What are the most effective ways to use geographic segmentation for audience targeting?

1 Understand your market potential

Before you segment your audience by geography, you need to understand your market potential in different areas. You can use data sources such as census, surveys, web analytics, or customer feedback to identify where your current and potential customers are located, how big and profitable each segment is, and what are their needs, preferences, and behaviors. This will help you prioritize your marketing efforts and allocate your resources accordingly.

2 Choose your segmentation criteria

Depending on your business goals and objectives, you can choose different criteria to segment your audience by geography. For instance, you can use country or continent for global or international businesses that need to adapt their marketing strategies to different cultures, languages, laws, and regulations. For businesses that operate in large or diverse markets, you can use region or state to account for different climates, lifestyles, or economic conditions. To target local customers or offer location-specific products or services, city or zip code is effective. Additionally, businesses that want to leverage hyper-local marketing or create a sense of community among their customers may use neighborhood or street.

3 Create your geographic segments

Once you have chosen your segmentation criteria, you can create your geographic segments based on the data you have collected. You can use tools such as maps, geofencing, or geocoding to visualize and define your segments, as well as variables such as population density, urbanization, or infrastructure for further refinement. When creating segments, it is important to ensure they are measurable so that you can quantify and track their size, characteristics, and performance; accessible so that you can reach and communicate with them effectively and efficiently; substantial so that they are large and profitable enough to justify your marketing efforts; differentiable so that each segment is distinct and responds differently to your marketing mix; and actionable so that you can design and implement marketing actions tailored to each segment.

4 Customize your marketing mix

The final and most important step is to customize your marketing mix for each geographic segment. Your marketing mix consists of product, price, place, and promotion, and each should be adapted to match the needs, preferences, and behaviors of target customers in each segment. For instance, you can offer different products or features that suit the local tastes, demands, or regulations of each segment; set different prices that reflect the purchasing power, competition, or value perception of each segment; choose different distribution channels or locations that are convenient, accessible, or popular for each segment; and use different messages, media, or campaigns that resonate, appeal, or persuade each segment. By customizing your marketing mix in this way, you can gain a competitive advantage, enhance your brand image, and increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?