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Online Customer Segmentation
Made Easy
by Jay Neuman
. Print Friendly Version
This article is an excerpt from: The Complete Internet Marketer: A Practical
Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Online
Online customers are as diverse as the general buying public. Web folklore
used to say that typical web “surfers” are mostly male youth and techies. Those
days are long gone. Web users today are business professionals and
grandparents, women and men. A successful website has to appeal to the
unique wants and needs of each group. This article teaches how to target your
online marketing efforts with an easy method that anyone can do.
In most cases, there will be more than one customer type who you are reaching
out to through your website. Each is coming to your website for a different
reason. The site must be able to draw each one into a path that leads them to
the things they need and want. In marketing terms, groups of different types of
customer are called segments.
Identifying customer segments is an essential part of any marketing plan. The
same is true for your Internet Marketing plan. You will use this knowledge for
many things, including: what content you will include on your website, what
features you will need, where you will seek to get traffic and to plan your
targeted marketing efforts.
Defining Your Target
To develop an Internet Marketing program that effectively reaches all of your
customers, the easiest approach is to ask the five basic questions that all news
reporters know: Who, What, Where, Why and How. These are known as “the
Five W’s.” By taking time to answer these five questions up front, you will be
able to make the most effective use of limited resources, as you build a website
that meets the needs and wants of all your customers.
Who Are Your Customers?
In the first question, you want to define the basic characteristics of the people
coming to your website. You will ask questions like: How old are they? Are
they men or women? Are they business professionals, students or veterans? In
marketing lingo, this kind of information is called demographics. If your
customers are businesses, then you will ask questions like: Are they retail
stores or service suppliers? Are they Fortune 1000 corporations or mom & pop
shops? Are they local or national? These are called firmographics. They are
the same as demographics, but for firms.
You will use this information to create targeted content on your website and
targeted messages for your marketing promotions.
What Are They Interested In?
In the second question, you want to identify what motivates your customers to
want what you have on your website. If you are selling shoes, are your
customers fashion conscious people who want new shoes to match their new
outfits? Are they parents, who are buying shoes for their kids to wear when
they go back to school?
You will use this information to figure out what your customers are looking for
and to create targeted marketing campaigns for your most profitable groups.
Where Will They Come From?
In the third question, you want to find out where your traffic is coming from. All
websites rely on traffic from search engines. But do not stop there. If you will
rely on current customers visiting your site, then you may want to send email or
advertise your website in their billing statements. If your customers will also be
visiting specialty content websites, then try advertising on those sites. An online
shoe store, for example, may advertise on a fashion magazine website.
You will use this information to create a strategy for driving traffic to your
website from as many sources as possible.
Why Will They Come to Your Website?
In the fourth question, you want to know what needs and wants your customers
are seeking to fulfill when they come to your website. You will ask questions
like: Do they want to buy products online? Do they want to contact customer
service? Will they be gathering information prior to a sale, and need to see
product reviews? Will they be ready to buy, and want to see available deals and
special offers?
You will use this information to design the architecture of your website to make
sure people are able to quickly and easily find what they are looking for.
How Will They Use Your Website?
In the fifth question, you want to determine how people will interact with your
website to do the things they want to do on the site. If they are buying
products, will they want to browse through categories or search by keywords? If
you are collecting sales leads, will they be more likely to fill out a needs
assessment form or request a white paper requiring their contact information
prior to downloading?
You will use this information to create a user interface that is intuitive and user
friendly.
You will typically answer these questions through a series of interviews and
brainstorming sessions prior to building your website. As you gather this
information, you will begin to discover patterns that let you create a program to
successfully meet the needs and wants of all your customer segments. In Web-
speak, this is called, Knowledge Discovery.
Identifying Your Customer Segments
After you have gone through the knowledge discovery process, you will have a
lot of information about your prospective online customers. The next thing to do
is to start identifying groups of similar customers. These are called segments.
If you have done a thorough job of recording all the information you gathered
from the five questions, you will probably notice some obvious groupings. By
identifying specific customer segments, you can plan content and promotions
targeted to their specific needs and wants. You will also be able to measure the
results of these efforts and determine which segments are the most profitable
for you. This is an iterative process. You can continue to improve the results of
your Internet Marketing efforts by targeting the most profitable segments. You
can also continue to research your customers to refine and improve the
specification of your segments.
Naming Your Segments
It is a common practice for marketers to give their customer segments cute
names that are easy to remember. That allows you to visualize a personality for
each group. This helps when you go to create targeted content or marketing
campaigns. Having segment names also makes it easy to measure results by
segment and present the results to others who will make marketing decisions
based on the data.
You will put together a brief description of each segment based on the answers
to the Five W’s. Then you will give each segment a descriptive and memorable
name that sums up what you wrote about them in the description.
A simple example will demonstrate how easy it is to identify your customer
segments. Assume you have launched an online shoe store called, “Leslie’s
Shoes.” You have determined that there are four major types of online shopper
who will come to your website. Take a look at Figure 2.3 to see how you might
define your customer segments.
Notice how defining your customers this way puts a face on the people coming to
your website. Once you have defined and named your customer segments in
this way, they quickly take on a life of their own. You are likely to begin treating
them like people you know rather than just numbers on a sales report.
You are now able to put together a clear picture of who your customers are and
what they will be looking for when they come to your website.
==========================
This article is an excerpt from The Complete Internet Marketer: A Practical
Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Online by Jay Neuman.
Since 1994, Jay Neuman has been helping businesses as varied as Fortune 500
companies, startup Dot-Coms and nonprofit organizations overcome their
Internet Marketing and Database Marketing challenges. Jay is currently Sole
Proprietor of the KnExT Consulting Group. - www.knextconsulting.com.
He can be reached at jay.neuman@knextconsulting.com
Made Easy
by Jay Neuman
. Print Friendly Version
This article is an excerpt from: The Complete Internet Marketer: A Practical
Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Online
Online customers are as diverse as the general buying public. Web folklore
used to say that typical web “surfers” are mostly male youth and techies. Those
days are long gone. Web users today are business professionals and
grandparents, women and men. A successful website has to appeal to the
unique wants and needs of each group. This article teaches how to target your
online marketing efforts with an easy method that anyone can do.
In most cases, there will be more than one customer type who you are reaching
out to through your website. Each is coming to your website for a different
reason. The site must be able to draw each one into a path that leads them to
the things they need and want. In marketing terms, groups of different types of
customer are called segments.
Identifying customer segments is an essential part of any marketing plan. The
same is true for your Internet Marketing plan. You will use this knowledge for
many things, including: what content you will include on your website, what
features you will need, where you will seek to get traffic and to plan your
targeted marketing efforts.
Defining Your Target
To develop an Internet Marketing program that effectively reaches all of your
customers, the easiest approach is to ask the five basic questions that all news
reporters know: Who, What, Where, Why and How. These are known as “the
Five W’s.” By taking time to answer these five questions up front, you will be
able to make the most effective use of limited resources, as you build a website
that meets the needs and wants of all your customers.
Who Are Your Customers?
In the first question, you want to define the basic characteristics of the people
coming to your website. You will ask questions like: How old are they? Are
they men or women? Are they business professionals, students or veterans? In
marketing lingo, this kind of information is called demographics. If your
customers are businesses, then you will ask questions like: Are they retail
stores or service suppliers? Are they Fortune 1000 corporations or mom & pop
shops? Are they local or national? These are called firmographics. They are
the same as demographics, but for firms.
You will use this information to create targeted content on your website and
targeted messages for your marketing promotions.
What Are They Interested In?
In the second question, you want to identify what motivates your customers to
want what you have on your website. If you are selling shoes, are your
customers fashion conscious people who want new shoes to match their new
outfits? Are they parents, who are buying shoes for their kids to wear when
they go back to school?
You will use this information to figure out what your customers are looking for
and to create targeted marketing campaigns for your most profitable groups.
Where Will They Come From?
In the third question, you want to find out where your traffic is coming from. All
websites rely on traffic from search engines. But do not stop there. If you will
rely on current customers visiting your site, then you may want to send email or
advertise your website in their billing statements. If your customers will also be
visiting specialty content websites, then try advertising on those sites. An online
shoe store, for example, may advertise on a fashion magazine website.
You will use this information to create a strategy for driving traffic to your
website from as many sources as possible.
Why Will They Come to Your Website?
In the fourth question, you want to know what needs and wants your customers
are seeking to fulfill when they come to your website. You will ask questions
like: Do they want to buy products online? Do they want to contact customer
service? Will they be gathering information prior to a sale, and need to see
product reviews? Will they be ready to buy, and want to see available deals and
special offers?
You will use this information to design the architecture of your website to make
sure people are able to quickly and easily find what they are looking for.
How Will They Use Your Website?
In the fifth question, you want to determine how people will interact with your
website to do the things they want to do on the site. If they are buying
products, will they want to browse through categories or search by keywords? If
you are collecting sales leads, will they be more likely to fill out a needs
assessment form or request a white paper requiring their contact information
prior to downloading?
You will use this information to create a user interface that is intuitive and user
friendly.
You will typically answer these questions through a series of interviews and
brainstorming sessions prior to building your website. As you gather this
information, you will begin to discover patterns that let you create a program to
successfully meet the needs and wants of all your customer segments. In Web-
speak, this is called, Knowledge Discovery.
Identifying Your Customer Segments
After you have gone through the knowledge discovery process, you will have a
lot of information about your prospective online customers. The next thing to do
is to start identifying groups of similar customers. These are called segments.
If you have done a thorough job of recording all the information you gathered
from the five questions, you will probably notice some obvious groupings. By
identifying specific customer segments, you can plan content and promotions
targeted to their specific needs and wants. You will also be able to measure the
results of these efforts and determine which segments are the most profitable
for you. This is an iterative process. You can continue to improve the results of
your Internet Marketing efforts by targeting the most profitable segments. You
can also continue to research your customers to refine and improve the
specification of your segments.
Naming Your Segments
It is a common practice for marketers to give their customer segments cute
names that are easy to remember. That allows you to visualize a personality for
each group. This helps when you go to create targeted content or marketing
campaigns. Having segment names also makes it easy to measure results by
segment and present the results to others who will make marketing decisions
based on the data.
You will put together a brief description of each segment based on the answers
to the Five W’s. Then you will give each segment a descriptive and memorable
name that sums up what you wrote about them in the description.
A simple example will demonstrate how easy it is to identify your customer
segments. Assume you have launched an online shoe store called, “Leslie’s
Shoes.” You have determined that there are four major types of online shopper
who will come to your website. Take a look at Figure 2.3 to see how you might
define your customer segments.
Notice how defining your customers this way puts a face on the people coming to
your website. Once you have defined and named your customer segments in
this way, they quickly take on a life of their own. You are likely to begin treating
them like people you know rather than just numbers on a sales report.
You are now able to put together a clear picture of who your customers are and
what they will be looking for when they come to your website.
==========================
This article is an excerpt from The Complete Internet Marketer: A Practical
Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Online by Jay Neuman.
Since 1994, Jay Neuman has been helping businesses as varied as Fortune 500
companies, startup Dot-Coms and nonprofit organizations overcome their
Internet Marketing and Database Marketing challenges. Jay is currently Sole
Proprietor of the KnExT Consulting Group. - www.knextconsulting.com.
He can be reached at jay.neuman@knextconsulting.com
The Complete
Internet Marketer
Internet Marketer
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