Segmentation and personalization of your marketing materials can be done in a number of ways. One of the most common is by buyer types.
Segmentation and Personalization Explained
Segmentation involves creating subsections in a certain niche or industry so you can then personalize content and offers which will hopefully resonate with your target audience and stimulate them to buy. You need to have a good understanding of your niche in the first place. Then you can start thinking about buyer types.
Buyer Types
To understand buyer types, let’s look at the multi-trillion-dollar global pet industry. Some consumers will buy for cats, others dogs. Some have a multi-pet mixed breed household and will buy for both. Cat owners will shop differently from dog owner. They will not usually need collars, leashes and dog clothing. They will need cat litter.
Good marketers also look at frequency of buying. How often do these pet owners have to buy these items? Cat owners will need food, litter and perhaps treats on a pretty regular basis. A smart store like Chewy allows people to create an account and set certain items to “Autoship” on a regular schedule, and even give them a discount for doing so.
In terms of brand loyalty, some cat food and litter shoppers might look for discounts and buy based on cost, but since cats tend to be rather finicky, if a cat owner finds a food they love or a litter that prevents their house from smelling like a cat box, they will tend to stick to it.
Marketing Personas
Some businesses create a marketing persona for each of their top customers – that is, the people most likely to buy from them. Personas are like a mini-biography, and include gender, age, income, marital status and other demographic details.
They then come up with names for the personas, like Cathy the Crazy Cat lady, who buys for her six cats and also feeds all the strays in her neighborhood. Or Petunia, who Pampers her Purring Cat, buying all sorts of luxury items for her one feline. She is single with a good salary and the cat is her “child” who wants for nothing.
Personas are useful if you treat them as real people. They should actually be a marketer’s best friend. By keeping Cathy and Petunia in mind, a good marketer will be able to craft customized messages that address their needs and make them feel like the company really understands them and their precious pet/s.
Buyer Channels
One other way to segment is through buyer channels. Where do Cathy and Petunia shop for all their pet supplies? Is it in the supermarket, online, at a warehouse club, or a combination of the three?
Understanding channels is important if you wish to connect with the buyer in such a way as to increase the chances they will buy from you. Manufacturers do it all the time with coupons in the Sunday papers. Warehouse clubs like BJ’s do it with coupons for cat litter and dry food.
If you are trying to sell a new brand of cat treats and don’t have wide distribution, selling online directly can be tricky. However, if you emphasize that the treats are completely organic, grain-free, taste great, and are loaded with healthy fish oils for a healthy skin and coat, Petunia will probably be eager to try them. Cathy might be as well, provided you also demonstrated that they were good value in a 12-ounce resealable tub and could help prevent hairballs and therefore expensive trips to the vet.
Create personas and use them to segment and personalize. Then see what a difference it can make to your revenue.
