Learn how to conduct market research and create customer segments in order to better target your product and increase revenues. This deck includes how to define target markets, create buyer personas, and integrate these customer segments across the company. Slides from a Customer Cegmentation class taught at Intelligent.ly by Jill Cartwright. Learn more from the experts by visiting http://intelligent.ly/learn
3. What customer segmentation is
I don't know the key to success, but the key to
failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby
Customer segmentation is
a means of identifying and prioritizing current
and future customers
in a way that is actionable and relevant to
your business
4. B2C
Manufacturer of ergonomically safe
travel products for parents
B2B
Provider of digital publishing of
ecommerce enabled catalogs
Products: diaper bags, dry bags,
changing pads, etc.
Services: Development and
deployment of catalogs, catalog
apps for mobile, etc.
Letās meet our subjects:
6. Ā§ļ§ Age
Ā§ļ§ Disposable income
Ā§ļ§ Activity level
Ā§ļ§ Price sensitivity
Ā§ļ§ Number of kids
Ā§ļ§ Marital status
Ā§ļ§ Sexual orientation
Ā§ļ§ Where they live
Go GaGa
Whatās relevant
7. Ā§ļ§ Age
Ā§ļ§ Disposable income
Ā§ļ§ Activity level
Ā§ļ§ Price sensitivity
Ā§ļ§ Number of kids
Ā§ļ§ Marital status
Ā§ļ§ Sexual orientation
Ā§ļ§ Where they live
Go GaGa
Ā§ļ§ Type of business
Ā§ļ§ Ecommerce enabled
Ā§ļ§ Size of marketing
budget
Ā§ļ§ Size of company
Ā§ļ§ Company goals
Ā§ļ§ Distribution channels
Zmags
Whatās relevant
8. Not only does it make you sound smart, but
it can save your business.
Ā§ļ§Focuses the entire team on the same target
Ā§ļ§Gives you a touchstone for making decisions
Ā§ļ§Prioritizes where to invest your resources
Ā§ļ§Increases customer retention
Ā§ļ§Identiļ¬es new market opportunities
Why segmentation matters
9. Thereās no bad time to be thinking about your
customers
Ā§ļ§Before launch
Ā§ļ§With 6-12 months of sales data
Ā§ļ§When expanding into new markets or segments
Ā§ļ§When decisions become tough because youāve lost
common vision
Ā§ļ§Every 12-18 months after roll out
When to do it
10. Hint: do not go to the library and check out 7 books on
marketing research
1| Gather data
2| Analyze
3| Create segments
4| Validate
5| Roll out
6| Reassess
Itās not all about Excel
Now itās all about Excel
Whatās actionable
Talking with your front line
This is the fun part
Checking accuracy and relevance
How to do it
11. This will be determined by whatās relevant and available
Ā§ļ§Demographics
Ā§ļ§Needs
Ā§ļ§Values
Ā§ļ§Purchases
Ā§ļ§Personality
Ā§ļ§Decision Making
Who they are
Why they buy
Whatās important to them
What they buy (vs. what they say)
What shapes their interactions
How they shop and buy
Ā§ļ§Alternatives
Ā§ļ§Interests
What their options are
What brings them joy
What types of data to leverage
12. Hint: you will have to talk to people, just try not to get arrested
Interviews
Crowdsourcing
Site analytics
Order info
Customer svc.
On the street, on the phone, but best done
while fully clothed
Polls and surveys are often done ļ¬rst but are
more eļ¬ective later
Traļ¬c sources, ļ¬ow, hang time, return visits
to name a few
The most valuable because based on action, not
intent
Great for capturing qualitative info while
strengthening customer loyalty
How to get it
13. Youāre simply looking for trends ā correlation versus causality is
irrelevant
1| Dump everything into Excel ā survey results, purchase
data, demographics, etc.
2| Begin by picking two features ā age and gender, for
example
3| Then add another layer ā items purchased, repurchase
rate, etc.
4| See if itās meaningful ā if not, go one step back up your tree
What to do with it
14. Identifying new markets for Go GaGa
Gender
Kids?
How use
their bag?
Examples
Male Female
Yes No
Kids Self Work Fun
Diaper
bag
Laptop
Gym bag
Commute
Courier
Photogr.
Yoga
Picnic
Yes No
Self Work Fun
Diaper
bag
Laptop
Gym bag
Commute
Courier
Photogr.
Yoga
Picnic
Kids
Time to try
15. Identifying new markets for Go GaGa
Gender
Kids?
How use
their bag?
Examples
Male Female
Yes No
Kids Self Work Fun
Diaper
bag
Laptop
Gym bag
Commute
Courier
Photogr.
Yoga
Picnic
Yes No
Self Work Fun
Diaper
bag
Laptop
Gym bag
Commute
Courier
Photogr.
Yoga
Picnic
Kids
Enthusiasts
Ā§ļ§Photography
Ā§ļ§Wine/picnic
Ā§ļ§Birders
Professionals
Ā§ļ§Couriers
Ā§ļ§Photographers
Commuting
Ā§ļ§Bike
Ā§ļ§Public transit
3 new markets
emerged
Time to try
16. Shaping Go GaGaās product roadmap
Kids?
1st time
parents?
1st purch.
2nd purch.
Yes No
Yes No
Accessory Diaper Bag
No
āDiaperā Bag
Acquisition
Ā§ļ§Accessories get our foot in
the door for the second
purchase, which was typically
a diaper bag
Retention
Ā§ļ§Customers who love our bag
will continue buying
products if the price is
accessible
Accessories play
two important
roles
Diaper Bag Accessory Accessory
Another example
17. Youāll reach a lot of dead ends in the pursuit of actionable correlations,
just like Isle Nine did
Gender
Age
Married?
1st purch.
Male Female
30-45 60+
Yes No Yes No
Shirt Shirt Shirt Shirt
30-45 60+
No Yes No
Kids Shirt Shirt Shirt
Yes
How worn? Leisure Work Leisure Leisure Leisure Leisure Leisure Leisure
Segments not
suļ¬ciently
diļ¬erentiated
Segments were evenly distributed across age and weighed heavily towards the
purchase of menās shirts to be worn for leisure.
The takeaway: just sell menās Hawaiian shirts to anyone who will buy them.
Sometimes it doesnāt work
18. Zmags identiļ¬es a new service oļ¬ering
Brand or retailer
Published catalog
before
Sell direct/online
Brand Retailer
Yes No
Yes No Yes No
Yes No
No Yes NoYes
Letās give B2B its due
19. Zmags identiļ¬es a new service oļ¬ering
Brand or retailer
Published catalog
before
Sell direct/online
Brand Retailer
Yes No
Yes No Yes No
Yes No
No Yes NoYes
Examples Incr.
content
ROI
Test
ecom
Drive
sales
Test
ecom
Incr.
content
ROI
Test
ecom
Drive
sales
Test
ecom
Simple ecommerce engine run virtually by Zmags that enables
retailers and brands not selling online to test
New service
possibility
Letās give B2B its due
20. Forming the segments
After youāve lost all perspective, ļ¬ve key questions can get you on the
right track
1| Are there meaningful diļ¬erences between these groups?
2| Can I identify people based on these characteristics?
3| Can I market to them based on these characteristics?
5| Can I oļ¬er diļ¬erent products or services to meet the needs
of diļ¬erent segments?
4| Can these segments peacefully coexist?
21. Building out the personas
These two factors will lead to impactful segments
Whatās relevant to your
business
What will help your team to
connect with them
Ā§ļ§Are they the decision
maker ?
Ā§ļ§What alternatives do
they have to your
oļ¬ering ?
Ā§ļ§How price sensitive are
they ?
Ā§ļ§Whatās on their playlist ?
Ā§ļ§Where do they live ?
Ā§ļ§Whatās their marital status ?
Ā§ļ§What brand of coļ¬ee do they
drink ?
Ā§ļ§Do they have kids ?
22. Go GaGaās personas
Age
Gender
Income
Where live?
Activity level
Christine Hannah Alan David
Kids
Sexual orienta.
Relationship
status
37
Female
$250,000 (HH)
Downtown Chicago
Attends yoga 3x a
week and jogs
Girl, 3 mos.
Straight
Married
31
Female
$42,000
Jamaica Plain, MA
Teaches 7 x a
week & bikes to
work
No
Lesbian
Single
42
Male
$150,000 (HH)
Suburb of
Bethesda, MD
Jogs 3x a week
Boy, 2 yrs &
expecting 2nd
Straight
Married
28
Male
$100,000
Brooklyn
Works out 6 days
a week in the
gym
No
Gay
In long term
relationship
First time parent? Yes No No No
Education Masters Ugrad w/
certiļ¬cations
Ugrad degree w/
grad classes
MBA at night
23. Go GaGaās Personas
Hobbies/Areas of
interest
Music
Research process
Price sensitivity
Personal style
Hiking & architecture
Madeline Peyroux
Online ļ¬rst then
in store
Low
Rocks DKNY
Rock climbing &
ceramics
Kate Bush
Word of mouth
Medium
Lives in Athleta
Punk rock & NPR
The Ramones &
Stones
Wants to see & feel
it
Low
Roxy shirt & cargo
shorts
Pop art & travel
Passion Pit
Very thorough ā
mostly online
Medium
Hipster
Personality
Occupation VP at an ad
agency
Upbeat but easy
going
Yoga instr. &
massage ther.
Loves being a dad
Sr. Dir of Finance
Intense at work &
play
Development
oļ¬cer
Uptight
24. Zmags personas
Age
Gender
Position
Years in role
Personality
Peter Blake
Decision maker
Sentiment about
job
Culture
35
Male
Dir. of Marketing
4
High energy, high
maintenance
Inļ¬uencer but CMO
decides
Wants a promotion but
needs a win to stand out
Competitive ā running of the
bulls at Pamplona
42
Female
CMO
6, 13 with the company
Demanding but protects
her team
Yes
Conļ¬dent but under
constant pressure to
deliver
Pressure cooker,
struggles to prioritize
Company challenge Incr. revenue from house
brands
Build their direct channel for
better margins
Employer Nieman Marcus Baby Phat
25. Avoiding the pitfalls
Run these ļ¬lters before ļ¬nalizing the segments
1| Too many segments
2| Too narrow a focus
3| Divergent groups
4| Not actionably diļ¬erent
26. Validating the segments
Donāt get bogged down trying to be certain ā test āem instead!
Pull another data
sample
Talk with your
front line
Place small
bets
Pull another data set and see if the trends
are consistent
Your customer service and sales team
knows your current customers best
Run a targeted email test, experiment
with Google AdWords, try a promotion
27. Rolling it out to the team
Now it really gets fun
Ā§ļ§Play their playlist
Ā§ļ§Create a facebook page for them
Ā§ļ§Develop a mood board
Ā§ļ§Start a book club
Ā§ļ§Have a guest appearance
Ā§ļ§Keep them top of mind every day
28. What your segmentation should impact
It can (and should) touch every facet of the business
Branding
Customer service
Hiring
Tagline, marketing messages, word
choice, phone greeting, etc.
Policies, hours of operations,
methods of contact
Personality, diction, energy level,
hobbies
Product roadmap Future features, service/product
oļ¬erings, pricing
User experience Site design, sales process, store
layout and more
In 1979, I was a Brownie in troop 147. Not just any troop. Troop 147 had won top awards for 3 years running and in no way shape or form did Mrs. Brenner allow this year to be any different. We were going to win. We had to win.Set out with list ā girl scouts booked them the years before. Totally locked out. Dad refused to take it to work. Mom wouldnāt let me wander all over town. I was stumped. But that was because I was focused on just one customer ā my neighbors. I didnāt know my market. I didnāt identify new customer segments that I could target beyond the lockdown that was my neighborhood. I didnāt think to set up a table in front of a grocery store, guilt my Sunday School class into buying some or sell them after ballet class to a bunch of sugar starved 2nd graders.
Simply stated, itās a way to get to know and then group your customers to make sure that every aspect of your business is relevant to your core target.Identifying ā you have to be able to identify people based on these characteristicsPrioritizing ā every business has scarce resources whether cash, people, experience or all three ā have to focus your resources and customer segmentation can help you to identify who is most profitable, has the largest growth potential, etc.Current and future ā while easy to understand what it means, reinforces the notion that customer segmentation isn't just about reacting to the customers you have, itās also about identifying new targets to pursueActionable ā very closely linked to identifying. It means that you can market to these people based on that characteristic ā find them online, buy a key word, purchase a mailing list, attend a tradeshowRelevant ā you may be able to identify and reach folks based on a certain characteristic, but is it relevant to your business and how and why customers buy your product? You may find that all of your customers have a fear of clowns, but thatās totally irrelevant to how to sell them cloud computing.Thereās so much you can do once you've established your segments ā start looking at lifetime value, migrating people from one segment to another, developing specific marketing programs for each segment, but tonight weāre just going to cover the basics of what segmentation is, how to do it and why.
Since we have some companies B2B and other B2C, thought it would be helpful to have two different case studies that we use throughout the class.
What would be relevant to each of these companies?What could they learn about their customers that would make them more effective in developing products/services for their customers as well as marketing to them?
Gives your team a focus so that as theyāre developing ideas for new features,offerings, promotions, etc. they know who theyāre catering to and whatās important to them.Simplifies your decision making, especially when comes to branding, language, aesthetics. Creative reviews are no along a matter of what I like but what persona likes with people talking in terms of āI think this would resonate with Allan becauseā.It doesnāt just bring that clarity to creative decisions but to any decision that requires investing resources. If you have two new product ideas and arenāt sure which one to pursue, go back to the segments to see which one more appealing to them, potentially serve more than one segment, etc..By tailoring internal decisions, and therefore, the experience you give your current customers, youāre far more apt to retain them which is less expensive than acquiring new customers.But, best of all, it can help you to identify new market opportunities that are hiding within your customer database by showing you new customers you've attracted who are outside of your core target but may hold some value for the company.
Before you launch, thereās no sales data, so you can do some research based on who you think your customers are, try to get a few sales to inform your choices, and launch. Itās important to circle back once you do have sales data.Timing really depends on on your sales cycle. For an ecommerce site with sales every day, 6 months of data is terrific. For companies with much longer sales cycles, will take a while to amass the final order info but you can use feedback from your sales team to make interim decisions until you have a decent sample size to analyze.Always good to go back and validate ā also see if any new opportunities have emerged.Along those same lines, itās good to revisit when youāre facing a big decision, such as looking for new market opportunities or struggling to prioritize resources or product roadmap.
Weāll go into more detail on each topic in the following slides but want to give you an overview of the processGather data ā some of this youāll already have, like order information, geographic location, etc. but some you'll have to gather through surveys, interviews and more. Important to note that quantitative as well as qualitative information is important here.Analyze ā surprisingly low tech approach using data filters. Youāre simply looking for correlations here that can help you to group people in meaningful ways.Create the segments ā once you look through all of the correlations and compare them to how you market and what your goals are, then you can choose the segments that make the most sense for your business.Validate ā just a fancy term of sanity check, I always like to take the time to talk with the folks on the front line and see if these segments are consistent with who theyāre interacting with each day.Rollout ā normally a painful term, this is actually the fun part in which you bring the segments to life an any way that will help your team to think of them, relate to them, and honestly care about them. Could be playlists, a party in their honor, pictures on their desk, etc.Reassess ā so many things change over time ā your company evolves, the market changes, your product offering changes, the economy (hopefully) recovers, so itās important to reassess so that your segments are an accurate reflection of not only where you are but where you want to go.
Weāve already talked about whatās relevant to a company so I won't climb up on that soapbox again, but there are a lot of different types of data you can use, both quantitative and qualitative. I find that both are equally important. Folks tend to skip over the qualitative because harder to get, but I promise you itās worth the hour long interviews or awkward calls with customers to get the honest truth. And don't just ask your sales team what they think ā talk with a customer! Trust me, getting their input is the best marketing you could ever do.
There are also a lot of other alternatives you can use ā doing data appends, purchasing lists, etc. ā but Iāve found that these are very expensive and not very reliable. Youāre better off work to work with what you have and get creative in finding what you donāt. One business I advised had an intern spend a few days researching customers online ā used their email address from their order info to find them on facebook, blogs, etc. to get a lot of demographic information.Interviews are the most insightful, especially when paired with order info because interviews help you to understand the person's behavior ā values that shape their personality and the experience they want, situation theyāre in and why theyāre buying.I find that companies, especially start-ups, do polls first because theyāre easy, you can do them at any time, theyāre not as time consuming as other methods, etc. I actually think theyāre the least effective method, especially at the outset. I prefer to use polls or online surveys once you've narrowed down your segments and youāre trying to confirm specific information, such as price sensitivity or what attribute is most important them when making a buying decision.Order info is worth itās weight in gold ā tells you not only what people are buying but where they live, what theyāre likely to buy next, if they respond to promotions, etc.Customer service is probably the most overlooked opportunity. When I was running Go GaGa, I emailed every customer who bought from the site for the first six months, asking them each one question. Youād be amazed at the responses. It also gave them a sense of ownership in companyās success ā they became some of our biggest fans.
So now, you've got all of this great data and itās time to pull it all together. You wonāt have the same data for everyone ā youāll only be able to do interviews with a small subset, but thatās ok. It will still be incredibly useful.As youāll see in just a minute, this process is incredibly helpful in answering key questions about your data as well as in forming your segments.Start by pulling everything together into one Excel spreadsheet. Hereās where the art and the science of segmentation come into play ā just try different combinations and follow different paths to see if they lead to anything. Trust me most of the time, it will lead to a dead end, but when it doesnāt itās incredibly insightful.I find that itās most helpful to do it as a basic tree ā beginning with the first question or bit of data, then slicing it again and again. Once you go a few levels down, youāll be able to tell whether thereās anything helpful there or not.I thought it would be fun to try this, so Iāve created a mock data set based on Go GaGa sales, surveys and more. Itās very small, but will give you a good idea of how this works. So, weāre going to try a few trees together and see what emerges.
So, I have to admit, this is the first time Iāve tried creating these trees real time, so I wasn't sure if it would be a huge success or just make everyone in the room nauseous from watching me scroll through Excel. But, I wanted you to be sure to see an example of where this approach can yield insights and also what a dead end looks like, so I have a few back-ups here.This is an example of a tree that I did when I was trying to figure out if I could enter new markets by selling my current products to new customer targets. I did this as a result of some answers I received to the emails I was sending to thank folks for their order. I was asking people how they were going to use the bag and thatās when I discovered that almost half of my customers weren't parents.So, I did this tree and identified three new targets. I used those insights to shape the next shot list at my photoshoot, did some PR targeting those people/activities and even exhibited at the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow, picking up a lot of luggage stores, yoga shops and spas.
As I mentioned in the title, customer segmentation isn't just for marketers or business development folks ā itās key for the team developing your product or service offering, too, so I wanted to show you an example of how it can shape your product roadmap.In this instance, I was trying to figure out whether to invest money in developing more accessories or invest all of my R&D in developing several new diaper bags.This analysis helped me to understand the purchase patterns of the different groups (both those who were parents and those who weren't) to see that accessories played an important role in both acquiring and retaining my customers.
But, as I mentioned, I went through countless trees to get to those examples, so I wanted to show you what a dead end looks like. This one doesn't come from Go GaGa, it comes from Isle Nine, a multichannel retailer that sells authentic Hawaiian clothing and accessories. Iāve been working with their CEO to develop their marketing plan, so we developed this tree to see if thereās a specific target we should use in tailoring our messaging (should it be Jimmy Buffet or Tommy Bahama?).So we took a look at some demographic data as well as their purchase behavior and some interview results and hereās what we found.There wasn't any clear differentiation that we could use to shape our messaging ā we had a wide range of people buying shirts to wear in their down time. All we needed to do was focus the messaging on that and not try to tweak it for a certain demographic.
So, I want to make sure that we also use a B2B example, so letās go back to Zmags and letās pretend that theyāre trying to identify new service offerings. In particular, they're encountering a lot of objections from their potential clients regarding the resources and infrastructure needed to support their core offering. As a refresher, they have a publishing solution that enables clients to create virtual catalogs that link to the clientās existing ecommerce engine. So based on this very high level tree, do you have any ideas as to what other services they could offer clients to help overcome their clientsā objections? Remember this it totally hypothetical ā they may have this offering already, but for the purpose of this illustration assuming they donāt.Thereās an obvious trend in terms of what Zmags could do to support those potential customers who donāt have ecommerce capability - thatās to create a scaled down ecommerce engine that the client could tap into and use to test ecommerce on a small scale through the Zmags digital magazine. Could be a really powerful play and help the client explore a new sales channel.
So, after you've looked at 50 different trees, sniffed enough whiteboard markers to get a buzz and give yourself a major headache, how do you make sense of it? Which trees are important? Which data points are actionable and relevant? These 5 questions will help you to find the real value in the pile of trees that you've created.First off, are there meaningful differences between these groups? A 5 year age difference no, but two generations apart ā sure.Can I identify people based on these characteristics? Do they self identify in the way that they shop, where they go online, what hobbies they have so that I can find them and serve up marketing messages about my product or service?To that end, can I market to them based on these differences? Can I use tools like social media, online advertising, street events, etc to get my message to these groups?Can these segments peacefully coexist? A skin care cream that works for tattoo removal as well as the removal of age spots would be a tough thing to pull off with one brand. Would be difficult to market to the tattoo segment while running ads in Grandparenting Weekly. You may find that you need to cerate a separate brand for a different target if theyāll alienate each other.And, as weāve seen, there is also an opportunity to identify new product opportunities using these segments. While a new product may not appeal to all segments, if itās covers enough of your customer base, it may be worth pursuing.
So, now that you have a rough idea of who is in each of these segments, itās important to figure out how to communicate everything about these people to your team in a way thatās relevant to the business and will help your team to really connect with them.So, letās go back to the data that we have an see whatās relevant. For B2B, whatās relevant is anything that impacts their buying decision. Is their company struggling? Are they under intense competition in the marketplace? Are their customer acquisition costs really high? Then, thereās always the human side of things, even in a B2B situation. Getting into the heads of the people youāre developing services for, selling to, designing for, is always important. How do you do that? By getting to know them in the way that you would get to know any friend (even if theyāre someone you normally wouldn't hang out with!).What music do they like? What hobbies to they have? Are they foodies or do they follow the latest fad diet? What music do they listen to? What do they wear when thereās no way theyāll bump into someone from their office?
So letās try to cerate a few personas for Go GaGa. Letās start by making a list of 10 things that we think would be important for me to know in trying to market them and design products for them.Now from the trees that we did earlier, think of a particular type of person who comes to mind.Ok, letās pick a name for them. Now letās make a data point of each of the things we want to convey about them.What do they look like?Ok, letās do another one ā very different from the first.
So, I wanted to show you a few of the personas I developed for Go GaGa. As you can see, they ultimately cull down into two distinct groups ā those who are parents and using the bag as a diaper bag and those who arenāt parents and are using it to tote gear safely and stylishly, whether going to yoga or the office.I chose age and gender to help shape model requirements for the photoshoot.Income and education often shape their shopping behavior, especially when it comes to researched products.Where they live will dictate the need for style and how theyāre traveling with their kids ā public transportation, car, etc..Kids and first time parent helps me to understand their priorities ā first time parents tend to buy for looks not functionality.Sexual orientation and relationship status help for photo shoots when portraying families of all types.Activity level gives me an indication of how important it is to them to take good care of their health.
Personality helps me to know what my customer service team can expect and what type of messaging to use ā authoritative, empathetic, tongue in cheek, etc.Occupation and hobbies tells me how they spend their time and how much free time they actually have.Personal style and music will help me to know how to style the models and also what aesthetic and color palette my products need to have (pink is a four letter word).Research process and price sensitivity help me to understand how and where to reach them while shopping and whether or not itās a likely sale.And so I can use these personas when setting my marketing strategy, designing my logo, determining new product features, setting pricing and more.
Since we didnāt go through the tree exercise for Zmags, I thought it would be a bit tougher for you to come up with the personas, but I wanted to show you two potential personas they might have in their customer base.So, based on this persona, how might Zmags approach Peter? What could they do to get him on board? Help him see that this could be his big win?Give him case studiesDevelop his deck to use when championing it internallyOffering him a discount for a trial runAgreeing not to go over his head and to position him as the champion of the idea internallyHave a salesperson with a large amount of patience and whoās very reassuringWhat does Blake need that Zmags can give her? If you were the head of sales, how would you approach Blake based on this persona?
As you can imagine, itās easy to lose perspective when youāre staring at so many options and there are so many ways to go. I want to share a few of the pitfalls Iāve encountered in working with clients so that you can avoid them, too.The biggest temptation is to have a ton of personas. Donāt. Itās ideal to have 2 but no more than 3. If you have too many, itās too difficult for your team to get to know them, bear them in mind and know which one theyāre creating for. Many top brands, like Victoria's Secret, only have one.Often, if you have too many, theyāre also too specific. Itās such a small niche that those folks will be difficult to identify or don't represent a large enough opportunity to merit the focus youāre giving them.Divergent groups ā we've talked about this already, but Iām begging you to not try to market to goth fans and grandparents simultaneously.On the flip side, you can have segments that are too similar, like the Go GaGa ones in which we had two parents and two non parents ā I ultimately consolidated those 4 segments into 2 and it simplified things dramatically.
I sometimes hesitate to show this slide because it is possible to overthink this. That being said, these segments are going to be the touchstone of your company, so itās important to get them right ā at least 75% on target.Here are a few things that you can do to validate your segments. Again, donāt spend a ton of time on this ā better to test them in the market with a few small tactics, like an email blast, targeted promotion or blog entry, than to suffer from analysis paralysis.
This is hands down my favorite part ā where you get to bring the segments to life. You know your team better than anyone, so what would help them to not only get to know, but start to care about, even advocate for these personas you've created?
And finally, the real fruit of your labor is in impacting every aspect of the organization.Branding and your marketing strategy ā everything from your color palette, to what language you use on the site, how your customer service team answers the phone.Customer service ā how lenient are your policies, how empowered are your reps to give refunds, what hours do you have for customer service and how can they be contacted.Hiring ā know this sounds crazy but the people you hire, especially in customer facing roles have to be able to connect with these people in real life. Are they patient and reassuring, professional or laid back? Have hobbies that relate to your business? Howās their vocabulary?Product roadmap ā what other services can you offer? Can you take your existing product offering into new markets? Do you need to create a sub-brand to support a lower pricing tier or can you do it with your existing brand? Will it bring you new customer or cannibalize existing ones?User experience ā this involves everything from your website, to the sales process, how they research online and where you can be found. Itās all about removing every obstacle and giving the person access to right information and products at the right time and in a way that resonates with them in order for you to get the sale!