One of our previous posts talked about using different marketing approaches for different market segments, but what exactly is a market segment and how do you understand yours? Themanager.org describes a market segment as a group of people who are similar in the way they react to promotion, communication, pricing, and other marketing variables. Of course, every customer or potential customer will react in a way unique to that individual, but since it’s not possible to develop a separate marketing approach for every person, you can instead group individuals by things they have in common. This in turn allows you to develop a standardized marketing approach for each segment that you serve or want to serve.
Approaches to Market Segments
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), the two approaches to market segmentation are segmenting by geography and segmenting by customer characteristics. If your small business serves only a local population, you will probably want to use customer segmentation, which involves identifying the people who are most likely to buy your product or service.
According to Themanager.org, some of the most common ways to segment markets include characteristics such as age, sex, marital status, income, education, and lifestyle type. You can combine these characteristics to create various market segments. For example, it’s unlikely that your product or service will appeal to all females, but it might appeal primarily to married, college-educated females with small children. Some examples of market segments include adults with children, empty nesters, health conscious adults, single parents, sports enthusiasts, and young professionals.
Infographics
Infographics distill data on complex topics into easy-to-read visual charts for a variety of topics, such as the state of the economy or to compare different kinds of cars. Infographics on market segments can help you understand your existing market segments or help you find new market segments to target. A market segment infographic might include data such as household income, average age, types of media used, and online activities, which can help you determine the best way to target your existing customer base. However, if you want to look for new customers, you might use Infographics information on how each market segment spends their money and the things they like to do.
As an example, suppose you are a small business owner with a clothing store. You want to expand your inventory and attract new customers. You look at the Infographic for the “Health Conscious Adult” market segment and discover that the average health conscious adult spends about $1,500 each year on clothing. Since you already sell some items that are compatible with an active lifestyle, you decide to target the health conscious adult. From the Infographic, you also learn the types of media and marketing campaigns that are likely to provide you with the best response.
Because Infographics make data easy to understand it is very easy to use them to look for potential market segments you may have missed or who you may want to target more heavily. Once you understand your target markets, you can begin to put together your overall marketing strategy. Infographics can help here too by telling you where two or more market segments may have some overlap, which can help to simplify your marketing approach. For example, you may find that two segments both respond well to e-mail campaigns. You may need to tailor the e-mail you use for each segment, but it will be easier overall to develop the e-mails and track responses since much of the content and the tracking mechanism will be the same.
Savvy marketers use market segments to optimize their valuable marketing resources. Get on the fast track today to understand your markets with a professional consultation and Infographics.
