In every industry, many are the customers that come in contact with products and services and they all present different characteristics, opinions and behaviors. Communicating effectively, and differently, with the various segments of your audience can allow you to enhance the relationship with your existing customers and to understand who to target (and who not to) in the future. This can be done through audience segmentation.
Audience segmentation, also called market segmentation, is the process of dividing a target audience into strategic subgroups based on certain criteria. This allows marketers to send tailored messages to different clients, therefore creating individual and stronger connection with them.
When approaching audience segmentation, marketers usually target subgroups based on different criteria. An audience can be divided based on:
- Demographics
Age, gender, location and education are the main categories taken into consideration when it comes to demographics. However, researching for household income, county type or employment status can bring some more interesting insights that can help you effectively diversify the communication with your audience.
- Psychographics
This includes lifestyle choices, opinions, attitudes and values. Although data in this categories requires deeper research, is it also the most valuable when trying to understand your audience. Insights gained in this category can help you learn about your customers’ personal stories and implement the right type of storytelling when communicating with them.
- Behaviors
When segmenting an audience based on behaviors, research should look into the process of your customers’ interaction with the product or service you are selling. Steps in this process include product discovery, purchasing behaviors and level of engagement. These insights can be crucial when determining how and when to speak to your clients.
In today’s world, having a general communication with all segments of an audience is only time-consuming. When interacting with a business, customers care about the way they are targeted and look for messages tailored only to them. And when they feel like they matter, they are more likely to positively engage with the business.
Although it’s impossible to target every customer individually, audience segmentation can be a successful compromise.
SOURCES:
https://www.helixa.ai/blog/audience-segmentation
https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/audience-segmentation/
