A few weeks ago, I had the chance to share my thoughts on Careers in Retention Marketing in a webinar hosted in collaboration with WebEngage. It was heartening to see 50+ people join live and engage so thoughtfully.
Many even posted about the session later, which made me realize—this topic deeply resonates with marketers trying to find their place in the evolving marketing landscape.
Over the past 10+ years, I’ve seen retention evolve from a backend CRM task into a core business function and this session was my attempt to give people a framework for navigating careers in this exciting space.
Let’s go deep into what I shared.
Table of Contents
1. Why Retention Marketing Is Gaining Momentum?
Marketing today is undergoing a major shift.
We’re spending over $1.3 trillion globally on marketing, with a large chunk going into digital and social media. But, acquisition is getting more expensive.
Google, Meta, and other ad platforms are saturated. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is going up, while organic reach is shrinking.
So what’s the better way out? Retention.
Keeping customers coming back is now more profitable than acquiring new ones.
“The game in business is not how many customers you can get. It’s how many you can keep.”
Retention helps you improve LTV (Lifetime Value), reduce churn, and increase ROI. It turns your marketing from a one-time splash to a compounding engine of growth.
Read more – Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
2. The Evolution of Retention Marketing
Retention isn’t what it used to be.
Just a few years ago, retention marketing was seen as a backend support function—mostly about sending email newsletters, occasional SMS, or collecting feedback after a purchase.
Today, retention has evolved into a powerful, data-driven growth engine. It is at the intersection of marketing, product, analytics, and customer experience.
Modern retention marketing is about designing end-to-end customer journeys—right from onboarding to repeat purchases, loyalty, and advocacy.
The shift has been driven by major changes like:
- Multiplicity of Channels: Retention now runs across email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, RCS, and in-app—reaching users wherever they are.
- Campaign Execution is Simpler: Tools like WebEngage and MoEngage help launch and optimize campaigns in just a few hours.
- Customer Data Points are Huge: Real-time tools like GA4 and Mixpanel help personalize outreach based on rich behavioral data.
- Attention Spans are Getting Shorter: Retention now depends on quick, relevant, and personalized messages that cut through the noise.
Read more – Is Retention Marketing The Key To Driving Higher Lifetime Value?
3. What Do People Want to Know About Careers in Retention?
During the session, we collected real questions from attendees. These were some of the most common:
- “What’s next after push notifications?”
- “Which roles should I aim for in the next 5 years?”
- “How do I showcase retention work in my resume?”
- “Is retention enough to build a full career?”
- “How is CRM evolving across industries?”
These questions led us to frame a career development roadmap for retention marketers.
4. What Really Drives Career Growth Today?
If you’re exploring a career in retention marketing—or already in it and want to grow—it helps to think in terms of a structured framework.
Based on years of experience and countless conversations with marketers, hiring managers, and business leaders, I’ve broken down career growth in retention into three key pillars:
4.1. Hard Skills
These are the must-have technical abilities:
- MarTech Tools: Learn tools like WebEngage, Braze, MoEngage, CleverTap. (Read more – The Ultimate Guide To Customer Retention Marketing Tools)
- Campaign Execution: Build multi-channel campaigns that drive outcomes.
- Analytics: Learn Google Analytics, Mixpanel, SQL, dashboards, and customer data platforms.
- Segmentation: Understand how to split audiences based on behavior, value, and lifecycle.
- Copywriting & Design: Grabbing attention with compelling messages is a superpower in retention.
4.2. Soft Skills
This is where most people miss out. To grow fast, you need:
- Communication: Translate campaign metrics into business impact.
- Data Storytelling: Explain trends and insights through charts, visuals, and clear logic.
- Presentation: Whether it’s a manager or CMO—you must know how to present your work.
- Collaboration: Work closely with product, sales, and support teams.
- Personal Branding: Share your learnings, case studies, and experiments on LinkedIn.
4.3. Decisions
Career growth is also about the choices you make:
- Which role to choose? CRM, Growth, Lifecycle, CX?
- Which company to join? B2B or B2C? Product-first or marketing-first?
- When to switch? Don’t jump jobs too quickly. Build trust and deliver outcomes before moving.
- What to build long-term? A role? Or a reputation?
5. Career Paths Beyond Retention Marketing
One of the most common misconceptions is that working in retention limits your career options.
Retention marketing equips you with some of the most versatile and in-demand skills in the industry—like understanding user behavior, working with data, building personalized campaigns, and improving customer journeys.
Here are five exciting directions you can explore once you’ve built a strong foundation in retention:
5.1. Product Management
Retention marketers work on onboarding, usage nudges, feedback loops, and churn reduction. These are all product touchpoints. By shifting into Product Management, you can take this further by:
- Working on improving user flows
- Designing features that boost engagement
- Running experiments to increase product adoption
5.2. Growth Marketing
Retention is a core component of any growth team. But growth marketing also includes acquisition, activation, referrals, and revenue optimization. Your retention experience gives you an edge in:
- Balancing short-term performance and long-term user value
- Designing full-funnel strategies
- Using data to experiment and scale what works
5.3. Marketing Automation/MarTech Operations
As companies scale, the need for strong MarTech infrastructure and automation experts continues to grow. Retention marketers with a systems mindset are a great fit here. The roles involve:
- Managing and integrating platforms like WebEngage, MoEngage, Braze, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Setting up user journeys, triggers, and A/B tests
- Ensuring campaigns run smoothly across channels
5.4. Customer Experience (CX)
Retention is just one part of the broader customer experience. In CX roles, you’ll:
- Analyze user feedback across all touchpoints (not just marketing)
- Improve support, onboarding, and post-sale interactions
- Work closely with product and service teams to build a seamless brand experience
5.5. Marketing or Customer Analytics
With some upskilling in tools like SQL, Python, or BI platforms, you can move into roles focused on deep customer insight generation, predictive modeling, and business intelligence. Your retention experience helps here because:
- You already work with data daily—open rates, conversions, churn metrics
- You understand how campaigns influence behavior
- You’re used to digging into segments and patterns
6. 5 Career Mistakes to Avoid
While learning what to do in your career is important, knowing what not to do is just as critical. During my session, several attendees shared honest reflections on missteps they’ve made—and many of these are surprisingly common in marketing careers.
Here are the key mistakes that can slow down or derail your growth in retention marketing (or any role, for that matter):
- Not Understanding Your Brand or Users
- Following Leaders Blindly
- Depending Entirely on Resumes
- Switching Roles Too Often
- Networking Only When You Need Help
To learn more about the mistakes in details: feel free to check out the detailed video!
7. Conclusion
Most people think about their next job. Few think about their career arc.
Ask yourself:
- Where do I want to be 5–10 years from now?
- What do I want to be known for?
- Am I solving just tasks—or real business problems?
And finally—don’t look at retention as a job title. It’s a gateway into product, analytics, martech, and more. You don’t need 10 years of experience—you need 10x learning every year.
If this inspired you, let’s stay in touch. Drop me a message or connect on LinkedIn.
Watch the webinar summary in the video below to dive deeper into these ideas.