In marketing, we talk about segmentation. Let's talk about contact management. We don't often talk about how important it is to use the two together. Heidi Tolliver Walker documents three examples of how powerful the transition from non-integrated to integrated solutions can be.
In marketing, we talk about segmentation. Let's talk about contact management. We don't often talk about how important it is to use the two together. In fact, if your contact database and marketing platform aren't integrated, your marketing effectiveness can be hampered to the point of paralysis.
A recent HubSpot Academy segment provided three examples of how powerful the transition from non-integrated to integrated solutions can be.
1. Howard University
The first example came from Howard University, the premier historically black university in the United States. This iconic educational institution attracts many corporate sponsors interested in building relationships with students for future career opportunities.
For many years, Howard University lacked a CRM or central database to manage corporate sponsorships. Instead, separate spreadsheets and databases were used. There was also no clear contact point on the university side. When it came to providing career-building opportunities to students, potential sponsors often turned to faculty because they didn't know who to contact. However, because faculty were not trained to answer such questions, these inquiries were passed around, resulting in inquiries being missed or lost.
Howard University then switched to a CRM that integrated with email marketing. This allowed him to create a form on his website where potential corporate sponsors could express interest. The university chose HubSpot's CRM to easily integrate contact management with email marketing.
The school used the data collected from the forms to create contact segments and create email campaigns specifically for students interested in their career development. result?
- The Career Partner Program will reach capacity within two weeks.
- That year, the university was able to raise more than $100,000 for student career development.
2. Door Dash
The second example is from DoorDash. Although DoorDash is best known for its consumer deliveries, it also offers two of his business services: DoorDash for Merchants and DoorDash for Work.
Before switching to HubSpot, DoorDash had a single landing page with a Formstack lead capture form. Uploading data to his company's CRM (Salesforce) was tedious and time-consuming because the team had to clean up the information each time before manually uploading the data. In the end, the team ended up spending him 5 to 10 hours a month just cleaning data.
Additionally, segmentation for Door Dash also had to be created manually because the data was not accessible from all systems. The audience for each email had to be built from scratch, wasting the marketing team's time. Their segmentation abilities were also severely limited. Some of the data was there, but Door Dash didn't know how to identify it. Unsurprisingly, these programs struggled to gain traction.
DoorDash then switched to HubSpot. Making this switch allowed DoorDash to integrate both audience management and email marketing. Now it only takes a few minutes to send a campaign to the right segment. One of their first efforts was to send a product guide to Canadian distributors. They were able to segment their audience by location and send guides in both French and English to merchants in Quebec, as required by law.
The marketing team estimates that the new integration saves them three days of work for each email campaign they create.
3. Envision a technology advisor
Integrating contact management and email marketing isn't just for large companies. Envision Technology provides business and technology consulting services in the Northeast region of the United States. They specialize in digital transformation, cybersecurity, networks and infrastructure, cloud services, and more. To develop its segmentation strategy, Envision Technology worked with BlueFrog, a HubSpot-trained agency to help achieve its inbound goals.
The team created three segments.
Segment 1: Prospects attended an event on cybersecurity where Envision Tech CEO spoke. This segment was created to source local businesses from Envision Tech's primary target regions.
Segment 2: Prospects attended an HR and technology event that also featured Envision Tech CEO. This segment was created to increase brand awareness.
Segment 3: Prospects attended Envision Tech's annual event “Lights, Camera, Answers.'' There will be a free film premiere combined with a short presentation and Q&A on cybersecurity. This segment was created to grow the community.
By creating these three segments, Envision Technology was able to communicate more effectively with each audience. His first three segmented campaigns achieved open rates of 100%, 60%, and 77%, respectively.
From ungainly to seamless
When talking about segmentation, it's important to remember that while this type of campaign can be created using manual processes, this is time consuming and difficult to sustain. This is not a commercial for HubSpot, but not all CRMs can integrate with all marketing platforms. Companies that consistently achieve great results integrate their inbound marketing with their contact management system, whether through HubSpot or another provider.
To create high-performance, sustainable solutions, processes need to be simple.Segmented marketing with integration teeth easy. Without integration, it's, well, not. that It's difficult to maintain.
