Lifecycle stages

Lifecycle stages are milestones in a client's journey with your studio — from their first contact to becoming a long-term member. Unlike segments (which can overlap), each contact is in exactly one lifecycle stage at a time.

Stages vs segments

	Lifecycle stages	Segments
Overlap	No — one stage at a time	Yes — can be in many at once
Purpose	Track progress through your sales funnel	Group clients by shared behavior or attributes
Updates	Manually or via automated transitions	Automatically as data changes

Use stages to answer "where is this lead in my sales process?" and segments to answer "who are my most engaged members?"

Default stages

Arketa recommends three default stages:

Stage	Who's in it
Lead	Someone who has engaged with your marketing but hasn't booked or purchased
Booked Intro Offer	Has booked your intro offer — in your sales process
Member (closed won)	Has purchased and converted to a paying client

Create a custom stage

1. Go to Lead Management → Setup → Lifecycle Settings
2. On the Stages tab, click Create new
3. Enter a name, description, and badge color
4. Click Create lifecycle stage

Custom stages let you add nuance to your funnel — for example, "Trial Member," "Lapsed Member," or "Corporate Partner."

Edit a stage

1. Go to Lead Management → Setup → Lifecycle Settings
2. Click the three dots next to the stage → Edit
3. Make changes
4. Click Update lifecycle stage

Automate stage transitions

You can set up rules to move contacts between stages automatically when they take an action:

1. Go to Lead Management → Setup → Lifecycle Settings → Transitions

2. Click Create new

3. Set:

   • From stage(s) — where the contact starts
   • To stage — where they should move
   • Transition lifecycle stage when — what action causes the move (e.g., purchased a pricing option, booked a class, submitted a form)

4. Click Create lifecycle transition

Example: A contact in the "Lead" stage who purchases a membership → automatically moves to "Member (closed won)."

Transitions run in real time — the moment a trigger fires, the contact moves to the next stage without any manual action from your team.

Available transition triggers

Trigger	What it means
Client purchased pricing option	Client completed a purchase of any class pack, membership, or bundle
Class booked	Client made a reservation for a scheduled class
Checked into first class	Client was checked in to a class for the first time
Form submitted	Client filled out and submitted an intake or lead capture form
New client added	A new client profile was created, for example through your booking page
Client tag added	A specific tag was added to the client's profile

Transitions use the same triggers as automations, so you'll find more in the list (such as New lead added and Subscribed to newsletter).

When a trigger fires, the contact moves only if they are currently in the From stage defined on that transition. If they're already in a different stage, the transition does nothing.

Frequently asked questions