Sending one general email to the entire database rather than segmenting their contacts and creating distinct marketing messages for each is one of the most frequent errors made by businesses when it comes to email marketing. Consider this: Most firms have numerous goods and services, as well as customers from all walks of life. As a result, it would be extremely difficult for a single email to include the involvement of all of your database’s contacts. This is why marketing segmentation is so important in any successful marketing plan.
What Is Marketing Segmentation?
Market segmentation entails categorising your consumers into distinct lists or categories based on certain features. Similarly, your email marketing campaign should be tailored to the particular requirements and desires of individuals within your target market, as it should with your business’s target market. You may then generate more tailored, effective emails for each of those distinct audiences that will appeal to their specific interests and keep them interested in your company once you separate your database into several lists.
The most basic ways to separate your database into buyer personas or categorise it based on where they are in the customer’s buying process are two of the most popular. To divide your contacts into awareness, consideration, and decision stages, for example, you would join all of your contacts together and place them in those three categories. At this point, they are just aware of your brand and have some knowledge about it. They may not yet be ready to buy, so your emails to them should be low-level and only provide useful information until they enter the buyer’s journey’s awareness stage. Someone in the decision stage, on the other hand, is ready to make a purchase and could benefit from more sales-oriented emails.
Here are a few more examples where segmentation can be utilised. There are several methods to approach segmentation, so the key is determining which types make the most sense for your company.
Types of Market Segmentation
To provide the most effective marketing messages to your contacts, organisations should use one or more of the following types of segmentation:
- Demographic segmentation
- Psychographic segmentation
- Behavioural segmentation
Demographic Segmentation
The goal of demographic segmentation is to group your contacts on the basis of who they are. This entails defining various demographics such as age, gender, and profession.
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Location
- Ethnicity
For example, let’s say your business has locations in California and New York. By segmenting your contacts by location, you could develop one marketing message that would be relevant for your contacts on the west coast and one that would be more relevant to those on the east coast.
Psychographic Segmentation
Customers can be divided into psychological segments based on why they buy from you. You may use psychographic data to group consumers who have similar qualities and get a better sense of your customers’ purchasing behaviours.
Here are some examples of psychographic segmentation:
- Socioeconomic status
- Personality traits
- Values and interests
- Religious affiliation
- Priorities
Behavioural Segmentation
Behavioural segmentation is a method of marketing that focuses on the behaviours of your various clients.
- Social media preferences
- Brand loyalty
- Shopping habits
Consider the following questions while employing behavioural segmentation:
- Which of your clients use LinkedIn and which use Facebook?
- What do you consider to be the most effective methods for your brand to connect with consumers?
- What percentage of your customers purchase online rather than in person?
Consider how your customers interact with emails from different businesses and adapt your content to match. Your email material should reflect those tastes so that your consumers feel more connected to your company. Behavioural data may be particularly beneficial when it comes to developing an email marketing plan since certain firms have discovered that their target market seldom opens marketing emails. In this scenario, they must develop a distinct digital marketing strategy to connect with their contacts!
How do you go about dividing your leads and consumers after all of these different categorisation methods have been discussed?
How to Segment Your Database
Once you’ve decided on the ideal method(s) to categorise your leads and consumers, you’ll need to figure out how to segment them. There’s always the time-consuming task of manually separating your contacts into several Excel sheets (No, thank you!), but if you utilize a CRM like HubSpot, there are numerous tools available.
Personas
On the HubSpot platform, you may develop your buyer personas right away. Simply enter information for each of your personas, such as their demographics, goals, and difficulties. You can also apply a name to each persona and even add an image that accurately depicts them. You’ll then come up with a distinct feature for each persona that you may utilise on your website’s form fields so that when someone fills out a form on your website, they will be immediately categorised into the relevant category. You can subsequently choose to send personalised emails to certain individuals.
Lists
The ‘Collect & Organise’ section of the HubSpot list tool is critical to email marketing. The recipient’s area of the email program controls who gets each message, depending on the lists you choose. You may use the list tool to build lists that will create contacts who have taken significant actions on your website automatically and continually. Filling out a specific form on your site
- Opening a certain email that you sent
- How they entered your database, like social through media
You can also use this tool to separate your contacts into groups by entering the first and last names of those you wish to group. This allows you to always select which individuals should receive which of your marketing emails by keeping your contacts organised with the list tool.
Lead Scoring
HubSpot’s lead scoring feature is a useful tool for automating segmentation based on your audience’s degree of engagement with your company. You can set a score based on various criteria, including
- How frequently do they visit your website
- How many emails they have opened or clicked on
- How many times they’ve viewed a specific page of your website
The lead scoring tool lets you see who in your database is most interested and engaged with your business, allowing you to choose the best prospects for more sales-focused emails rather than those who may require more nurturing emails to help them make a purchase decision.
The Benefits of Marketing Segmentation
After you’ve identified how to separate your contacts, you may be asking why it’s necessary and if you should even bother. The truth is that by providing more customized material to your various market segments, you may better connect with your leads and customers, increase engagement levels, and, consequently, generate greater revenue!
Quality content is one of the most crucial aspects of an inbound marketing plan. Sending out timely and relevant information when it comes to email marketing implies that you’re sending out high-quality material. This is only possible if you have a thorough segmentation strategy in place because each of your contacts will have diverse interests and be in various phases of the buyer’s journey at various times. Segmentation is vital for businesses seeking to increase interest and purchases among their leads and consumers.
Understanding the various marketing segmentation is critical to any effective email marketing campaign’s success. Whether you categorise contacts by demographics, psychographics, behavioural segmentation, or a combination of all three, you’ll see improved open and click rates and contribute to your company’s bottom line!
