When you’re running a business, you’re bound to communicate in various ways with your audience. The right content can contribute to higher conversions and sales on your site. So it’s important to use the communication channel preferred by a particular user and to tailor messages to the customer. If you want to run effective marketing campaigns, you should use segmentation, and we will tell you how to do it.
What is segmentation
Let’s say you run a travel agency and you want to notify customers about a 10% discount on all tours to Asia. Will you send this message to every user of your website? You can do that, but then the ad will be received both by a travel enthusiast who is actually interested in your offer, and by someone who always chooses the cheapest travel destinations and has never flown outside Europe. This is precisely an example of the lack of segmentation, i.e. dividing customers into groups (according to different criteria) in order to target specific campaigns only to a particular segment. This way, for example, you can isolate only all those passionate travelers who are able to take advantage of the offer. It is also important that a user can be simultaneously, for example, in the “loyal” segment, as well as in the “looking for news” and “resident of Warsaw” groups. This will prevent you from sending messages to uninterested people and avoid unnecessary costs.
What data will allow you to divide groups by criteria
Of course, we hope that you do not intend to assign customer A to the first group and customer B to the second group just randomly, because then segmentation does not make the slightest sense. The right data will allow you to determine precisely which segment to assign a particular person to, but it does not have to be based solely on demographic information (e.g. gender, age). Clicking on links, signing up for an event or purchasing products, for example, can be important. We have written about data collection many times on the blog, and the most popular and convenient use is contact forms. The user simply has to provide basic data and give appropriate consents. In addition to this form, it is also possible to track a customer’s activity on the site, or assign specific characteristics to a person based on RFM reports. It is worth using Marketing Automation for this purpose, and contacts will automatically be assigned to a segment based on various attributes and actions taken.
Segmenting users in iPresso
Once you’ve collected the right data and used the tools to help you get it, you can automatically create groups, then target specific messages to them. The intuitive wizard in iPresso allows you to segment in a number of ways, if only according to engagement and activities undertaken. By saving a segment, it can then be used in Marketing Automation scenarios, for example. You will also easily analyze the segment to target specific content to the right group. In addition, it’s also a good idea to use content personalization (e.g., by adding a field to the message that automatically fills in data from the database, such as the user’s name) to further increase interest and loyalty.
Application of segmentation in many industries
You already know what segmenting customers is all about. But how do you actually use this tool? In fact, segmentation has a very wide range of applications. We’ll show you some examples of using segmentation to make your campaigns much more effective:
- Emails about additional materials sent only to those enrolled in a language course from scratch – when offering various types of language training and courses, you need to tailor your offer and messages to your audience. It is known that lovers of a language who want to reach a higher level will not expect the same as beginners. It’s worthwhile to send people starting some course at the basic level helpful materials, for example, via email, which will facilitate the first contact with the language.
- SMS about the pre-sale of the latest game available in your store – when creating a registration form for many who are interested in pre-sales, it is best to choose a quick communication channel, such as SMS. The automated dispatch should be targeted only to a specific group, which is possible just by segmentation.
- Notification of special offers in stationary stores for all those who live in specific localities – segmentation is essential if you want to inform customers about promotions that are only available in the local store. In addition, it is extremely useful for events (e.g., a contest held only in selected locations), because thanks to the segments you know to which people to direct the information. In this way, an inhabitant of Gdansk will not get an advertisement for a 10% discount, which is only available in a store in Warsaw, while he will learn about a new offer valid in his area.
Summary
Segmentation is key to running effective marketing campaigns and communicating with customers. Automation makes it possible to divide users into groups in a simple way, and to target messages only to those who are interested. Depending on the specific segment, the appropriate communication channel and content is used. Customer segmentation is widely applicable regardless of the industry, and is often used in e-commerce, education, finance or tourism, among others.
We invite you to start a free 30-day trial period and try the iPresso platform. This way you can see how various marketing automation tools work.
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