Automated Lead Lifecycle & Player Retention System for Neuball

The Problem

Neuball is a mobile gaming platform where player engagement directly drives revenue. The marketing team was handling onboarding, reminders, and re-engagement manually such as sending messages manually, and having no structured way to tell whether a new signup ever became an active player, or when an active player started dropping off.

This was not scalable, and leads were going cold between touchpoints.

My Approach: Mapping the Lead Lifecycle

I identified a Neuball-specific lead lifecycle** that became the backbone of the entire system.

To summarize, we can divide this lifecylce into 4 main phases.

1. Lead Harvesting — New signups are captured via lead magnets and registered into a staging pipeline automatically.
2. Lead Nurturing — A timed, multi-step messaging sequence moves each lead toward their first meaningful action on the platform.
3. Lead Conversion — The moment a lead completes their first key action, they convert from “lead” to “player.” This transition is tracked automatically at the database level.
4. Player Retention — Converted players are continuously segmented by engagement behavior, and each segment receives tailored re-engagement strategies.

This gave the team a clear, trackable funnel from acquisition to retention — and every stage was automated.

What I Built

Automated Onboarding Pipeline

Built an event-driven onboarding workflow in n8n that picks up every new signup in real-time using a database trigger and runs them through a sequenced engagement funnel:

• Welcome message with a platform guide delivered via SMS
• Activity reminder — if the lead hasn’t engaged within a set window, a follow-up nudge is sent
• Social proof message — for leads still inactive, a data-driven message featuring live platform statistics pulled from the database
• Conversion offer — once a lead completes their first key action, a promotional offer is delivered across both SMS and email

Each step is conditional, the workflow checks what the lead has and hasn’t done before deciding the next action, preventing message fatigue and irrelevant outreach.

Player Segmentation & Clustering

Using the existing behavioral clustering system I created recursive CTEs in MySQL that segments every player on a rolling basis based on their engagement activity:

• Players are classified into tiers ranging from highly engaged to inactive, based on activity volume within configurable lookback windows
• By tracking cluster transitions week-over-week in a pivot table, I could detect risk patterns — a highly engaged player dropping a tier for two consecutive periods triggers a targeted re-engagement track
• Different transition patterns map to different intervention strategies: reminders, offers, or direct outreach depending on severity
• Cluster refreshes run via MySQL scheduled events — fully autonomous, no manual runs or external cron jobs

WhatsApp Business API Integration

Integrated the Meta WhatsApp Business API for two-way communication:

• Outbound campaigns — interactive template messages sent to targeted segments with action buttons
• Inbound handling — a webhook listener that processes button replies in real-time, logging interested leads and routing support requests
• Admin reporting — periodic digests of warm leads sent to the marketing team so follow-ups happen promptly

CRM Synchronization

Automated the sync between the platform database and Odoo CRM:

• New players are automatically created as CRM contacts with their relevant details and lifecycle stage
• Existing leads already in the CRM are detected and updated rather than duplicated — their status transitions from “lead” to “player” automatically
• Sync runs nightly, keeping the CRM current without manual data entry

Error Handling & Reliability

Built a centralized error-handling workflow that catches failures across all pipelines, logs them with full context to a dedicated table, and sends an immediate alert to the admin. No silent failures.

Business Outcomes

• Replaced manual marketing operations — the onboarding sequence, engagement reminders, promotional offers, and CRM updates that required daily manual effort now run autonomously
• Enabled lead-to-player tracking — for the first time, the team had visibility into where each lead sat in the funnel and what drove conversion
• Scaled outreach without headcount — the system handles every new signup identically and immediately, regardless of volume
• Improved retention visibility — cluster-based monitoring surfaced at-risk players before they churned, enabling proactive intervention instead of reactive outreach
• Multi-channel engagement — SMS, WhatsApp, and email working in a coordinated sequence rather than disconnected one-off campaigns

Technical Stack

• Workflow Automation: n8n (self-hosted, event-driven architecture)
• Database: MySQL — triggers, stored procedures, scheduled events, recursive CTEs
• CRM: Odoo (API integration for contact lifecycle management)
• Messaging: SMS API, Meta WhatsApp Business API, Gmail OAuth2
• Monitoring: Centralized error logging with real-time alerting