Today’s consumers crave personalized interactions with brands, making generic email blasts and one-size-fits-all site experiences obsolete. Understanding each contact’s needs and preferences is crucial to providing value at every touchpoint.
Enter behavioral targeting. By monitoring significant custom events in HubSpot – such as site page visits, CTAs clicked, and content downloads – you can pinpoint the topics and offerings that each contact finds appealing. These signals enable you to deliver messages and suggestions that directly correspond with demonstrated interests and intent.
The outcome? Contacts feel acknowledged and catered to. They’re more inclined to respond to hyper-personalized offers and continue engaging with your brand over time. This is a mutually beneficial situation, fueled by the rich behavioral data within custom events.
In this guide, we’ll delve into some key methods to identify and utilize these high-value custom events for superior lead nurturing and conversions. From analytics insights to real-world examples and optimization best practices, we’ll cover all you need to know to implement targeted behavioral marketing strategies that yield results.
Decoding High-Intent Behaviors with Sharp Analysis
Grasping buyer behavior lays the groundwork for effective targeting. By smartly using analytics to identify actions that hint at purchase intent, marketers can time their messaging perfectly—only when buyers are primed to engage.
The secret lies in identifying on-site behaviors that align with conversion. For instance, users who check out pricing pages convert at a 20% higher rate than the average site visitor. Those who return for multiple sessions boast a 30% higher lifetime value. By crafting custom events around these high-intent behaviors, marketers can react appropriately when they happen.
The data also uncovers more nuanced signals. Visitors who compare products before viewing a specific item’s page are 80% more likely to add that item to their cart. Site search queries that indicate specific needs or use cases also warrant attention. For example, buyers searching for “integration with Salesforce” have exhibited greater post-purchase engagement.
To capitalize on these insights, marketers should adopt the following strategy:
Firstly, employ HubSpot’s built-in analytics to pinpoint on-site behaviors with the most significant conversion impact. Pay extra attention to pages viewed, site searches conducted, content downloads, form submissions, video views, and any other trackable actions. Look for patterns that suggest readiness to buy.
Next, convert these behaviors into custom events that activate when high-intent visitors show purchase signals through their site activity. For instance, viewing a pricing page could set off an “Evaluating Options” event, while submitting a demo request triggers an “Actively Engaged” event.
Lastly, construct personalized automations around these event triggers to deliver messages exactly when identified behaviors take place. This positions content to seize attention when intent is at its peak.
While easy to implement, this analytics-driven strategy enables advanced behavioral targeting. Marketers can react swiftly when high-potential buyers show interest, enhancing conversion rates overall. And with custom events now activating, they can test and fine-tune triggers over time to boost performance.
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Creating Custom Events without Coding
HubSpot offers a powerful yet often overlooked feature – the ability to set up custom events without writing a single line of code. These DIY events unlock new targeting and personalization capabilities based on high-value buyer behaviors.
With just a few clicks, you can start capturing and responding to important on-site actions that indicate interest and intent. No need for development resources.
Identifying Valuable Behaviors
Start by delving into your analytics to pinpoint the website interactions that correlate with higher conversion rates. These may include content downloads, video views over 30 seconds, visits to key product or pricing pages, or form fills or demo sign-ups.
Focus on the pages and actions that signal high intent. These will become the triggers for your new events.
Setting Up the Custom Event
Next, head to the Events tool under Marketing Hub. Click “Create Event” to launch the custom event builder.
Give your event a descriptive name like “Viewed Pricing Page”. Ensure the Event Type is “Page Visit” and then paste in the specific page URL you want to track.
You can add filters if you only want to track visits under certain conditions. For instance, you may only be interested in pricing page views for contacts from certain companies or regions.
Save your custom event and voila, it’s ready to work for you!
Testing and Validating
Of course, you’ll want to test that the event works as expected before integrating it into campaigns.
Simulate the target action, like visiting your pricing page, while logged into HubSpot. Then check under your contact timeline that the custom event is being captured correctly.
Once validated, it’s time to start using that valuable intent data to target your outreach.
Activating Personalized Campaigns
The most common way to leverage custom events is through workflow enrollment criteria and email personalization.
Create a new workflow with an initial enrollment criteria of “Visited Pricing Page”. Contacts who trigger that custom event will enter the workflow and receive tailored messaging based on their interest.
You can also reference custom events in email templates using personalization tokens. Send pricing follow-ups only to contacts who recently viewed those pages on your site.
Continual Optimization
Custom events are powerful because they reveal previously hidden buyer actions. However, it takes some experimentation to identify which events truly correlate with a propensity to convert.
Use A/B testing to validate event impact. Experiment with triggering campaigns on different combinations of events and see which drives more conversions.
You can also add custom events directly into Salesforce as lead scoring criteria. See which events influence deal progression.
The more you learn, the more you can refine events and personalizations to boost results.
Creative Ways to Utilize Custom Events Data
Unlocking custom events in your HubSpot portal opens up a thrilling realm of ultra-personalized marketing. By monitoring significant prospect behaviors and attributes, you can now craft bespoke messaging and experiences that seize attention and spur action.
The trick is to think imaginatively about how custom events data can correspond to personalized interactions across channels. For instance, an enterprise SaaS company could monitor when prospects view specific product pages or content offers. Armed with this knowledge, they could then dispatch personalized email sequences that extend the dialogue around the topics prospects have already expressed interest in. This relevance seizes attention and amplifies conversions.
Here are some other inventive ways to convert custom events insights into impact:
Landing Pages that Transform Based on Interests
Once prospects trigger key custom events, utilize that data to dynamically alter landing page content to align with their interests. This spontaneous personalization makes offers incredibly relevant.
Multi-Channel Nurture Campaigns
Link together custom events across channels to guide prospects towards conversion. For example, target high-intent website visitors with customized direct mail pieces, then follow up via tailored email sequences based on their ongoing behaviors.
Ultra-Personalized Web Experiences
Custom events pave the way for individualized site experiences. Modify calls-to-action, content offers, and even entire page layouts based on events data for each prospect. Take personalization to the next level.
Custom Event Triggers in Ads
Integrate custom events into your ads as lead gen form triggers or traffic driving triggers. Show prospects ads inspired by their behaviors across channels and devices.
The possibilities are limitless when it comes to activating custom events data in campaigns. Eschew bland, batch-and-blast tactics. Instead, think multi-dimensionally about how custom events can correspond to creative personalizations that seize attention and prompt prospects to take the next step. This is where the magic happens.
While the above examples provide inspiration, every business must carefully experiment with approaches that work for their unique audience, offers and sales cycles. Start with your highest-converting offers and most decisive buyer behaviors. Intelligently map those elements to custom event triggers and resulting personalizations. Then meticulously measure performance and fine-tune over time, using A/B testing to optimize further.
With some thoughtful strategy and testing, custom events can swiftly transform sales and marketing results. But never lose sight of the human touch. As personalization capabilities grow more advanced, ensure technology serves to enhance that human connection – not replace it. Combine data-driven relevance with authentic empathy, care and understanding. This is the future of truly meaningful 1:1 marketing.
Optimizing Behavioral Targeting with A/B Testing
Behavioral targeting is a dynamic process that requires constant fine-tuning. Through continuous experimentation and improvement of event triggers and personalizations, we can enhance their relevance and conversion performance.
A/B testing is a powerful tool in this process. Instead of guessing which on-site behaviors indicate a potential buyer, we can identify possible intent markers and test their impact. For instance, we can experiment with triggering a sales email when a lead downloads a pricing sheet. If this email performs better than our standard nurture track, we’ve found a new effective signal.
We can also evaluate the effectiveness of assumed high-intent events using a “champion/challenger” approach. This method involves comparing our existing event-based automations with a new speculative one to see which converts visitors more effectively. The higher performing option then becomes the “champion.”
Optimizing the experiences powered by behavioral data is another crucial step. For example, if a custom event triggers a personalized modal, we can experiment with elements like offer messaging, visuals, and call-to-action language. We can also test delivery channels, evaluating whether on-site modals, emails, or chatbots make that event-based message shine most.
HubSpot’s A/B testing tools make experimentation a breeze. We can use the platform’s drag-and-drop composer to create variations of event-triggered interactions. HubSpot will then automatically show different versions to website visitors to detect improvements.
For instance, software company Leadsius found that 40% of free trial starters did not become paying customers. They defined an event in HubSpot for when a visitor clicks the free trial button. When triggered, this event displays a personalized modal encouraging product exploration. Leadsius is now A/B testing modal variations focused on different user onboarding tips to increase trial-to-paid conversion.
A/B testing event-based experiences also provides learnings that can inform marketing beyond the test scenario. If a particular offer or message resonates in response to an event, we can repurpose those assets more widely. And if certain event-triggered interactions underperform, we can re-evaluate the customer journey before and after those moments.
Ongoing optimization is key because buyer behaviors and responses evolve over time. We must continually experiment and analyze performance to provide the right personalized experiences. Refining behavioral targeting also builds a positive cycle: More relevant experiences convert more visitors, expanding our event data, and powering further personalization.
Through testing, we transform assumed intent signals into proven drivers of conversion and continuously improve the experiences they influence. This maximizes the value of custom events-based hyper-personalization over the long term.
Harness the power of custom events in HubSpot to elevate your brand’s marketing strategy. By understanding, creating, and utilizing these events effectively, you can personalize your campaigns, deliver more value, and enhance conversion rates. Remember, continual learning and optimization is key to success in this era of smarter, data-driven marketing.