Ballad
Product · Lifecycle marketing

From signup to customer, written from what they did.

The work a lifecycle marketer does after someone arrives: knowing who they are and what they've done, segmenting on it, onboarding them in your voice, keeping the newsletter worth opening, and never emailing anyone who said no.

The job

Everything a lifecycle marketer owns, done in one loop.

  • Customer data

    One record per person: the post that brought them, what they did in your product, and the account they belong to.

  • Segmentation

    Rules over that record, written in plain conditions, with a live count and a sample before you save.

  • Onboarding and activation

    Email sequences drafted in your voice that enrol people as they qualify, sent one person at a time.

  • Newsletter

    A regular issue drafted in the voice, sent to a segment through Resend, with opens and clicks read back.

  • Consent and deliverability

    Consent on every record, bounces and complaints read back from the provider, and service mail kept apart from marketing.

01 · People

One record per person, from first post on.

Lifecycle email is only as good as what you know about the person. Ballad keeps it in one place: the post that first brought them, the pages they read once they were known, every product event your site or server reports, and the company, team or workspace they belong to.

  • Product events, with properties. track('ran_payroll', { employees: 38 }) from the page, or the same from your server through the agent API. Each event is a row, in the account it happened in.
  • Accounts, not just emails. Say which account someone belongs to and set its traits once, so a question can be asked per company: signed up, never published, on the trial plan.
  • Everyone you already have. Import a CSV and Ballad matches each signup to the visit that brought it where it can. A returning user fills in their own history when they log in.
Read the attribution guide
app.balladlabs.com/people
DO
Dana Okafor
Head of Operations · Fieldstone Studio
Subscribed
What they did
Todayinvited_teammaterole: approver · Fieldstone Studio
Monran_payrollemployees: 38 · Fieldstone Studio
Sep 3Read 3 pagespricing, undo a run, contractors abroad
Sep 2signupplan: trial
First came via
Maya's post on payroll mistakes
last: the undo changelog entry
Account
Fieldstone Studio
plan: trialseats: 4employees: 38
02 · Segments

Segments you can read out loud.

A segment is a set of conditions over People: what someone did and within how many days, the account they're in and its traits, how they first arrived, how long since they signed up, whether a launch reached them. You see who it selects before you save it, and it's evaluated again at every send.

  • Did, and didn't. Signed up in the last 30 days and never ran payroll. Upgraded where plan = pro. Any event your product reports can be a condition.
  • Built in, and your own. Subscribed and Everyone come ready; your own sit beside them with their live counts and the sequences that enrol from each.
  • The same list in People. Open a segment as a filter on the People directory, export it, or change consent for everyone in it at once.
app.balladlabs.com/people/segments
New segment
Stalled trials from LinkedIn
Save segment
All of these
Didsignup · within 30 days
Did notran_payroll
In an account whereplan = trial
First came viaLinkedIn
Add a condition
Selects right now
47
people · 39 with email consent
Priya N. · Halden & Co
Sam W. · Oakline
J. Moreau · Studio Rue
evaluated again at every send
03 · Onboarding

Onboarding email, from what people did.

A sequence enrols everyone who comes to match its segment and sends each step on its day, one person at a time. Describe what it's for and Ballad drafts every step in the voice that sends it, from your positioning and your product.

  • Every step drafted. Welcome, first value, the objection that stalls people, the story of a customer like them. Edit any step before it goes live.
  • Opens and clicks per step. Read back from Resend for each email each person got, so you can see which step people stop at.
  • Unsubscribe that works. Every step carries a one-click unsubscribe. Use it and consent is withdrawn and every sequence stops for that person.
app.balladlabs.com/people/sequences
Signed up, never ran payroll
Sequence · sends as Maya · 3 steps
Active
Enrols from segment212 people right now
did signup · within 14 daysnot ran_payrollaccount plan = trialhas consent
Day 0Your first pay run, in ten minutes212 sent · 64% opened
Day 3The three settings that cause a wrong run188 sent · 51% opened
Day 7How Fieldstone stopped doing Friday payroll141 sent · 47% opened
sent one person at a timeone-click unsubscribe
04 · Newsletter

A newsletter people actually open.

The newsletter is its own lane on the calendar, drafted in the voice that signs it from what you published and what readers are asking. Approve it and Ballad sends it through your Resend account to the segment you choose, then reads back what it did.

  • To a segment. Everyone who subscribed, or just paying customers, or just the trials from this month. Consent is applied whatever the segment says.
  • Clicks that count. Opens and clicks come back to the issue, and links carry the issue into your site, so a trial started from it is credited to it.
  • Grows from your site. A sign-up form on your site adds people with consent and the post that brought them, the way this site's changelog does.
app.balladlabs.com
The Friday Run · issue 14
Newsletter · from Maya · Thursday 07:00
In review
Subject
The payroll run we undid on purpose

Last Tuesday we shipped a way to take back a pay run, and the first person to use it was me. Here's what happened, the three settings that cause most wrong runs, and one question from a reader…

to: Customers on a paid plan · 612consent applied · unsubscribe link
Approve & scheduleEdit
Last issuesent to 598
58%
opened
11%
clicked
4
trials started
The rest of the loop

One system, not a stack of tools.

What one job learns, the others use: the calendar writes from the positioning, the launches measure through the same signals, and the analysis changes the plan.

Every signup gets a next email.

Add one line to your site, connect Resend, and describe your first sequence. Ballad drafts it, and everyone who qualifies from then on gets it.