#INBOUND13 - Harnessing the Power of Segmentation for Marketing Results

#inbound13

Harnessing the Power of Segmentation for Marketing Results

Ellie Mirman

Inbound Marketing Funnel Manager, HubSpot

I have a very healthy love of beets.

@ellieeille

ELLIE MIRMAN

I am not here to tell you that segmentation is important.

That would be preaching to the choir.

You know the data…

Relevant emails drive

18x more revenue

than broadcast emails.

Jupiter Research

You know segmentation is the

key to better results…

Relevant emails drive

18x more revenue

than broadcast emails.

Jupiter Research

So why am I here?

To tell you not to do it.

(or when not to)

To tell you you’re doing it wrong.

(because most marketers are)

And then, only then,

talk about how to do segmentation. Right.

1 When Not to Segment

2 Segmentation Made Sweet & Simple

3 Choosing a Segmentation Strategy

Agenda

1 When Not to Segment

If your segmentation plan looks like this…

If your segmentation plan looks like this… It’s wrong.

It might seem fancy or complex… or even advanced…

… but it’s just complicated.

… it’s a reason for you not to do something else.

Segmentation is a stalling strategy.

@ellieeille #inbound13

Done right, segmentation is great for delivering personalized, relevant messages to individuals.

It’s not great for promoting a big launch, generating buzz, and amplifying a single message.

Segmentation is an amplification strategy.

@ellieeille #inbound13

So what if you’re ready to deliver personalized, relevant messages to individuals?

The ideal…

requires lots of…

Data

Content

People

So what do you do if you only have a little data, a bit of content, a few people?

You do what provides

the best experience

for the customer…

… has the best return

on your effort…

… as defined by your

goals.

2 Segmentation Made

Sweet & Simple

Ste

p 1

Choose Segment S

tep

2

Identify with Data

Ste

p 3

Align Content

Segmentation by Persona

• Sales account executive early in his career – 4 years on the job

• Competitive, loves aggressive goals others think he can’t hit

• Eager to learn new things and experiment with new strategies

• Primary goal is to (over-)achieve his quarterly quota by bringing

in new business

Personas

Sam the

Sales Guy

Cindy the

CEO

• Started her career in sales over a decade ago and worked her

way up through the management track

• Stayed in the industry but started her own venture and has

grown it to 15-25 people

• Primary goal is to keep the business growing and keeping

customers satisfied

• Role = Sales

• Level = Individual Contributor

• Primary Goal = New Business

• Viewed Content On = prospecting best practices

Identifying Personas with Data

Sam the

Sales Guy

Cindy the

CEO

• Role = CEO

• Level = C-Level

• Company Size = 10-50 employees

• Viewed Content On = scaling a sales organization

• Offer: Pre-made email templates

• Nurturing Series: Tips on connecting with prospects

• Call to action: Try free tools for sales reps

• Sales focus: Quick wins to help you do your job easier

Aligning Content with Personas

Sam the

Sales Guy

Cindy the

CEO

• Offer: How to Align Sales & Marketing ebook

• Nurturing Series: New data on sales efficiency

• Call to action: Free benchmark analysis

• Sales focus: Making your team more efficient

Segmentation by Lifecycle

Customer Opportunity SQL MQL Lead Subscriber

Sales & Marketing Lifecycle

Customer Opportunity SQL MQL Lead Subscriber

How to Define Your Stages

Opted-in to

receive

communica-

tions from

you

Bare

minimum

info/action

to send info

to sales rep

Quality lead

as agreed by

sales and

marketing,

fits best

demographic

or behavior

Sales has

followed up

and

confirmed to

be a quality

lead

Potential

sale being

managed by

sales rep

Someone

paying for

your

products or

services

Customer Opportunity SQL MQL Lead Subscriber

How to Define Your Stages – Example

Email

address only

Phone,

email, name,

company,

role info

collected

and sent to

CRM

Requested a

demo,

started a

trial,

downloaded

3+ offers

Sales rep

has followed

up

Had at least

an initial call

with a sales

rep –

assessment

and/or demo

Paying

customer

using

software

Customer Opportunity SQL MQL Lead Subscriber

Aligning Content with Lifecycle

Weekly email

with top new

content

Phone call to

set initial

sales call,

nurturing to

educate

Schedule

demo or trial

review (sales

call)

Nurturing to

share

product info

Nurturing to

share

customer

success

Notices of

new product

features and

training

Segmentation by Behavior

Level of Engagement

Unengaged

Normal

Evangelist

Identifying Level of Engagement with Data

• Visited the website once

• Has not clicked on the last 10 emails Unengaged

Normal

Evangelist

• Visited the website at least twice

• Downloaded one or more offers

• Clicked on at least one email

• Visited the website 5+ times

• Downloaded 5+ offers

• Overall click through rate >50%

Aligning Content with Level of Engagement

• Visited the website once

• Has not clicked on the last 10 emails Unengaged

Normal

Evangelist

• Visited the website at least twice

• Downloaded one or more offers

• Clicked on at least one email

• Visited the website 5+ times

• Downloaded 5+ offers

• Overall click through rate >50%

Download

most popular

offers

Take next

step

Share favorite

content

Took a Particular Action or Showed Interest

Potential MQL

Social Media

Blogging

Took a Particular Action or Showed Interest

• Visited the landing page to request a demo

• Did not request a demo Potential MQL

Social Media

Blogging

• Downloaded any ebook related to social media

• Has a Twitter or Facebook account

• Has a blog

• Downloaded any ebook related to content creation

Aligning Content with Action or Interest

• Visited the landing page to request a demo

• Did not request a demo Potential MQL

Social Media

Blogging

• Downloaded any ebook related to social media

• Has a Twitter or Facebook account

• Has a blog

• Downloaded any ebook related to

content creation

On-demand

demo video,

offer to call

Offers for

social media

managers

Offers for

content

creators

Device or Browser

iPhone

Mac Chrome

PC Firefox

Identifying Device or Browser with Data

• Visited website from iPhone

• Viewed email from iPhone iPhone

Mac Chrome

PC Firefox

• Visited website from Mac using Chrome

• Visited website from PC using Chrome

Aligning Content with Device or Browser

• Visited website from iPhone

• Viewed email from iPhone iPhone

Mac Chrome

PC Firefox

• Visited website from Mac using Chrome

• Visited website from PC using Chrome

Optimized for

all devices &

browsers

Optimized for

all devices &

browsers

Optimized for

all devices &

browsers

A peek behind the HubSpot curtain

Marketers

CEOs

Sales

Start with segmentation

by persona

Marketers

CEOs

Sales

Layer in lifecycle stage

Subscriber | Lead | MQL | Opportunity | Customer

Marketers

CEOs

Sales

Subscriber | Lead | MQL | Opportunity | Customer

Marketing efforts

focused on each

quadrant

Marketers

CEOs

Sales

Subscriber | Lead | MQL | Opportunity | Customer

Marketing efforts

focused on each

quadrant

+ some segmentation based on specific trigger behaviors

Demographic data – who they are and where they come from

Behavioral data – what they do on your website, social media, email marketing

Access data – how they consume your content

Engagement data – who they talked to, when, and how often

The Data You Need

From your existing tools:

HubSpot

CRM

From self-identification:

Landing Page Forms

Surveys

How to Get the Data

From employees:

Sales reps

Services/support reps

From custom sources:

HubSpot custom events (Enterprise)

Outside data sources via API

Take messy data and consolidate it into segments

Ex: conversion event = social media ebook, twitter ebook, facebook ebook

topic of conversion event = social media

Make it easy to fill in missing data

Ex: all “goal” questions clustered together

Gain insight into size of segments

Ex: how many leads have <10 employees vs. more than 1,000?

Measure results by segment

Ex: which segment drives more leads – VAR or Enterprise?

Organize the Data

3 Choosing a Segmentation Strategy

Start with concrete data over interpretative data

– Concrete data = black and white facts (demographic data, products purchased)

– Interpretative data = judgments based on behavior or other indirect data (interested

in social media, primary goal/challenge)

Create up to 4 segments

– Consider how many distinct personas you have, how different the lifecycle stages are,

if you have key behaviors that distinguish parts of your database, and how large each

segment will be

– Ex: Sam Lead, Sam SQL, Cindy Lead, Cindy SQL

– Exclude one segment from another if necessary

Choose an Initial Strategy

Apply to quick, stand-alone efforts before big investment

In other words:

Email before workflows

CTAs before full website

Start to Apply

Measure Each Segment: Click Through Rate

TIP: Use Campaigns to

easily group marketing

campaigns by segment

Measure Each Segment: New Leads

TIP: Use Tracking URLs

to group traffic by

segment

Measure Each Segment: Conversion Rates

TIP: Track each sales

cycle milestone in your

CRM

Understand engagement of each segment separately

Test more content and apply learnings to other segments

Identify less productive segments for a/b testing

Identify most engaged segments for sharing /growing reach

Why Measure Each Segment

Measure Your Strategy

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

January February March April Mary June

Leads Generated by Segment

No Segmentation Segment Sam Segment Cindy

Measure Your Strategy

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

8%

9%

January February March April Mary June

Lead to Customer % by Segment

Overall L-C % Sam L-C % Cindy L-C %

Measure Your Strategy

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

Previous Workflow CTR Sam Workflow CTR Cindy Workflow CTR

Clickthrough Rate by Workflow

Email 1 Email 2 Email 3 Average

Learn, Iterate, Experiment

#inbound2013

What Now?

Segmentation can be a powerful strategy…

… as long as it’s not all you do.

Keep an eye on your goals and your customer.

Your To Do List

THANK YOU

Harnessing the Power of Segmentation

for Marketing Results

Ellie Mirman @ellieeille

#inbound13