PSI Exams approached Innovation Visual seeking help to enhance their Account-Based Marketing (ABM) reporting. Their organisation is heavily focused on ABM, with all marketing efforts centred almost exclusively around this strategy. Despite using HubSpot for many years, they felt their reporting lacked the necessary depth and insights to properly evaluate their database and inform decision-making.
Operating in a market with a limited pool of potential buyers, it was crucial for them to maintain a healthy and actionable database of contacts within their target accounts for different business verticals, using HubSpot CRM. Additionally, they needed a robust framework for assessing both account and contact engagement.
Moreover, they sought the capability to produce custom reports that would more accurately reflect engagement events associated with marketing efforts. In this context, an engagement event refers to any interaction or activity that a contact or company has with PSI Exams' marketing initiatives. These events can include relevant actions for marketing such as opening or clicking on an email, visiting a high-value webpage, submitting a form, attending a webinar or event, as well as interacting with PPC campaigns.
After gathering all the requirements and assessing existing reports, the Innovation Visual team determined that some of the technical challenges needed to meet PSI's expectations could not be addressed solely by relying on standard HubSpot data sources. Therefore, we proposed developing several custom elements to generate the necessary data, which included a combination of inclusion lists, workflows, calculated and scoring properties, and the creation of a custom object.
We started by creating a framework to operationalise engagement events. This framework, as shown in Figure 1, guided our approach to creating the corresponding data points via HubSpot properties necessary to visualise and action on these metrics.
Figure 1: Target Account Engagement Measurement Framework
Here are some examples of the properties we produced as a result:
Number of Active Email Recipients (Dropdown Select):
This metric indicates the number of contacts associated with a target account that have a reachable email address (not bounced or unsubscribed). As shown in Figure 2, the logic followed in our assessment framework assumes that every new contact in the database with a valid email address is considered an active email recipient until proven otherwise. Having a means to track this provides PSI with a clear view of actionable contacts for their ABM efforts and highlights areas requiring focus to maintain the flow of active contacts within each vertical.
Figure 2: Contacts Email Recipient Assessment Framework
Marketing Emails Open Rate (Calculation Property):
This property measures the proportion of email opens relative to the total number of emails sent.
Figure 3: Contact’s Email Open Rate Calculation
Marketing Emails Clicked Rate (Calculation Property):
This property measures the proportion of email clicks relative to the total number of emails sent.
Figure 4: Contact’s Email Clicked Rate Calculation
Session to Conversion Rate (Calculation Property):
This metric calculates the proportion of website conversions in comparison to the total number of sessions.
Figure 5: Contact’s Session to Conversion Rate Calculation
High Value Pages Visited (Multiple Checkbox, Single Line and Date Picker):
By using this properties bundle, PSI can easily identify which high-value pages were visited by contacts, helping to draw an accurate picture of relevant website interactions.
These properties are managed (updated) by a workflow triggered with inclusion lists (HubSpot active lists). Every time a contact is enrolled, the workflow executes a series of data management actions to make sure all relevant information about this activity type is captured.
Datapoints include a multiple-checkbox property that keeps the complete history of high-value pages visited by a contact. With a 'set property' workflow action, we can append a new value (checkmark) every time a contact visits one of the listed pages. In addition to the latter, a date picker and single line text properties store the latest high-value page visit activity. As a result, PSI has an overview of both the full journey and the latest activity to leverage as needed in order to deliver a context-rich experience to their prospects and determine what pages have the greatest impact on ABM performance.
Our thought process was that accounts would likely accumulate more than one trackable engagement event type of the same kind throughout their lifecycle (e.g., various contacts attending different events). Equally, these activities would probably occur within different periods (e.g., contact A attends an event in January, and contact B attends an event in July). Moreover, we needed to have all these engagements represented in a visual manner to help the marketing and sales teams get the full picture at a glance.
As a result of thorough consideration, the Innovation Visual team determined that the most effective approach to achieve this kind of reporting was to create a custom object. This custom object would allow us to label the event type and use the create date as a single reference in timeline reports.
Upon presenting our recommendation to PSI and receiving their approval, we proceeded to set up the custom object. This was followed by the development of a series of workflows, one for each engagement type, to create an engagement event record and enrich it with relevant details for maximum insight.
We defined the following engagement events to be tracked:
This approach ensured that all engagement activities were accurately captured and easily accessible, providing valuable insights for both marketing and sales efforts. The result from a reporting point of view is a visually appealing timeline graph that shows the engagement events in chronological order (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Timeline Graph Showing Engagement Events by Target Accounts’ Contacts
To automate this process, we developed a series of workflows to generate engagement event records. Each workflow enrols contacts and companies based on relevant criteria for each engagement event type and generates the corresponding record and corresponding associations.
Figure 7: Example HubSpot Workflow Logic to Manage ‘Engagement Event’ Custom Object Record Creation
Figure 8: Example HubSpot Workflow Action that Creates and Associates ‘Engagement Event’ Custom Object Record
Figure 9: Example HubSpot Record Association Cards for ‘Engagement Event’ Custom Object Records
To visualise the data, we utilised custom HubSpot reports integrated into an ABM Master Report Dashboard to track top-level metrics. Additionally, we leveraged custom report cards to provide deeper data insights at both the company and contact levels. It’s important to note that this work involved extensive data cleansing, requiring a thorough understanding of PSI’s database and key prospecting information. This process led to retroactive record updates and additional recommendations for ongoing data hygiene and progressive record enrichment, ensuring that the reports remain relevant over time.
Top Level Custom Reporting Example
Figure 10: Examples of HubSpot Reports Showing Top-Level ABM Metrics – Any Confidential Data Has Been Removed
Company Record Custom Report Cards Example
Figure 11: Example of HubSpot Custom Record Cards Embedded in Company Records Showing Company-Level ABM Metrics – Any Confidential Data Has Been Removed
Contact Record Custom Report Cards Example
Figure 12: Example of HubSpot Custom Record Cards Embedded in Contact Records Showing Contact-Level ABM Metrics – Any Confidential Data Has Been Removed
As a result of this implementation, PSI now benefits from not only more detailed reporting but also a customised HubSpot UI that makes relevant data more accessible for their team. These enhancements provide a better and more insightful user experience, significantly reducing the time needed to:
Furthermore, the custom elements developed through this implementation have sparked a range of new ideas to further enhance and expand PSI’s ABM programme through data-driven tactics which are now in the planning and implementation stages. Some examples of these initiatives include:
Working with Innovation Visual has been helpful for our digital marketing efforts. Their expertise in HubSpot implementation and support has been invaluable. They provided tailored solutions that significantly enhanced our marketing and sales processes. Innovation Visual stands out for their excellent communication and collaboration. Always responsive and approachable, they integrate with our internal teams, providing strategic guidance and fresh ideas. Their dedication and expertise have been crucial in achieving our marketing goals.
Filliben, R., Account-Based Marketing Manager at PSI Services
To learn more about how Innovation Visual can help your business enhance its ABM strategies and reporting capabilities, reach out to us today. Our team of experts is ready to assist you in achieving your marketing and sales goals through innovative and customised solutions.
