Segmenting your customer base is one of the best ways to reach them at the right time and with the right information.
If done well, this helps you gain a deeper understanding of your customers, meet their specific needs, and grow your business. The Hubspot team spent years analyzing customer segments and recognizing the value of this approach.
Throughout this article, you will discover how to use customer segmentation models to improve your business.
What is customer segmentation?
A customer segmentation process involves tagging and grouping customers based on common characteristics such as their age, industry, gender, etc. Marketing, service, and sales efforts can be tailored to the needs of specific groups using customer segmentation. Consequently, customer loyalty and conversions are likely to increase.
In your personal life, you're already familiar with customer segmentation. Before you email your colleagues about a promotion, you might send a group text to everyone in your family.
Your customers are no different. Every customer has unique needs, traits, pain points, and expectations.
Making your target customers a part of a group can sometimes be the most effective way to communicate with them.
What is a customer segment?
A customer segment is a group of consumers whose characteristics and needs are similar. Companies can better tailor their products, services, and marketing efforts by identifying and understanding their different customer segments. By doing so, you can increase marketing effectiveness, customer loyalty, and profitability overall.
What are the benefits of customer segmentation?
Customer segmentation goes beyond categorizing people. Creating content for each segment's unique needs and challenges is made easier when you segment customers.
In addition to improving customer service and support efforts, segmentation can also help internal teams prepare for challenges that different groups are likely to face.
Additionally, you can communicate with segments of customers through preferred channels or platforms and discover new opportunities for products, support, and service.
Here are some common benefits of customer segmentation.
1. Get a competitive marketing edge
“If you deliver a personalized customer experience via email or CRM, you’ll always have an edge over competitors that use a one-size-fits-all approach,” says Michael Maximoff, co-founder at Belkins.
Belkins worked with Driveline, a retail brand, to generate leads, according to Maximoff. Maximoff's team divided Driveline's ideal customers into two segments in order to get the best results. Retailers were the first, and brands were the second.
He continues, “We then drilled down again and divided each segment into previous and new clients before sending them customized messages. A $1.5M deal was closed as a result of this customer segmentation process."
2. Target customers better with paid campaigns
It doesn't matter whether you're running PPC, LinkedIn, or Facebook ads, optimizing your campaign gets you a higher ROI. Customer segmentation excels in this area.
“With paid marketing on social media, we’ve realized that we need to know our audience demographic and their interests. Adam Wright, founder of Human Tonik, says that segmenting customers allows us to identify their unique needs, preferences, and behaviors.
With segmentation, you can target the right customers with relevant ads, resulting in higher conversion rates, click-through rates, and sales. It also ensures that you are spending more effort on customers that provide a high return while lowering your ad spend on less profitable customers.
3. Improve your email nurture campaigns
For millennials, what appeals to Gen Z might not appeal to them. Entry-level workers and directors in the same field are treated similarly. There are various segments of people with unique ways of thinking and knowledge.
By segmenting these customers in your email list, you can send them relevant nurture emails that endear your brand to them.
Alta Technologies president Corey Donovan says this shows customers that you care about their needs rather than cluttering their inboxes.
Having learned what customer segmentation is, let's explore the types of customer segmentation that are most common.
Customer Segmentation Models
Although this list doesn’t cover every type of customer segmentation, you should have a good starting point to establish your customer segmentation model.
1. Demographic Segmentation
Using demographic segmentation, you can categorize your audience based on various data points. In addition to age, gender, income, education, and marital status, it includes other data points as well.
With demographic segmentation, the large part of the audience is broken down into smaller segments with some common characteristics. It is possible for businesses to target niche audiences by combining two or three demographic characteristics.
As an example, a luxury clothing brand for women may segment its customers based on their income and age. According to the age and income of their target audience, they would advertise different styles and price points.
It is important to keep in mind that demographic segmentation should not be considered only for marketing purposes. Additionally, brands use demographic segmentation to improve customer relationships and build brand loyalty.
Among the industries where demographic segmentation holds sway are e-commerce and fashion. Fenty Beauty targets women from various ethnicities using demographic analysis in the example below.
Brands use demographic analysis with customer surveys to understand customer preferences and behavior. Using this data from the survey, brands can launch successful campaigns or tailor their brands according to customer preferences.
Benefits
- Allows brands to send more personalized marketing messages.
- Optimizes your marketing budget and targets the right audience only.
- Customers' journeys can be mapped to make future predictions by identifying, monitoring, and tracking trends.
2. Geographic Segmentation
Customers are segmented by geography based on their location, including country, state, city, and town. The ability to segment customers according to their geography allows you to tailor your messaging to meet their specific needs. It's like talking to a city, town, or country physically.
This segmentation model allows brands to run campaigns for:
-
Holiday celebrations at local locations.
-
Weather-changing countries or provinces.
-
Different cultures and traditions exist in different regions.
They can instantly tell that your message is tailored to them by you using their slang or mentioning things they relate to in their locality.
For instance, McDonald's runs ads specific to different countries.
Geographic segmentation can also be used by brands to innovate their products. Lay's, for example, offers over 200 flavors worldwide. In India, the company sells vegetarian flavors such as Magic Masala, Tangy Tomato, and Chile Lemon, while in Thailand, it sells non-vegetarian flavors like Khao Soi Chicken, BBQ Pork, and Crab.
Benefits
- Businesses can set prices based on the budget and economic allowances of specific areas.
- Provides a competitive edge since campaigns and products are aligned better with the geographical audience.
- Before launching a product, understand laws and regulations as well as market constraints.
3. Psychographic Segmentation
Based on cognitive and psychological traits, psychographic segmentation targets consumers. Based on certain characteristics such as personality, attitude, values, and interests, this segmentation model groups consumers.
A brand can craft emotionally-driven campaigns by understanding the core behavior of its customers, such as their hobbies, lifestyles, social status, and opinions. Your marketing campaigns should consider psychographic segmentation since 95% of customers make purchase decisions subconsciously.
A shoe brand like Puma is a good example of psychographic segmentation. Users with different interests like running, basketball, and trekking can be targeted by the brand. Puma can target the right individuals based on segmentation information.
With a customer segmentation tool, you can monitor your audience's online activity and conduct customer surveys. Using online reviews, recording calls, and focus groups can also help you understand marketing psychographics.
Benefits
- Brands can communicate with their customers on an emotional level.
- Improves your reach through word-of-mouth marketing from people in the same social groups and interests.
- Increased customer engagement and brand loyalty.
4. Technographic Segmentation
Segmenting consumers by their technology usage is called technographic segmentation. Businesses use this segmentation method to understand how people use mobile devices and operating systems, as well as whether they're adopting new technologies like artificial intelligence.
A lot of brands that specialize in SaaS software, tech devices, or AI-enabled devices use technological segmentation.
The HubSpot software is a good example. Users subscribe to our products - Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, CMS, and Operations - and we instantly know their priorities.
Using technographic segmentation, businesses can perform deep market analysis, conduct market research, and identify which technologies are widely adopted. Web scraping, third-party data collection, and customer surveys can all be used to collect technographic segmentation data.
Benefits
- Helps design products based on customers’ friendliness with technology.
- Identifies the pain points in the existing tech and customizes products to offer solutions.
- Ensures your digital assets are accessible to your audience.
5. Behavioral Segmentation
In the sense that it targets audiences based on their behavior and habits, behavioral segmentation is similar to psychographic segmentation. In this method, you track customer behavior, buying patterns, and how often they visit your website, social media, or email.
Businesses can identify common user behaviors by using metrics such as purchases, clicks, likes, media plays, uploads, page views, data entry, or social shares.
These metrics are used by brands to reward loyal customers or offer discounts to customers with abandoned carts. For example, cosmetic brand Sephora rewards customers with a 20% discount when they spend over $200.
In order to perform behavioral segmentation on your website, you'll need to gather data from a variety of sources. You should also analyze the patterns of your customers based on their last interaction. The use of a CRM simplifies gathering and tracking customer behavior, such as purchase history, inquiries, referrals, voucher redemptions, and complaints.
When you run PPC or YouTube ads, this segmentation model is highly relevant. You won't waste your ad spend on customer segments that aren't a fit.
Benefits
- Reduces the churn rates by personalizing the message for abandoned carts.
- Monitors negative user behavior and feedback so that customer service reps can quickly solve issues.
- Offers purchase-history-based recommendations to existing users.
6. Needs-Based Segmentation
A company's products may not be the right match for every customer. With needs-based segmentation, you can narrow down and match your customers based on their current problems.
Segmentation by customer needs includes product or service must-haves and customer group requirements. In order to cater to different groups and subgroups, businesses offer solutions based on these problems.
Let's look at HubSpot as an example. In HubSpot, the main feature is their CRM, but they also offer customer service tools, sales tools, content management systems, operations tools, and e-commerce tools.
In this way, HubSpot serves a wide range of users with different needs. By conducting customer surveys, participating in online forums, reading online reviews, and using analytics tools, the needs-based campaigns can be driven.
Benefits
- Uncovers hidden market potential and solutions that a brand can offer.
- Creates personalized messages for different customer segments.
- Helps identify common problems in the market.
7. Value-based Segmentation
Segmenting your customers based on their value provides insight into their value. Which group of users provides the best return on investment? What are the most common places where you lose money?
Customers can be segmented based on their economic value for the business, for example. This customer segmentation model is useful if you sell high-priced or low-priced products or services.
Netflix and Amazon Prime use value-based segmentation to determine their most prominent plans. Netflix, for example, offers four subscription plans: Mobile, Basic, Standard, and Premium. Standard is the most popular plan, while mobile is the least popular.
Therefore, Netflix can offer incentives to low-engagement plan users or reduce costs based on this data.
Benefits
- Brands can optimize resource allocation for highly engaged users.
- Gives a better understanding of the different segments of the existing customer base.
- Helps boost ROI by targeting high-value customers with personalized messaging.
Customer Segmentation Examples
Demographic Customer Segmentation
1. Gender
Many businesses start with gender segments when building a customer segmentation program. While this is a quick way to start, ensure this segment is inclusive. Have plenty of gender categories to ensure you accurately segment customers into groups where they feel comfortable.
2. Age
Age is another common factor that businesses use to segment customers. After all, age tells you a lot about the person interacting with your business. For example, a 30-year-old single person living in Boston won't have the same budget and interests as a 70-year-old retiree in Oklahoma.
3. Occupation
Occupation can reveal a lot about customers’ interests and availability. It can also give you an idea of their budget and annual income — especially if they don’t share this information with you directly.
4. Household Income
Household income gives you an idea of how much money a customer can potentially spend with your business. Keep in mind that income isn’t the only factor at play here. Location, occupation, family structure, and more will also influence a customer’s budget.
5. Marital Status
If marital status is important for understanding your customer base, then you can segment buyers in a few different ways: whether they have a spouse, are in a relationship, or otherwise.
Collecting this data will vary based on your organization’s marketing strategy.
Geographic Customer Segmentation
6. Location
Location is important to make your marketing strategy feel more personalized by region. First, it tells you where your customers are and how you can find them.
This data also tells you how you should approach certain segments if they live in different areas. For example, how you market to people in New York City will likely differ from how you market to people from Walla Walla, Washington.
7. Preferred Language
It’s important to know the language that your customers prefer to speak. This allows you to communicate more clearly and makes it easier for customers to interact with your business.
8. Transportation
Out-of-home advertising is getting more and more advanced. Transportation, for instance, can also present a valuable marketing opportunity for your business.
For instance, if your customers take the subway to work, you can buy ad space on trains and popular subway stations, as well as digital billboards throughout cities.
9. Workspace
Understanding how and where your customers work can be valuable insights depending on your line of business.
Behavioral Customer Segmentation
10. Life Cycle Stage
Life cycle stage attempts to clarify which part of the customer journey a particular buyer is in. Are they a new lead who is ready for a sales conversation? Or are they a loyal customer who’s willing to advocate on your business’s behalf?
Knowing where the relationship stands between you and your customers can help you form a more effective marketing strategy.
11. Website Activity
Website activity tracks anything your customers do while engaging with your website.
For example, you could segment customers based on the first page they interact with. Or you could segment them based on how many times they’ve visited your homepage or clicked on a certain page element — like a call-to-action.
12. Last Customer Engagement
You can learn a lot about customer relations from the last interaction a customer has with your business. If it was a positive interaction, they might be ready for a specific promotion based on when they are in the buyer journey.
If the interaction was negative, you might want to ping your customer service or success team to strengthen the relationship.
13. Ecommerce Activity
Like website activity, ecommerce activity refers to actions customers take in your online store.
For instance, abandoned carts are a common customer segmentation choice. You can also segment customers based on the products they’ve purchased or product pages they’ve seen but haven’t converted on.
Psychographic Customer Segmentation
14. Values
Values are usually harder to identify than demographic information, like age or location. To determine a customer’s values, you need to understand their needs thoroughly, possibly through one-to-one interviews or surveys.
From there, you can use this information to empathize with the roadblocks they face when trying to achieve their goals. When you can align with the customer in this way, it’s easier to see what they value most in a product, service, or brand.
15. Interests
Values are characteristics and actions that customers admire the most. But interests are things that customers enjoy that may not relate to your business.
For example, your customers might have an interest in dogs, so you could partner with a local pet store and run a cross-promotional campaign.
As a bonus, you can foster relationships with adjacent businesses. This lets you reach customers in places you might not have thought about before.
16. Personality
Personality can be hard to sum up in one phrase or sentence. But, you can segment customers based on unique personality traits.
Are they outgoing? Introverted? Comical? Serious? You get the point. The more you know about their personality, the more you can adapt your marketing to fit your audience.
Technographic Customer Segmentation
17. Device Type
Your website can segment users by the type of device they're using to interact with it, whether it's a phone, tablet, or computer.
You know you must make your website mobile-responsive if the majority of your visitors use smartphones.
Alternatively, you might consider developing a mobile app for users who interact with your brand on the go.
18. Browser Type
Customer's browser type refers to their internet browser. Are they using Google Chrome, Safari, DuckDuckGo, or Mozilla Firefox, for example?
There are dozens of internet browsers available, and each displays websites, emails, and apps differently.
In order to test whether your marketing content displays properly on these browsers, it is important to understand what your customers are using.
19. Original Source
You can identify your website visitors' original sources by looking at the original source segment.
Using search engines like Google, you can determine whether people are discovering your site. The tool also shows you whether people come to your pages through social media, email, or another site's referral.
It is crucial to understand how your customers find you in order to optimize this conversion path. Your site will be easier to find this way.
Value-based Customer Segmentation
20. Customer Satisfaction Scores
Customer satisfaction scores tell you a lot about recent interactions with your service department, regardless of whether you use CSAT or NPS. A high score indicates that your customers are satisfied with your service. Churn is more likely to occur with lower scores.
You can increase the value of your most loyal customers by segmenting them into promoters and detractors. In addition, it can help you provide support to unhappy customers.
21. Number of Purchases
An important factor in determining customer value is the number of purchases a customer makes. Your business is more valuable to them if they make more purchases.
22. Average Purchase Value
A higher average purchase value means that your business receives a greater amount of value from your customers.
Customer loyalty is very important to your business, and it is important to reward those who make repeat or regular purchases from you. Consider rewarding them with exclusive offers or promotions.
Needs-based Customer Segmentation
23. Product Attributes
There are certain groups of customers who require specific features from your products.
You may inadvertently alienate individuals with disabilities if your website isn't web-accessible. Your website should be as inclusive as possible for customers with these needs.
24. Service Needs
Your business's service needs are the services that your customers require when interacting with you. As an example, let's look at HubSpot.
A HubSpot onboarding process can help you learn how to use our products if you're a new customer. If you have already used HubSpot in the past, you may decide to opt out.
You will be able to provide your customers with the support they need if you identify these needs.
25. Delivery Method
If you don't deliver your product at the right time or in the right way, your customers won't find it useful. You can categorize individuals based on their shipping or delivery needs using this segmentation option.
Customer Segmentation Strategy
Your customer segmentation strategy should be informed by your business goals. When you consider what you plan to achieve as a company, you can create a customer segmentation strategy that helps you:
-
Make sure your customer base is organized.
-
Manage targeted communications easily.
-
Select the best sales prospects.
There are many ways to segment your users and clients, but these steps can help your team avoid some pitfalls.
1. Determine your customer segmentation goals and variables
There is a possibility that your business already uses buyer personas. You should consider creating buyer personas for your small business if you don't already have one. They will help you segment your customers based on their needs.
Personas help you understand your customers' demographic, geographic, and technological characteristics. Using this information, you can match buyer personas to specific goals.
Goals
If you have three buyer personas, for example:
-
Nora - a small business owner.
-
Katy - a mid-level business owner.
-
Slavi - CEO of an enterprise company.
For Nora's persona, you could set conversion goals of 10%, 5% for Katy's persona, and 2% for Slavi's persona. When you have products and pricing levels that suit each persona, this simple analogy works.
Using customer segments to solve specific business problems may complicate segmentation. In order to deliver the best customer experience, you may not have enough or the right data.
To grow the top of the funnel, use demographic or psychographic segmentation. Consider what makes a customer valuable to your company:
-
What is more important, product fit or profitability?
-
Do they make repeat purchases?
-
Do they participate in online communities?
-
During the buyer journey, where do they drop off?
Consider including key team members across the organization as you continue this process. You can create more useful customer segments by leveraging their unique experience and viewpoint.
Variables
Consider variables within each target segment before moving on to the next step.
Take, for instance, mothers between 30 and 35 years of age as an example of one of your customer segments. About half of this segment purchases at the end of November, according to data.
Do you know whether they're buying your product as a gift or for their own use?
For this segment, this variable can make a big difference in marketing and sales messaging.
2. Set up and prioritize customer segmentation goals
As your data will probably grow, it's time to prioritize your goals.
As a result of this increase in data, some companies go to the trouble of segmenting only to continue sending the same message to every customer.
In order to do this, one way is to organize the largest segments first, then proceed from there. So, you will have a large group of people to communicate with or market to immediately.
It is also possible to rank segments of projects according to their performance, such as their purchase value. Having set up the order, it's time to set up each project.
Step 1. Set an objective
Each customer segment project should have a SMART framework.
If you're developing a new product, for instance, you might want to identify a segment of customers to target.
Check your current mailing list to see which customers might be a good fit for this new product. Additionally, you'll need to decide how to reach the right prospects.
Before you begin working, you should define your objectives using the SMART framework. You will be able to answer questions like:
-
What will you measure as success for your new segment?
-
Does this group have enough demand to be a useful customer segment?
-
When will this group be built and defined before the product launches?
-
What is the deadline?
Step 2. Involve stakeholders
Your segmentation project will usually involve internal teams and employees as stakeholders. Stakeholders may also include:
-
Current customers.
-
Businesses in your area.
-
Vendors.
-
Contract employees (like freelancers).
It is possible for segmentation projects to become siloed. When this happens, the people who can make the most use of the information are not able to obtain it.
Communicate with stakeholders about their role in the project in advance to avoid these issues. Consider how involved they would like to be in the process as well.
Step 3. Define project scope
It is important to define the scope of each project in order to avoid overlaps and confusion later on.
Segment your target market according to clear boundaries. This could include:
-
Segment count in total.
-
Data sources.
-
Stakeholder expectations.
-
Resources and budget.
Step 4. Define project deliverables
Last but not least, you should clarify what results you expect from your project.
The final deliverables of customer segmentation might include:
-
Your process outlined.
-
Tenets that define the scope of each target segment.
-
Workflow wireframes.
-
Segment profiles.
3. Collect and organize your customer data
CRM platforms can be used to collect customer data. Analyze the exported data to find common themes.
For instance:
-
Do you see a lot of customers from a particular region?
-
Is there a particular age range that comes up frequently?
-
On your list, do you see an equal number of men and women?
You can create different segments based on the answers to these questions. Some customer data is readily available for customer segmentation, while other data may take longer to gather.
4. Segment your customers into groups of your choice
It's time to build your segments after pulling the customer data you need.
Consider these ideas when approaching customer segmentation for best results.
Tip 1. Make segments easy to use
It is important for the segments to be easy to use by other team members, even if they are complex to compile.
As an example, a local grocer can segment their in-town shoppers from out-of-town shoppers to better target their marketing efforts.
For a multinational sporting goods store, these segments make little sense. The definition of "out of town" doesn't apply here.
Tip 2. Use machine learning
Using automation powered by machine learning to build your customer segmentation can save your team a lot of time.
You can use HubSpot to segment contact lists and create communication workflows for subsets of customers in this helpful article.
Tip 3. Make customer segments the right size
Don’t go too narrow in your segments. In other words, ensure you create useful segments that are still large enough to cause a measurable impact on profit.
Tip 4. Make them easy to access
Segmenting your customers should begin with your marketing strategy. Marketing and sales channels should be aligned with each segment.
Imagine you're creating a Gen Z segment, but your marketing strategy is primarily focused on email and Facebook. Of this group, 62% are on Instagram, but only 34% are on Facebook.
It might be challenging to reach this segment, even if they are a good fit for your business.
Tip 5. Create stable segments
It takes time to segment customers well. It is therefore crucial that the value of your segment lasts long enough so that your team can connect and engage in a meaningful way.
Behavioral and psychographic data can change rapidly. It may be better to use these points less than other qualities that are more stable depending on your products.
Tip 6. Make segments profitable
The clarity with which you define a segment of your target audience does not matter if it does not affect your profits.
It is important that each segment is based on an existing product or service that your company offers. It is fundamental that each segment of the B2B market has a set of unique needs that are aligned with the company's objectives.
Tip 7. Understand how different models overlap
It is usually more useful to combine behavioral and demographic models together rather than to use them separately.
Let's say you sell popular tennis shoes to men. The value of the purchase and the ecommerce activity can be used to segment your database.
These factors could be difficult to incorporate into a marketing campaign. What if these buyers are also break dancers from suburban neighborhoods?
You might miss out on connecting with this group. Making your brand more inclusive and diverse by combining several models is an excellent way to make it more diverse. As a result, you will have more opportunities to improve your products for your target audience.
Tip 8. Find your loyal customers
When you're looking for new customers, it's easy to forget to create segments for existing customers.
You can optimize the average purchase price or the number of purchases a customer may make by maximizing your interactions with them.
5. Target and market to your client and user segments
Segmenting customers isn't enough. To implement segments, you need a plan.
76% of businesses say their customers engage less with digital marketing in 2022 than they did in 2021. Effective segment outreach is therefore crucial.
Make the most of your customer segmentation by following these simple steps.
Make communication customer-centric
Choose messages, content, and products that will be most valuable to your clients based on segment information. Create a strategy that engages each segment authentically.
Rather than just selling to your customers, you should connect with them and make sure they feel you understand their needs.
Create a plan for each segment
If you send slightly different content to each segment, you won't get the best results. Create a unique plan for each segment instead.
You can use segment data to:
-
Enhance each experience.
-
Create more meaningful landing pages.
-
Personalize emails.
-
Qualify and delight leads.
-
Figure out the best timing for outreach.
-
Anticipate support needs.
-
Create new targeted content.
-
Solve issues faster.
6. Run regular customer segmentation analysis
To ensure that your segmentation remains useful, you will have to put in the work to ensure it lasts.
In the end, change is the only constant. Machine learning and automation can help you monitor your data, but you need to analyze it as well.
In order to keep your segments performing, you need to establish a regular cadence for reviewing them.
Customer Segmentation Analysis
It's important to revisit those segments periodically once you've set them up.
In addition to confirming that these segments are necessary, you can analyze whether particular segments are helping you achieve your goals.
By using this process, you can assess resources, use customer feedback, and get a long-term view of your customers.
Benefits of Analyzing Your Customer Segmentation
The process of segmentation analysis can seem time-consuming. You'll want to analyze your segments consistently for a variety of reasons.
Your business can benefit from customer segmentation in the following ways:
-
Improve product delivery.
-
Boost process efficiency.
-
Help you target content marketing and sales outreach.
-
Update pricing, plans, and strategies.
-
Improve customer relationships.
-
Create new offers, products, and services.
-
Improve brand awareness.
-
Stay ahead of competitors.
-
Track product sentiment.
How to Do Customer Segmentation Analysis
Segmentation analysis isn’t as time-consuming as creating new customer segments. But each step below is important to make sure that your customer segments are effective for your business.
1. Review customer segments for accuracy
Data can be skewed by changes in software, products, pricing, and more. Data used to build each segment should be accurate, especially if they're used across multiple channels.
Say you collect behavioral data through your email marketing software, but not through social media.
Analyzing both platforms' analytics might be your first step. You can use this information to determine if customer responses have changed within the same segment.
You may also need to collect anecdotal data again to update your segments. Did your company's goals, pricing, or brand reputation change since you created your segments? You'll need to update your data if that's the case.
2. Compare customer segment performance against business goals
If you haven’t already, review your key performance indicators (KPIs) for each of your customer segments. Then, compare how well those segments are doing in comparison to your overall business performance.
Are some segments doing better than others? Are some underperforming?
It may also help to review segment changes alongside current events and cultural shifts that impact demographics.
Businesses that watch these shifts can better meet customer expectations than those that miss these details.
3. Check with internal teams for segmentation feedback
Consistent customer segmentation is the key to customer segmentation's success. Be sure to include all relevant internal stakeholders when you're analyzing your segments.
Connecting with key stakeholders is also a good idea. In this way, you can ensure that company-wide decisions take customer segment changes into account.
The following are some strategies you can use to quickly collect feedback from your peers and leaders:
-
Add targeted feedback forms to employee newsletters.
-
Organize a committee or focus group.
-
Create a Slack channel for informal feedback.
-
Offer project-specific incentives.
4. Collect feedback from your customers
You may want to supplement your anecdotal research with feedback from a broader group of customers. You can improve your response rate by using these strategies for gathering customer feedback.
Segments may also require different types of outreach.
B2B customers might respond well to an in-app survey, while loyalty club members may welcome customer interviews.
Other suggestions for gathering customer feedback include:
-
Website feedback widgets.
-
Long form-based surveys.
-
Suggestion boards.
-
Newsletter requests.
-
Survey incentives.
-
Live chat prompts.
-
Social listening.
-
Customer support outreach.
Customer Segmentation Software
You can segment your customers with HubSpot's static and active contact lists. Using lists, you can segment your contacts and customers using contact scoring.
Event-based segmentation is also available in the software. As an example, if your company is holding a daylong workshop in Seattle, you can use event-based segmentation to locate and inform your customers.
After the workshop is complete, you can segment your customers based on the information obtained from attendees.
Customer segmentation features are included automatically in HubSpot's CRM, CMS, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub (the specific features within each of these tools are listed below).
2. Experian
Experian’s customer segmentation software has multiple functions so you can build, view, and manage your segments to meet your business needs.
You can focus on lifestyle segmentation to hone in on the habits and preferences of your customers. You can also find your most economically valuable groups so you can add those details to your profitable customer contact portfolio.
Sprout Social makes it easier to reach specific segments when creating and sharing messages on both Facebook and LinkedIn. Their Audience Targeting feature is a marketing-focused customer segmentation tool.
On Facebook, the tool lets you segment and target customers by interests, gender, age, location, relationship status, and education. Meanwhile, LinkedIn allows you to segment and target customers by business size, industry, location, and seniority.
Mailchimp includes a customer segmentation tool. Organize and manage segmented email marketing campaigns to target groups of your contacts and customers.
This lets you send messages that are customized and tailored to each segment’s needs. You can filter between one and five criteria to communicate with your specific group of choice.
Segment Customers to Grow Better
By providing more relevant information to your audience, customer segmentation helps boost conversions. Furthermore, it streamlines cross-team communication so that you can meet the specific needs of your customers.
Using these tools will help you along the way as you develop your customer segmentation strategy. You have everything you need to exceed customer expectations.