Post by lizaseo11 on Nov 9, 2024 1:16:49 GMT -6
Do you know your customer by sight? No? Then this article is a must have for you to read right now!
Who needs to segment the target audience and why?
It would seem that on every corner they say that segmentation of the target audience is an opportunity to find a secret key to your client and sell him everything you have without a twinge of conscience.
But a significant portion of marketers forget: segmentation is necessary not only when there is something to sell. Segmentation is also necessary before creating a new product or service (oh, these startups...). After all, defining the pains and needs of the target audience plays in two directions:
We know the product shopify website design and its functions - we determine who is interested in them.
We know the unmet needs of the audience in the market - we create a unique product for them.
By the way, another important point opens up in this plane: ALWAYS, together with the analysis of the target audience, you need to conduct an analysis of your product! Why? Read on.
Segmentation and definition of the portrait of the target audience representative should be done in several cases:
1. Developing or updating a marketing strategy. When you are just defining the secret roads to the client's heart, it is clear that you are trying to find out the sore spots, the cure for which will be your product. The classic scheme of segmentation into small groups by key features will be suitable here.
2. Entering a new company into the market. In this case, you do the main work - determine the product positioning on the market, and only then create a substantially new marketing strategy. In this case, the 5W (6W) strategy will do.
3. Creating a new product. As mentioned above, we initially identify hidden or obvious needs that are not yet satisfied by existing products, and only then release this product. The Hunt Ladder is perfect for a basic assessment here (by the way, this is the main principle that all marketers use today to determine the "warmth" of a client).
Where to look for information about the audience: the Internet knows everything!
When they say that the Internet is spying on everyone, they recall the theory of the great conspiracy. Well... Yes, the Internet is spying on everyone. At least on those who allow it to be done. And it is foolish to ignore the information that is on the network. Therefore, it is worth starting to collect data on the target audience from the network:
1. Analytics systems for existing businesses: Yandex.Metrica, Google Analytics, Roistat.
2. Information from your sales managers and recordings of telephone conversations with clients
3. Social networks: pages, thematic communities and groups.
4. CRM systems and company database.
5. Thematic forums and media.
6. Rating and information agencies with open data.
7. Statistical services.
In addition to sources from which information only needs to be taken and processed, there are other methods that are suitable for the B2B market and complex niches with a low level of information about the buyer:
Personal interview with the client.
Online surveys.
Competitors' cases.
The classic model of audience segmentation: I see, I study, I learn.
Modern marketers have identified several hundred (just think about it!) criteria for segmenting the target audience. On the one hand, this is great, the client can definitely be studied under a microscope, on the other hand, by the time you study the client, he will have already changed in at least half of the criteria. We offer an analysis that will allow you to delve as deeply as possible into consumer incentives:
1. Demographic factors: gender, age.
2. Geolocation: country, region, city or town. Sometimes criteria such as climate, population density and development of urban infrastructure are highlighted here.
3. Socioeconomic: family status, presence of children, number of children, age of children, whether there are other persons under guardianship or trusteeship, education, employment and position, income level and its regularity. Here you can additionally segment by generation type, political and religious views, interests, and everyday habits.
4. Behavioural: features of interaction with the product, features of interaction with the company, motivation to purchase, purchasing habits.
5. Psychographic: values, motivation, civic position.
6. B2B: industry, field of activity, company scale, decision maker, decision maker, who is on the purchasing committee, position in the company, seasonality and frequency of sales, level of familiarity with the product.
In fact, for each criterion, the desired classification features can be identified indefinitely. At the same time, marketers recommend taking no less than 10.
Segmentation can be done in several ways. And we will share our secret with you. If you find it difficult to start from the beginning - that is, choosing criteria for analysis, go from the opposite. Describe
first of all, those clients with whom it is absolutely not profitable for you to work,
then with whom, in principle, it is possible to work, but it is not desirable
and those who are your most targeted audience.
Using online tools or a simple Excel, create a table. Vertically indicate groups and subgroups of criteria, and horizontally - how much of your “desirable” client this is.
Example 1: B2C
This is how we did it when preparing a target audience portrait for a company selling “men’s” goods.
Segmenting your target audience: learning how to “divide and conquer”
The list of criteria itself is quite long, but for the general picture of how to build a grid, this is enough.
What did we get?
Description 1-1 – 1-3: Our satisfied customers: these are men aged 25-35 from the capital and large cities. They always pay for the goods in advance, order for large average checks, are loyal to the company, make an order 10-15 times a year, leave reviews and recommend our goods to their friends, as they are well versed in the goods and are satisfied with the quality and level of our service.
Description 2-1 – 2-3: Difficult clients: women of any age, because they do not understand the product, they order most often as a gift for a man 1-2 times a year, consultations with the manager take a lot of time, the average bill is 3 times lower than for men.
Description 3-1 – 3-3: It is better not to work: Women, of any age, from small towns, pay strictly by cash on delivery, very often do not come for the goods, due to which we incur losses on delivery of goods in both directions, advertising to such a target audience does not pay off at all...
Example 2: B2B
This is how we did it when preparing target audience portraits for a company in the field of manufacturing automation equipment.
Segmenting your target audience: learning how to “divide and conquer”
As in the first example, we highlight the most significant characteristics of the collective image of desirable clients and those with whom it is not recommended to work.
Description 1-1 – 1-4: Our satisfied customers are aircraft factories with more than 2,000 employees, a high level of intellectual resources and production culture. They account for 60% of our company's turnover, use production automation, so we communicate with them in the same language, the sale and implementation of our equipment is fast and painless for both parties. Even after the end of the warranty period, they contact us for further service maintenance of our line of production automation.
Description 2-1 – 2-4: Complex clients from the mechanical engineering industry with up to 2,000 employees, they account for 20% of our company's turnover, are only planning to implement automation of production, they hold preliminary tenders, but the technical, intellectual and cultural preparation of their production for the implementation of automation is extremely weak. Because of this, within the warranty service, we are often forced to go to them to eliminate breakdowns due to their own errors.
Description 3-1 – 3-4: It is better not to work. Metalworking enterprises with a small number of employees are not ready to implement automation of production, since they have no idea about it. They are not ready for this either financially or intellectually. Exclude such an audience from all advertising activities of our company.
At the same time, the company can identify new “types” of clients with whom there was no contact before and think through possible options for touchpoints with such clients. For example, these could be: wagon-building or automobile plants.
Please note that the principle of customer segmentation in both B2B and B2C is almost the same, the parameters are just different.
You have a collective image of a representative of your target audience. Now you understand who you 100% want to work with, who you can work with in principle, and who it is better not to work with. But this is only a collective image, and our task now is to make typical characters of our target audience, that is, to understand even “deeper” their wants, expectations, characteristics of the product/service that are important to them. The best way to understand this is to listen to recordings of telephone conversations of your sales managers. If you have such recordings, or talk to them if you do not.
If we are talking about B2B, then most likely events will develop like this:
A technical specialist searches for a solution to a problem on the Internet, following instructions from senior management.
The purchasing committee reviews the solution found by the technician and submits it to the director for approval.
The director makes the final decision on the purchase.
And our task is to present the product or services in such a way that they satisfy all members of the purchasing committee.
If we are talking about B2C, then here:
My husband is looking for a car, computer, etc. based on technical specifications.
Studies reviews, coordinates with friends and spouse.
The decision is made jointly with the spouse.
Another B2C option:
My wife found a ticket to Egypt.
She studies reviews, talks to friends who have already flown there on holiday, and coordinates with her husband and children.
The decision is made jointly by the whole family.
Let's visualize this data:
Segmenting your target audience: learning how to “divide and conquer”
Next we will cover the issue of constructing portraits of typical characters.
But before that, I will remind you of a well-worn, banal truth:
People buy not a drill, but a feeling of comfort in an apartment (emotion). A drill is needed to drill a hole in the wall; a hole is needed to place a fastener there; a fastener is needed to hang a shelf on it; a shelf is needed to store things on it and have quick access to these things.
People don't buy medicine, but rather an improvement in their well-being.
People don't buy a car, but the comfort of travel (emotion).
People don't buy an armored door or an antivirus, but their own security.
Companies are not buying new machines, but the opportunity to save on production and employees in order to shorten the production cycle, increase the number of units of goods per unit of time and, ultimately, increase the turnover of the enterprise...
And so on ad infinitum...
Think right now, why do people buy your product or service? What questions and problems does it solve in the end?
Segmentation 5W (6W): it doesn’t matter what, but how and to whom.
Mark Sherrington's method is a technique that allows you to sell any product, it is important to know under what circumstances it is worth doing.
It will be most useful for new companies. Why? When a company is just entering the market, it has a product, but no positioning. This is a crystal-clear story and field of activity. Even with a typical product, you can capture an impressive audience and even take customers away from competitors.
5W: What? Who? Why? When? Where?
What are we selling? Description of the product, its unique characteristics, benefits, advantages, values.
Who are we selling to? A general portrait of the client, as far as it can be recreated, based on the study of competitors' consumers.
Why (for what purpose) will the product be purchased? What pain or gap will the client fill with this product (its unique function).
When? Seasonality or temporary circumstances of purchase.
Where? Purchase channels or unique circumstances.
How? What interests, incentives, advantages (explicit or implicit) will the purchase satisfy under these circumstances?
By answering these questions sequentially, you build a mental map with a lot of paths and forks. Having prepared a full-fledged fork into 6 paths for each portrait of a potential client, you create a work scenario and form your unique positioning.
Hunt's Ladder: If there was someone, they would find something to sell
Which client is the most desirable? The one who is ready to buy your product at the specified price with the desired characteristics.
Do we remember everything?
— …Do you have the same one, but with mother-of-pearl buttons?
- Unfortunately no.
- No? We'll look...
The Hunt Ladder determines what stage of purchase readiness a customer is at.
1. Indifference or ignorance. The customer does not know that the product exists or has not determined the need for the purchase.
2. Awareness or recognition of the problem. The customer knows that a product exists or has determined that a specified product with specific characteristics would be willing to purchase.
3. Search for a solution or comparison. The client searches for the desired product or compares available products according to criteria that could satisfy him.
4. Selecting a company. The client is looking for a seller who is ready to provide him with the desired product on the most favorable terms.
5. Purchase. The client is ready to make a deal.
How can segmentation by the specified criteria help companies that have not yet decided on a product? It's simple. If, within a specific niche or industry, a significant gap is identified - an unmet need of the audience for a specific product, then, by releasing the specified product, you can form your own micromarket.
The final “portrait”
As a result of any of the segmentation methods described above, you will get several portraits of representatives of the target audience.
Who needs to segment the target audience and why?
It would seem that on every corner they say that segmentation of the target audience is an opportunity to find a secret key to your client and sell him everything you have without a twinge of conscience.
But a significant portion of marketers forget: segmentation is necessary not only when there is something to sell. Segmentation is also necessary before creating a new product or service (oh, these startups...). After all, defining the pains and needs of the target audience plays in two directions:
We know the product shopify website design and its functions - we determine who is interested in them.
We know the unmet needs of the audience in the market - we create a unique product for them.
By the way, another important point opens up in this plane: ALWAYS, together with the analysis of the target audience, you need to conduct an analysis of your product! Why? Read on.
Segmentation and definition of the portrait of the target audience representative should be done in several cases:
1. Developing or updating a marketing strategy. When you are just defining the secret roads to the client's heart, it is clear that you are trying to find out the sore spots, the cure for which will be your product. The classic scheme of segmentation into small groups by key features will be suitable here.
2. Entering a new company into the market. In this case, you do the main work - determine the product positioning on the market, and only then create a substantially new marketing strategy. In this case, the 5W (6W) strategy will do.
3. Creating a new product. As mentioned above, we initially identify hidden or obvious needs that are not yet satisfied by existing products, and only then release this product. The Hunt Ladder is perfect for a basic assessment here (by the way, this is the main principle that all marketers use today to determine the "warmth" of a client).
Where to look for information about the audience: the Internet knows everything!
When they say that the Internet is spying on everyone, they recall the theory of the great conspiracy. Well... Yes, the Internet is spying on everyone. At least on those who allow it to be done. And it is foolish to ignore the information that is on the network. Therefore, it is worth starting to collect data on the target audience from the network:
1. Analytics systems for existing businesses: Yandex.Metrica, Google Analytics, Roistat.
2. Information from your sales managers and recordings of telephone conversations with clients
3. Social networks: pages, thematic communities and groups.
4. CRM systems and company database.
5. Thematic forums and media.
6. Rating and information agencies with open data.
7. Statistical services.
In addition to sources from which information only needs to be taken and processed, there are other methods that are suitable for the B2B market and complex niches with a low level of information about the buyer:
Personal interview with the client.
Online surveys.
Competitors' cases.
The classic model of audience segmentation: I see, I study, I learn.
Modern marketers have identified several hundred (just think about it!) criteria for segmenting the target audience. On the one hand, this is great, the client can definitely be studied under a microscope, on the other hand, by the time you study the client, he will have already changed in at least half of the criteria. We offer an analysis that will allow you to delve as deeply as possible into consumer incentives:
1. Demographic factors: gender, age.
2. Geolocation: country, region, city or town. Sometimes criteria such as climate, population density and development of urban infrastructure are highlighted here.
3. Socioeconomic: family status, presence of children, number of children, age of children, whether there are other persons under guardianship or trusteeship, education, employment and position, income level and its regularity. Here you can additionally segment by generation type, political and religious views, interests, and everyday habits.
4. Behavioural: features of interaction with the product, features of interaction with the company, motivation to purchase, purchasing habits.
5. Psychographic: values, motivation, civic position.
6. B2B: industry, field of activity, company scale, decision maker, decision maker, who is on the purchasing committee, position in the company, seasonality and frequency of sales, level of familiarity with the product.
In fact, for each criterion, the desired classification features can be identified indefinitely. At the same time, marketers recommend taking no less than 10.
Segmentation can be done in several ways. And we will share our secret with you. If you find it difficult to start from the beginning - that is, choosing criteria for analysis, go from the opposite. Describe
first of all, those clients with whom it is absolutely not profitable for you to work,
then with whom, in principle, it is possible to work, but it is not desirable
and those who are your most targeted audience.
Using online tools or a simple Excel, create a table. Vertically indicate groups and subgroups of criteria, and horizontally - how much of your “desirable” client this is.
Example 1: B2C
This is how we did it when preparing a target audience portrait for a company selling “men’s” goods.
Segmenting your target audience: learning how to “divide and conquer”
The list of criteria itself is quite long, but for the general picture of how to build a grid, this is enough.
What did we get?
Description 1-1 – 1-3: Our satisfied customers: these are men aged 25-35 from the capital and large cities. They always pay for the goods in advance, order for large average checks, are loyal to the company, make an order 10-15 times a year, leave reviews and recommend our goods to their friends, as they are well versed in the goods and are satisfied with the quality and level of our service.
Description 2-1 – 2-3: Difficult clients: women of any age, because they do not understand the product, they order most often as a gift for a man 1-2 times a year, consultations with the manager take a lot of time, the average bill is 3 times lower than for men.
Description 3-1 – 3-3: It is better not to work: Women, of any age, from small towns, pay strictly by cash on delivery, very often do not come for the goods, due to which we incur losses on delivery of goods in both directions, advertising to such a target audience does not pay off at all...
Example 2: B2B
This is how we did it when preparing target audience portraits for a company in the field of manufacturing automation equipment.
Segmenting your target audience: learning how to “divide and conquer”
As in the first example, we highlight the most significant characteristics of the collective image of desirable clients and those with whom it is not recommended to work.
Description 1-1 – 1-4: Our satisfied customers are aircraft factories with more than 2,000 employees, a high level of intellectual resources and production culture. They account for 60% of our company's turnover, use production automation, so we communicate with them in the same language, the sale and implementation of our equipment is fast and painless for both parties. Even after the end of the warranty period, they contact us for further service maintenance of our line of production automation.
Description 2-1 – 2-4: Complex clients from the mechanical engineering industry with up to 2,000 employees, they account for 20% of our company's turnover, are only planning to implement automation of production, they hold preliminary tenders, but the technical, intellectual and cultural preparation of their production for the implementation of automation is extremely weak. Because of this, within the warranty service, we are often forced to go to them to eliminate breakdowns due to their own errors.
Description 3-1 – 3-4: It is better not to work. Metalworking enterprises with a small number of employees are not ready to implement automation of production, since they have no idea about it. They are not ready for this either financially or intellectually. Exclude such an audience from all advertising activities of our company.
At the same time, the company can identify new “types” of clients with whom there was no contact before and think through possible options for touchpoints with such clients. For example, these could be: wagon-building or automobile plants.
Please note that the principle of customer segmentation in both B2B and B2C is almost the same, the parameters are just different.
You have a collective image of a representative of your target audience. Now you understand who you 100% want to work with, who you can work with in principle, and who it is better not to work with. But this is only a collective image, and our task now is to make typical characters of our target audience, that is, to understand even “deeper” their wants, expectations, characteristics of the product/service that are important to them. The best way to understand this is to listen to recordings of telephone conversations of your sales managers. If you have such recordings, or talk to them if you do not.
If we are talking about B2B, then most likely events will develop like this:
A technical specialist searches for a solution to a problem on the Internet, following instructions from senior management.
The purchasing committee reviews the solution found by the technician and submits it to the director for approval.
The director makes the final decision on the purchase.
And our task is to present the product or services in such a way that they satisfy all members of the purchasing committee.
If we are talking about B2C, then here:
My husband is looking for a car, computer, etc. based on technical specifications.
Studies reviews, coordinates with friends and spouse.
The decision is made jointly with the spouse.
Another B2C option:
My wife found a ticket to Egypt.
She studies reviews, talks to friends who have already flown there on holiday, and coordinates with her husband and children.
The decision is made jointly by the whole family.
Let's visualize this data:
Segmenting your target audience: learning how to “divide and conquer”
Next we will cover the issue of constructing portraits of typical characters.
But before that, I will remind you of a well-worn, banal truth:
People buy not a drill, but a feeling of comfort in an apartment (emotion). A drill is needed to drill a hole in the wall; a hole is needed to place a fastener there; a fastener is needed to hang a shelf on it; a shelf is needed to store things on it and have quick access to these things.
People don't buy medicine, but rather an improvement in their well-being.
People don't buy a car, but the comfort of travel (emotion).
People don't buy an armored door or an antivirus, but their own security.
Companies are not buying new machines, but the opportunity to save on production and employees in order to shorten the production cycle, increase the number of units of goods per unit of time and, ultimately, increase the turnover of the enterprise...
And so on ad infinitum...
Think right now, why do people buy your product or service? What questions and problems does it solve in the end?
Segmentation 5W (6W): it doesn’t matter what, but how and to whom.
Mark Sherrington's method is a technique that allows you to sell any product, it is important to know under what circumstances it is worth doing.
It will be most useful for new companies. Why? When a company is just entering the market, it has a product, but no positioning. This is a crystal-clear story and field of activity. Even with a typical product, you can capture an impressive audience and even take customers away from competitors.
5W: What? Who? Why? When? Where?
What are we selling? Description of the product, its unique characteristics, benefits, advantages, values.
Who are we selling to? A general portrait of the client, as far as it can be recreated, based on the study of competitors' consumers.
Why (for what purpose) will the product be purchased? What pain or gap will the client fill with this product (its unique function).
When? Seasonality or temporary circumstances of purchase.
Where? Purchase channels or unique circumstances.
How? What interests, incentives, advantages (explicit or implicit) will the purchase satisfy under these circumstances?
By answering these questions sequentially, you build a mental map with a lot of paths and forks. Having prepared a full-fledged fork into 6 paths for each portrait of a potential client, you create a work scenario and form your unique positioning.
Hunt's Ladder: If there was someone, they would find something to sell
Which client is the most desirable? The one who is ready to buy your product at the specified price with the desired characteristics.
Do we remember everything?
— …Do you have the same one, but with mother-of-pearl buttons?
- Unfortunately no.
- No? We'll look...
The Hunt Ladder determines what stage of purchase readiness a customer is at.
1. Indifference or ignorance. The customer does not know that the product exists or has not determined the need for the purchase.
2. Awareness or recognition of the problem. The customer knows that a product exists or has determined that a specified product with specific characteristics would be willing to purchase.
3. Search for a solution or comparison. The client searches for the desired product or compares available products according to criteria that could satisfy him.
4. Selecting a company. The client is looking for a seller who is ready to provide him with the desired product on the most favorable terms.
5. Purchase. The client is ready to make a deal.
How can segmentation by the specified criteria help companies that have not yet decided on a product? It's simple. If, within a specific niche or industry, a significant gap is identified - an unmet need of the audience for a specific product, then, by releasing the specified product, you can form your own micromarket.
The final “portrait”
As a result of any of the segmentation methods described above, you will get several portraits of representatives of the target audience.