We live in a digital world where customers want a personalized experience and feel frustrated when the website content they see doesn’t appeal to them. Personalization can influence a customer’s shopping decision, which makes it can make or break a sale for your business. Your business could be losing out on more traffic, engagements, and conversions if you’re not personalizing the experience for your customers.
Luckily, you can use marketing segmentation to easily deliver personalized experiences. Marketing segmentation uses a variety of sources to make audience targeting easier, improving customer satisfaction and increasing the potential for sales. Here’s how to get started with segmentation.
What is Marketing Segmentation
Marketing segmentation is a technique that allows businesses to group customers who share traits or needs. Next, segmentation supplies more personalized content based on traits or behaviors to those groups. One example of segmentation is Netflix, which shows you movies and television shows that might interest you based on what you’ve watched in the past. For example, if you watch a lot of horror movies, Netflix will show you more horror movies than someone who watches kid’s movies.
Businesses of all kinds can deliver this same experience that customers have come to expect. Failure to do so can affect sales and profits. For example, forgetting to include the recipient’s name in an email marketing campaign means you’ve might have lost them as a customer.
When Should you Segment Your Audience?
You should always segment your audience even though not every marketing campaign can be completely personalized. For example, SEO campaigns will depend more on keywords and search terms than completely personalized experiences. However, segmenting your audience allows you to separate customers by their behavior so you can deliver content based on where they are in the customer journey rather than sending everyone the same blanket offer and hoping for the best.
Ways to Segment Audience
You can separate your audience into groups depending on any number of criteria or characteristics. Your campaign’s success will depend on your ability to segment your audience effectively, so it’s important to determine which customers fall into the separate categories.
First, you’ll need to figure out what your categories will be. You can do this by checking out your existing customer data. Remember, it’s no longer effective to solely group people based on gender or age. You’ll need to create segments that are tailored to more specific characteristics, such as behavior.
Here are the simplest ways to segment your audience.
Geography
Geography is an important segmenting strategy because it can make your campaigns more accurate. Geographic data gives you access to insights, including the best time to post your new blog article on social media and correct language to use in website or ad copy.
For example, suppose the majority of your audience is based in the midwest. In that case, you’ll want to schedule your social media posts during the hours they’re most active, which might be different than your business hours of operation. There’s no reason to publish Instagram posts when most of your audience is asleep or at work.
Geographic data can also tell you about lifestyles and hobbies that can dictate campaigns. For example, an audience based in the midwest might not respond to an advertisement that features beaches or palm trees.
Demographics
Demographics refer to:
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Social class
- Religion
Demographic factors can help you identify the behaviors of your audience. Marketing to the wrong segment can diminish your conversion rate and be a waste of money. Demographics can also suggest the level of purchasing power your audience has. For example, a 30-year-old middle-class worker has more purchasing power than a 12-year-old. Marketing toys to children isn’t going to pay off, but marketing to their parents will.
Psychographics
The psychographic category helps place your audience in distinct market segments relating to subtle information, including:
- Behavior
- Mentality
- Ethics
- Reactions to marketing
Suppose your audience primarily consists of people who live in the city and enjoy brick and mortar bookstores. These interests suggest they might not be interested in a marketing campaign that asks them to shop online. With this information in mind, you can build an effective ad strategy targeting this individual group based on subtle behaviors and interests. Psychographic information considers the personality and ideals of the buyer to help you correctly build a strategy that caters to what they want.
Developing Market Segments
Going beyond the list of three types of segmentation can help you more effectively target your unique audience. The most effective way to use segmentation is to create your own. Here’s how:
Research the Market
Collect data to help you learn more about your customers before you begin grouping them.
Start Grouping
Once you have all of the data on your customers, start to find patterns among the data. You can begin by looking at demographic data and look for patterns in age, location, and income. Next, you can look at behavioral and/or cultural data. For example, you can look at upper-class earners that purchase trendy products and visit your website within a typical time.
Create Segments
Now that you have a general idea about the types of segments you can create, start creating them. Ensure you’ve collected the correct contact information for your customers so you can begin marketing to them as soon as possible.
Segmenting Your Audience: What’s Next?
Now that you’ve successfully segmented your audience, it’s time to start developing marketing campaigns for those segments. You should create graphics based on each segment and analyze the given data. Next, plan for different types of campaigns, including email marketing campaigns, social media advertising, traditional advertising, and search advertising, to determine which segments respond best to different types of marketing strategies.
Marketing segmentation may take some trial and error. If you’re not working with a dedicated marketing team, you may have to adjust your segments and marketing strategies based on the results of past campaigns. However, once you take the time to understand your marketing segment you will see a skyrocket of improvement within your marketing, productivity, and sales.
About the Guest Author : -Matt Casadona
Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. Matt is passionate about marketing and business strategy and enjoys San Diego life, traveling, and music.
