How This Solves It
Use smart content and personalization tokens to automatically swap out email sections based on lifecycle stage. One email template, multiple versions that adapt to where each person is in their journey. Subscribers get educational content, MQLs get solution-focused messaging, customers get feature updates and upsells. All automated.
What You'll Need
Hub: Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise (for smart content in emails)
Can work with less: Marketing Hub Starter lets you use basic personalization tokens and send to segmented lists, but you'll need separate email templates instead of dynamic smart content.
Other bits:
- Lifecycle stages properly configured
- Email templates or campaigns ready to personalize
- Clear understanding of what each stage needs to hear
How to Set It Up
Step 1: Map your lifecycle stages to messaging
Before touching HubSpot, sort out what each stage needs. Here's a typical B2B SaaS example:
- Subscriber: Educational content, industry insights, build trust
- Lead: Problem-focused content, case studies, social proof
- MQL: Solution details, feature benefits, comparison content
- SQL: Pricing, ROI calculators, demo invitations
- Opportunity: Objection handling, customer stories, urgency
- Customer: Onboarding tips, advanced features, upsell opportunities
- Evangelist: Community involvement, referral programs, beta access
Write down 2-3 key messages for each stage. This becomes your content playbook.
Step 2: Set up basic personalization tokens
Start simple. In any email, click where you want personalization and hit the "Personalize" button.
Create custom greetings:
- Subscriber: "Welcome! Let's get you started..."
- Lead: "Hi Hi,, based on what you've been reading..."
- Customer: "Hey Hi,, here's what's new..."
Use the lifecycle stage token directly:
But that just outputs "Lead" or "Customer" which looks rubbish in an email. Better to use conditional formatting (covered next).
Step 3: Add smart content sections
This is where it gets powerful. Create or edit an email template.
In the email editor, highlight a section (headline, CTA, entire paragraph) and click "Make smart" from the toolbar.
Choose "Lifecycle stage" as your smart rule.
Now create different versions:
- Default version: Generic content for anyone
- Subscriber version: "5 Tips to Master [Topic]"
- Lead version: "How Top Companies Solve [Problem]"
- MQL version: "See How [Solution] Can Help You"
- Customer version: "New Features You Haven't Tried Yet"
The email automatically shows the right version to each person. One email, multiple messages.
Step 4: Build stage-specific CTAs
Your call-to-action shouldn't be the same for everyone.
Create a CTA button or link and make it smart content:
- Subscriber: "Download Free Guide" → links to educational resource
- Lead: "See Case Studies" → links to social proof
- MQL: "Book a Demo" → links to meeting scheduler
- SQL: "View Pricing" → links to pricing page
- Customer: "Upgrade Your Plan" → links to account settings
Same email, different actions based on where they are.
Step 5: Use smart images and visuals
Swap out screenshots, diagrams, or product shots based on lifecycle stage.
Make an image module smart content:
- Early stage: Show the problem/pain point visually
- Mid-stage: Show your solution in action
- Late stage: Show results/ROI graphs
- Customer: Show advanced features or community
Visuals matter way more than copy sometimes. A subscriber doesn't need to see your enterprise dashboard; they need a simple diagram showing the concept.
Step 6: Create smart subject lines (workaround)
Subject lines can't be smart content directly, but here's the trick:
Create different email variants in a workflow based on lifecycle stage:
Automation > Workflows > Contact-based Enrollment trigger: List membership or other criteria
Add if/then branches:
- If Lifecycle Stage is Subscriber → Send Email A (subject: educational angle)
- If Lifecycle Stage is Lead → Send Email B (subject: problem-focused)
- If Lifecycle Stage is MQL → Send Email C (subject: solution-focused)
The email body can be identical with smart content, but each branch sends a different subject line that matches the stage.
Step 7: Set up progressive nurture sequences
Build workflows that adapt as people move through stages.
Create a workflow: Enrollment: Contact enters list Goal: Lifecycle stage is Customer
Add emails with smart content throughout. If someone moves from Lead to MQL mid-sequence, the next email automatically adjusts its content. They don't get outdated messaging.
Use re-enrollment triggers based on lifecycle stage changes so the sequence evolves with them.
Step 8: Build a testing framework
Create a simple spreadsheet tracking:
- Email name
- Which stages see which content
- Performance by stage (open rate, click rate, reply rate)
Report on "Email sends by lifecycle stage" to see if certain stages engage better. If MQLs never click but Leads do, your MQL messaging might be off.
Things Worth Knowing
Default content matters - Always set default smart content for contacts without a lifecycle stage or new stages you add later. Otherwise they get blank sections.
Don't overcomplicate - Start with 3 stage variations (early, middle, late) before creating 8 different versions. You can always add more once you see what works.
Test across stages - Send test emails to yourself with different lifecycle stages assigned. Preview doesn't always show exactly how smart content renders.
Mobile rendering - Smart content can sometimes break mobile layouts if versions have very different lengths. Keep versions roughly similar in size.
Combine with other smart rules - You can layer lifecycle stage with country, industry, or company size. But more than 2-3 rules gets messy fast. Keep it simple.
Lifecycle stage hygiene - This only works if stages are accurate. If half your customers are still marked as "Lead", your personalization is pointless. Run regular data cleanup.
Timing matters - Send a customer email about "getting started" when they've been a customer for 2 years and you look daft. Combine lifecycle stage with "Customer since" date for better targeting.
Use snippets for consistency - Create reusable content snippets for each lifecycle stage in your content library. Drag them into emails so messaging stays consistent across campaigns.
Segment your lists first - Before sending, review your list. If you're sending to a list that's 95% subscribers and 5% customers, the smart content for customers barely matters. Send separate campaigns to heavily skewed segments.
Transition messaging - When someone moves stages, acknowledge it. "We noticed you've been exploring [feature]" for Lead → MQL. "Welcome aboard!" for Opportunity → Customer. Shows you're paying attention.
A/B test by stage - Don't just A/B test overall. Test subject line A vs B specifically for MQLs, separately from testing for Subscribers. Each stage might respond differently.
Watch for stage hopping - Some people skip stages (Subscriber straight to SQL). Make sure your smart content doesn't assume linear progression. An SQL should get SQL content even if they were never marked as Lead or MQL.
Reverse journey content - Sometimes people move backwards (Customer churns to Lead). Have content ready for this. A re-engagement email for lapsed customers is different from a first-touch lead email.
Sales and marketing alignment - If sales manually changes lifecycle stages, make sure they know it affects email content. A rep shouldn't mark someone as Opportunity "just because" if they're still early stage.
Expiration dates - Some offers or content have deadlines. Use smart content to show different CTAs based on how long ago they entered a stage. New MQL (0-7 days) might see "Limited time demo offer", older MQL (30+ days) sees standard CTA.
Scoring integration - Combine lifecycle stage with lead score. A high-score MQL gets different content than a low-score MQL, even in the same stage.
The beauty of this approach is it scales. You spend time once setting up smart content, then every email you send is automatically personalized. No more "oops, we sent customer content to prospects" mistakes. No more manually segmenting lists every time. Just set it and forget it.
One warning though: personalization for the sake of it is pointless. If your content doesn't actually change based on what that stage needs, don't bother. Generic content that's genuinely useful beats badly personalized content every time.
