Audience segmentation can be of real value when it comes to maximizing your marketing return on investment. It’s a simple way to group the characteristics of a target audience and to communicate with them in a way that will appeal to their needs, interests and motivations.

Below is what’s behind the term audience segmentation and how it can maximize the returns on your marketing campaigns.

Why segment your audience?

If cost weren’t important, you could market to everyone individually. On the flip side, if cost were all that mattered, you could send out the same message to everyone, regardless of their needs, interests, or motivations. However, neither extreme would deliver a great return on investment, so you need to find a middle ground—audience segmentation. Audience segmentation works because it divides a broad audience into smaller groups that share the same characteristics. Now you can strike a balance between tailoring your message and expense—giving you the best chance of maximizing the return on your marketing dollars.

How to segment your audience

Once you have your customer data, you need to group people by their characteristics. The most basic ones would be role, industry and location. But then you need to think more deeply about the person and categorize them by things like whether they are existing customers or not and whether they are decision makers or they simply influence decision makers. The thing to remember is that there is no definitive list. The size of your marketing budget will determine how much you segment your audience.

How to use your audience segmentation

You then tailor the message and type of communication to each segment. Think about it this way: one category reveals a group of decision makers who regularly buy large quantities of your products. The last thing you want to do is communicate to them through a generic email. Communication should be face-to-face and include frequent calls where you talk about the customer’s very specific challenges and needs. At the other end of the scale, you identify a group of decision makers, whose companies have never bought your products and are outside your core market. These are less strong and so different rules apply. Better to add them to a telemarketing campaign or send them a generic email which highlights the benefits of your products.

I’ve talked mostly about methods of communication to your audience segments. But now it’s time to discuss the messages themselves, and how you tailor them to decision makers and influencers.  The decision makers are unlikely to be interested in the technology at the heart of your solution. They want to know how much money it will save or how much extra productivity it will create. Your communication must cover off the business benefits first and foremost. Likewise, if you’re talking to an influencer, your message needs to highlight the technology and how it will benefit their daily working life.

Summary

Audience segmentation is a key part of any marketing strategy. It helps you tailor your messages to the needs of specific groups and maximize return on investment. Segmentation is pretty simple and by applying some basic rules that stipulate how to communicate with different groups, you’ll see great results. You can also measure the effectiveness of your segmentation and fine tune your strategy as your marketing evolves.