One size does not fit all.
Customer segmentation is an incredibly powerful way to nurture your existing list. Segmenting your customer base is like classifying each customer in a bucket with other similar customers as a way to tailor your marketing message to each group.
I’ve spoken before about how my friend and I match many of the same basic demographic criteria, but are worlds apart in our marketing triggers.
Here are 9 quick ways to segment your customer list
1. Demographics
The gender, age, and geographical location are important to segment. Marketing snow shovels in January in Hawaii doesn’t make sense. Nor does promoting women’s fashion accessories to me.
2. Birthday
Different than just knowing the age of your customer, sending customers a birthday card, reward, message goes a long way to personalize your brand.
3. Customer Status
Existing customers should never get the same marketing messages as prospects. Nor should prospects get the same messages as past customers.
4. Loyalty
Brand loyalty should be rewarded. Segment your customers on their average purchase size, repeat orders, or total spend.
5. Social Status
If some of your customers are socially active, partner with them and tailor your marketing for easy shareability on their favorite social networking sites.
6. Abandoned Purchases
Those who leave your ecommerce cart did so for a reason. Develop a segmented list to market directly to these people to recover lost sales.
7. Relationship Status
Changes in relationship status can signal big changes in the life of your customer.
8. Competitors
Yes, competitors are watching you. Segment them into their own lists to follow them back and monitor their marketing strategy.
9. Brand Partners
Just like competitors, you likely have brand partners who operate in complementary industries. Market to them as if they are a customer — just know their needs are different than those who push the “Buy Now” button
Your customer segments should be broad enough to not be exclusive, but narrow enough to avoid overlap. When setting up a segmentation structure, consider having the ability to group various customer segments together to get the list you want to target. For example:
- Female customers who have spent at least $500 and have a Twitter following of at least 1000
- Men between 25 and 30 who recently became engaged
- Customers who have only purchased from you once
- Followers of both you and your leading competitor with high engagement on social media
As you can see, segmenting your customers not only keeps the marketing message relevant, but is a powerful way to pinpoint your content to very specific people in your list for maximized engagement.
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About the Daily Marketing Minute
The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights.
In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy to lose track of why you do what you do. Ultimately, I believe that relationships will transcend the daily grind we face in sales and marketing. Every day, I’ll share insights and tips to grow your business and connect with your customers in a better (and more human) way.
Thank you for sharing your precious time with me.
Shaun
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