Segmentation and Digital Marketing

All aspects of marketing require businesses to assess who their target audience is and consider aspects such as buyer personas and customer profiles. With digital marketing, there's more data available than ever before on user habits, demographics, and pain points. Utilizing the ability to create more meaningful criteria for segmentation could be a game changer for tech startups.

What Is Segmentation?

Segmentation simply means dividing your brand's or product's audience into smaller audience groups based on particular characteristics. Why would you need to do this? To create highly targeted marketing campaigns that resonate more deeply with the needs of the groups you're speaking to. Common criteria for segmentation include:

• Demographic data such as age, gender, and income—often less relevant for B2B transactions 

• Geographic data—where in the world is your target audience?

• Behavioral data—what sort of products do the businesses you're targeting already buy? What online platforms do they engage with? Do they follow or buck market trends?

• Financial data—what's the budget of your target client? Do they have an outside spend limit?

Creating smaller, more closely knit groups and matching those with particular services you offer means you spend less time converting leads and more time building a trusted brand.

Benefits of Segmentation

Segmentation allows your marketing efforts to be much more focused. Instead of marketing everything to everyone all at once, you focus on particular propositions for certain buyer personas. Benefits can include:

• Increased ROI

• More satisfied clients

• Improved R&D thanks to a better understanding of client needs

• Targeted expansion opportunities

• Boosted brand reputation

Clients that feel like you've taken the time to get to know them are far more likely to remain loyal than those that don't. Less than 17% of B2B journey occurs face-to-face, so it's important to utilize the other 83% to create a great impression online.

Creating Great Relationships Via Digital Marketing and Segmentation

So, does digital marketing make segmentation simpler or more complex? There are aspects of both, but by utilizing social media listening and other data collation methods, you can get a much clearer picture of the needs of your target clients.

This allows you to create bespoke email campaigns, tailored messaging, and even tweak your social media posts to better match the type of leads engaging with your content. Ultimately, this helps you build meaningful relationships with clients and leads rather than becoming yet another faceless online brand. 

AI marketing tools may become the norm in segmentation, especially when considering the high-level data analytics side of dividing your audience into segments. But the human touch will always be needed, too, especially for follow-ups, dealing with complaints or problems, and building partnerships.

Final Word

Digital marketing and effective B2B segmentation go hand in hand. Working on your digital channels provides access to higher volumes of data to drive more effective and targeted marketing campaigns. Want to know more? Book a 15-minute introductory call with a marketing expert who can help you find the right service to boost your own digital marketing efforts.

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