HubSpot Contact Segmentation

HOW TO IMPLEMENT & WHY YOU SHOULD

Wondering if segmentation is worth the effort? HubSpot found that sending targeted email campaigns to contacts segmented by buyer personas, for instance, increased the click-through rate by 16%.

The important thing is to understand how to make the segmentation strategy work well and how to use HubSpot's technology to your advantage. You have a group of potential customers, but they're all different. They want different things, are at different stages of buying, and are from various industries. How can you reach them all, keep them interested, and not lose their attention?

During this blog we will take you through our recommendations, and the advantages.

How to Segment in hubspot

There are many ways to group your contacts, which HubSpot calls "Finding your who."

Organising your contacts like this makes it much easier to handle and take care of them, build relationships, and work efficiently. It's a great way to focus on what each group needs, whether it's marketing, sales, or services, and send them personalised emails and messages.

Segmenting contacts in HubSpot CRM

No matter how you choose to group your contacts in HubSpot, you'll always begin with these same four steps:

• Start by selecting “Contacts” and click on “Lists” in the drop-down. 
• Click on “Create List” at the top right, and select either “Active” or “Static” list type.
  
  Active lists constantly add new contacts that meet the criteria, while static lists are fixed snapshots of contacts that met specific criteria when the list was created and saved.
  
  

• In this example, we are creating a Contact-based list. Name your list accordingly. 

• Select contact or company properties you want to include within your Filter Groups on the left panel.
  In this example, we have selected Life-cycle stage is "Lead". This will display any contacts that are leads, and allow me to do targeted campaigns using this list of contacts. 

While the above example shows Life-cycle segment, there are other properties filters that can help further segment your data. We recommend by engagement level, life cycle stage (or the buyers journey), industry, intent to buy/ interest, and persona. 

Life-cycle

The "life-cycle stage" of your contacts indicates where they are in the buying process. Are they just starting as leads? Are they potential customers, or have they already made a purchase? Segmenting your contacts based on their life-cycle stage allows you to tailor your communication to their specific needs and expectations. This helps you avoid sending them irrelevant messages. 

Engagement

Understanding how a contact engages with your emails is a crucial clue about their interest level. HubSpot's segmentation tool simplifies this by providing a list of behaviors to monitor.

To access these behaviors, just go to the Contact properties search bar, and you can choose from the default options listed below:

• Marketing emails delivered: the number of marketing emails delivered for the current email address.
• Marketing emails clicked: the number of marketing emails which have had link clicks
• Average page views: the average number of pages a contact sees per session. 
• Time last seen: the last time and date the contact has viewed a page on your website. This is automatically set by HubSpot for each contact.
• Number of form submissions: the number of forms the contact has submitted.

HubSpot lists all the default properties here. 

Industry

Segmenting your contacts by their industry is a smart way to ensure you're not sending the wrong information to the wrong people. It can enhance your reputation as experts who understand their specific needs, setting you apart from competitors who miss the mark. This approach is also ideal for setting up automated email campaigns and can be a game-changer if your business serves multiple sectors, preventing wasted effort on the wrong targets.

Intent to Buy/ Interest

You can spot someone's interest in a few ways, particularly if they are visiting your product or service page, downloading brochures or pricing content, or filling out a "Request a Demo" form. These are important indicators of interest.

It's important to note that this feature doesn't use "intent" or "interest" as a search term in group filters. Instead, it examines behaviors that indicate interest, including how many times a contact has taken action by submitting a form.

To use this feature in the Contact properties search bar:

1. Type in "Number of form submissions" to segment your contacts based on how many forms they've completed, such as more than one (this is a default option).
2. To filter contacts by visits to specific pages, select "Has visited at least one URL containing" and then input "pricing" or "contact." This helps you target contacts interested in those specific topics or actions.

In this example below, we have filtered contacts who have filled in the "New Web - Request a Quote" form. Our sales team will follow this up, however, if a request a quote is over 6 months old, it might be time to do a targeted campaign that focuses on historical form submissions. 

Persona

Do you know who your ideal customer is? If you've created detailed buyer personas through research and data (which you should definitely do if you haven't already), you can use them to group your contacts. This can lead to significant advantages in acquiring and retaining customers, attracting more valuable leads, and increasing conversions.

To do this in the Contact properties search bar:

1. Type in "persona."
2. Then, select from the personas you've already created to categorise each contact accordingly.

The Advantages of Segmentation

1. Increased Targeting and Relevance: Segmentation enables businesses to adapt messaging and offerings to specific audience segments, resulting in higher relevance and engagement.
2. Personalised Messaging and Customer Experience: By understanding individual preferences, behaviors, and pain points, businesses can deliver highly personalised experiences. Research shows that 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations. 
3. Enhanced Campaign Effectiveness and ROI: Efficient allocation of marketing resources through segmentation ensures messages reach the right people at the right time.
   DMA (Direct Marketing Association) found segmentation-driven campaigns achieve a 760% increase in revenue. 
4. Behavioral Attributes: Analysing prior purchases, online interactions, and campaign engagement allows businesses to better understand audience preferences and tailor content accordingly. 

Effective segmentation is all about smart practices:

• Start Broad, Then Get Specific: Begin with broad segments and refine them as you gather more data. This ongoing process keeps things optimized and growing. Following this approach, businesses can increase customer lifetime value by 36%, as noted by Adobe.
• Test and Improve: Experiment with different segmentation criteria through A/B testing. On average, A/B testing for segmentation strategies can boost conversion rates by 20%, according to Forbes.
• Automate for Personalisation: Take advantage of HubSpot's automation features to deliver personalised content efficiently. 

Do you need a HubSpot partner?

HubSpot is among the fastest-growing platforms globally. If you're considering investing in HubSpot for your sales and marketing efforts or want to maximise your existing portal, Maven TM can assist you in unlocking HubSpot's full potential to reach your business objectives.

As a certified Gold HubSpot Solutions Partner, Maven TM offers decades of experience in demand generation and a profound grasp of the tech industry. We comprehend the challenges that businesses, like yours, encounter in this competitive market, and we're here to provide personalised, dedicated support to help you overcome them.