Retention, Lifecycle & CRM Specialist Freelance

Every year, thousands of parents face the same stressful search: their child is struggling, exams are approaching, and they don’t know where to turn. At SchoolTalent, the company behind Bijles Aan Huis (Netherlands) and Lernigo (Germany), we solve that problem. We connect students aged 8–18 with quality tutors for personalised 1:1 online lessons. To date, we’ve helped over 15,000 students regain confidence, reduce stress, and achieve more. We’re scaling towards €8M in revenue this year, on a path toward €30M and €4M EBITDA by 2029. We are focusing on building a strong acquisition engine, investing significantly in paid channels and scaling registrations in both markets. But the real leverage is in what happens after the first purchase. Our lifecycle flows in HubSpot were set up and never optimised. Renewal rates are strong in both markets but have meaningful room to grow, and no one is currently running structured experiments, testing messaging, or systematically working to extend customer lifetime value. That changes with this hire. This role sits at the heart of our growth model. Beyond retention, you’ll drive referral growth, gather and distribute customer insights across the organisation, and work in close collaboration with Sales, Support, Product, and the Paid Marketer. You’re the spider in the web when it comes to understanding why customers stay, why they leave, and how we turn satisfied customers into our best growth channel. This is not a support role. You’ll own the entire retention and lifecycle function, both the parent/student side and the tutor side, report directly to the CEO, and work with a CRM/automation engineer to implement what you design. You define the experiments, write the messaging, interpret the data, and present results to the leadership team. What Success Looks Like? First 90 Days: Audit, Fix, and Start Testing Audited all existing HubSpot lifecycle flows (parent/student and tutor side), identified what’s broken or underperforming, and have a prioritised fix list Top highest-impact flows rebuilt or optimised (e.g. onboarding, post-first-lesson, renewal reminder, tutor onboarding and communication flows) Baseline metrics established for renewal rate, churn timing, email open/click rates, repeat purchase rate, and tutor engagement First retention experiments live with clear hypotheses, prioritised based on effort vs. value Weekly retention reporting in place and communicated to the leadership team with structured insights By 6 Months: Move the Needle on Renewal NL renewal rate trending upward from baseline, with clear attribution to specific interventions Multiple structured experiments run across lifecycle stages; clear picture of what works, what doesn’t, and why Churn patterns mapped in close collaboration with Support, Sales, and Product, you know when customers leave, why, and which segments are most at risk Win-back campaigns live and generating measurable re-activations DE lifecycle strategy adapted to its growth stage, different messaging, timing, and engagement approach vs. NL By 12 Months: Retention as a Growth Engine NL and DE renewal rates improved meaningfully, with quantified CLTV impact DE CLTV maintained or improved, with retention playing a measurable role in sustaining unit economics as the market scales Referral programme experiments underway or live, turning satisfied customers into an acquisition channel A repeatable experimentation framework in place, continuously testing new hypotheses across the lifecycle, driven by customer insights, market monitoring, and cross-functional input Quarterly retention results, CLTV trends, and referral performance presented to the Board What This Role Is and What It’s Not? This Role Is: Steering on retention, lifecycle, and churn reduction across NL & DE (core KPIs: Renewal Rate, Referral Rate, CLTV impact) Driving CLTV, the Product team owns the overall metric, but your work is the primary lever Accountable for renewal rate, churn rate, repeat purchase rate, and email/notification performance Hands-on from hypothesis to concrete content and execution, this is a doing role, not a delegating role Covering both sides of the marketplace: parent/student lifecycle and tutor community management, communication flows, and supporting the Product team with improved tutor communications Presenting retention results together with the CEO to the Board This Role Is Not: A P&L or revenue owner Responsible for acquisition or paid channels (Senior Paid Acquisition Marketer owns this) but actively contributes to organic growth through referral Not responsible for CLTV as a metric (owned by Product) but the primary driver of it through lifecycle and retention work Responsible for landing pages or CRO (owned within Product/Growth) A strategy-only role: this role combines strategic thinking with direct execution power, you’re as comfortable designing the experiment as you are writing the copy and briefing the engineer What You’ll Do? 1. Funnel Campaigns & Experiments (Retention, CLTV & Referral) Audit, redesign, and optimise lifecycle email, WhatsApp, and notification flows in HubSpot across the full customer journey (onboarding => engagement => renewal => win-back) Design and run structured retention experiments with clear hypotheses, prioritised on effort vs. value, with a clear decision framework (kill, scale, optimise) Segment customers by lifecycle stage, risk profile, and behaviour, tailor messaging and interventions accordingly Reduce churn through proactive engagement, renewal optimisation, and win-back campaigns Create and edit compelling copy and messaging for email, WhatsApp, and notifications that resonates with parents, students, and tutors, using AI tools to generate and iterate, with your judgment on tone, quality, and SchoolTalent voice Execute lifecycle flows and automations directly where possible; brief the CRM/automation engineer for complex builds, you know what you can ship yourself vs. what needs technical support Own the tutor side of lifecycle: tutor community management, communication flows (onboarding, engagement, quality nudges), and working with the Product team to improve tutor communications and experience Own referral programme development, turning satisfied customers into an acquisition channel (strategy to be defined; this is a key upcoming priority) 2. Monitoring, Insights & Collaboration (20–25%) Gather customer insights continuously: talk to customers, work with Support and Sales to surface churn signals, and feed findings into experiment hypotheses Monitor market developments, competitor lifecycle strategies, and new tooling for fresh ideas to test Partner with the CRM/automation engineer and data analyst on segmentation, cohort analysis, and experiment measurement Align with the Paid Acquisition Marketer on audience handoffs (acquisition => retention) and messaging consistency Collaborate with Product on customer insights, tutor experience improvements, and identifying product changes that drive retention Work with Operations/Sales on conversion signals, churn patterns, and customer feedback loops 3. Reporting & Way of Working Communicate structured insights to the leadership team on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly cadence Define and track success metrics for every experiment and campaign, work in a data- and target-driven, experimental way (kill, scale, optimise) Build and maintain a retention playbook and way of working, capturing learnings, frameworks, and one source of truth for what works Present quarterly retention results, CLTV trends, and referral performance together with the CEO to the Board What We’re Looking For? Must-Haves 6+ years hands-on experience in CRM, lifecycle, or retention marketing, with proven results improving renewal rates, reducing churn, or growing CLTV Strong experimentation mindset with a data-driven, target-oriented way of working: you think in hypotheses, design structured tests, prioritise on effort vs. value, and know when to kill or scale Experienced across the full lifecycle funnel, from onboarding and conversion through renewal, upsell/pricing, and referral, with concrete examples of what worked, what didn’t, and why Comfortable with HubSpot (or similar marketing automation platform) and able to execute flows directly, not just brief others Resourceful and self-sufficient: uses AI tools and freelance support to create output and get things done, comfortable creating/editing copy, building flows, and briefing engineers Strong grasp of retention unit economics (Renewal Rate, Referral Rate, CLTV) and how they connect to business outcomes Fast and action-oriented: ships experiments regularly, not monthly, and defaults to doing over deliberating Strong team player with proactive communication style, this role sits at the intersection of multiple teams and requires constant alignment Strong communicator who can present retention insights together with the CEO to the Board Strong cultural fit: passionate about what they do, high ownership mentality, service-oriented and helpful by nature, solution-focused problem-solver, hard-working and resilient Nice-to-Haves: Experience in education, tutoring, or consumer subscription businesses Experience with cohort analysis, churn curves, and CLTV modelling, note: our CRM/automation engineer and data analyst can support with data infrastructure Dutch and/or German language skills for market-specific messaging Experience working in a dual-market setup with different maturity levels Compensation & Engagement Model: This role starts as a freelance engagement for flexibility and speed. Based on results and mutual preference, evaluated for permanent conversion from Q4 2026. Interested? Send your CV and a brief note on why this role excites you to talent@bijlesaanhuis.nl.

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