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Set Up Conditional CTAs in Marketing Emails

You're sending one CTA to everyone - "Book a Demo" to people who already booked one, "Start Free Trial" to paying customers, "Download Guide" to people who downloaded it last week. It's awkward at best, annoying at worst. Different people need different actions, but creating 15 versions of the same email is madness.

How This Solves It

Build smart CTAs that automatically change based on who's reading the email. Show "Book a Demo" to prospects, "View New Features" to customers, "Upgrade Now" to free users, and "Re-engage" to churned accounts. Same email, right action for each person. No manual segmentation needed.

Instead of sending one generic CTA to everyone, you will:

  • Store customer status in clean contact properties

  • Use workflows to update those properties

  • Insert one CTA module in your email

  • Make it smart using property-based rules

Result:
One email. Multiple CTAs. Automatically personalized per contact.

Requirements

Subscription

  • Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise

Data Requirements

You must have:

  • Clean lifecycle stages

  • Customer status (or product tier)

  • A property indicating whether a demo is booked (if relevant)

Smart CTAs only work off stored properties or list membership. They cannot directly reference raw behavior like “visited pricing 3 times” unless that data is written to a property.

Step 1: Create the Properties (If Needed)

Go to:

Settings → Properties → Contact properties

Create any missing properties such as:

Example Properties

Property Name Type Example Values
Customer Status Dropdown Prospect, Customer, Churned
Product Tier Dropdown Free, Basic, Pro, Enterprise
Demo Booked Checkbox Yes / No
Last Login Date Date (Used for inactivity logic)

Keep property names simple and standardized.

Step 2: Use Workflows to Maintain the Data

Go to:

Automation → Workflows → Create contact-based workflow

You must update properties automatically based on behavior.

Example 1: Demo Booked Property

Trigger:

  • Meeting booked

  • Deal stage = Demo Scheduled

Action:

  • Set property: Demo Booked = Yes

Example 2: Inactive Customer Tag

Trigger:

  • Last login date is more than 60 days ago

Action:

  • Set property: Customer Status = Inactive

Architecture Pattern

 
Behavior → Workflow → Update Property → Smart CTA Rule

Without this property layer, smart CTAs will not work correctly.

Step 3: Create the CTA Variations

Go to:

Marketing → Lead Capture → CTAs

Create each CTA separately.

Example CTA Assets

  • Book a Demo

  • View Pricing

  • Upgrade to Pro

  • Explore New Features

  • Re-Engage

For each CTA:

  • Set correct URL

  • Keep styling consistent

  • Add tracking parameters if needed

  • Use personalization tokens carefully (e.g. Hi,)

Do not create logic inside the CTA tool. Logic happens in the email module.

Step 4: Insert the CTA Into the Email

Open your marketing email.

  • Drag in a CTA module

  • Select a default CTA (this is your fallback)

  • Click Make smart

Step 5: Build the Smart Rules (Correct Order Matters)

Rules evaluate top to bottom.

Place specific conditions above broad ones.

Example Rule Structure

  1. IF Customer Status = Inactive → Show “Re-Engage”

  2. IF Customer Status = Customer AND Product Tier = Free → Show “Upgrade to Pro”

  3. IF Demo Booked = Yes → Show “Prepare for Your Demo”

  4. IF Lifecycle Stage = Lead → Show “Book a Demo”

  5. Default → Show “Learn More”

If you place “Customer” before “Inactive Customer,” the inactive rule will never trigger.

Step 6: Build Time-Based CTA Swaps (Optional Advanced Layer)

You can drive tenure-based CTAs using calculated properties or workflows.

Example

If Customer Since is less than 30 days:

  • Show “Complete Setup”

If Customer Since more than 6 months:

  • Show “Explore Advanced Features”

This requires:

  • A “Customer Since” date property

  • Workflow enrollment rules using date calculations

Step 7: Testing Process (Mandatory)

Before sending:

  1. Click Preview

  2. Use “Preview as specific contact”

  3. Test contacts representing each segment

  4. Send test emails to internal accounts

Create structured test records:

Confirm each receives the correct CTA.

Step 8: Fallback Strategy

Your default CTA must work for anyone.

Best practice:

  • Use a low-friction action (Learn More, Explore Features)

  • Avoid hard sell as default

If 40% of contacts have missing lifecycle stage, they will all see the default.

Data hygiene directly impacts personalization quality.

Reporting & Optimization

After sending:

Go to:

Marketing → Lead Capture → CTAs

Review:

  • Views

  • Clicks

  • CTR by CTA asset

For deeper insight:

  • Build a custom report

  • Filter CTA clicks by lifecycle stage or product tier

Track downstream conversion (meetings booked, upgrades), not just clicks.

What Not To Do

  • Do not rely on negative conditions like “Lifecycle Stage is NOT Customer”

  • Do not create 10+ smart variations in one email

  • Do not mix drastically different button styling

  • Do not assume behavioral triggers work without property updates

  • Do not skip fallback logic

Recommended Starter Framework (Simple & Effective)

Start with only 3 variations:

  1. Leads → Book a Demo

  2. Free Users → Upgrade to Paid

  3. Customers → View New Features

  4. Default → Learn More

Launch.
Measure.
Refine.

Why This Works

Standard emails treat everyone the same.

Smart CTA emails align the ask with lifecycle stage:

  • Leads move forward

  • Customers expand

  • Inactive users re-engage

This improves conversion rates without increasing campaign volume.

Becky Brown bio

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