7 Audience Segmentation Examples and How to Use Them
When you market to everyone, it’s difficult to reach anyone. That is why audience segmentation is so powerful.
Let’s look at what audience segmentation is, why it's important, and how you can use audience segmentation examples to get ideas for dividing your audience and boosting your marketing effectiveness.
What Is Audience Segmentation?
Audience segmentation is the process of dividing an audience into categories based on unique characteristics so you can create more defined and targeted marketing campaigns. By putting audiences into smaller categories, you can better reach and appeal to them and create more effective marketing campaigns.
When you use audience segmentation, you can:
- Create messaging that resonates more deeply with audiences
- Identify the platforms and channels where you are most likely to reach your audience
- Avoid putting messages in front of audiences who won’t respond to them
- Utilize hyper-targeting to deliver ads only to your desired audience
- Design better ongoing marketing automation campaigns
- Attract higher-quality leads who are more likely to convert
- Differentiate your brand from similar competitors
For example, a multi-location, fast-casual restaurant may segment its audience by:
- Location so they can send ads to the customers nearest to their physical business.
- Past purchases so they can send coupons for things that customers have purchased in the past.
- Social media engagement so they can display ads to only the people who have engaged with their brand pages.
These are just a few audience segment examples. Let’s look at some other ways to drill into your audience and create more effective marketing campaigns.
7 Audience Segmentation Examples
You may already be aware of a few of these audience segmentation examples. The four most common audience segments are demographic, psychographic, geographic, and behavioral. In this list, we are also going to look at three other audience segmentation examples that allow you to drill deeper into customer differentiators.
Demographic Segmentation
Demographic segmentation is one of the most common and familiar audience segmentation examples. It divides audiences by statistical, factual data. Demographic details are cut and dry and shown by data. It includes details such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Education
- Family Situation (Married, single, with children, etc.)
- Ethnicity
- Religion
- Job Title
- Job Industry
You can segment your audience by demographic information to create ad campaigns that specifically reach that defined audience. Most digital ad platforms offer targeting features that allow you to choose to display ads to people based on demographic details.
Related: Facebook Ad Strategy 101: What Every SMB Owner Needs to Know
Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographic segmentation is not as cut and dry as demographic segmentation. It cannot be proven by data or pulled out of a simple report. Psychographic segmentation breaks audiences into categories based on their personalities and character traits. These details are subjective and often require research and interviews with customers to uncover. The segments include:
- Attitudes
- Lifestyles
- Motivations
- Beliefs
- Values
- Personality Traits
- Influences
- Interests
Breaking audiences into psychographic segments can support your content initiatives. You will be better able to craft content that resonates with your audience when you know what motivates them and shapes their worldview.
Geographic Segmentation
Geographic segmentation is another data-based audience segmentation example. It divides customers into categories based on where they are located. You can use data to get these details and segment location based on where an audience lives or where they work. Geographic segments can be categorized by:
- Zip Code
- City
- Country
- Climate
- Urban or Rural
- Specific Property or Location (in a particular business, at a particular event, etc.)
- Proximity to a Specific Property or Location
Geographic segmentation is especially important for brick-and-mortar businesses as they may only want to target customers who are near their business and therefore, likely to visit. It is very effective for geotargeting and when used in geofencing marketing.
Behavioral Segmentation
With the right tools and customer data platforms, you can pull data to help with behavioral segmentation. Behavioral segmentation categorizes audiences based on their activity and engagement, particularly with your brand. These segments refer to how your audience acts and interacts with your brand. It may segment an audience based on:
- Purchasing Habits (last store visit, type of purchases, frequency of purchases, etc.)
- Use of your Website (pages visited, forms filled out, etc.)
- Social Media Engagement (videos watches, links clicked, etc.)
- Email Engagement (links clicks, emails opened, etc.)
- User/Member Status
Behavioral segmentation can help you identify the audience most likely to purchase from your brand. If an audience has high engagement with your band, they may be closer to buying than a less engaged audience. You may be able to get a better ROI by marketing to engaged audiences.
Customer Stage Segmentation
Customer stage segmentation separates audiences by where they are in the sales funnel. It groups customers based on whether or not they have become a customer and how far they are from purchase. You can create this segmentation using CRM and business data. It categorizes customers into phases such as:
- Awareness
- Decision
- Purchase
- Post-Purchase
- Brand Evangelist
Separating your audience by customer stage can help you create more powerful marketing promotions and call-to-actions. Customers at different stages need different things. Someone in the decision phase needs more information, whereas someone in the post-purchase phase might be ready for upsell promotions.
Technology Segmentation
Technology segmentation is not one of the primary audience segmentation examples, but it may have relevance for specific brands and industries. It divides audiences by the type of technology they use. This information is useful when creating a positive customer experience and may segment audiences based on:
- Mobile Device or Desktop Computer Usage
- App or Browser Usage
- Logged In or Guest Checkout
- Type of Software Use
- Most Used Social Platforms
Knowing what type of technology your audience uses can help you shape the type of digital content you create, how you create it, and where you display it. Knowing the ways audiences engage with your digital content allows you to better understand the user experience and shape online experiences that fit best within the audience’s most used platforms.
Benefit Segmentation
Benefit segmentation requires you to perform data analysis. You can also obtain this data by talking to customers or conducting surveys. Benefit segmentation divides your audience by the benefits that they seek from your brand, product, or service. For example, a spa may offer massages. Some clients may seek massage therapy for physical pain while others use massages as a way to relax.
When you break your audience into categories based on what specific benefits they want, you can create more effective marketing messages and promotions. You can speak directly to specific audience need, rather than offering broad examples of benefits and solutions.
Put Audience Segmentation to Work In Local Marketing Campaigns
When you speak to everyone, it’s difficult to reach anyone.
Segmentation allows you to get more specific with your audience so you can get more specific with your marketing messaging and strategy.
Consider how you can use these marketing segmentation examples to come up with ideas for dividing your audience into categories. Then, sign up for mySuite to create local marketing campaigns that target your audience based on unique characteristics such as demographic, geography, behavior, and more.
Create your mySuite account and start leveraging this free local marketing platform to reach nearby customers today.
