20 Effective Audience Segments in Digital Marketing

Producer/Manufacturer/Service Provider-Product/Service- Consumer/Customer/User, that’s how the cycle works. And somewhere in between production and distribution comes marketing, a pivotal unit of modern market/business functioning. Digital marketing like traditional marketing requires a product/service that is to be marketed and a target audience to whom the product is sold. Wikipedia defines target audience as, “the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumers within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message.”

One look at the global population and it becomes quite evident that identifying the target audience may not be that easy, which is why digital marketers use classic customer segmentation techniques to segment, or divide customers into categories based on similarities. This segmentation can be done on the basis of demographics, lifestyle, behavior, media use etc. and provides marketers the proper grounds for focusing their message, pricing, product research and development, and for audience targeting. What kind of segments? Here are 20 effective audience segments in digital marketing in no particular order as they say.

Here are 20 Types of audience Segments in digital marketing.

  1. Visitor type

50% on the first purchase through the app. That is nothing but a classic example of how segmentation based on visitor type works. This is done by identifying new visitors or returning visitors based on analytics and in personalization systems. This segmentation helps in personalization, creating welcome messages, discounts and rewards for repeat users.

  1. Customer information

Data collection is almost everywhere. From simple username creation to creating entire profiles or behavioral analysis all are ways of collecting customer information.

This segmentation further breaks down into:

  1. Behavior-based segmentation:

    This is data segregation done on the basis of search analysis, preferences etc. A data that usually maps the user’s journey across the website or mobile app.

  2. Profile-based segmentation:

This is usually based on the data shared by the customer/user includes the reason of interest in the business- VIP, infrequent visitors, first time visitor etc. The Profile is created based on data from: customer record (name or customer ID), customer accounts, quotes, orders, services, customer support records, reviews, payment methods, marketing offers, marketing sources, survey data, delivery data etc. This segmentation allows businesses to modify selling pattern, cross-sell and prompt the users to return and buy again.

The broad level profile-based segmentation data can be used to create various other segments like:

  1. Potential Customers

  2. One-Time Buyers

  3. Repeat Customers

  4. Lapsed Customers

  5. First-Time Buyers

  6. Recent Buyers

  7. High-Value Customers

  8. Referrals or Traffic Source

Where do the customers/users come from? That is another way of creating segment. So, ideally it is the place/web source that leads the visitor to the landing on your website. While this data is available through tracking codes, AI-based personalization systems can add value by analyzing the effectiveness of different portals (Facebook, AdWords, Advertisements etc.).

  1. Products and Interaction

Most commonly used by retail brands. This segmentation allows to push suggestions and drive targeted sales. The segmentation is based on product categories or individual products viewed, customization’s done i.e. product variants such as color or size or reviews read etc. Based on this related products of a similar style can be shown. The value in the cart can also be a reference point.

  1. Landing page

Landing pages provide different data and often varies from the profile data. Here, the segmentation may be more biased towards the product/resource, and can even provide a more refined subset in certain cases.

  1. Platform and Device

Different users, different device preferences. Understanding this makes personalization easier. Analytics can recognize browser, screen resolution, and device type (smartphone, tablet or larger screen formats). This segmentation can be used to deliver mobile specific campaigns, identify high-value customers and provide users a seamless multi-device experience too.

  1. Geographical Location

The simplest style of segregation. Grouping customers users on the basis of their physical location i.e.  country, region or city, weather and season etc. This is usually used by enterprises with global outreach. It provides clarity about natural conditions, culture, ideologies, etc., of the region, which can hence be used to attract the customers.

  1. Demographic segmentation

Yet another common segmentation factor is the grouping based on variables like gender, age group, income, marital status, occupation, etc. This in turn can be either used as one segment or as multiple segments, and it gives marketers a precise idea about creating the right pitch for the product which includes language and tone.

  1. Favorites & Likes

While this can be considered as a sub-set of behavioral segmentation, the social media generation can always use additional personalization. The data here is based on previous purchases, the personal preferences based on their likes and favorite tags etc. The personalization here can be done at product level including brand, category etc.

  1. Average Order Value

Again a subset of the segment- Products and Interaction, the cart value or order value gives information about the customers. This data can be used to cross-sell other products of similar value, or offer discounts for additional purchases etc. based on the customer’s average purchase value.

  1. Account Type

Enterprises, small-medium industries all are different segments. This is a segmenting done on business level and hence more relevant for B2B customers. This can be segmentation is done on the basis of pricing tier or the product range etc.

Different business, marketers utilize different ways of segmentation to deliver targeted products, promotions etc. to targeted audience.

So, what are the other audience segments effective for digital marketing? Know more? Do share.

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