Mastering HubSpot Content Hub with Smart Rules

As content personalization becomes more essential for successful marketing strategies, HubSpot Content Hub empowers businesses to create dynamic content that resonates with specific audience segments. Through Smart Rules, HubSpot allows marketers to tailor content to meet the varying needs and preferences of their users—optimizing engagement and boosting conversions. 

In this guide, we’ll explore how you can master the Smart Rules feature in HubSpot Content Hub to enhance your content creation efforts, ensure brand consistency, and drive better results for your business.

What Are Smart Rules in HubSpot Content Hub?

Smart Rules enable you to create alternative versions of your content that are displayed to different audiences based on certain criteria. Whether based on location, device type, or browsing behavior, Smart Rules can help you customize content in a way that’s relevant to each viewer. This powerful feature is available in the Professional and Enterprise tiers of HubSpot Content Hub, allowing businesses to improve user experience and, ultimately, conversion rates.

Smart Rules can be applied across various content types, such as website pages, landing pages, and emails. By defining specific audience categories like contact list membership, referral source, or preferred language, you can ensure the right message reaches the right people at the right time.

Why Smart Rules Matter

When it comes to driving conversions, personalization is key. Research has shown that personalized content tends to outperform generic content by engaging users on a deeper level. For example, businesses that leverage personalized content strategies through HubSpot Content Hub have seen a 400 percent increase in monthly leads. By utilizing Smart Rules, you can customize everything from the messaging to the design of your content to align with your target audience’s preferences.

Take, for example, a landing page aimed at a healthcare audience that showcases pertinent medical content. That same page can switch to show construction-related information for users interested in that field. With this adaptability, you can foster greater engagement and keep visitors on your site longer, thereby increasing conversion opportunities.

How Smart Rules Work

Smart Rules work by automatically adjusting various elements of your content—such as text, images, and calls to action (CTAs)—based on pre-set rules that you define within HubSpot. These rules are tied to audience characteristics such as location, device, or even past interactions with your website.

Need assistance in defining Smart Rules for your Content Hub? Contact us today to get personalized support!

Types of Smart Rules

Depending on factors such as a visitor’s location, device, or how they arrived at your page, Smart Rules allow you to adjust the experience to meet their specific needs, offering flexible options for personalizing content. Here are some of the most commonly used Smart Rules:

1. Ad source: Adjust content based on UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters from paid ads or referral URLs. UTM parameters are tags added to URLs that track the source, medium, and campaign of your marketing efforts.
2. Country and language: Tailor content based on a visitor’s geographical location or their browser’s preferred language setting.
3. Device type: Automatically adjust the layout or content for visitors on mobile, tablet, or desktop devices.
4. Contact list membership: Personalize content for specific segments in your customer relationship management (CRM) system, such as leads, customers, or repeat buyers.
5. Lifecycle stage: Show tailored content depending on where a visitor is in the buyer’s journey.

Customize Your Website with Smart Rules

Smart Rules are especially useful for customizing website pages and landing pages built on HubSpot Content Management System (CMS) or HubSpot Content Hub CMS. For instance, if you’re running a marketing campaign aimed at multiple industries, you can create just one landing page but use Smart Rules to adjust the content dynamically for each visitor. This feature ensures that your messaging is more relevant, personalized, and effective, allowing you to cater to different audience segments without creating multiple pages.

To implement Smart Rules on your website pages, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Website Pages or Landing Pages within your HubSpot account.
2. Edit the content module where you want to apply Smart Rules.
3. Click Add in the Smart Rules section and define the criteria (e.g., device type, country, or referral source).

Smart Rules allow you to fully change CTAs, headlines, and images so the content feels relevant and targeted. For instance, if someone visits your page from a mobile device, you can display a mobile-optimized version of the content.

Improving Conversions with Smart Content in Emails

You can also extend the use of Smart Rules to your email marketing campaigns. By applying Smart Rules, you can tailor email subject lines and content blocks to different audience segments, creating a more personalized experience. This powerful feature enhances open and click-through rates by making your emails feel more relevant and engaging to each recipient.

To add Smart Rules to emails:

1. Go to Marketing > Marketing Email and either create or edit an email.
2. Click Add smart rule in the module you want to personalize, then select the relevant audience criteria, such as contact list membership or lifecycle stage.

This feature is especially useful for email campaigns, in which different parts of your audience may be at various stages in their customer journey. Personalized emails can make all the difference, turning potential missed opportunities into successful conversions.

Enhancing Brand Consistency with AI and Smart Rules

Another standout feature in HubSpot’s Content Hub is its AI-powered brand voice tools. When combined with Smart Rules, these tools allow you to deliver highly personalized content that aligns with your brand’s messaging, ensuring consistency across all platforms.

Setting Up Brand Voice in HubSpot

To set up your brand voice, you can leverage HubSpot’s AI tools to align your content with your brand’s unique tone and style. This tool helps maintain consistency across various channels, such as social media, emails, blog posts, and web pages.

To set up your brand voice in HubSpot:

1. Go to Account Defaults under the Settings tab in HubSpot.
2. Click on the Branding tab and navigate to Brand voice.
3. Provide a minimum 500-word writing sample that reflects your brand’s tone.
4. Customize the brand personality and tone to suit your preferences.

Once the brand voice is set, it can be applied across multiple channels and content types, ensuring that no matter how personalized your content is, it remains true to your overall brand identity.

Managing SEO While Using Smart Content

One concern when using Smart Rules is how it impacts your SEO efforts. Smart content is only visible to your website visitors, not search engines, so Google will index the default version of your page rather than personalized ones. Although this might seem like a limitation, it offers a chance to concentrate your SEO strategy on broad content—leaving Smart Rules to handle personalized user interactions.

To optimize your SEO strategy, start by building a strong foundation of SEO-friendly default content that appeals to a wide audience. Then, layer Smart Rules on top to elevate the experience for returning visitors, segmented audiences, and various industries.

Elevate Your Marketing with HubSpot Content Hub

HubSpot Content Hub transcends traditional CMS capabilities, empowering businesses to create personalized, high-converting content. By leveraging Smart Rules alongside AI-powered brand voice settings, you can tailor your messaging to meet your audience's unique needs while ensuring consistent brand communication.

Whether you aim to boost engagement or drive conversions, HubSpot Content Hub equips businesses of all sizes with the tools to optimize marketing efforts and forge meaningful connections with audiences.

Learn more about its advantages in our Q&A, where we share the various benefits of HubSpot Content Hub.