Personal, bespoke marketing is one of the fastest, most rewarding ways to marketing success. And segmentation is the foundation on which this success is built. I like to classify segmentation as a grouping of individuals (and businesses) who share common interests/needs. By understanding – and most importantly – appealing to these interests/needs, marketing is much more effective. And that’s why it excites me.
Using myself as an example. I am a chocolate loving, Burnley FC fan who enjoys donning my dancing shoes for a ballroom or latin number. Knowing this about me will help others communicate effectively with me. So,
- Invite me to a tasting of a new dark chocolate bar (Or let me have a discount for the new bar to encourage a purchase)
- Tell me that Dean Marney (Burnley midfield hero) is doing a fans Q&A (Oooh and he’ll be signing the latest Burnley FC book which you can purchase on the night)
- Or let me know that I can see a Strictly-style demo of a tango (Buy tickets for a local performance right here in your home town)
You’ve got my interest. I’m there!
These made up examples show how communicating with me with relevant messages are more likely for it to result in some kind of action from me.
It works the same in business. Customers and prospects will engage more with businesses who are able to communicate on a meaningful level.
Keep it simple
Start with something you know well – your market. You are experts in your field, you know your market inside and out. Categorise (or segment) your customers and prospects into sectors. Even if you are selling just one product or service; it is likely that you will have a number of different types of customer who will buy it. We helped our construction company client segment their generic customer base. From a generic database who were all receiving the same communication we segmented their database to include: specifiers, public sector organisations, sub contractors, the end user and influencers. Whilst the core of the offer was very similar, all of these segments required a slightly different message to engage with the most impact. And more impact is what we drove.
What’s current in each of these customer segments? What is likely to get their attention? What’s likely to show that you understand their world? Knowing what motivates each of these individual segments will help you build powerful and successful marketing.
Categorise what you already have
As well as segmenting by the types of organisation your company services, you can segment your existing customers and prospects by
- geography (what common ground do you share geographically? Are you trading in the same town? Have customers in the same town as theirs? Do you share the same desire for the town to succeed? What’s relevant to the region, the town, the country? What will appeal to them; and then build your message around this)
- job title (different roles will require different messages. The FD is more likely to be motivated by financial benefits whereas the Ops Director is likely to be motivated by efficiencies. This is a basic example but your company will have different appeal to different roles. Know what those messages are; and build your campaigns around these messages and your understanding of the customer/prospect
- sales (having a clear understanding of your sales patterns will help you plan effectively. (which customers spend regularly? Which customers have a declining spend? Who is growing? Who hasn’t spent for a while? Who is new? Each of these customer segments will have their own patterns of behaviour. Being on the ball with each segment will help create marketing campaigns that are appeal and are successful. For example entice those who haven’t spent for a while with what’s new, what’s of benefit to them, with a discount.
Be relevant
More and more prospects are seeking out who they want to work with. By identifying a segment’s behaviour and their interests/needs you will be saying all the things they want to hear when they find you. This can be achieved through your social media, slideshares, blogs and bespoke pages on your website.
Understand how customers interact with you
We helped one client segment their main customer audience, which helped their return on investment on their marketing promotions increase threefold. They were providing promotional offers generically to their customer base. It was a one size fits all approach. An approach that is very common in a lot of companies. Their customer base consisted of two main areas; stockists who bought their product in bulk; and none-stockists, generally internet traders, who bought their products in smaller quantities as and when they had made a sale themselves. By segmenting the customer base into two simple categories, and creating messages that were relevant to each, they were able to lift the success of their campaigns threefold.
Segmentation can have a real benefit to the bottom line, and anything that has the power to affect the bottom line tends to make marketers and business owners happy; and that is definitely something that excites me.
Karen Lambert is a creative thinker, an experienced strategic marketer and founder and Managing Director of Happy Creative, a strategic marketing and branding agency based in Lancashire, North West England. To learn more please contact Karen at www.happy-creative.co.uk
