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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.

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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.

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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

Step

1

Choose Segment St

ep 2

Identify with Data

Step

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

à 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  Segmenta?on   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

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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

If you’re focused on

amplifying a single

message, don’t segment.

If you have little data,

content, or people, don’t

segment.

If you’re focused on

sending personalized,

relevant messages to

individuals in order to hit

your goals here’s what to

do:

1. Identify your starting

segments (up to 4) based

on persona, lifecycle,

and/or behavior.

2. Apply to your content,

starting with email over

workflows, CTAs over

website, to learn quickly.

3. Measure the results of

each segment and your

whole strategy, to see if

your plan is helping you

achieve your goals.

4. Learn, iterate, and

experiment with new data,

new segments, or new

content.

THANK YOU

Harnessing the Power of Segmentation for Marketing Results

Ellie Mirman @ellieeille

#INBOUND13