The Art of Assessing Your Market Segmentation [eBook]

Do You Know How To Segment Your Customers?

I have been a customer of a particular cable and Internet provider for many years and through my many stages of living and economic situations.

Despite my thoughts on the monopolization and pricing of the cable and Internet providers in my area, I have been able to tailor my monthly bill to my ever-changing needs.

Key Market Strategy Input

When using market segmentation analysis to develop effective marketing strategies, a business can reap major benefits when using the proper market segment assessment tools. These can help you identify key target market segments, while helping you avoid targeting the wrong audiences with valuable ad dollars.

Luckily, I was able to downgrade from Ms. Premium Cable Queen to Ms. Basic TV and still stick with the same company.

Focused Marketing Strategy is Key

This proves how important it is for a business to be able to cater to a customer’s various needs, because one size doesn’t fit all.

To be able to find what “sizes” fits a business’s target, a market segmentation strategy needs to be implemented and it may not be as easy as it seems. Surveying existing and potential customers is a common approach to identifying useful customer segements.

A product or service may seem at first to fit one type of target market but can easily fit into another market if the proper research is conducted, perhaps by using focus groups, and advertised by savvy marketers.

Marketing to a consumer’s specific needs and wants is not only highly effective but also promotes a marketing edge that is needed for differentiation for other products and services.

The basic types of market segmentation include the following:

Market segmentation

Geographic Segmentation – This can be as general as a country or as specific as a particular neighborhood.
Demographic Segmentation – This type of information includes age, ethnicity, gender, occupation, etc.
Behavioral Segmentation – This includes buying patterns, attitudes and knowledge towards products, brands, and services.
Psychographic Segmentation – Honing in on more psychological aspect, this segmentation includes lifestyle, values, social class and personality patterns.

Now that social media has become a mainstay in the marketing world, businesses have been able to adapt their marketing segmentation research and analysis in new ways.

A good example is how Facebook is now incorporating market segmentation advertising to target specific users.

Facebook users can now see advertisements popping through their newsfeeds and it is certainly not random.

Based on Facebook pages that are liked and profile information, foodies will get advertisements to install restaurant finder applications and mothers will get suggestions to like a page baby clothing store for updates.

Fortunately, many businesses have been able to take advantage of social media to formulate their market segmentation, but of course there are other ways a business can perform their market segmentation strategy.

Here are four ways that any business can assess their market segmentation:

Turn to who you are up against

Conducting an analysis of competitors can shed some light on what works and what doesn’t in comparison to one’s own business.
Get some insight internally

Formulating an internal company analysis will reveal patterns in profit and marketing campaign measurement, which will help guide a business to re-define, expand or simplify their target markets.
Use the information that’s already out there

Using public forums such as the U.S. Census Bureau can provide a business with a wealth of information needed for such information as income levels and the number of children in a household.
Do it your own way

A business conducting their own market research can provide unique and personalized information not available to many other businesses.

This type of research can be done through an online questionnaire site, social networking platforms, or giving people a survey in person at a special event or distinct location.
Dream up your perfect customers

Creating ideal client profiles is an effective way to brainstorm a business’s market segmentation process.

This exercise encourages a business to define and specify who their product is really targeting, and to make it into a reality.

When using market segmentation analysis and strategies, a business can reap major benefits. With proper segmentation, products and services can be successfully designed or re-designed to meet the consumer needs, effective campaigns can be executed, and market strategies can be enhanced.

Executing a successful marketing segmentation analysis for a business is not always easy due to all the numerous criteria that might fall into various segments but using our four easy assessment suggestions can guide you in the right direction.

Fortunately, there are many other ways a business can execute their marketing plans and since it is music festival season, take a look at our blog about 4 Marketing Methodology Examples Influenced By Music Festivals and improve your website by downloading our Hubspot-partnered ebook below.