Audience segmentation, a marketing strategy involving identifying subgroups in a target market, aims to maximize companies’ efforts by offering tailored messaging. By speaking directly to specific consumer subsets, businesses can create a more personalized experience and increase their chances of converting leads into paying customers.

Scott Jacobson, airport advertising expert says that entrepreneurs with a clear understanding of their targeted demographics provide the best service, accurately influencing the path to a purchase for emphasized results. 

How to Segment Audiences

The aim of the segmenting game is to group individuals based on shared characteristics. While simple enough, humans are truly complex creatures. Thus, there are a few different ways to perform audience segmentation, as detailed below:

Demographic Segmentation

Businesses of all shapes and sizes typically conduct demographic segmentation. Why? Simply put, it’s easy and it works. 

Demographics exist in many areas of life — age, education level, income level, job type, etc. — so entrepreneurs can pick from a variety of characteristics that suit them and their business.

That said, it only offers a basic top-level view of the target markets. For a granular perspective, demographic segmentation needs some combining with others. 

Geographic Segmentation

This involves separating people based on their physical location, and can be made as expansive or narrow as necessary. 

Using demographic and geographic segmentation together is a commonly chosen route. For instance, businesses targeting farmers (job type, demographic segmentation) should advertise to these workers in the same area (geographic) to account for the seasonal goods required for harvesting. 

Behavioral Segmentation

Segmenting people by the actions they take can be a game-changer for businesses, streamlining their marketing choices going forward.

Professionals tend to categorize customers based on social media usage, shopping preferences, the devices they use, or gaming habits. That way, they can produce media that will actually reach the people who are most likely to buy the product. It’s all about maximizing impact. 

Attitudinal or Psychographic Segmentation

This type of segmentation offers details about audience’s interests, mindsets, and wider perceptions. It can be anything from the fact that they dislike or like a certain brand, why they watch certain movie genres, and their values or lifestyle choices. 

Using Audience Segments for Customizing Messaging

Upon segmentation, entrepreneurs can use them to customize their marketing plans. Such personalization tends to reap more rewards, stretching marketing budgets further than previously assumed.

That said, business owners must take the time to fully understand these various segments. Different people respond to different marketing tactics. Only knowing the distinctions between these groups isn’t enough to maximize advertising impact. 

One of the most popular methods is to develop audience profiles. They may need to be changed further down the line, but they are a great tool to base creative briefs on. Businesses can alter their messaging to suit the people that are most likely to purchase. 

The Right Marketing Channel for The Right People

After customizing the messaging based on an audience profile, the only thing standing in its way is selecting the channel — Facebook, blog posts, email, Instagram, etc.

Choosing channels thoughtfully will ensure the return on investment every business hopes for.