Unlock Deeper Insights: Custom HubSpot Reports for Segmented Email Engagement

Ever found yourself wanting to slice and dice your email engagement data in HubSpot with a level of precision that makes standard reports blush? You’re not alone! It’s a common challenge for marketers, RevOps pros, and especially those managing an ecommerce online store builder platform, where every segment and every email interaction matters.

Recently, a fascinating discussion popped up in the HubSpot Community that really hit home for us here at ESHOPMAN. The original poster was looking for a way to create a very specific report: they wanted to know what percentage of contacts, identified by a particular contact property value, engaged (opened or clicked) with emails that also had a specific email property value. Talk about granular! They laid out examples like:

• X1% of contacts (with contact property A=1) clicked or opened Email 1 (with email property=B)
• Y1% of contacts (with contact property A=1) clicked or opened Email 2 (with email property=B)

This isn't just a hypothetical scenario; it's a real-world need for anyone trying to truly understand their audience and optimize their outreach. When a Community Moderator jumped in to tag some experts, it highlighted that this isn't a straightforward, 'one-click' report in HubSpot, but it's absolutely achievable with the right approach.

Why This Level of Reporting Matters for Your Store

For businesses running an online store, understanding exactly which segments are responding to which types of emails is gold. Imagine you have a contact property like 'Customer Segment' (e.g., 'First-time Buyer', 'Loyalty Program Member', 'Abandoned Cart'). And you have an email property like 'Campaign Type' (e.g., 'Welcome Series', 'Promotional Offer', 'Educational Content').

Being able to report that '35% of Loyalty Program Members opened Promotional Offer emails, but only 10% of First-time Buyers did' provides immediate, actionable insights. You can then tailor your content, adjust your send times, or even rethink your offer strategy for each segment. This kind of deep dive helps you move beyond vanity metrics and truly optimize your marketing ROI, ensuring your efforts as an ecommerce online store builder are as effective as possible.

The HubSpot Way: Leveraging Custom Report Builder for Deep Insights

While HubSpot’s standard email performance reports offer a fantastic overview, the original poster's request goes a step further, requiring the linking of multiple data points and advanced filtering. This is where HubSpot's Custom Report Builder becomes your best friend.

Step-by-Step Approach to Building Your Custom Report:

1. Start a New Custom Report: Navigate to Reports > Reports > Create report. Choose 'Custom Report Builder'.

2. Select Your Data Sources: This is crucial. You'll need to combine data from different objects to get the full picture.

   • Start with Contacts as your primary data source.
   • Add Email Sends as a secondary data source, joining it to Contacts.
   • Then, add Email Activities (Opens, Clicks, etc.) as another data source, joining it to Email Sends. This links specific contact actions to specific emails.

3. Define Your Filters: This is where you apply the specific criteria requested by the original poster.

   • Contact Property Filter: In the 'Contacts' section, add a filter for the specific contact property (e.g., 'Contact Property A is equal to 1'). This narrows down your audience.
   • Email Property Filter: In the 'Email Sends' section, add a filter for the specific email property (e.g., 'Email Property is equal to B'). This narrows down the emails you're analyzing.
   • Engagement Filter: In the 'Email Activities' section, add filters for 'Email Activity Type' (e.g., 'is any of Opened Email, Clicked Email'). This identifies engaged contacts.

4. Choose Your Metrics & Dimensions:

   • Total Contacts in Segment: Create a metric for 'Count of Contacts' based on your contact property filter. This gives you the denominator for your percentage.
   • Engaged Contacts in Segment: Create another metric for 'Count of Contacts' but *only* for those linked to the 'Opened Email' or 'Clicked Email' activities, within the specified email property and contact property segments. This gives you the numerator.
   • You might want to group by 'Email Name' or 'Email Subject' from the Email Sends object to see results for individual emails, as requested.

5. Calculate the Percentage: Directly calculating a percentage within a single custom report can sometimes be tricky depending on the complexity and HubSpot's formula capabilities at the time. A common workaround is to:

   • Create two separate reports: one for 'Total Contacts in Segment X who received Email Y', and another for 'Engaged Contacts in Segment X with Email Y'.
   • Export the data and calculate the percentage externally in a spreadsheet.
   • Alternatively, explore HubSpot's custom formula options within the report builder. If you have a 'Count of Engaged Contacts' and 'Count of Total Contacts' as separate metrics, you can often divide them within the report to get your percentage, but careful setup is key.

Actionable Takeaways from Your Report

Once you have this data, don't just admire it! Use it to:

• Refine your segmentation: Are certain contact properties consistently underperforming or overperforming?
• Optimize email content: What resonates with specific groups?
• Personalize campaigns: Tailor follow-ups based on engagement patterns.
• Inform product strategy: If certain product-related emails perform well with specific segments, it might indicate demand.

ESHOPMAN Team Comment

This community question perfectly illustrates a common pain point for e-commerce businesses using HubSpot. While HubSpot offers robust reporting, achieving such hyper-specific, cross-object percentage analysis isn't always intuitive. We believe the Custom Report Builder is indispensable here, and while it requires a bit of upfront effort to link objects correctly, the resulting insights are invaluable for optimizing an online store's marketing funnel. It's a testament to HubSpot's flexibility, even if it demands a 'power user' approach for advanced use cases like this.

So, next time you're drilling down into your email performance and find yourself hitting a wall with standard reports, remember the power of the Custom Report Builder. It's the key to unlocking those deeper, more segmented insights that can truly transform your marketing strategy and drive growth for your online store.