Customising marketing emails based on a product the customer is using

[AjayPatel24]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on customising marketing emails in HubSpot along with how we can connect this with workflow automation. We're a Marketing Professional customer and are already using marketing automation to send emails to customers that trial our products.

Currently, I have the following 4 generic marketing emails sent through my workflows:

1. Welcome email
2. "Here to help"/check-in email
3. Offer of a demo email
4. Final email

I would like to build a more tailored marketing email based on the specific product that the customer chooses to trial (and the customer can trial multiple products at the same time).

For example, we could send the contact an email with links to:

• A user guide in our HubSpot knowledge base for the specific product they're trialling
• The exact product page and video on our website
• Resources on all other products they decide to trial. Bearing in mind that there are 30 different products for customers to trial simultaneously.

How would I go about building this level of intelligence into my marketing automation emails so that the content is more tailored to the product the user is trialling?

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @AjayPatel24,

The exact approach depends a bit on how you're tracking which product a website visitor chooses. Generally, you would either leverage branches in workflows for this or smart rules in emails:

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/website-pages/create-and-manage-smart-content-rules

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/workflows/use-if-then-branches-in-workflows

This is fairly straightforward if the product chosen is stored in a custom property. In that case you would simply branch by this custom property or set up active contact lists based on this property to be used in smart rules in your automated emails. If you're not sure which one to pick, I'd recommend branches in your workflow.

The challenge lies within the number of your products. Have you thought about how exactly you want to adjust your emails for 30 products? 4 emails for 30 products would be barely manageable anymore (120 version). Maybe you can group products so they that products 1-10, 11-20, 21-30 (for example) share the same emails 1-4?

The is the first thing you would have to think about. Once you get to a point where you end up with a manageable number of emails, you can start setting them up with branches (or smart rules).

In any case, HubSpot does not do this for you automatically. If you want different versions of emails 1-4, you have to all set them up.

Lastly, a big challenge is the fact that contacts might have products simultaneously. Here again you would have to consider how exactly you would like to send these emails - if someone has product 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, they should probably not get emails 1-4 for each product, but combined emails?

Here as well you would have to first think about what these emails should look like (requirements), then think about the exact execution.

If you already have thoughts on that, let me know.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

[AjayPatel24]

Hi Karsten, thanks for pointing out the smart rules feature - I had no idea this existed! I've taken a closer look and think smart rules are a bit limited for what we're trying to achieve, so I think we'll go down the branching workflows route.

I agree, 4 different emails for all 30 products are going to be unmanageable.

I had another thought where we could send:

1. Welcome email with information for the first product the user trials
2. A generic "Here to help"/check-in email with no relevance to the products the user is trialling
3. A generic Offer of a demo email with no relevance to the products the user is trialling
4. A generic Final email with no relevance to the products the user is trialling
5. A product-specific email is sent each time the user trials a new product.

In this scenario, we would potentially have 30 emails each for 1. and 5.

What do you think of this approach?

[PHerreroMKT]

Hi @AjayPatel24 !

You can use the "Products" object in HubSpot to manage the information of your products or services. If you haven't done so already, you can find a helpful guide on how to create and manage products in HubSpot https://knowledge.hubspot.com/products/how-do-i-use-products

Once you've set up your products in HubSpot, you'll be able to filter your lists or workflows triggers based on the products associated with the contacts. This means that you can send tailored marketing emails based on the specific product that the customer chooses to trial. You can also send links to user guides, product pages, videos, and resources related to the products the customer is trialing.

For example, you can use a contact based filter for users that bought a samples box:

If you need further guidance into your marketing automation emails, feel free to ask!

Paula Herrero MKT.
CRM Expert | Hubspot consultant | Automation

[AjayPatel24]

Thank you for the suggestion, Paula!

We are already using the Products library, so we could potentially add in some more custom fields per product for links to the user guide, product video, etc.

I can see in the marketing email tool that there is a "Product" content element, but I believe you're only able to show a select few default Product properties.

Is there another content element/technique that I can use to connect the custom properties from my product library for the links to the user guide, video, etc. into my marketing email?