David Arnoux is responsible for growth and co-founder of Twoodo, helping teams organize using #hashtags simple. This article originally appeared on the blog Twoodo.
Customer segmentation means categorize your visitors / users in a way that achieves a business goal - even your early adopters. There are tons of benefits to segment properly. Avoiding unnecessary channels, identifying the most profitable channels, improve your customer service, discovering unexplored niches and more
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all comes down to using your resources wisely to achieve maximum profitability. Before going into this deep, I would like to mention a fascinating history of how Target (USA) ironically on-target customers.
The famous anecdote about how the target included a teenage girl was pregnant before her parents were in identifying patterns in what women bought in each of their quarters - lotion, mineral supplements, blankets - to the super-target with coupons for items that he expected them to buy at stages of pregnancy. And pregnant women are a lucrative market!
Via its customer identification number, target followed what she bought and sent her coupons in the mail for what he expects would be his next purchase baby in the quarter. The father found the coupons and was furious at the target.
But the story became infamous - and Target has learned that the specific slipped become its customers. So now, while he still sends coupons based on these data, it also added randomized ads for other things in order to make people less aware of how every purchase is monitored. Learn more about the story here.
One size does not fit all
Despite this history, most of the time be able to segment leads for better customization. Personalization has been proven time and again to be effective in converting people. It is more than just address the email with the first name of the recipient. - It involves good timing, a compelling CTA (not all your segments meet the same CTA), and using a specific language
Check these statistics from Adobe / Econsultancy:
Not surprisingly, there is a slow change in large companies:
" Of course, technology mirror trends business requirements. If economic actors had really understood the value of personalization in digital then all these brilliant people writing software have supported the need. Despite the many obvious examples among the leaders in the digital space, most companies were disappointing in learning the real lessons They tend to think that these business models just do not apply to them
This is not to be unfounded.. - you can not assume that because an online retailer with millions of products made great use of market basket analysis as it is what you need too. It is the deepest lesson - that the conduct of different personalized experience - that often goes underrated "
Although these dinosaurs still walk around, you can enjoy. ! as long as your attitude is not trying at all to please, you will have something of value to offer a niche.
Personalization works for customer segmentation
the transition to the "personalized Web" therefore unfortunately not be driven by good will, but because business is the market reaction. but simply segmenting by location and stage of life are not always going to be enough to use our dynamic and changing personalities.
This is why algorithms that can track and predict our tastes and habits in the future will become so lucrative.
in the meantime, we segment our visitors and customers into meaningful groups with sensitive KPIs that can actually help us achieve our goals.
SoAdaptive lists the reasons why personalization works
- convergence :. Social logins that show how many of your friends are already using the service / product you are encouraged to be part of the tribe
- relevance and immediacy of information: it resonates with the new user you are already " intuitively "in the service of their desires .
- confidence customization by displaying mutual friends on board, sending targeted information including measures as a "welcome" page and increase in confidence "with the brand
- similarity :. We are comfortable with what we know, and therefore less likely to unsubscribe.
- reciprocity :. A deep psychological trait in humans - do something for your users and it is likely they will do something for you in return
- emotion: the right stimulus provoke an emotional response, and lead to increased commitment .
- social proof: we are strongly influenced by our friends, peers and family - we are more likely to use or purchase a product if those around us also emphasize the use .
Of course, these customization items come after you understand your segments. A typical segmentation list, taking Megan Neely and Jeffrey Vocell on Quora:
- previous engagement with your website
- Time / Day / Data
- Recency and frequency of visits
- reference source (campaign against the earned media)
- Mobile Type Browser
- Keywords
- external data - think CRM or click -through the data stored in email and marketing automation platforms
- behavior
- Mobile device properties (eg touch screen or non-touch)
- Type mobile device (iPhone / Android / Blackberry, etc.)
- Table Type & browser
- Geo-location (state / region, city, zip code, Media Market)
- language
These segments are important, but give a general view rather than custom user. From these data points, you can
- CTAs test page design / landing
- identify landing sites
- optimized for mobile devices
- decide if you need to create specific applications for devices
- discover that the base language is the biggest among your users
- see what growth tactics led many who have not
- the most effective times to display application messages, deals, coupons, etc.
This is certainly useful. But take a look at how Localytics takes a step further.
This video Localytics gives an excellent breakdown of how users can be segmented in a way that makes sense for each unique mobile application. It segments its customers into unique categories :. "Couponers", "second screen", "news junkies" and. "Social Butterfly" These groups are meaningful to the business objectives of the company
When the regular segmentation and personalization converge
humans are not zombies. You can not tell what drives me to become more engaged with your product if you do not know what's up in the morning.
As now famous TED speech Simon Sinek proclaims "this is not what you do, it's why you do it." This statement leads us to Twoodo every day to try to learn more about why our users really want us.
people become loyal to a company not because only the product, but what this company is. They are called "psychographics. When segmentation and personalization will become the most powerful for your product or service is the place where you can merge these successes.
Some psychographics (Community Tool Box)
- political views, including both political affiliation and the radical-liberal-centrist-right spectrum -conservative
- values and morals
- social attitudes
- actual religious beliefs (not just "born in")
- environmental awareness and attitudes
- health awareness
- attitudes towards the authority, the blind acceptance to outright hostility
How can you understand it
See where your users are on the Internet - forums, communities Google+, lists Twitter, Facebook groups, Meetup. What is their industry / role? How their local culture affect?
For example, we have messages to the application in our product to check and see how people are doing. For our US customers, it worked perfectly. They liked to be reached out to.
However, in the Netherlands, people have found that it infringed on their privacy and annoyed. Why? The United States is strongly influenced by customer service and the company taking care of them. And the Dutch are an autonomous people who reach when they need, when they want.
This is also a great opportunity to discover the language of your users speak. It is essential to learn the language so that your service can be developed to be presented in the most attractive way possible to your niche.
The Obama 2012 campaign has applied this form of customization in an innovative way. The team used the names of people, not only in email, but created a dashboard for them to connect to the countryside to see what was going on, participate in the discussions, propose ideas and so right now.
This was because their user base was used to participate using social collaboration and respected transparency and direct participation.
The big "but"
As you do all these wonderful discoveries about your users, keep in mind what your business goals are. Over-segmenting can be cons-productive. If these custom segments are finally unprofitable or unviable, then you have to let them go (or find another way to monetize).
Through your research and learning process of customer segmentation and personalization, focus on what works for your business. Then you can direct your marketing and sales to a zone and kick ass concentrated
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