HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification 6: Understanding Behavioral Marketing & Customer Segmentation

Full Set from Section 6 derived from official transcripts.

Here's the "Understanding Behavioral Marketing and Customer Segmentation" deck. All 3 videos match.

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Why can't marketers be everywhere, and what's the inbound answer?

Multichannel marketing is essential, but you have limits. Use customer behavior to figure out the right places and the right times to be.

Behavioral marketing

The method by which companies target audiences based on behavior, interests, intentions, geolocation, and other metrics, using web analytics, cookies, search history, and other insights.

Customer segmentation

The process of separating your contacts into smaller groups of similar profiles.

Why is segmentation important to behavioral marketing?

It lets you personalize customers' experiences, and personalization is one of the best ways to make your processes feel more human.

Behavioral marketing vs. segmentation: how they relate

Behavioral marketing helps you understand leads and customers; segmentation categorizes them based on that understanding. Together they connect customer behavior to conversion rates.

The detective analogy

Examine clues customers leave (clicks, downloads, where they stop engaging, emails opened or not, most-visited pages), find patterns, then act by grouping customers to serve their needs.

Core purpose of behavioral marketing and segmentation

Delivering the right message at the right time.

Disruptor Daily behavioral email stat

Behavioral marketing in email campaigns increased open rates by 56.68%.

HubSpot CTR stat (behavioral marketing)

Clickthrough rates increased by 147%.

Epsilon personalization stat

80% of customers are more likely to buy when there's some degree of personalization.

Campaign Monitor segmentation stat

Marketers noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns.

Netflix's behavioral marketing approach

Analytics focus on buying patterns and behavior. "Cinematch" software generates personalized recommendations in-app, on the website, and in emails previewing content that fits past viewing.

Netflix recommendation clusters

Recommendations feel unique to each user, but Netflix actually uses 1,300 "recommendation clusters."

Mutuality in behavioral marketing

Provide so much value that customers want to give you more data (through product use or sharing personal info), which lets you delight them more.

Who benefits from behavioral marketing and segmentation?

Any organization, from multibillion-dollar companies to local small businesses. It spurs engagement, saves money, and directs resources to the right places.

Malaysian airline 2014 example: segments

1) Purchased a ticket since the crash. 2) Hadn't purchased since the crash. 3) High-value customers like frequent flyers.

Malaysian airline 2014 example: ads per segment and result

Hadn't flown since: humorous videos. Had flown: fare videos. Frequent flyers: rates for their most frequent routes. Result: revenue over 30x the ad spend.

What the Malaysian airline example shows

Behavioral marketing and segmentation can help rectify mistakes and rebuild trust.

Other types of behavioral marketing and segmentation

Retargeting campaigns, abandoned cart recovery, upselling, cross-selling.

Goal of behavioral marketing (it's not to do every tactic)

Figure out what customers need and want, and communicate in a way that reaches them where they are.

Five fundamental steps for behavioral marketing and segmentation

1) Define interactions to track. 2) Implement tracking. 3) Analyze and report how people behave on your website. 4) Segment your contacts. 5) Use segmentation to nurture.

Foundation of an effective behavioral marketing and segmentation strategy

Good, accurate data.

Step 1: Define the interactions you want to track

Gives clarity on your data. Examples: CTA clicks, time on page, email opens, newsletter sign-ups, visits per day.

Guiding questions for defining interactions to track

Who are you trying to reach? What do they need? What are the best ways to reach them? Where are funnel drop-offs? Where does engagement decline?

Pro tip for defining interactions to track

Watch for significant discrepancies in conversion rates and the points where conversion rates are lowest.

Auditing your data (Step 1)

Leverage data you already have (e.g., CRM reports). Ask what you're tracking and why, AND what you're NOT tracking and why.

Specific vs. general data example

Instead of inferring devices from regional data, track the actual devices customers use so image-heavy content renders optimally.

Step 2: Implement tracking

Put tracking into action using the appropriate tools for what you decided to track.

Email tracking reports

CTA interactions and open rates.

iOS 15 open-rate problem and workaround

iOS 15 limits open-rate data. Segment contacts into Apple and non-Apple users and analyze non-Apple open rates for accurate info.

Social tracking tools named in the course

Sprout Social, BuzzSumo, TapInfluence, and HubSpot Marketing Hub social analytics.

Tool for tracking on-page behavior via heatmaps

Hotjar.

Pain point: converting website visitors into leads. Suggested tool?

Google Analytics.

Goal: tracking customer intent. Suggested tool?

Google Search Central.

High engagement on your Facebook business page. Suggested tool?

Facebook Insights.

SimilarWeb

Shows which other sites your visitors also frequent.

Key reminder when choosing tracking tools

Don't lose track of what you're trying to measure. Clearly define the spaces you need to be in for the most relevant data.

Step 3: Analyze and report on website behavior

Make sense of your data and the story behind it. Notice and quantify spikes or dips in behaviors (e.g., reports on post visitors, heatmaps).

Scenario: Many visitors spend significant time on a post but don't convert. What should you explore?

Using smart content to further nurture them into leads.

Step 4: Segment your contacts

Break contacts into smaller groups of similar people so you can communicate with each in the way that fits them best.

Grandma / best friend / boss analogy

You communicate differently with different people, and segmentation lets you do the same with contacts.

Two-way relationship between data and segmentation

Behavioral data fuels how you segment, and good segmentation drives more of the behaviors you want.

MailChimp segmentation stat

Segmented email campaigns had 9.36% lower unsubscribe rates than non-segmented ones.

Behavior-pattern segmentation example

On a high-traffic product blog: one group clicks the bottom CTA to download the e-book; another spends 5+ minutes but doesn't click. Two segments.

Two categories of segmentation

Implicit and explicit.

Implicit segmentation

Based on characteristics implied by contacts' behaviors; you analyze habits and make inferences.

Implicit segmentation example

Pet store shoppers who view multiple dog products are inferred to be dog owners, so you recommend leashes matching collars they browsed.

Explicit segmentation

Based on clear characteristics provided by contacts or conversions.

Explicit segmentation example

A shopper submits a form for a discount and states they have a dog, so they're categorized as a "dog owner."

Should you use implicit or explicit segmentation?

Both. Implicit paints an incomplete outline to start coloring in; it enables personalization that leads to conversions and explicit data. Explicit personalizes on tactile data.

Kit Lyman (HubSpot) on implicit vs. explicit

"Implicit segmentation is synonymous with correlation, and explicit segmentation is synonymous with causation."

Scenario: You infer a visitor's interest from pages they browse. Implicit or explicit?

Implicit.

Scenario: A contact states their job title on a form. Implicit or explicit?

Explicit.

Step 5: Use segmentation to nurture

Identify where customers are in the buyer's journey and help them take the appropriate next step.

Nurturing: browsed 5 minutes but didn't click the CTA

Less far along. Nurture with smart content or a cookie-based retargeting campaign.

Nurturing: clicked the CTA

Further along in the buyer's journey. Nurture with an email campaign offering a demo or promotion.

Ways to act on segmentation data

Retargeting ads, email nurturing, passing certain segments directly to sales, smart content.

HomeTrust Bank profile

Mid-sized regional community bank; 30+ branches in 4 southeastern states; personal, business, and commercial customers; lean 7-8 person marketing team.

Lesson of HomeTrust Bank example

Behavioral marketing and segmentation aren't just for large corporations. Small and mid-sized companies can use them too.

How HomeTrust's behavioral marketing usually starts

With a "What if?" question, e.g., what if branch teams knew when a customer clicked an email or showed interest in a landing page offer?

HomeTrust Step 1: interactions tracked

Email opens and CTA clicks, then landing page clicks, time on page, and pageviews, combined to quantify intent to apply for a loan (long sales cycle).

HomeTrust Step 2: how they implemented tracking

Created a flexible test list in HubSpot, let it run a few days, and adjusted filters and properties.

"Bubble gum, duct tape, and soda straws"

Scott Fahy's term for HomeTrust's earlier setup: existing platforms tied together with Zapier, feeding an internally built platform.

HomeTrust Step 3: the "Magic Number"

Three landing page views. Loans aren't impulse buys, so most visitors bounce and interested ones return. Specific enough without excluding most customers.

HomeTrust Step 4: segmentation

A workflow auto-enrolled contacts who clicked the email, visited the landing page 3 times, but didn't click the landing page CTA into a two-part nurture.

HomeTrust Step 5: two-part nurture

1) Personalized email nudging customers to apply online or contact their banker. 2) Notification email telling the banker to schedule a follow-up call.

HomeTrust results

Response rate rose from 0.5% (no behavioral triggers) to as high as 2.3%. Bankers knew who to contact and when, and calls were warm.

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No corrections needed on this one. Next up is "Maximizing..." (4 videos).