Senior Lifecycle Email & SMS Marketing Contractor

Description
Location: Remote, U.S. Only
Weekly Hours: 10
About the Role
Zero Gravity Marketing (ZGM) is seeking an experienced Senior Lifecycle Email & SMS Marketing Strategist to join our freelance contractor network and support upcoming retention and lifecycle marketing engagements.
This is a senior, strategy-first, hands-on role for an experienced marketer who can own lifecycle programs from strategy through execution and optimization. You’ll work primarily with ecommerce and DTC brands, developing customer journeys, campaign strategies, segmentation frameworks, automations, and testing plans that drive engagement, retention, and revenue growth.
The ideal candidate has deep expertise in Klaviyo, strong ecommerce instincts, and the ability to move seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution. You should be comfortable independently managing projects, collaborating with creative and account teams, presenting recommendations to clients, and turning performance data into actionable strategies.
This is a remote, project-based contractor role with the potential for ongoing engagements based on client needs and performance.
Key ResponsibilitiesLifecycle & Retention Strategy
Own end-to-end lifecycle and retention marketing strategies across assigned clients.
Develop customer journey frameworks that support acquisition, conversion, repeat purchase, retention, and reactivation.
Build lifecycle roadmaps aligned with client business goals, product cycles, promotions, and customer behavior.
Identify opportunities to improve customer lifetime value, repeat purchase rate, engagement, and retention.
Evaluate existing lifecycle programs and provide actionable recommendations for improving performance.
Develop strategies that connect email and SMS with broader ecommerce and marketing initiatives.
Experience using Shopify, GA4, and ecommerce analytics to fuel lifecycle strategies within Klaviyo.
Campaign Strategy & Execution
Develop and manage monthly email and SMS campaign calendars based on business priorities, promotions, launches, seasonality, and customer lifecycle.
Build, configure, test, and QA email and SMS campaigns in Klaviyo.
Develop campaign briefs and provide strategic direction for copy, creative, design, offers, messaging, and CTAs.
Guide creative teams and/or independently refine creative assets using tools such as Figma or Canva.
Ensure campaigns follow email/SMS best practices across desktop and mobile.
Manage campaign execution from strategy and briefing through deployment and post-send analysis.
Support high-volume ecommerce moments including Black Friday/Cyber Monday, holiday, product launches, and promotional events.
Lifecycle Automations & Customer Journeys
Build, optimize, and maintain lifecycle automations such as Welcome, Abandonment, Post Purchase, Replenishment, Lapsed, VIP / Loyalty and other behavioral and transactional journeys
Evaluate existing flows for gaps, redundancy, performance, and customer experience.
Develop sophisticated customer journeys using behavioral, transactional, engagement, and purchase data.
Identify opportunities for personalization, dynamic content, conditional logic, and cross-channel messaging.
Segmentation & Audience Growth
Develop sophisticated audience segmentation strategies based on customer behavior, purchase history, engagement, lifecycle stage, and other relevant attributes.
Build strategies for engaging new, active, lapsed, VIP, and non-engaged audiences.
Develop and optimize subscriber acquisition strategies, including pop-ups, forms, landing pages, and other lead capture opportunities.
Identify opportunities to grow owned audiences and improve subscriber list quality and engagement.
Apply segmentation and personalization strategies to improve campaign relevance and performance.
Understand Klaviyo pricing structure as it pertains to audience size and provide recommendations for effective cost management
Testing, Analytics & Optimization
Analyze campaign, flow, and overall lifecycle performance to identify trends and opportunities.
Develop and execute A/B and multivariate testing strategies across subject lines, messaging, offers, creative, CTAs, send timing, segmentation, and other variables.
Monitor KPIs including revenue, conversion rate, click rate, engagement, unsubscribe rate, deliverability, repeat purchase, retention, and customer lifetime value.
Translate performance data into clear, actionable recommendations.
Develop client-facing reports and performance recaps that connect results to business objectives.
Continuously optimize lifecycle programs based on performance data and testing insights.
ESP, Deliverability & Technical Expertise
Serve as a subject matter expert in Klaviyo, including campaigns, flows, segmentation, analytics, deliverability, and integrations.
Conduct lifecycle and ESP audits and identify opportunities to improve program performance.
Ensure proper campaign and automation setup, tracking, QA, and deployment.
Stay current on email/SMS deliverability standards, privacy regulations, accessibility requirements, and industry best practices.
Maintain strong technical QA standards across links, personalization, segmentation, dynamic content, tracking, rendering, and mobile/desktop experiences.
Client & Team Collaboration
Work directly with clients and internal ZGM teams to develop and execute lifecycle strategies.
Confidently communicate strategic recommendations, performance insights, and next steps.
Participate in client meetings, presentations, strategy sessions, and occasional pitches as needed.
Collaborate with account management, strategy, creative, copy, design, analytics, paid media, and other teams.
Proactively identify opportunities rather than waiting for direction.
Manage multiple client engagements and deadlines independently while maintaining a high level of quality and attention to detail.
What You’ll Bring
3–5+ years of hands-on experience in email, SMS, lifecycle, or retention marketing.
Deep, hands-on expertise with Klaviyo; Klaviyo experience is required.
Proven experience developing and managing lifecycle programs for ecommerce/DTC brands.
Experience owning lifecycle strategy—not just building individual campaigns or flows.
Strong understanding of customer lifecycle, retention, segmentation, personalization, and ecommerce marketing principles.
Ability to analyze performance data and turn insights into actionable strategy.
Strong understanding of email and SMS deliverability and compliance best practices.
Experience with campaign and automation QA and deployment.
Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to confidently communicate with clients.
Strong project management skills and ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, and deadlines independently.
Strong creative instincts and the ability to provide thoughtful direction on copy, design, messaging, and UX.
Highly detail-oriented, organized, proactive, and comfortable working independently in a remote environment.
Comfortable operating in a fast-paced agency environment where priorities and client needs can shift quickly.
Bonus Points
Experience with additional ESPs or SMS platforms such as Attentive, Mailchimp, Omnisend, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or other marketing automation platforms.
Experience working with subscription, loyalty, or membership programs.
Experience with Figma and/or Canva.
Strong copywriting or creative direction skills.
Experience integrating email/SMS strategy with paid media, paid social, direct mail, or other retention channels.
Engagement & Working Style
Position: Senior Lifecycle Email & SMS Marketing Contractor
Type: Freelance / Independent Contractor
Location: Remote
Engagement: Project-based, with potential for ongoing work. Ideal availability: M-F between 8AM-6PM and availability to be client-facing is highly sought after.
Primary Platform: Klaviyo
Client Type: Primarily ecommerce / DTC brands, with occasional B2B engagements
Why Work With ZGM?
At ZGM, we believe great lifecycle marketing starts with great strategy. As a contractor, you’ll have the opportunity to work on a variety of ecommerce brands and meaningful retention initiatives while collaborating with a team of strategists, creatives, account leaders, and channel experts.
We value strategic thinking, ownership, transparency, curiosity, and exceptional execution. If you’re someone who can look at a lifecycle program and immediately see both what’s working and what could be better—and then actually build the plan to improve it—we’d love to hear from you.

Work arrangement
Yes