“How can I better reach different audiences visiting my HubSpot website and serve the applicable content?”
If you’ve ever wondered this, there is a solution: Smart content.
Keep reading for a look at what that is and how you can apply it to your site.
First Off, What is Smart Content?
According to HubSpot, smart content (sometimes known as dynamic content) refers to any aspect of your website that changes based on the interests or behaviors of your visitors. For example, if you knew someone from Italy was visiting your site, you could tweak a module to show content relevant to their culture. You can also create a custom experience for every person based on:
- Country (as mentioned)
- Language
- Device type
- Referral source
- Lifecycle stage
- Contact list membership
- Ad source
- Query parameter (content based on query parameters in a visitor’s page URL)
You can create smart content rules in the blog editor, page editor, design manager, and global modules. You’ll typically find it by opening individual modules or pieces wherever you're editing, hovering over them or opening a dropdown, and choosing the smart rule type. For more detailed instructions, you can visit HubSpot’s tutorial.
Where Can You Use It?
You can use smart content and smart rules across a variety of places on your site. Some of the most popular ones we recommend include:
Forms: Creating smart forms can help segment your audiences. You can add and remove form fields to qualify people by asking more targeted questions. By doing this, you can create awareness, consideration, and decision forms. You can also ensure your form matches up with the copy from an ad, if that’s how a visitor reached your site. The available smart rules mean you’ll never have to settle for a “one-size fits all” form ever again.
CTAs: People visiting your website are going to be in different stages of the buyers’ journey. A person visiting for the first time probably doesn’t need to see a CTA that says, “get a personalized demo!” With smart content, you can create different CTAs based on your prescribed rules. That way, your CTA will better reflect what your user is looking for, helping to drive conversion. Additionally, you can use smart CTAs on external content!
Blogs: As mentioned, there are a ton of different people looking at your site at any given time. Some will be familiar with you, and others will not. You can add smart content to any module on a blog post or page, except the blog content module, to craft a personalized experience. For instance, you can change a testimonial on a blog to be more relevant to a person or make your modules more suitable for a mobile device. If you have multiple smart rules on anything (not just your blog), your visitor will see the content set for the rule that appears first on your list. So, think strategically if you’re using more than one rule!
Personalized Copy: You can use smart or dynamic content to change the copy in your entire website to reflect the person visiting. For example, you can write a version of your homepage for people visiting who speak different languages or have a preferred language other than English. You could also incorporate a person’s name into your content or have entire chunks of copy changed to reflect the referral source someone came from. You can even change it up based on different services you provide - like our site!
Essential Considerations Before Using Smart Content
Smart content sounds superb right about now. The fact is: It is – if you use it correctly. Before building ten different versions of your homepage or create 15 forms, consider these various items:
- Your audience. Who is seeing what?
- The location. Where on your site do your users see the different content?
- The default content. Every piece of smart content needs a default one, or the content people see who don’t fit any of your rules.
- The value. How is the smart content improving the experience?
- Metrics. You have to measure it, iterate, and optimize to get the most out of smart content.
Get Started
Are you ready to bring a unique experience to everyone who visits your site? Then start using smart content. If you need any help with development, design, or copy, reach out to our team. We’d be happy to assist.
