Two Spires Marketing

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Customer segmentation is the process of taking your target customer base and dividing it into smaller groups (segments) who have a common set of needs that are completely different from those of the other groups. For example, everyone knows that Toyota also owns Lexus. Why don’t Toyota just sell cars branded as Toyota and reduce the costs of having to support and manage a completely separate brand? The reason of course is that a person who buys a Lexus is not necessarily the same person who buys a standard Toyota – the simple reason being that the primary concern of a Toyota buyer is to own a reliable means of transport whereas the Lexus buyer is probably conscious of an image that they want to portray. In this way Toyota manage to serve both segments effectively.

How does segmentation apply to Internet marketing?

Understanding the segmentation of your target audience is a critical element of successful Internet marketing. By sub-dividing the audience into meaningful groups with different needs, it becomes a straightforward process to design an online marketing campaign that uses the tools and messaging that is relevant to your segment.

A simple example is the division of the target audience into consumers and businesses.  When looking at the strategies to be successful online, I have yet to see an effective B2B facebook page whereas there are many examples of highly interactive B2C facebook pages. Why is this? Simply put, even the bluntest segmentation shows us that  the process of how the business segment expresses loyalty to a brand is very different to how consumers express loyalty.

Customer segmentation is difficult….

Effective segmentation for Internet marketing is an involved process of careful analysis and deep customer questioning that should be done carefully, dispassionately and with as much accuracy as can be brought to bear. The whole process should be ongoing but the first attempt could take up to one month of hard graft if done correctly.

…. but it is so worthwhile!

Any organisation who has completed a segmentation analysis properly will testify to its effectiveness. Suddenlyunderstanding  how a company can reach its target base and engage with them comes immediately into focus. For our clients, we have a devised a simple customer segmentation tool that you can try on your own business.