Segmenting your audience provides the perfect opportunity to create a more personal relationship with them. When you get to know your current and potential clients through the data they share with you, you can identify the shared characteristics of specific audience groups. This sets the stage to present unique offerings that appeal directly to them.

Market segmentation is the way to go if you want to understand your target audience better. Optimizing content for specific groups can elevate your conversion rates. To create the most effective audience segments, you need to not only categorize these groups but also understand them. In a recent survey of marketing professionals, 62% of respondents said improving audience segmentation to enable more precisely targeted messaging was a top priority.

Catering To Your Audience

Once you understand your target audiences’ needs, you can effectively develop personalized content that satisfies those needs. The better you know them, the better you can engage them using those messages that resonate. The work doesn’t stop there. It’s important to continue to develop this understanding as time goes on. Things are constantly changing, and so are your clients. Successful lead generation and nurturing strategies are rooted in understanding the present demographics, interests, location, and needs of your current audience as well as future ones. 

Let’s Talk Segmentation

There’s so much data out there, but finding the right data is the tricky part. If you’re looking to gain perspective into the mind of your client base, you’re in the right place. Audience segmentation allows you to deliver a more authentic experience to your potential clients through your messages and content efforts. The more personal you can be with your segmentation strategy, the better. Audience segmentation, when done well, generates higher-quality leads because of its ability to authentically pull on the heartstrings of your audience base. If you can successfully organize your content efforts to support the unique categories of your potential audience, you will be more aligned with them.

The 5 Basics of Segmentation

Marketing segmentation allows you to identify the right market for your business and target them more effectively. Market segmentation is essentially customizing content for different audience groups into a buyer persona of sorts. The more you can resonate with your audience, the better your relationship with them will be.

1. Demographics

The most common approach to segmenting an audience is through demographics. Demographic segmentation leverages data points that characterize groups of your audience with tangible traits like age, gender, income, and occupation - among others. These points are fairly static and quantitative, meaning it’s the information you’d find at first glance, which makes them the perfect starting point.

2. Psychographics

Psychographic segmentation uses characteristics like personalities, lifestyles, social status, hobbies, interests, and attitudes. This information is a little harder to come by but it provides more details about your audience base. The deeper understanding you can achieve through using psychographics paints a more precise picture of what your audience truly wants, even if they don’t know it yet. Psychographics are more qualitative than any of the other ways to segment, making them a crucial consideration point.

3. Behavior

Behavioral segmentation analyzes and organizes your audience based on the patterns of their behavior. This includes the types of products and content they consume, as well as how and when they interact with different channels. Behavioral segmentation is almost a visualization tool that allows you to see how the psychographics of your audience play out. Behavioral segmentation will help you continue to evolve your business to cater to your audience’s preferences.

4. Geographical

Segmenting by location can help you expand your geographical reach and understanding of your audience. Evaluating the breakdown of which cities, counties, regions, countries, and international regions your audience lives in can help you break down your market segments. You can also understand the layout of your rural, suburban, and urban area markets.

5. Firmographic

Firmographic segmentation is especially important for B2B companies. This method of segmenting divides customers into groups based on shared company or organization attributes. Firmographic data is gathered and evaluated in the same way as the other forms of segmentation to understand the target audience's needs and wants.

4 Advanced Ways Segment  

You can take it one step further and segment your audience beyond basic demographics with these advanced segmentation methods. There are a plethora of variations, but these four will catapult you into creating a more personalized and authentic experience for your current and potential clients.

1. Generational

In generational marketing, the audience is segmented by the generation they belong to. Each generation refers to a group of people born in a specific period. From Baby boomers to Gen X, everyone is influenced by the trends and similar life experiences that encompass their generation. Understanding the influence of generational segmentation can help you understand your audience and stay on-trend and knowledgeable about your audience.

2. Lifestage

Lifestage segmentation deals with where a person is in the course of their life. This can be said for businesses in different stages of development as well. A new company will likely have different needs than a company that’s been around for 150 years. Where a company or individual is in their life affects the content that will resonate with them.

3. Lifecycle

Where your client is in their buyer’s journey can dictate how they perceive the content you show them. Your approach to engaging qualified leads should be different from when you’re looking to connect with someone who is already a customer.

4. Seasonal

Yes, people and businesses buy different products and services in different periods of their lives, but they also spend their time and money differently throughout the year. Even if we’re talking B2B marketing, budgets, and needs fluctuate throughout quarters. It’s important to consider what’s going on in that specific time frame to talk to the right people at the right time - and in the right place with the right content.

Relying on customer data helps remove the guesswork that’s previously been involved with segmentation. As data evaluation becomes more efficient, your segmentation efforts can become even more detailed. Tying all of these pieces together helps you better understand the audience you are looking to cater to.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll probably say it again, personalization and authenticity are becoming increasingly important for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Audience segmentation helps improve the authenticity of your business in countless ways. Your audience wants a real experience, and your business is centered around them. If you can understand their characteristics on a deeper level it will benefit your performance across your business, from a social media campaign to product and service development.