Latest / Marketing Automation with Fexingo: HubSpot, Marketo, and Automated Customer Journeys / When Marketing Automation Ignores Your Move Abroad
Transcript
- Lucas: So Luna, quick question. When did you last move? Like, actually change your address, your city, your whole life grid? Luna: Oh, that was about four years ago when I went from Austin to Seattle. And honestly, my inbox took about six months to catch up. Lucas: Six months. That's generous. I know people who moved countries and still get 'local' offers from their old neighborhood years later. Luna: Right? I got a 'Come to our Austin store opening!' email three weeks after I was in Seattle. I was like, did I move back and no one told me? Lucas: That's the exact scenario we're digging into today. Marketing automation is supposed to make things personal, but it has this massive blind spot for one of the biggest life events a person can have: a move. Luna: And it's not just annoying. It's a real business problem. If a brand keeps pinging you with stuff that's now irrelevant, you start to tune them out completely. Lucas: Exactly. And here's the thing — the data to fix this is usually sitting right there in your CRM. But most automation logic is built around static lifecycle stages, not dynamic life events. So your stage says 'customer,' but it doesn't know you're now in a different time zone. Luna: So what's the fix? Is it just about better data hygiene, or is there something structural going on? Lucas: I think it's structural. Let's take a typical HubSpot or Marketo setup. You have lifecycle stages like subscriber, lead, marketing qualified lead, customer. Those are great for sales pipeline, but they don't capture life changes. A move is a moment that should trigger a whole cascade of actions. Luna: What kind of cascade? Give me a concrete example. Lucas: Okay, say you're a retailer with stores in multiple cities. Someone moves from Chicago to Berlin. Your automation should fire a 'change of address' event. First, suppress any geo-targeted campaigns for Chicago. Second, update their lead score — maybe they're more likely to buy from a new store in Berlin, so that's a positive signal. Third, switch their language preference if needed. Luna: And you'd also want to trigger a re-engagement flow for the new location, right? Like, 'Welcome to Berlin, here's our store near you.' Lucas: Exactly. That turns a potentially annoying moment into a delightful one. But most systems don't have a 'move' event at all. They just have a field for address, and nobody updates it until the customer does it themselves — and even then, it doesn't trigger anything. Luna: So what's the first step for a marketer who wants to fix this? Where do they even start? Lucas: Look at your data model. Do you have a single source of truth for a customer's location? And is that field connected to any workflow automation? If not, that's your starting point. Luna: And what about the practical side? How do you even know someone moved? I know some brands use email engagement as a proxy, but that's not reliable. Lucas: You can ask them directly. A simple 'Did you move?' email after a period of low engagement can work. But the best data comes from integrations — like if you have a billing platform that captures address changes, or an app where users update their profile. The key is to make that 'move' event a trigger, not just a data point. Luna: I love that. And it's not just about email. It affects everything from paid social geofencing to push notifications. Lucas: Absolutely. If you're running geo-fenced ads and someone moved, you're burning budget showing them ads for a store they can't visit. That's a direct ROI hit. Luna: So this is a case where a little bit of automation actually saves money and improves customer experience at the same time. Lucas: And it's not just moves. Think about other life events we've covered in past episodes — new job, new baby, retirement. The same logic applies. But the move is interesting because it's so binary: your location either changed or it didn't, and it's easy to verify. Luna: Right. And if you can nail this one, you build trust that carries over to everything else. Like, 'Hey, this brand actually knows me.' Lucas: That's the gold standard. And to get there, you need to think beyond the traditional lifecycle. You need event-based marketing, where life changes are first-class citizens in your automation. Luna: So what's the hardest part? I imagine it's not the technology, it's the mindset. Lucas: Exactly. It's a mindset shift. Most marketers are trained to think in campaigns, not in customer moments. But when you start mapping out the moments that matter — like a move — you realize you can automate a lot of the personalization that used to be manual. Luna: And it also means you have to be willing to let go of some campaigns. If someone moves from Chicago to Berlin, that Chicago campaign is dead to them. You have to suppress it, even if it was performing well. Lucas: Right, and that's where data quality comes in. You need to make sure your suppression lists are updated in real time. Otherwise, you're just adding to the noise. Luna: One thing I'm curious about — how do you handle the transition period? Like, someone moves but hasn't fully settled. Do you pause all communication for a week or two? Lucas: That's a smart question. A lot of brands do a 'moving window' — they suppress non-essential emails for a couple of weeks while the person settles in. Then they ease back with a 'Welcome to your new city' message. It shows you're thinking about their context, not just your campaign calendar. Luna: That feels very human. And I think that's the whole point, isn't it? Automation should make things feel more human, not less. Lucas: It's funny you say that, because we talk about automation a lot on this show, and a listener might think 'oh, it's a robot sending me stuff.' But the best automation is the kind that anticipates what a human would actually appreciate. Luna: And that's actually why we love doing this show. We get to geek out on the mechanics, but at the end of the day, it's about making the customer feel seen. Lucas: And if these marketing conversations have sparked an idea you've actually used in your own work, that's a huge win for us. If you've found value in the show, and you want to keep it ad-free and rolling, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to keep the lights on, and we genuinely appreciate anyone who does. Luna: Yeah, it really helps us keep doing this. And we're not just saying that — every bit counts. Lucas: So back to the move. Let's talk about how you actually implement this in a platform like Marketo or HubSpot. What's the first workflow you'd build? Luna: I'd start with a 'move detected' trigger. Maybe it's a form update, maybe it's an import from a data provider. But you'd want to branch out from there. Lucas: Good. So you'd have a workflow that says: if old city equals X and new city equals Y, then update lead score, suppress X campaigns, and enroll in a 'new city welcome' program. That's three actions right there. Luna: And you'd also want to update any CRM fields that track location, and probably log the move date so you can reference it later. Lucas: Exactly. And the beauty is, once you have that workflow, it's reusable. You can apply it to any customer who moves, regardless of where they're going. It's a template. Luna: So the ROI is pretty clear. You save ad spend, you improve deliverability, and you increase engagement. It's a win win win. Lucas: And yet, most brands still don't do it. I think it's because it requires a bit of upfront thinking about what life events matter to your business. But once you do that, the automation almost writes itself. Luna: I think we've given listeners a lot to chew on. Yeah, this is one of those things where the magic is in the details. Lucas: And the next time you get an email for a store that's a thousand miles away, you'll know exactly what went wrong. And hopefully, you'll know how to fix it.