Latest / Marketing Automation with Fexingo: HubSpot, Marketo, and Automated Customer Journeys / Why Marketing Automation Ignores Your Home Renovation
Transcript
- Lucas: So, Luna, I was reading the permit approvals for my neighborhood last week — not normally my Friday night, but here we are — and it struck me: there are at least six houses on my street that are mid-renovation. New windows, a full kitchen gut, one even has a skylight going in. Luna: And let me guess — those people are still getting emails about summer travel deals and new car models, right? Lucas: Exactly. And that's the blind spot I want to dig into today. Marketing automation is brilliant at tracking what happens on a screen — clicks, opens, form fills — but it's nearly deaf to what's happening in the physical world. And a home renovation is one of the biggest, most intent-rich events a consumer can go through. Luna: When you think about it, a renovation is basically a multi thousand dollar purchase decision spread over months. You'd think that would be a marketer's dream. Lucas: It should be. But think about what a typical marketing automation platform sees. It sees a customer who visits the website, maybe downloads a guide on bathroom remodeling, clicks an email about fixtures. But it has no idea that the same person applied for a building permit two weeks ago, or that they just maxed out a home equity line of credit. Luna: So the digital behavior is there, but the platform can't connect it to the offline trigger. Why is that so hard? Lucas: Because the data lives in completely different silos. The permit is in a county database, the credit line is at the bank, and the purchase at the home improvement store — that's in a loyalty program. None of these talk to each other, and unless you're using a platform that integrates offline data sources, you're working with a fraction of the picture. Luna: I remember when my parents renovated their kitchen a few years back. My mom spent weeks researching appliances online. She got ads for blenders and cookware, but nothing about actual ovens or refrigerators. Lucas: Which is exactly the miss. The automation sees 'kitchen interest' and assumes she wants small appliances, not the $15,000 range that's the centerpiece of the whole project. That's a data-modeling problem — the platform is trained on past behavior, not on the context of a major renovation. Luna: And that context includes things like timing. A renovation is a months-long journey — from planning to permits to demo to construction to finishing. The messaging needs to change at every stage. Lucas: Right. And the classic trigger-based automation is built for much shorter cycles. Think about a typical e-commerce flow: browse, add to cart, abandon cart, recover. That's days, maybe weeks. A renovation cycle is six to twelve months, and the purchase decisions are scattered across dozens of categories. Luna: So what would a better system look like? How could a marketer actually catch this? Lucas: Start with the data you can get. Home improvement stores have loyalty programs that track every bag of mulch and every box of tiles. If a customer's spending pattern shifts from seasonal gardening to large-ticket building materials, that's a huge signal. Luna: But that requires a partnership with the retailer, right? Not every brand can access that data. Lucas: True, but there are other routes. Geofencing is one. You can set up a virtual boundary around a building supply yard or a tile showroom, and when someone who's already in your database crosses it, you can trigger a workflow. Luna: That feels a little Big Brother, but I guess it's opt-in if they have your app or something. Lucas: Exactly. You need explicit consent, but if you have a home improvement app and the user enables location, you can serve them relevant content at the exact moment they're on-site. That's not creepy; that's helpful. Luna: So we've got loyalty data and geofencing. What else? Lucas: Surveys. Simple, low-tech, but most automation platforms have them. Send a post-purchase survey that asks, 'What project are you working on?' and actually use that answer to update the contact's lifecycle stage. We did this with a client in the flooring industry — they added a single question at checkout, and their email revenue from recent renovators went up by forty percent. Luna: Forty percent, that's a big jump. But it makes sense — you're tailoring every message to the person's stated project. Lucas: And that's the core of it. The automation already has the infrastructure to segment and send, but it needs the right trigger. Offline events are just as valid as online ones, they just take more work to capture. Luna: I'm also thinking about the permit database angle. Is that realistic for a small business to integrate? Lucas: Probably not on an individual basis, but there are data aggregators that license permit information. A regional window company could subscribe to a feed of new permits in their county and use that to trigger a direct mail piece or a targeted ad. That's how you turn public data into a marketing advantage. Luna: It's a bit like the home sale angle we did a few episodes ago, but for the renovation phase — people who've just moved are likely to renovate, but people who are renovating are a different, more immediate audience. Lucas: Exactly. And the window of opportunity is even tighter. A permit is pulled, and then there's a flurry of purchasing decisions in the next ninety days. If you're not in front of them within that window, you've lost the sale to whoever is. Luna: So the takeaway for marketers listening is: don't assume your automation sees everything. It's only as smart as the data you feed it. Lucas: And that's a nice segue to something I've been thinking about — the tools we use every day have limits, but they're still incredible. And honestly, the same goes for this show. We put a lot of research into these episodes, and it's a real labor of love. If you've gotten value from these conversations, a couple of dollars a month genuinely helps keep them going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo is where you can do that. It makes a real difference, even the small amount. Luna: Yeah, it's a great way to support the work without any strings. Every little bit helps us keep digging into these topics. Lucas: So, back to home renovations. One more piece I want to bring up — the idea of the 'renovation lifecycle' in your automation. Let's say you do capture the trigger. What does the journey look like? Luna: I'd imagine it starts with education — guides, inspiration, maybe a budget calculator. Then it moves to product comparison. Then to local contractors or installers. And finally, to maintenance tips after the project is done. Lucas: Exactly. And the tone and content need to shift accordingly. In the planning phase, they want inspiration. In the construction phase, they want practical specifics — lead times, compatibility, delivery schedules. In the finishing phase, they want to know how to care for the new floor or paint. Luna: And if you get that right, you're not just selling a product, you're helping them through a stressful, expensive process. That builds real loyalty. Lucas: And it's a loyalty that lasts way beyond the renovation. The next time they need a new roof or a landscape redesign, they'll remember who was helpful. That's the long game that most competitors miss. Luna: So the challenge is really about breaking down the silos between online and offline data. Any final advice on how to start? Lucas: Start small. Pick one offline signal that's realistic to capture — whether it's a survey response, a loyalty program integration, or a geofence around a specific store type — and build a single automated journey around it. Measure the lift. Then iterate. You don't need to boil the ocean. Luna: And if you're a smaller brand, even a simple post-purchase email asking about the project can work wonders, as we heard with the flooring example. Lucas: Absolutely. The tools are there, the data is out there. It's just a matter of connecting the dots. And the brands that do that will win the renovation wallet — which, given how much people spend, is a big prize. Luna: Big prize indeed. I'm curious to see which brands start catching on.