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Customer Management

Why Customer Segmentation Matters for Modern Marketing

Segmentation has a reputation as an advanced feature. It is closer to the opposite: it is the thing that makes everything else simpler, because a smaller audience is easier to write for and much easier to learn from. Segment on behaviour, not demographics What somebody did is a far better predictor than who they are. Ordered twice in ninety days, opened the last three campaigns, asked about pricing and never replied - each of those is a group with an obvious next message. Start with three Customers who bought recently - the group most likely to buy again. Leads who engaged and went quiet - the group most worth recovering. Contacts who have never engaged - the group to stop paying to reach. A segment is a hypothesis The value is not the list, it is what the list teaches you. If a segment never performs differently to the whole audience, it is not a segment - and deleting it is as useful as creating it was.

MarketFlow1 min read

Segmentation has a reputation as an advanced feature. It is closer to the opposite: it is the thing that makes everything else simpler, because a smaller audience is easier to write for and much easier to learn from.

Segment on behaviour, not demographics

What somebody did is a far better predictor than who they are. Ordered twice in ninety days, opened the last three campaigns, asked about pricing and never replied - each of those is a group with an obvious next message.

Start with three

  • Customers who bought recently - the group most likely to buy again.
  • Leads who engaged and went quiet - the group most worth recovering.
  • Contacts who have never engaged - the group to stop paying to reach.

A segment is a hypothesis

The value is not the list, it is what the list teaches you. If a segment never performs differently to the whole audience, it is not a segment - and deleting it is as useful as creating it was.

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