Thu, 13 Aug 2015 12:30:13 -0700
|
I am a sorter at heart. I want everything in its place, which should consist of right angles and being perfectly parallel (and if you ever want to make me irrationally angry, show me a tile out of place, something off center, or this picture). I wouldn’t classify myself as OCD (it’s not like I need to clean the vacuum or anything) it’s just living with things put away allows me to relax a little bit more.
It should come as no surprise then, that I am a huge fan of market segmentation. I like to make sure that all of customers fit into certain boxes – and once there follow the particular funnels that will lead to sales. |
These aren’t sorted by size or color. . . welcome to my nightmare
|
Here are a few of my other favorites:
- Demographics – This is what most people think of when talking about market segmentation (as you’ll see it’s so much more). Age, gender, household income, education level, race, nationality are the major demographic segment “boxes”.
- Behaviors – The obvious definition here is this how your potential customers behave. More specifically, this is what do they expect and how will they use the product. Is your product for a specific event? Degree of brand loyalty also plays a factor here.
- Psychographics – What does your customer look like? Are they a busy parent who is constantly on the go and hasn’t had a vacation in 5 years? Are they a new graduate who is completely engulfed in work? Getting inside your customer’s head will make it easier to market the solution your product is solving.
- Price Segmentation – Some customers prefer luxury; some prefer value. Make sure that you have a consistent brand message – if you have luxury customers, a discount offer won’t increase sales (and could actually hurt). Conversely, a value customer may be enticed by bundle pricing
- Stage in the Buying Cycle – This one may be the easiest and most important. Marketing for customer retention is very different from marketing for customer acquisition. Depending on your business and selling model, the main three categories to segment: Customers (gave you money), Prospects (first time hearing about you), and Inquirers (heard, looked, noted interest, but haven’t bought yet).
You can see how many of these can play into one another. For example, someone from a particular town may be more affluent and less price sensitive / more likely to care about quality. One technique I use is to create a persona of what your ideal customer looks like. What are some of their hobbies – including those outside your business (e.g. A lawn care company targeting men may know that their customers are also big sports fans or a cosmetic company may know that vegetarians are more likely purchase). You can use all of this information in your marketing.
And of course, don’t forget about location. You may want to target a neighboring town based on the information you learn. (Have I mentioned that Cidewalk lets you target specifically by town?)
Finally, make sure you repeat your message! The more often someone sees your message, the more likely it is to be ingrained in their mind. And the more likely it is to be ingrained in their mind, . . . . well you know.
Check back next week for another way to improve your CTA!
0 Comments