What Are The Different Types Of User Segmentation?
The various initiatives and efforts taken by any organization to regulate and promote its sales can be defined as marketing. Marketing involves disciplinary actions taken by the company to draw the attention of potential clients and target audiences. It focuses on promoting the company’s growth through advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses.
Marketing strategy allows the organization to push its limited resources towards numerous opportunities to increase sales. It includes various policy and game plans to turn prospective consumers into their buyers.
What is Marketing Segmentation?
As the name itself suggests, segmentation involves dividing a whole into segments. Marketing segmentation involves dividing whole homogenous markets into potential groups. These clusters are created to emphasize similar needs, wants, demands, and characteristics of individuals. Aspirin is not a cure for every illness; similarly, different types of users have different needs.
If you bring everyone under one umbrella, you will be doing nothing except splurging dollars. Customer segmentation allows you to target your content to the right people and in the right way. This potentially increases the chance of audience engagements with advertising and content resulting in greater and improved returns on investments.
What are the Benefits of Segmentation?
Companies adopting segmentation strategies enjoy more significant benefits than those who neglect it. You can deliver your message directly to a specific group in the ways they can relay because you are aware of their characteristics and requirements. It builds brand loyalty as well because they feel secure and well served.
These groups, based on various wants and uniqueness, attract the right customers, and they get a chance to give a message that particularly makes your brand different from the rest. It will encourage the buyer to shop from you again and increase profit. You will also get an idea about your customer’s pain points and develop products as per their requirements.
Market Segmentation Practices
With product segmentation, you will get responses from the audience regarding products and services. Different types of user segmentation focus on categorizing people.
Here are some types of segmentation for you to follow:
Behavioral Segmentation
Behavioral Segmentation divides markets through the regulation of behaviors and analysis of trends such as purchase, consumption, lifestyle, and usage. It includes knowledge regarding different products and the users’ reactions and attitude towards it. It includes how often they use your products and what their reviews are for the same. Behavioral Segmentation also focuses on the changes required to make the product more favorable.
Consider an example of anti-aging cream: it will be more likable by men and women over the age of 35, whereas millennials will be more pulled towards glow-boosting and radiance creams. Average users will prefer sunscreen and it is in demand irrespective of age group or gender.
Similarly, the youth is attracted to fancy body washes, bathing bombs, shower mouse body scrubs, etc. while the elder still leans on simple bathing soaps. The response for each one of these products will forever remain diverse and identified.
Demographic Segmentation
It includes a division of users based on demographic characteristics such as age, gender, occupation, education level, income level, and much more. Demographic segmentation is one of the most common forms of splitting people into segments. Its biggest perk is easily assessable and low-cost information.
It is based on demographic factors like how we use those products and how much we are willing to spend on them. It is also one of the simplest and most commonly used forms of segmentation. Automobile companies launching products in different price ranges can be an example of demographic segmentation.
The easiest way to get information out of the people is to ask them directly. It can be time consuming, but you will receive accurate answers. Be careful and respectful about how you are going to ask masses questions and be prepared with active responses.
Physiographic Segmentation
Physiographic segmentation relies on the physiological aspects of the consumers. It can be achieved through studying activities, interests, and the opinions of individual users. It is relatable to demographic segmentation but deals with characteristics that are more cognitive and emotional.
For example, luxury cars are only bought by people who can afford them. Such products are mere status symbols in society, but they also signify huge profits where luxury lifestyle practices are concerned. Following this, these cars appear in luxury magazines available on business or first-class sections of airlines. The fitness market uses psychographic segmentation to identify people who care about healthy living and exercise.
You can collect this data in the same way as for demographic segmentation, but using website records and SEO (search engine optimization) tools will be better to keep track of product usage.
Geographic Segmentation
Splitting up the market based on location, such as a country, region, different cities, or postal codes, is geographical segmentation. It helps understand the needs of consumers based on their language, climate, and nationality.
For instance, if a clothing company is attempting to upgrade its sales in a warmer place, it will manufacture clothes made from cotton or other natural fabric. The owner of a bar will avoid constructing a new bar in a peaceful and homely locality.
Similarly, baseball is popular among residents of the United States, but Indians are more connected to cricket. If you are publishing sports articles or are a manufacturer of sports equipment, you will look into the preference of the target audience.
Occasional Segmentation
Segments based on certain occasions that are completely independent of the customer are defined as occasional segmentation. Occasion segmentation is one of the more different ways of carrying out behavioral segmentation. Sometimes organizations prioritize basic human needs like “coke”. They don’t care about where you are living or what your gender is; they only focus on the likeability of the product.
Occasion segmentation is the process of dividing the marketplace into sections according to particular occasions related to the customer. This type of segmentation is time-bound and aims at customers who desire a certain product for a certain event or occasion.
Market Segmentation and Personas
Persona facilitates a business to design a detailed story revolving around the actions and motivations of your audience through merging the extensive quantitative data used for market segmentation. The information not only relates to the requirements and wants of the individual relative to the product, service, or channel; it also helps manufacture a much better understanding of the customer’s back-story.
We can relate the market segment to the group of people with similarities. Groups of users have similar needs to fulfill through products offered by the organization. Conversation plays a supreme role in conversation activity. Entrepreneurs can’t sell products visiting every doorstep, so they perform the same action in the community. The marketing campaign focuses on resonating within the similar language of their community.
Things to Remember When Segmenting
Do not follow narrow or small segments because it can be pricey; a segment should be large enough to uphold profit. You should also be able to identify customers as per their needs. It is beneficial to understand their characteristics based on segments like demographics, occasion, etc.
Focus on the quality of the segments, don’t just lean on quantity. This point should always be considered by start-ups preventing any mishaps.
If applicable, choose a segment with the shortest sales cycle, so you don’t wait too long between the times your purchaser is exposed to the result. You can consider choosing segments that buy a simple product or segments that will be willing to pay less but buy your product more quickly.
If you have a few products, you better begin with smaller companies as your customers will reach out directly to the decision-maker rather than going through an extensive process of a big company.
In addition, try to find a segment with ample and cavernous strength so you have fewer competitors.
How to Begin Segmenting?
Market segmentation doesn’t necessitate being complicated for effectiveness. Product managers are required to focus more on a persona as it is the target audience and has compelling reasons to buy the product.
All segmentation is essential on its own level. Every segment has its requirements for uplifted business. A study done by Harvard Business claimed that in the US, 85% of 30,000 new product launches were unsuccessful because of poor market segmentation.
It’s alright if you don’t completely understand your customer group; admitting that is half the battle. As you grow, you will learn more about each buyer group and then further be able to make “spotlight” assessments on what segments look the most gorgeous for your business.
It is always beneficial to seek knowledge from various platforms. If you know your fields, you have already fought half the battle. In the era of digitalization, you can still rule online with DAN Institute. It provides online platforms, industry knowledge, and various tools to support digital marketing agencies. This organization allows you to build a career in marketing with online guidance and resources from top Institutions. Its mission is to support digital professionals globally.
