Segmentation For the Win

With the advancement of technology and increased speed of communication, it is rare that one single, overarching campaign has the same effect on a mass of people and gets them interested in a product or service. In the past, marketers and advertisers would run generic, all-encompassing campaigns with hopes that it would appeal to everyone, or at least enough of them, and deliver to them calls-to-action to entice them to buy a product or service. With the fast pace of society today, it is just not plausible to believe that a blanket campaign will get everyone will be intrigued or captivated, let alone motivated to buy. Thus, it is vital that marketing campaigns be segmented for appropriate audiences in order to yield relevant content and messaging to then deliver ideal results.

Importance of Segmentation

As previously noted, campaigns that envelope a mass group of people rarely yield results that are desirable. But why is this? First and foremost, no two people are exactly the same. People come from different professional backgrounds, have different levels of experience, and have different interests. For example, in the B2B space, I wouldn’t run a campaign about my product’s new Marketo integration that is also going to reach potential customers who use Eloqua or HubSpot.

When you segment the audience for a campaign you can oftentimes make the campaign more audience-oriented and include more content that relates to your desired audience. In regards to my previous example, if I segment my desired audience to be only Marketo users within a certain geography, I can make a more thoroughly targeted ad to say something along the lines of “Calling all Marketo users in the tri-state area…”. This way, when my prospects see this targeted message, they know that I have a solution that could be specifically fitting for them and their organization.

Finally, because segmentation can narrow your target audience so meticulously, you have the opportunity to build more campaigns for other audiences as well. While this may sound unappealing and like more work, it will help you in the long run. For instance, in my Marketo example, I am simply targeting Marketo users with a campaign that is solely oriented to appeal to them. However, since my solution also offers HubSpot and Eloqua integrations, I could make similar, separate campaigns that appeal to prospects who use those marketing automation platforms. Then, when the prospects become leads, I can track to see who came from each campaign and focus my messaging strictly around the content that applied to them throughout the sales process.

Ways to Segment

Depending on how thoroughly you want to segment, there are a multitude of criteria for segmentation. Most commonly, audiences are segmented by title, department, experience, skills, technology use, etc. This way, you can isolate people who possess these qualities and exclude anyone who doesn’t meet the requirements. For instance, in my previous example I was segmenting by experience and focus on certain marketing automation platforms.

How Segmentation Yields Desired Results

Some of the most common issues amongst email marketers include: being marked as spam, high bounce rates, unsubscribes, and low levels of engagement. In a study by Mailchimp, it was discovered that open rate for segmented campaigns was 14.31% higher than non-segmented campaigns; with click rates being 100.95% higher than non-segmented campaigns. Additionally, they noted that on segmented campaigns bounce rates were 4.65% lower and abuse reports were 3.9% lower than non-segmented campaigns.

Remember, higher open and engagement rates are the first step in qualifying a campaign’s level of success. Even if there is no immediate revenue, seeing that deliverability is increasing and bounce rates are decreasing, indicates that people are more open to advertisements and campaigns from your company.