You’re well on your way to building a robust email list. Now’s the time to look at the information you’ve been gathering from those who’ve visited your website and begin the act of segmenting or sorting those visitors. Segmenting is the key to driving sales. You have to know who your target is and how best to appeal to them. In this month’s article, which will post a little later this month entitled Drive Sales With Market Segmentation, I go into greater detail about segmentation. Be sure to check it out. However, now I want to discuss two of the most basic ideas to consider as you begin your segmentation.
First of all, it’s important to learn how your visitors and prospects are engaging with your brand. This is called “engagement segmentation” and it falls under the behavioral segmentation category. Are the people who come to your site regular users of the type of product or service you offer or are they first-timers? Do they like to read a lot before making a decision or do they mostly act on an impulse? It’s critical to recognize the needs of different buyers in order to create a user experience that tailors to the major types of customers.
Secondly, is “interest-based segmentation,” which falls under a psychographic segmentation category. If you only sell a single type of product or service this may not be relevant to you. However, knowing what people are interested in and providing that up front for them will drive a much higher conversion rate. Especially with a new visitor, knowing what referral source or campaign they arrived from will help you better understand (and speak to) his or her interest.
Keep these two segmentation ideas in mind as you move deeper into your marketing efforts and learn more about various ways of segmenting your targets.
