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Stage Entertainment and iO: partners for musical and digital success stories
Stage Entertainment has been working with iO for more than 7 years. This existing collaboration formed a strong foundation for the email marketing project. It all started with a User Experience question and over the years has grown into a broad strategic partnership. Currently, iO provides Stage Entertainment with various services including UX, CXO, web development, CloudOps. And finally, CRM and marketing automation with HubSpot as the central platform.
Developing a central platform that not only increases operational efficiency but also contributes to a stronger brand experience, better customer experience, and ultimately more ticket sales.
A strategic implementation of HubSpot as a central CRM platform that enables knowledge sharing between countries, reduces marketing costs, and lays the foundation for personalized customer communication.
HubSpot: the all-in-one platform for customer-focused growth
HubSpot transforms how companies communicate with their customers. The platform brings together marketing, sales, and service in one powerful environment. With tools for content management, lead generation, pipeline management, and customer service, HubSpot helps organizations strengthen their digital presence. As a Diamond Partner, iO implements and optimizes this platform for customers like Stage Entertainment, replacing all separate systems with one integrated solution that connects teams and streamlines processes.
At iO, we use HubSpot to provide our partners, such as Stage Entertainment, with a platform that offers complete support. From startups to large enterprises – HubSpot scales with every growth phase, and iO ensures seamless integration with existing systems. The user-friendly dashboard provides real-time insight into results, while automations take over time-consuming tasks. With iO's HubSpot expertise, organizations like Stage Entertainment get the tools to build real customer relationships and achieve measurable growth.
Data-driven customer communication as a growth accelerator
For Stage Entertainment, it was essential to have a main database with all the building blocks for email campaigns that are easy to implement and customize for all target markets. iO implemented HubSpot as a centralized marketing automation platform for Stage Entertainment in the Netherlands, France, Spain, and recently also in Germany. This required a deeper understanding of customer behavior.
Jolien Struyf, Teamlead Automation Antwerp at iO, explains: "HubSpot offers more than just email automation. By implementing tracking code on websites and making connections with social media, we create a complete picture of the customer. This allows Stage Entertainment to conduct much more targeted communication, which directly contributes to their goal of getting visitors to return more often."
The platform gives the marketing teams the tools to develop campaigns themselves based on data insights, allowing them to respond more quickly to trends and with insights from the different countries.
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Simplified system integration
One of the advantages of the new setup was the simplified integration between HubSpot and BigQuery, the system where all ticket sales data is stored. Instead of multiple connections per country, there is now 1 central integration. This reduces technical complexity and increases the reliability of data flows. Additionally, countries previously had 2 separate systems for email marketing: 1 for automation and 1 for creating emails. With HubSpot, these 2 separate systems are now integrated.
"With HubSpot, we have not only implemented an email marketing platform but also laid the foundation for a broader digital strategy. Marketing teams can now not only learn from each other but also grow together towards an omnichannel approach," clarifies Struyf.
Furthermore, this integration has also ensured that ticket purchasing behavior can be linked to marketing communications, making it clear which approach works best for different target audiences.
This centralized approach makes it possible to invest once in development and optimization, instead of making the same effort multiple times. This not only results in cost savings but also ensures a consistent brand experience across all countries.
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The power of a unified marketing approach
Struyf explains: "HubSpot has more functionalities than just automating emails. Think about tracking website activity, scheduling social media and ads, and linking these interactions to a contact. Besides marketing purposes, you can also use HubSpot for service and sales."
HubSpot enables marketing teams to look beyond just email campaigns. By tracking interactions with the website and using this data for personalized communication, the customer experience becomes richer and the results better.
Benefits of the new platform
The HubSpot platform offers Stage Entertainment several concrete benefits:
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The Result: 1 strong platform for all Stage Entertainment markets
The implementation of HubSpot has led to demonstrable improvements in customer interaction and conversion:
The introduction of personalized birthday emails has resulted in significantly more interaction with contacts, with an average open rate of 30% and a click-through rate of 25%.
The new 'abandoned browser' emails help potential customers who are hesitant about a purchase to still make the decision, which directly contributes to higher conversion rates.
By tailoring communication to show preferences of visitors, the relevance of messages is increased, leading to better engagement.
The platform's performance is rated by HubSpot as follows:
Open rate: Very good
Click-through rate: Excellent
Hard bounces: Excellent
Unsubscribes: Very good
These results confirm that the integrated, data-driven approach via HubSpot effectively contributes to Stage Entertainment's objectives.
From technical implementation to strategic advantage
The implementation of HubSpot goes beyond just a technical solution. By strategically using the platform, Stage Entertainment has built a competitive advantage. HubSpot offers opportunities to improve email performance through optimization and to expand to social media and other marketing channels in the future.
The result is a marketing approach that is not only more efficient but also directly contributes to Stage Entertainment's growth objectives: more visitors, better customer experience, and a stronger international brand experience.
This project forms the basis for further innovation at Stage Entertainment with HubSpot, with iO as a strategic partner.
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