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Eighty per cent of audiences are more inclined to do business with brands that personalise their experience. The expectation is every time you interact with a customer it should be personalised to their preferences, order history and even their personality. As a result, the need for customer segmentation to create an engaging customer experience and successful marketing campaigns is imperative.
Open rates, click rates, and conversions are all high priority goals as you move users along the customer journey. However, taking the time to segment your customer database will make it easier as you’ll be showing customers content that they are actually interested in.
But it is data that makes this a reality. Without it, you will have little insight into how people interact and behave with your brand.
The Role Data plays in Segmentation
Quality first party data is what drives marketing campaigns towards success. The more reliable your data is, the easier customer segmentation becomes.
When putting your customers into different groups, you need to make sure you understand them completely. Without capturing quality data at the various touch points of your business, this is impossible. So before you can realistically start segmenting your database, take some time to go through a cleansing exercise.
A customer data platform or CRM can make this easier as it can pull all your customer data into one place.
Types of Data to Include
In order to build up really strong segments you need to include as much data as possible. The more you include the better your segments will become, and the more personalised your communications and online experience can be.
As for the types of data you include, this largely depends on your customer base, your service or product offering and what you want to achieve.
For eCommerce businesses, the more data you can gather from across your business the more unique the customer experience can become. For other businesses, highly personalised email nurture sequences with targeted content is enough.
You need to identify what will be of most use to you:
Demographical Data
You should understand where your customer is from, where they live, and how each cohort behaves. Although it seems basic, you’d be surprised how many companies gloss over these fundamental details. Doing the simple things right can get you to a good place. It may not be enough to get you ahead of the game, but it’s necessary to get you off the ground.
Taking age into account means that you can communicate with different audiences more effectively. Recognising that 18 year olds have different interests to someone in their 50s.
The same applies to gender. Websites, generally eCommerce, have different sections for male and female clothing. However it is very important that you are inclusive when it comes to this segment. Share lots of categorisation choices to ensure that customers are segmented into the group they are most comfortable in.
Income, level of education, and marital status can also come into play when creating personalised communications.
The most important thing is that you understand the customer’s background and apply it to your customer communications.
Geographical Data
Taking geography into account is more than just identifying what country a segment of your customers are in. You need to go a bit deeper to properly engage them.
Aside from communicating in your customer’s native language, you need to take currency and other local considerations into account. Including national holidays, religious holidays and anything that may be culturally insensitive.
Also take into account which version of the English language is in use. Mixing up British English and US English will irritate your customers.
Also take into account the fact that the majority of your customers have jobs. So choosing optimal times to communicate will result in an uptick in engagement. Late morning, lunchtimes and early evening are the best time to communicate with your customers.
Behavioural Data
Your customers behave differently depending on their lifecycle stage. Understanding where they are along the customer journey and your relationship with them can be used to your advantage. Use this type of information to help form parts of your marketing strategy.
Use customer website activity to get insights into how they are interacting with your site. You can segment by the first page they visit, call to action clicked, page visit with the longest time, among others. Identify trends amongst different segments and build campaigns that are likely to catch their attention.
Take a look at your history with your customers and learn from it. You can use your previous customer interactions and make predictions about how they might act in the future. For example, your last interaction with a particular customer may have ended positively. So send them a promotion you think they might qualify for or deserve. This can really strengthen the relationship further and drive revenue.
If, on the other hand, the last interaction ended on a more negative note, you might want to make an effort to rebuild the relationship. Reach out to your customer service or success teams and they can help to nurture the relationship with this segment again.
Technographic Data
Understanding the type of technology your customers use has a big impact on how you can interact with them. Different devices and browsers means that your messages appear differently. There are best practices to keep in mind for communicating through different devices, operating systems and apps.
Customers can interact differently with your website depending on the device they’re using. If a lot of customers are visiting your site using phones, then you need to make sure that your site is mobile friendly and fully optimised. There is little room for error here.
Browser type has a role to play as well when it comes to customer segmentation. Your website and customer communications appear differently depending on the browser they are using. You need to ensure that your messages are displaying properly and the way you want them to appear for your customer segments. This is where testing plays a vital role and could make or break your campaign performance.
Transactional Data
Some customers will be more valuable than others, and it’s important that you identify who they are when it comes to customer segmentation. Your more frequent customers should be communicated in a totally different way to your less frequent ones.
Segmenting by number of purchases a customer has made is a good start and helps in establishing customer value. The higher the amount of purchases they have made, the higher the value to your business. You should be incorporating this in your customer segmentation.
Taking into account the average purchase order can create deeper segments. Some customers might purchase more often, but the value of that order might be consistently quite low. You may want to reward loyal customers that make repeat purchases of high value.
Use it or lose it
Once you have put the effort into understanding your data and segmenting your customers, you need to make sure you use them efficiently. Don’t let all that good work go to waste.
As long as you have the data to support it, you can be as creative as you want with your segments. You just have to make sure you’re updating them on a consistent basis.
If you want to hear more about how Xtremepush can help you with your data consolidation and customer segmentation efforts, get in touch with the team to book a demo today.
