Things can get disorganized if you’re not using a CRM. But the real pitfall is not understanding the power of customer data and using it to your advantage.

The importance of customer data

With data, you could tell who’s browsing on your site, ready to purchase, or who's even made an attempt to connect with you.

Collecting this info will allow you to automatically send the right message to the right person at the right time.

Using customer data to target is more advanced and less intrusive than it used to be. This is because you’re delivering a personalized experience.

The old ways don’t work anymore

A Customer Relationship Manager (or as you know it, a CRM) is a system that stores the data of your prospects and customers and historically, that’s all it did. Now, a CRM has the power to personalize the experience of prospects & customers at every stage of the buying journey. This is a clear way to increase ROI.

So how do you do this? You need to use your CRM for marketing.

Experience-Driven Marketing

Your customer's experience should be your top priority, putting them in the center of every way you market.

Forrester research has found that companies who said they were focused on experience grew 40% faster and increased customer lifetime value by more than 60% - versus those who weren't.

So how do you go about doing this? You need to leverage your CRM to personalize your marketing effort.

How to successfully use your CRM for marketing:

• Segment - split up prospects messages based on their demographics, interests, and/or needs
• Contextualize - be clear about why your solution is useful to their needs
• Personalize - make your prospects feel valued

Segment

The average consumer sees between 4,000 to 10,000 ads per day. But when your messaging is irrelevant, it’s easy to tune out.

Using your customer data in your CRM, you can understand your prospects better and segment this data based on wants, needs and readiness to buy.

Use HubSpot lists to segment your database

With HubSpot lists, you can segment your database by any data point. You can segment based on who they are, where they work or their activity.

You can easily build a list of all your current customer contacts halfway through their current contract. This would be a great way to check-in and possibly offer a new feature, product or service for an upsell.

What about targeting every prospect who’s visited your pricing page more than once in the past month?

Segmenting lists allows you to split up messaging and target effectively.

Contextualize 

Every buyer passes through three key buying stages: Awareness, Consideration and Decision. And they need “buying stage”-specific content to make a decision. 

Build Campaign triggers linked to the Buyer's Journey

Trigger emails and messages based on which stage your prospect is. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and ask yourself what might be useful to them at each stage of their journey. This will ensure the content is relevant to their needs

Instead of forcing your product on them, send well-timed, useful information.

Use HubSpot Smart Content to Contextualize your messaging at scale

HubSpot Smart Content allows you to create different content based on a set of rules. Your emails, landing pages and CTAs display differently depending on what is known about a prospect or contact. 

For example, rather than taking time to manually send context-specific content to prospects, you can adapt your HubSpot pages to react to their needs. This allows you to tailor content to each stage of the buyer's journey.

This helps you reduce admin tasks, boost conversion rates and drive more revenue with less effort.

Personalize 

You can use HubSpot to personalize sales messaging on any standard or custom property (the data you collect on contacts).

Greeting by name isn’t effective personalization. You need to send relevant messaging in a timely manner using the right language, tone, subject and send it on the right device.

Imagine this, your payroll software is up for renewal and you’re an HR exec receiving a message specific to payroll software. It’s that feeling of serendipity. 

How do you do this? You create a HubSpot workflow to message either HR execs one month before their next renewal date. But prospects will feel a connection with your brand because the message is aimed at their needs at the right time.

The easiest way to think of it is like this:

Segmentation - to whom do we want to speak?

Contextualization - what are we going to say?

Personalization - how are we going to say it?

Contextual communications should be personal without being too intensely personal. Clients want personalized information that feels helpful and offers value when they need it.

Need help getting started with segmenting and personalizing your marketing?