what you want to learn (theme), the literature you want to read, and what you hope to take away from your "course". i basically just talked at ChatGPT for like, 10 minutes 😅 
🔖 then, instruct the AI to recommend 2-3 pieces of literature that cover your main theme/focus.
🔖 based on the recommendations, ask AI to put together a full course curriculum/syllabi, along with discussion + self-guided reflection questions. 

(You can tweak as you go, but you can have AI create a PDF of your curriculum to download or print off) 

Once you have your course "materials" (aka your literature), you can get started! 

I personally love annotating (hit me up if you want recs for annotation supplies 🥹), but I also like using ChatGPT as a "study partner". 

For example, I'm:
🔖 having discussions with ChatGPT about what I've learned 
🔖 having it act as a "professor" or "TA" to help guide my critical thinking
🔖 prompting it to create a "study hall" where we share ideas and discourse 

As a marketer, I knnnoowww we're supposed to find neat ways to use ai at/for work...

But I'm having a lot more fun using it for stuff like this 💁‍♀️ 

👀 Are you using ai to learn something new outside of work?
👀 Whatcha reading? 

#marketing #ai #aiusecases #aiinlearning #aitips

Here's what I can tell you will and won't work for lifecycle in 2026 👀 



I'm gonna drop some tough truths here 😂 

⚡ What won't work
- overcomplicating the segmentation of every program (pick your battles)
- trying to convert everyone and their uncle (aka a straight road to nowhere)
- launching as many programs as you can, all at once
- using multiple tools/platforms to collect, track, and analyze user data 
- only relying on what said data "tells" you about your users
- focusing heavily on plg while converting your biz to slg and expecting it to just "work"
- forcing the use of ai to "automate everything" about your lifecycle sequences (plot twist: it can't and won't) 
- applying d2c tactics to b2b lifecycle (pls don't run BFCM promos to your b2b buyers this year PLS DON'T) 

⚡ What will work
- collecting insights as you go (aka let your users tell you what they need instead of an overly convoluted dashboard)
- doing user and customer research to inform your programs (*gasp* it does help!) 
- growing the "pipeline" you've got (aka improve conversion of existing users instead of desperately trying to acquire new ones every month)
- testing send types, frequency, messaging, etc with your audiences (not just launching programs your cmo wants to see) 
- putting more effort into lifecycle as a cross-sell/upsell channel for larger accounts than just a promo mill for free-to-pro activation
- aligning with product and cs teams to understand what the heck is being built for customers, and how it's being handled 
- focusing on the problem you've named, and using lifecycle to help people solve it 

I'm a big believer in lifecycle being the most underrated + most overlooked channel companies have. 

And not because I'm in lifecycle 🙃 

At every single company I've worked at, lifecycle channels have consistently been top performers for upsell, cross-sell, retention, you name it. 

There's a reason other departments run to marketing and ask lifecycle folks to "send an email" 😉 

But b2b lifecycle is difffferent (i'll die on this hill) and launching half-a$$ed programs won't cut it anymore 🤷‍♀️ 

2026 will be an awesome year to [finally] invest in lifecycle...which is basically the same as investing in your customer journey and making sure it's killer 🤗 

#lifecyclemarketing #lifecycle #lifecycletips #lifecyclestrategy #lifecyclemarketingtips #lifecyclemarketer #b2bmarketing #marketingtips

Here's something no one's gonna tell you about converting folks using lifecycle programs👇 



No one knows how to 🤣 

There's a reason why everyone on LinkedIn is shouting about playbooks being broken and not working anymore. 

It's because you can't copy + paste what worked at one company, and hope it works at another 🤷‍♀️ 

Case in point: driving revenue from upgrades/upsell. 

At Copy[dot]ai, I helped drive $500k in revenue in about 1.5 years from activating folks and getting them upgraded to paid plans. 

And I had zero idea what I was doing ☺️ 

I mean, I knew we had a few existing challenges:
- no real program or approach to segment + assist free users
- no real education or knowledge sharing that would help free users become successful platform users
- no real plan for how to educate those folks

So, I started by: 
- doing user + product research, and putting together our customer journey
- asking users for insights (aka: spending an hour every morning fielding support tickets and straight-up asking users to share looms or brain dumps of their challenges) 
- sifting through discombobulated Mixpanel reports, Intercom data, SF dashboards, Lightdash and Mode reports, etc 
- picking the brains of other folks on the team who had been at the company longer than I had 
- asking our awesome CSMs lots of questions (almost too many, sorry 😂)

Then I outlined the type of program I thought would benefit our users in Miro. 

In fact, this became such common practice for me that my team members and I would joke, "Not another Miro board! 😫" 

(Plot twist: there was always another Miro board 😈)

What resulted was a free-to-pro activation nurture that evolved over time, but never strayed too far from its core foundation: leading with education, knowledge sharing, and HELPING people first and foremost. 

Always help first. 
That's the rule of thumb. 
And it should be rule ONE for lifecycle folks. 

If you want to steal that nurture "framework", peep the pic below 👀 

I'm not saying it's perfect, and I'm NOT saying it's the only thing you have to do to drive shmoney from lifecycle 😅 We had other programs, and did lots of customer research that informed lifecycle over time. 

But it's a place to start—and getting started is often the toughest part 💜 



#lifecyclemarketing #lifecycletips #lifecyclemarketingstrategy  #customerlifecycle #lifecycle101 #lifecyclestrategy #b2bmarketing 
#marketingtips #b2blifecycle

I've been thinking a lot lately about why I do what I do...and why I've been doing it for 10+ years now ☺️  



Over the course of my career, I've been a creative director, content marketer, demand gen marketer, and lifecycle lead. 

It's been a wild and seriously fun ride, but lately, I've been asking myself why I do it 🤔  

What about all of this work gets me up in the morning and eager, excited, or [dare I say] thrilled to keep doing it? 

- it's not because I love seeing MRR and ARR graphs on SF reports trend upward
- it's not because I feel empowered by hitting aggressive NRR goals 
- and it has nothing to do with feature adoptions, trending ad campaigns, or successful rebrands

When I actually stopped to think about it recently, I realized the reason is pretty simple: I give a s**t about solving the problems that teams need to solve in order to serve 👏 their 👏 customers 👏 and make an impact at work. 

That's literally it. 

And I further realized it's why I've really, really enjoyed doing hands-on consulting work with small but mighty, motivated marketing teams. 

Those teams really do give a s**t, and it's inspiring as hell ✨ 

I want to work with more teams like that, which means consulting to help teams grow revenue (and make customers feel seen and supported) with lifecycle.

That looks like: 
⚡ lifecycle consulting 
⚡ fractional lifecycle marketing
⚡ customer lifecycle and enablement content 

If you know me, then you already know I deeeeeeppllyyy believe in marketing that’s human-first, collaborative, and empowers teams to feel good about the work they do. 

A few things I’ve helped those teams create:
✨ lifecycle programs that get customers to their first “aha” moment in half the time
✨ targeted lifecycle campaigns that win back customers and improve retention
✨ email pipelines that generate thousands in lifecycle-influenced revenue

If that sounds like something you want to do, let's chat 💁‍♀️ 

I'm here to help you solve your lifecycle woes 🥰 

#lifecycleconsulting #lifecyclemarketing #lifecyclemarketer #consulting #lifecycletips #lifecyclemarketingstrategy

Here are some tough truths about b2b lifecycle marketing no one is talking about 👀 👀 👀 



⚡ Activation and upsell aren't aren't just lifecycle's responsibility 
With every company bolting AI onto their existing products, lifecycle activities (like onboarding) can't make up for a poor product experience. 

⚡ CS has to be involved from the word "go"
If your CS team isn't part of, and championing, lifecycle efforts from day one, lifecycle won't ever be able to contribute to retention, upsell, and cross-sell effectively. 

⚡ Lifecycle can't make up for a lack of product innovation
No lifecycle strategy, program, series, or flow can help engage and retain customers when there's a lack of growth or evolution in a product. 

⚡ Most lifecycle teams are more under-resourced than you think
A lot of lifecycle folks actually have next to no budget, especially for experiments. It's why it's so critical that b2b lifecycle peeps prioritize ruthlessly. 

⚡ Attribution will never be perfect (and, sometimes, unreliable) 
Activation, renewal, expansion, upsell, retention, are all multi-touch. And no tool is going to give you a neat report that says, “X onboarding campaign drove $Y in revenue.” So you have to get really comfy with "great" and not "perfect". 

⚡ Cross-collab with Product isn't optional
 If Product and lifecycle aren't aligned, chances are, your lifecycle programs will flop, or conflict with what's coming down the pipe from Product. And, ultimately, that's a really crappy experience for customers.

⚡ B2B lifecycle isn't D2C 
If you're pushed to churn out discounts, promos, seasonal campaigns, etc, you're on a hamster wheel of desperate acquisition tactics that won't work. What works in d2c isn't a silver bullet for b2b. 

⚡ Customers don't care about the nuances of your programs
The biggest thing customers care about, is value. It doesn’t matter how elegant your flowcharts and campaign plans look. 

⚡ Lifecycle metrics don't exist in a vacuum 
Most lifecycle activities are impacted by other teams' efforts, and vice versa. NRR, LTV, TTV, CAC, etc are team efforts, and it's key to work collaboratively with other teams to drive success in lifecycle. 

⚡ Setting boundaries around lifecycle is critical
Lifecycle is often treated as a “support” function, and so you have to be firm on boundaries. That could mean running scrappy experiments, automating programs selectively, or repurposing content to save resources. 

There's so much potential in b2b lifecycle, and the impact it can have on your biz can be 📈 📈 📈 

But b2b lifecycle isn't a carbon copy of b2c or d2c 👀 

And it's okay to experiment, iterate, and figure out what works best for your customers—you just need the right support, collabs, and partnerships 😇 



#lifecyclemarketing #lifecyclemarketingtips #lifecyclemarketingstrategy 
#lifecyclemarketer #b2bgrowth #retentionmarketing #customersuccess 
#marketingops

My take for 2026 is that lifecycle marketing is going to change in a big way, and we're not prepared 😂 




Here's my take: lifecycle is going to be less about how you set things up, and more about why and who you're setting them up for 🤷‍♀️ 

There's so much focus on lifecycle marketers having liquid skills, experience writing dynamic logic, abilities to create multi-step journeys...you get the picture. 

Anyone can learn those skills if they put their mind to it ☺️ 

But the reality for most lifecycle folks is that we:
- pretty much live in CRMs, even when no one else cares about 'em
- have to juggle multiple tools and platforms that are pretty disparate
- own reporting and are usually left to our lonesome with it
- switch between multiple tasks and projects constantly 
- don't actually have the resources or support you might think 
- helm so many programs, sometimes, it'd make your head spin

In b2b lifecycle, no one cares how nuanced or "pretty" your programs are.

- leadership cares about the outcomes (aka 💰)
- managers care about work being shipped (aka did you launch that campaign they really want to push this quarter 😅)
- coworkers care about collaboration (aka what time investment do you need from them 👀)

All of that means understanding why and what you're doing in lifecycle—what will move the needle and create tangible outcomes?

I think, in 2026, more lifecycle folks are going to be facing a new reality ☺️ 

You're not going to be judged on your ability to use Braze, or build complex journeys in CIO. 

You're going to be judged on: 
- your ability to test and pivot 
- your ability to ship stuff even when it's not perfect
- tangible biz results vs abstract outcomes 
- the impact lifecycle has on cross-departmental objectives 
- strategic growth vs growth at all costs

Example: how is lifecycle driving pipeline for cross-sell and not just activation?

This is where I've always said b2b lifecycle is different ‼️ 

B2C and D2C measure success differently, and while those tactics can be fun, b2b lifecycle is a unique "beast". 

My take: the best thing lifecycle folks in b2b can do ahead of 2026 is start building partnerships with other teams that will help them drive results from the stuff I mentioned above 💜 

- become besties with your ops teams
- sit with sales to understand their targets
- partner with cs/cx and ingratiate yourself in their activities
- build better rapport with product teams to get the inside scoop on roadmaps 
- ask your boss what your team's KPIs will be come 2026 

It sounds less "sexy" than the fun experiments folks get to run in b2c or d2c lifecycle—but it's how lifecycle will make its mark. 

#lifecyclemarketing #lifecyclestrategy #b2blifecycle #lifecycletips #lifecyclemarketingtips #b2bmarketing

Taplio

Jacalyn Beales's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Jacalyn Beales's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Jacalyn Beales's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts (last 30 days)