Buy in July Campaign
Could Better Segmentation Outperform Higher Email Volume?
Look, we all know annual promotions often follow a familiar formula: send more emails, create more urgency, and hope more people engage.
For Heath's annual Buy in July campaign, I wanted to test a different approach.
I inquired to the rest of my team: rather than increasing the volume of communication, would it be more beneficial to focus on improving its relevance?
That question shaped every decision that followed.
One quick note before we dive in: you'll notice this case study doesn't include internal campaign documents, HubSpot screenshots, or company assets. As much as I'd love to show you every workflow and dashboard, my former employer's legal team would probably have a few thoughts about that. Instead, think of this as a behind-the-scenes look at the strategy, decisions, and lessons that shaped the campaign.
The Situation
Buy in July is Heath's annual promotion for the RMLD-CS™, a remote methane leak detector used across utility, midstream, and environmental industries.
The promotion offered customers $600 off the RMLD-CS™ along with a free battery throughout the month of July.
While the promotion itself was established, the marketing strategy behind it needed to evolve. Like many promotional campaigns, there was a natural tendency to rely on broader email distribution and increased frequency to drive engagement.
Instead of assuming more communication would produce better results, I wanted to understand how customer intent could influence campaign performance.
The Challenge
One of the biggest challenges wasn't creating the promotion.
It was deciding who should receive it.
Sending every marketing email to every contact would have produced a larger audience, but it also risked lower engagement, weaker open rates, and sending promotional messages to people who simply weren't ready to buy.
At the same time, our HubSpot data wasn't perfect. Some customer activity—particularly around rentals and certain forms—was difficult to segment because it wasn't captured through native HubSpot forms. That meant we couldn't rely entirely on automation to identify buying intent.
The campaign needed to balance available data with thoughtful judgment.
My Thinking
Before building a workflow or writing a single email, I asked a different question.
Who actually needs this email?
Instead of viewing the contact database as one audience, I started thinking about it as a collection of smaller groups with different levels of interest and engagement.
Someone who had recently interacted with our website, opened previous emails, or downloaded product information wasn't in the same place as someone who hadn't engaged with us in months.
Treating those contacts the same didn't make sense.
That thinking led me toward a more intentional approach centered around segmentation, lead scoring, and behavioral engagement rather than email volume.
The Strategy
The campaign was built around customer intent rather than a traditional email blast.
Working within HubSpot, I developed segmentation strategies that narrowed the audience based on engagement and behavioral signals.
The email sequence itself was designed to guide customers through the promotion rather than simply announce it.
The campaign included:
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A teaser email introducing the upcoming promotion
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A launch email announcing the offer
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An educational email explaining why the RMLD-CS™ was valuable across multiple industries
I also proposed A/B testing different messaging approaches to better understand what resonated with customers, comparing a promotion-first approach against a product education-first approach.
Throughout the campaign, the messaging evolved through collaboration with the Marketing Director and Marketing Manager. Their feedback helped refine headlines, strengthen product positioning, clarify calls-to-action, and better communicate the value of the RMLD-CS™.
Execution
My role extended beyond writing email copy.
I was given the ownership to develop the overall campaign strategy, planned the customer journey, wrote marketing emails, created supporting social media content, coordinated promotional documentation for the sales team, and aligned messaging across multiple customer touch points.
Behind the scenes, I also worked with HubSpot workflows, audience segmentation, reporting, and performance analysis to ensure the campaign remained focused on customer behavior rather than assumptions.
Every asset supported the same objective: deliver the right message to the right audience at the right moment.
Challenges Along the Way
Like most campaigns, this one evolved as it progressed.
Audience segmentation required constant refinement as we evaluated the quality of available customer data.
Leadership feedback also shaped the campaign in meaningful ways. Headlines became stronger, messaging became more customer-focused, and calls-to-action became clearer through multiple rounds of collaboration.
As frustrated as I became with constant revisions, I needed to stop viewing them as obstacles.
Instead, I treated them as opportunities to improve the work.
Some of the strongest messaging in the final campaign came directly from those collaborative conversations.
Results
The campaign produced results that reinforced the value of a more intentional marketing approach.
Key outcomes included:
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40.39% open rate on the educational campaign email
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Strong engagement supported continued investment in behavior-based segmentation
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Zero spam complaints and hard bounces during the campaign
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Demonstrated the effectiveness of a more targeted distribution strategy
While those metrics were encouraging, the outcome I found most meaningful wasn't the open rate itself.
It was the evidence that a more focused audience could outperform a broader distribution strategy.
By prioritizing engagement over volume, the campaign reached customers who were more likely to interact with the content instead of simply receiving another promotional email.
What I Learned
This campaign reinforced something I continue to carry into every project.
Better marketing doesn't always mean doing more.
Sometimes it means understanding more.
The most effective campaigns begin long before the first email is sent. They begin by understanding the audience, questioning assumptions, and building a strategy that respects where customers are in their decision-making process.
That lesson has shaped the way I approach every campaign since.
Tools
HubSpot • Salesforce • Microsoft Office • Adobe Creative Suite • Canva
My Contributions
Marketing Strategy
Campaign Planning
Lifecycle Marketing
HubSpot Automation
Performance Analysis
Copywriting
Industry
Utility Infrastructure / Leak Detection
Company
Heath Consultants, Inc.
Buy in July was an integrated promotional campaign centered around audience segmentation, lifecycle marketing, and behavioral targeting rather than traditional high-volume email marketing. This case study explores how a customer-first strategy, thoughtful messaging, and collaboration across marketing and sales contributed to one of my most successful campaigns.