Latest / Marketing Automation with Fexingo: HubSpot, Marketo, and Automated Customer Journeys / Why Marketing Automation Ignores Customer Divorce Date
Transcript
- Lucas: So HubSpot and Marketo are great at catching birthdays, anniversaries, even pet adoption dates. But there's one life event that pretty much every major platform ignores: divorce. Luna: Yeah, I can see why. It's messy, sensitive, and the data isn't exactly easy to come by. But it's also a massive blind spot. Lucas: Right. Roughly one in three marriages in the US ends in divorce, and the average age is around forty — right when people have the highest disposable income and deepest brand loyalty. Luna: So you're saying that for a large chunk of your customer base, the automation is happily sending 'anniversary special' emails while they're splitting assets. Lucas: Exactly. I saw a real case — a national home goods retailer had a loyalty program that auto-triggered a 'Happy Anniversary' coupon. Someone who had recently separated got that email and called customer service furious. That's a churn risk you can avoid. Luna: And it's not just about offense. Divorce creates a huge shift in buying patterns — new address, new furniture, new routines. If you can catch it respectfully, you could actually help. Lucas: That's the flip side. But most companies are terrified of touching it because they don't want to seem intrusive. The key is opt-in and timing. Luna: How would you even get that data ethically? You can't exactly ask 'are you divorced?' on a signup form. Lucas: No, but you can infer it from behavioral signals — a change in shipping address, a shift from two-income to single-income purchase patterns, a sudden interest in single-serving products. Then you use a suppression rule, not a trigger. Luna: So you're blocking the anniversary email, not sending a 'we know you're divorced' offer. I like that. Lucas: Right. The wrong move is to capitalize. The right move is to stop being tone-deaf. Then, maybe months later, you can send a generic 'welcome to your new home' message if they've moved. Luna: That feels respectful. And it builds trust because the customer notices you're not spamming them with irrelevant stuff. Lucas: Exactly. Trust is the currency here. Look, one of the reasons we keep this show ad-free is because we want to talk about things like this without any product push. If you value that, we've got a buy me a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep this conversation independent. And we really appreciate those who chip in. Lucas: Anyway, back to the automation gap. Marketo actually has a custom object field for life events, but most admins never map anything for divorce. HubSpot has a property called 'Life Event' that's rarely used beyond marriage and birth. Luna: So it's partly a platform design issue — they just don't prompt you to think about it. Lucas: Right. And the typical response is 'we'll just send everything and let them unsubscribe.' But that's lazy. Divorce is a moment where a customer is re-evaluating every vendor relationship. Luna: And if you're the one who sends the insensitive email, you're out. If you're the one who goes quiet, you might survive. Lucas: There's also a data privacy angle. Marital status is considered sensitive in some regions under GDPR. But you don't need to store 'divorced' — you just need a suppression flag like 'skip_marital_triggers'. Luna: That's clever. You're not collecting the detail, you're just acting on a signal. Lucas: And you can let the customer self-identify. Some brands have a preference center where you can say 'I'm going through a major life change — update my preferences.' No questions asked. Luna: I've seen that at a few travel companies. They have a 'life event' dropdown with 'marriage, birth, relocation, bereavement' but never divorce. Lucas: Bereavement is interesting — that's the closest analog. But divorce is more common and more commercially relevant. The average person spends about ten thousand dollars on divorce-related expenses. Luna: That's a lot of new credit card swipes. New furniture, new apartment, new wardrobe — all opportunities for relevant offers, if done right. Lucas: But the timing has to be right. In the first few months, you should be in suppression mode. After six to twelve months, maybe a gentle re-engagement with a generic 'we've missed you' or 'here are some things for your new space.' Luna: What about the legal risk? Could a scorned customer sue for using their divorce data? Lucas: If you're using inferred data without explicit consent, potentially. That's why the suppression-flag approach is safer. You're not using the fact of divorce — you're simply not sending marriage-related messages. Luna: So the practical takeaway: audit your current trigger workflows for any marriage or anniversary automations. Add a suppression list based on address changes or opt-in preference updates. Lucas: Exactly. And if you're a Marketo user, create a custom object for 'life event changes' with a date field and a type field. Don't put it in a visible profile — keep it in the background. Luna: HubSpot users could use a hidden contact property with a workflow that checks for address change and then suppresses the anniversary email for ninety days. Lucas: Right. And test it with a small segment first. You don't want to accidentally suppress all married people — just the ones whose behavior suggests a change. Luna: One last thought — do you think this matters more for B2C or B2B? Divorce can affect business owners too. Lucas: It matters in both. B2B often sends anniversary emails for account opening dates. If the business owner goes through a divorce, the company may restructure. It's the same principle: don't send a 'happy anniversary' to a firm that just split. Luna: Good point. So the gap is universal. And the fix is mostly about awareness — most marketers just never think about it. Lucas: That's the episode in a nutshell. Be the marketer who thinks about it. Your customers will notice — even if they never say a word.