Digital , Industry News Jul 15, 2010
Online Market Segmentation: A World Apart
It's no secret that the worlds of broadcast, print, and out-of-home engage consumers quite differently than the full on engagement opportunities the digital/online world offers. With an environment so vast and ever-evolving how can you properly target your intended audience? More importantly how can you reach them efficiently and effectively minimizing wastage expenditures?
Well...let's take a look at some approaches. Keep in mind that there is no wrong way to segment your target, and the following methods certainly are not exhaustive. I welcome you to share your thoughts.
For starters let's make a comparison. Let's first take a look at how you might segment consumers for broadcast, print and out-of-home media consumption in both the B2C and B2B channels.
Consumer Segmentation (B2C):
- Geographic
- Land or region
- Rural or metropolitan areas
- Demographic
- Age, gender, marital status
- Income, occupation, education
- Religion, nationality, ethnic group
- Psychographic
- Social status
- Lifestyle led
- Personality
- Behavioural
- Intensity/frequency of product/service use
- Brand loyalty
- User behaviours
Industrial/Commercial Segmentation (B2B):
- Intermediary or final consumer
- Type of corporation (public or private sector)
- Size of corporation
- Geographical locations - one or many. What similarities or difference might there be between locations?
- Intensity/frequency of product/service use
- Organization of purchasing/procurement function
- Centralized or decentralized - who has decision making authority?
- Purchasing policies, rules and criteria
Even though you are targeting a business - you of course, are also targeting an individual, who in turn is a consumer. Keep this in mind and apply consumer-based segmentation strategies in addition to the most important B2B methods above.
Now that we’ve briefly looked at the base segmentation methods let’s move on...
....In the online world the rules change completely. New principles must be used.
Here are 3 basic areas you may wish to consider starting with:
Where did the visitor come from?
- Referrers
- Direct Traffic (user enters web address)
- Google Natural (Search engine search / address bar search)
- Google Paid (paid ads, AdWords, etc...)
- Strategic search (key phrases, brand key phrases, etc...)
- Display advertising
- Geography
- Geographic segmentation by country or region (based on IP addresses)
What type of visitor are they?
- Mobile device or computer
- Network properties - connection speeds
- Browser usage (IE, FF, Chrome, Safari, etc...)
- First time or returning visitor
- Site flirt (2 pages or less)
- Site browse (2 pages or more)
What content areas did they visit on the site?
- Pages viewed
- Items viewed
- Duration of visit (measured in minutes and seconds)
- Exit pages (where did they leave - what was the last thing they saw?)
What tasks did they engage in?
- Cookie values captured
- Converters against non-converters (amount of time and number of visits it takes for visitors to convert)
- Review product or service
- Saw payment details (eCommerce sites)
- Internal site search
- Data Capture - i.e. Forms (saw, partial completion, full completion)
- Items downloaded
- Items clicked on
As was the case of B2B segmentation methodologies requiring the selection of relevant B2C methods to complete the segmentation process, online segmentation also requires some additional offline thought. Offline considerations can have an impact on the interaction with your brand - i.e. external constraints and influences on purchase life cycles. Make no mistake though, offline is for context only - you're after online behaviour here.
Using the online methods for segmentation mentioned will help to start maximizing your ROI for online expenditures. Don't be left stuck on Mars while your customers are on Venus...online segmentation truly is a world apart.
Michael HalbmeierAccount Director / Program Manager / Nerd / Flyer Enthusiast
- 1 person liked this.
- Like
