BOOSTING MARKETING VIA CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION
Tali Hasanov
Strategic Email and Digital Marketing Driving Clients Business Growth | AI Consultant | Speaker | Artist & Designer | Pianist
Market segmentation is a natural result of the vast differences among people
Donald A. Norman
Even the most beautifully polished marketing message won't bring any benefits to your brand if it doesn't reach its target audience.
Think about your customers as people with whom you communicate daily, e.g. coworkers, friends, family members, etc. All of these groups of people have different interests, pain points, motivations, and frustrations. It is absolutely normal to communicate and interact with them differently.
The same happens with your target audience. Although your company serves a variety of different customers, they still possess similar characteristics.
The understanding of different target audience groups' preferred ways of communication, and their specific needs is crucial for building and maintaining successful relationships.
There is no better way to achieve this than to use the customer segmentation strategy for your business.
WHAT IS CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION?
Customer segmentation is the process of target audience grouping based on shared characteristics so that businesses can market to these groups more effectively and efficiently.
Segmentation strategy is a straightforward method for organizing and maintaining customer relationships in your company. This method also allows you to adapt and personalize your marketing program, and sales activities to the needs of particular groups. As a result, customer retention and conversions increase.
It is a tried-and-true targeting strategy that has been used by generations of B2B and B2C marketers.
B2B marketing companies usually segment their target audience according to indicators such as industry, location, number of employees, products previously purchased from the company, etc.
B2C marketing companies segment their target audience according to demographics: age, marital status, life stage, etc.
WHY MIGHT YOUR BRAND NEED TO SEGMENT THE TARGET AUDIENCE?
There’s no magical one-message-fits-all solution that can bring the brand a lot of leads. On the contrary, smart customer segmentation can boost customers’ satisfaction and connectivity.
The strategy of segmentation allows the marketers to accurately target various segments of the audience. Here’s a list of benefits that customer segmentation can bring to the business:
- Enabling companies to develop a strategy based on the information they have about their target audience
- Improving customer service and support
- Facilitating brand message composition that is tailored to the target audience
- Learning more about clients to customize content that meets their specific expectations and pain points
- Helping to determine the best channels to communicate with particular customers’ segments
- Personalizing content and experiences that increase customer loyalty
- Defining who the most valuable customers are and why
- Identifying new possible approvement opportunities for service or product efficiency
HOW TO SEGMENT CUSTOMERS?
In order to implement proper customer segmentation, a company has to gather and analyze specific data about customers to identify trends relevant to the creation of segments.
These data can be obtained from a variety of sources. Currently, there are seven known common customer segmentation models:
- Geographic Segmentation (country, state, city, town)
- Technographic Segmentation (desktop-use, mobile-use, software and apps)
- Needs-based Segmentation (product/ service must-haves and needs of specific customer groups)
- Demographic Segmentation (age, gender, income, education, and marital status)
- Psychographic Segmentation (personality, attitude, values, and interests)
- Behavioral Segmentation (tendencies and frequent actions, feature or product use, and habits)
- Value-based Segmentation (economic value of specific customer groups on the business)
The following are some examples of popular information-gathering techniques:
- Interviews conducted in person or over the internet
- Questionnaires
- General consumer analysis based on publicly available facts
CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION STRATEGY
For a successful segmentation strategy follow these 4 steps to achieve the best results:
- Define your consumer segmentation objectives
- Divide your clients into categories according to your choice
- Segment your client base and reach out to it
- Analyze segments and make any necessary changes
SHIFTS IN CUSTOMERS’ BEHAVIOUR
It’s important to remember that customers’ behavior can shift over time due to different circumstances like technology development, fast-changing trends, and other broader influences from around the world. So, don’t forget to watch your segments for catching the moment to make needed changes.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If you strive to better serve and adjust more efficient communication with your target audience, as well as improve conversion rates by meeting its specific needs, don’t hesitate and start working on your customer segmentation tactic today.
About the author:
Tali Hasanov is a results-driven digital marketer with a track record of growing her clients' businesses and driving revenue. Her 15 years of varied and in-depth experience have helped to make her an industry leader. As the business owner at WSI Digital Path, Vaughan, she takes great pride in delivering powerful but cost-effective solutions for her clients.