You are on page 1of 26

ad

vanced

THE 3-STEP MARKETING AUDIT:

HOW TO USE
CUSTOMER DATA
TO RECHARGE
YOUR MARKETING
Learn How To
Find Valuable
Insights About Your
Lead Conversion
Experience By
Running a HubSpot
Customer Audit
A publication of

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

IS THIS EBOOK RIGHT FOR ME?


Not quite sure if this ebook is right for you? See the below description to determine
if your level matches the content you are about to read.

INTRODUCTORY
Introductory content is for marketers who are new to the subject. This content

typically includes step-by-step instructions on how to get started with this aspect

of inbound marketing and learn its fundamentals. After reading it, you will be able
to execute basic marketing tactics related to the topic.

INTERMEDIATE
Intermediate content is for marketers who are familiar with the subject but have

only basic experience in executing strategies and tactics on the topic. This content
typically covers the fundamentals and moves on to reveal more complex functions
and examples. After reading it, you will feel comfortable leading projects with this
aspect of inbound marketing.

ADVANCED

THIS resource

Advanced content is for marketers who are, or want to be, experts on the subject.
In it, we walk you through advanced features of this aspect of inbound marketing
and help you develop complete mastery of the subject. After reading it, you will

feel ready not only to execute strategies and tactics, but also to teach others how
to be successful.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

HubSpots All-in-One
Marketing Software.

Request A Demo

... brings your whole marketing world


together in one, powerful, integrated system.

Y
N
M
Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

Marketing analytics
Analyze your web traffic
and see which sources
are generating the most
leads.

Blogging

Create blog content quickly while getting SEO tips


and best practice pointers
as you type.

email

Send personalized,
segmented emails based
on any information in your
contact database.

s
U
q

Video Overview

search optimization
Improve your rank in
search engines by finding
and tracking your most effective keywords.

Lead management

Track leads with a


complete timeline-view of
their interactions with your
company

social media

Publish content to your


social accounts, then
nurture leads based on
their social engagement.

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER


DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR
MARKETING
Rebecca is a Senior Inbound Marketing
Consultant on the HubSpot Consulting
team. Over the past 10 years, Rebecca
has worked with over 100 companies,
ranging from the Fortune 500, to startups,
to nonprofits. In addition to her love for
data analysis, Rebeccas areas of expertise
include lead generation and conversion,
segmentation-based email marketing

Written By Rebecca Gutner

strategy, search engine optimization, and


general marketing strategy.

Follow me on twitter.
@RebeccaGutner

Desmond is a creative designer


and inbound marketer on the
Brand & Buzz team at HubSpot. He
specializes in graphic design, content
creation, and content strategy for
lead generation.

ShareDesigned
This Ebook!
By Desmond Wong

Follow me on twitter.
@Detectiveddubs

www.Hubspot.com

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

CONTENTS.
06

Introduction

08

what to consider when beginning


your audit

14

how to pull and analyze your


data

21

how to use your findings to


inform your marketing

25

Conclusion

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Introduction.

any marketing decisions are made based on a marketers

intuition. In other words, semi-subjective opinions from Marketing and


Sales. While these opinions can be extremely valuable, where possible
they can (and should!) be paired with objective trends found within your
data.
The HubSpot Customer Audit is designed to provide valuable insight into
your online lead conversion experience. By aggregating and analyzing
the data youve collected about your existing customers, an audit will
help you identify trends that can help inform your sales process. An audit
is an important step in verifying the accuracy of assumptions you may
have made about the lead qualification process.
This resource will serve as your guide to learning how to use your data
to conduct your own customer audit.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Some common uses for the customer audit are as follows:

1.

To determine/update your lead scoring values

2.. To inform your content strategy by learning the types and


frequency of content that best resonates with your existing
customers

3.. To guide you as to which traffic sources to invest more resources


4. .To update your Sales & Marketing Service Level Agreement
(SLA) to include the most accurate portrayal of sales ready leads

5.. To inform your prospecting within certain industries or types of


companies

6.. To update your marketing personas to more accurately reflect


your core base of customers

A customer audit can be performed as often as once per quarter and


should be performed at least once per year.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

01

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Chapter

What to consider
when beginning
your audit

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

What to Consider When Beginning


Your Audit
What should your sample size be?
Depending on your business, the sample size of your customer base
may not be large enough to be statistically significant. Generally
speaking, a good rule of thumb for true data significance is 1,000 records
or more. If your data is between 100-1000, it could still have some
significance. If your sample size is less than 100, it can be reviewed for
overarching trends but should be rerun when the group grows to 100.

100

1000
Level of Significance

Normally, you should have 1,000 records or more for true data significance. If your
sample data is between 100-1000, you should still have some significance.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

10

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

How Do I Collect Data?


Now you must be wondering -- how is the data being collected? The
answer is simple: form intelligence.
We learned early on that the best way to collect data and intelligence on
your audience is to collect it by providing them an even greater benefit.
You may have done this already without even thinking it! In order to
receive this ebook, you filled out a form that contained various fields.
These fields, depending on how often youve filled out out forms, asked
you for some business-specific information. What you may not realize
when filling out those fields is that youre helping us better analyze and
understand who our audience is and what their interests are.
The best way to collect the right information is to use progressive
profiling. Progressive profiling allows you to control which questions
appear on a form based on what you already know about a lead. That
way, each time a lead fills out a form, you are collecting valuable new
information about them while keeping your forms short and easy to fill
out - not squandering the opportunity by asking the same questions
twice.

l
Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

Progressive profiling allows you to control which questions


appear on a form based on what you already know about a
lead.

11

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

What fields should I have on my forms?


Now that you know where data is coming from, here are some suggested
fields to review when designing your audit. Some of this data pulls from
your analytics platform, while other pieces of data must be collected by
asking the right questions on your landing pages. These are suggested
fields for all industries; note that some may not apply to your business.

Demographic Data
Number of Employees
Industry
Annual Revenue
Gender
Age
Job Title

Demographic information will help you determine exactly who your


customer is and how to best target them.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

12

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Analytics/Behavioral Data
.Time First Seen - The date at which the prospect first discovered your site.
First Page Seen - The first page the prospect landed on within your site.
.Original Source - The traffic source that first brought the prospect to your site.
First Conversion Date - The date at which the prospect became a lead.
Close Date - The date at which the lead became a customer.
.Number of Visits to your site.
Number of Pages Viewed.
Number of Emails Received/Delivered.
Number of Emails Clicked.
.Number of Social Media Clicks - The number of times the lead/customer
engaged with your site via social media.

The analytics and behavioral data will give you more insight into the
performance of your customers marketing strategies. Youll be able to
guage the success of landing pages, calls-to-actions, and clickthrough
rates to help implement new techniques and improve their conversion
rates.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

13

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Other
Lead Score - (If tracking).
Persona - (If tracking) Authors Note: if you are tracking leads
by persona and you have enough data, you may want to do an
individual customer audit for each persona type.
.Email - This will allow you to dig deeper into an individual record
after the fact to review the interactions with this customer.
Company Name - This will allow you to dig deeper into a
companys engagement path to becoming a customer.
Any other custom fields you are tracking that would be relevant.

Information like lead scores, emails, company names, and


personas can all give you a deeper dive into the customers
path of engagement and interactions to better adjust your
strategy for acquiring more new customers.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

02

14

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Chapter

HOW TO PULL AND


ANALYZE YOUR DATA
Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

15

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

What Data Should You Be Pulling?


Most analytics programs allow you to export your lead/customer data
-- collected from form intelligence -- into an excel format. For HubSpot
customers, the steps are as follows:

Step 1: .Create a list of customers excluding any imported contacts.


Then export this list into excel.

Step 2: .Open the export file and remove all fields except the fields
you have chosen to analyze above.

Step 3: .Create a summary sheet (either in a new tab or a separate


document). This will be your central repository for any data you
collect and it will make it easy to visualize your findings. Here is a
sample Summary Sheet from HubSpot data (built in excel):

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

16

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Step 4: .Begin your data analysis. Use the methods below to


collect the data for each field and add the number to your Summary
Sheet.
Fill in these columns with the numerical data that you have collected from your forms to
create a summary sheet.

Number of Employees

Take the average of the numbers in this


column.

Annual Revenue

Take the average of the numbers in this


column.

Industry

Use a Pivot Table to see total numbers of each


category for this column. Use the top 2-3 for
your summary.

Gender

Use a Pivot Table to tally the totals for this column. Subtract the total for each group from the
total number of contacts to find the percentage
breakdown.

Age

Take the average of this field.

Job Title

Use a Pivot Table to see total numbers of each


category for this column. Use the top 2-3 for
your summary.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

17

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Average Sales Cycle


(Close Date - Time First
Seen)

Create a new column in your excel document


and format this column as a number field.
Subtract the number in the Time First Seen
field from the number in the Close Date field.

Research Period (First


Conversion Date - Time
First Seen)

Create a new column in your excel document


and format this column as a number field.
Subtract the number in the Time First Seen
field from the number in the First Conversion
Date field.

First Page Seen

Use a Pivot Table to see total numbers of each


category for this column. Use the top 2-3 for
your summary.

Original Source Type

Use a Pivot Table to see total numbers of each


category for this column. Use the top 2-3 for
your summary.

Number of Visits

Take the average of the numbers in this


column.

Number of Pages
Viewed

Take the average of the numbers in this


column.

Number of Emails
Received/Delivered

Take the average of the numbers in this


column.

Number of Emails
Clicked

Take the average of the numbers in this


column.

Number of Social
Media Clicks

Use a Pivot Table to take a count of how many


people have engaged with you in social media.
Subtract this number from the total number of
contacts to find the percentage breakdown.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

18

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Lead Score

Take the average of this column.

Persona

Use a Pivot Table to see total numbers of each


category for this column.

If you dont use HubSpot, use the current software, analytics, and/or
data youve collected over time to gather similar information to what
HubSpot provides. You may not receive the full picture, but hopefully
have enough data to analyze and extract conclusions.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

19

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Now What Does All That Data You Pulled Mean?


Once you have completed the step of pulling your data, you can now
begin the process of analyzing it. Here are some suggested pieces to
analyze from the data youve pulled:

Use these charts to help determine some helpful takeaways and insights about the data
you have collected with your forms.

Demographic Data:
Number of Employees

The company size that is most closely aligned


with your target customer.

Annual Revenue

The average revenue of companies most likely


to become your customers.

Industry

The most common industries that are finding


your site on the web.

Gender

The gender of the person most commonly researching your product/service offerings.

Age

The age of the person most commonly


researching your product/service offerings.

Job Title

The role of the person most commonly


researching your product/service.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

20

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Analytics/Behavioral Data:
Average Sales Cycle
(Close Date - Time First
Seen)

The average length of time it takes a new


customer to convert on your site.

Research Period (First


Conversion Date - Time
First Seen)

The average length of time it takes a new


prospect to become a lead.

First Page Seen

The pages that have been successful at


bringing leads into the sales cycle.

Original Source Type

The most effective traffic sources in driving


new customers to your site.

Number of Visits

The average number of visits a lead makes


before becoming a customer.

Number of Pages
Viewed

The average number of page views a lead


sees before becoming a customer.

Number of Emails
Received/Delivered

The average number of emails received that


helped nurture the customer.

Number of Emails
Clicked

The average engagement of leads with your


email campaigns.

Number of Social
Media Clicks

The number of times the lead/customer


engaged with your site via social media.

Demographic Data:
Lead Score

The average lead score that is indicative of a


prospective customer. This will help you
identify if the lead score values might be
using to register a lead as marketing
qualified are accurate.

Persona

What persona group most commonly leads to


customers.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

03

21

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Chapter

HOW TO USE YOUR


FINDINGS TO INFORM
YOUR MARKETING

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

22

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

How to Use Your Findings to Inform Your Marketing


There are a number of ways the findings from your customer audit can
be used to inform your marketing. Here are a couple of examples:

1. Determining Your Lead Score Values


If you have never used a Lead Scoring tool before then the customer
audit is critical to making sure that lead score values are based on
objective data rather than subjective assumptions. To get started,
make a list of the values above that are represented in your lead
scoring tool (if you are using the HubSpot lead scoring tool, all fields
should apply except for Average Sales Cycle and Research Period).
From there, prioritize your list from the most important characteristics
to the least and assign point values in descending order.

2. Informing Your Content Strategy


Use the Emails Delivered and Emails Clicked fields to determine
the number of emails with which most customers willingly engage.
Next, review the Average Sales Cycle value to determine the
lifespan in which the customer reviewed these emails. Compare
these numbers to your existing lead nurturing campaigns and overall
email marketing strategy. Are you sending the right number of
emails? If not, consider tweaking your campaigns accordingly.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

23

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Use the First Page Seen data to determine the field that is most
successful in driving visitors to your site. For most companies, this
will be the home page, make sure to review the next 2-3 pages on
the list!

1..Review the content of these interior pages, what do they


provide that might be resonating with the visitor? Do you have
any offers that speak to these topics? If not, consider building
them out and promoting them on these pages.

2.. Are the pages accessible from your homepage and other key
entry points (blog, social media, etc.)? If not, consider providing
more direct links to these pages throughout your site.

3. Determine Your Most Successful Traffic Sources


One of the simplest metrics identified in the Audit is the referring
traffic source. Review the most successful sources for customer
generation (Note: this may not be the same as the most successful
site for lead generation). Do most of your customers come from
organic search? Consider investing in your blogging team. Are most
of your customers coming from eferral traffic? Consider expanding
your PR team to help promote your content even further.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

24

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

4. Update Your SLA


If your Sales and Marketing teams are aligned, you may have set
up a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to determine the types of leads
Marketing must generate for the Sales team. Use the data provided
in the audit to determine if the parameters youve set for a marketing
qualified lead are accurate.

5. Structure Your Content to Appeal to Your Target


Industries
Review the data from your demographic fields (Industry, Annual
Revenue, Age, Gender and Job Title). Does your existing content
speak to this demographic? If not, consider adding some additional
blog posts or offers (ebooks, webinars, checklists) targeted to these
audiences.

6. Update Your Marketing Personas


Review the assumptions youve made about your target persona
groups. Does the demographic data you captured about your
customers align with your assumptions about lead qualification? Is
the Average Sales Cycle in line with your presumed buyers journey?
If not, consider tweaking your personas to include these new
findings.
Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

25

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

Conclusion.

nce you have completed your first audit, plan to make it a regular

occurrence so you can recalibrate your assumptions from time-to-time.


The audit can be performed as often as once per quarter and should be
performed at least once per year.
If you take away one thing from this ebook, its this: Your customer
data is an extremely useful tool in helping you create an effective
(and objective!) marketing strategy. Use these insights as a means
to understand how and why your customers found you. The more
you understand your existing customer base, the better you will be at
designing relevant content to find more people who look just like them.

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

26

HOW TO USE CUSTOMER DATA TO RECHARGE YOUR MARKETING

COLLECT THE DATA YOU


NEED WITH HUBSPOT.
Not a HubSpot customer but want the same data mentioned in this
guide? Talk to a HubSpot specialist to learn how you can easily put the
right software in place to get the right data to inform your marketing.
Click here to contact a HubSpot marketing specialist today.

TALK TO US
TODAY.
http://bitly.com/HS-Contact-Sales

Share This Ebook!

www.Hubspot.com

You might also like