Imagine you’re going to a small pond crowded with fish. You don’t want them all on your dinner table — you want a specific type of fish.
This was Metier OEC before they implemented inbound marketing in 2017 (well, not literally, but you get the point). They kept mass communicating with their leads and customers in hopes of reaching at least some of these contacts with relevant information. Thus, they got several different types of uninteresting fish on the hook rather than many fish of the type they actually wanted.
After implementing HubSpot, they started segmenting their contacts database using lists and workflows. The result?
After only 12 months of focusing on inbound marketing and HubSpot, they now have an income that’s over 7 times the investment in HubSpot and inbound—from contacts that have visited the blog or landing pages alone.
The implementation of inbound and the increased focus on segmenting contacts has led to more qualified leads, which in turn has led to more sales and happier customers.
Follow these 4 steps to better segment your contacts and experience the magic of HubSpot and inbound.
4 Steps to Better Segment Your Contacts
We all know segmentation is crucial for inbound success, but what specific steps can you take to get better at it?
We at Avidly Norway implemented this strategy together with our client, Metier OEC:
- Identify personas and their buyer’s journey.
- Create content for the different personas to better guide them through the buyer’s journey.
- Use HubSpot’s list tool to segment email marketing.
- Use HubSpot’s workflow tool to follow up with contacts to provide more relevant information.
Let’s dig into each of the steps.
1. Identify personas using HubSpot’s template and map out their buyer’s journey
We invited Metier OEC to a persona workshop based on HubSpot’s method and used HubSpot’s template for creating personas and writing their stories. We also mapped out each persona's buyer’s journey to get a sense of what content needed to be created to guide them through the sales process.
2. Create content for the different personas to better guide them through the buyer’s journey
With personas in place, Metier OEC could now fully embrace content marketing. We started creating more downloadable content that helped their contacts figure out what challenges they had and what solutions they need.
With more targeted content, Metier OEC could better nurture contacts by sending them relevant content based on where they were in the sales funnel, and tailor content and communication to potential and existing customers based on persona.
3. Use HubSpot’s list tool to segment email marketing
Before inbound and HubSpot, Metier OEC didn’t segment their email marketing at all, which led to poor email marketing results. Thanks to HubSpot’s easy-to-use list tool, they now have an average email open rate of 37% and click rate of 7%.
2014:
2017:
That's quite a jump in performance!
4. Use HubSpot’s workflow tool to follow up with contacts to provide more relevant information
Lead nurturing is a magical thing — especially if you get it right. With HubSpot’s marketing automation tool, workflows, Metier OEC was finally able to actually provide their various contacts with different and contextual information based on their interests.
So there you have it: Using HubSpot lists, workflows, and identifying both personas and their buyer’s journey using HubSpot’s methodology, Metier OEC has sold more certifications than ever before thanks to the inbound methodology and the HubSpot software.
The end result? More happy customers.
