We've mastered acquisition funnels, but here's where most marketers stop thinking: what happens after the purchase? The retention funnel is where your biggest growth opportunities actually live.
Post-purchase demand generation applies the same principles - awareness, consideration, decision - to existing customers discovering new problems they didn't know you could solve.
Engagement Message
Quick estimate: what percent of your current customers fully use every service you offer?
The retention funnel psychology is different from acquisition. Existing customers already trust you, but they bought you for one specific use case.
They're often unaware of your other capabilities. Your customer success team becomes your awareness stage, discovering new problems worth solving.
Engagement Message
Name one service you use that likely has hidden features you haven’t explored yet.
Customer expansion follows the same non-linear patterns we discussed earlier. A customer might discover new needs through support conversations, success reviews, or peer recommendations.
The difference? Their consideration stage is shorter because trust is already established. They skip much of the vendor evaluation process.
Engagement Message
In one sentence, how does existing trust shorten customers’ evaluation of a new feature?
Here's the retention paradox: your biggest competition isn't other vendors - it's customer satisfaction with their current limited usage. They think "what we have works fine."
This creates a unique awareness challenge: helping customers recognize improvement opportunities without suggesting their current usage is inadequate.
Engagement Message
Share one phrase you could use to introduce a new capability without suggesting the customer’s current approach is wrong.
Retention velocity patterns are inverted from acquisition. Awareness-to-consideration can happen instantly when customers see relevant use cases. But decision-to-implementation often stalls on resource allocation.
