November 6th, 2019

Targeting and Tracking Your Audience Using Demographic Segmentation

Demographic Segmentation Marketing

Marketing is about satisfying consumers’ needs. It’s about creating personalized experience by providing products that resonate with tastes and preferences of the market. Successful marketers understand that every customer is different. Articulating such differences in marketing campaigns through demographic segmentation is invaluable as it increases customer’s response to ad campaigns.

With today’s competitive business environment, generic campaigns have no potential. Progressive businesses are implementing market segmentation strategies to increase conversion rates. The essence of marketing is being able to market products and services while making profits along the way. You can only bolster your profit margins if your segmentation techniques are right.

Understanding market segmentation strategies, A/B testing optimization, and call intelligence solutions are core components of the marketing funneling process.

Demographic Segmentation

The ability to analyze markets to pinpoint customers sharing similar preferences determines the success of market segmentation strategy. Segmentation involves creating homogenous groups based on demographics and needs. Vital demographics in marketing include factors such as age, gender, education, family size, race, and income levels.

The Case of Nike and Apple

Nike has perfected the art of market segmentation. The company has more than a hundred million members on its loyalty program. What is their secret to success? Adam Sussman, the Chief Digital Officer of Nike says:

“Ultimately, we know when we deliver the exact right product, experience, and storytelling, it makes a tremendous difference.”

Mr. Sussman goes on to explain how Nike has three market segments: Weekend Runner, Style Shopper, and Dedicated Sneakerhead. These segments are based on lifestyles and the needs of the athletic footwear market.

Also, look at Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign which ran for years delivering remarkable results. The success of the campaign can be linked to proper demographic and psychographic market segmentation strategies employed by tech giant. Apple manufactures health trackers for the health-conscious groups. It also produces iPods for music lovers – mostly, the digital generation.

Nike and Apple identify their markets using demographic data, enabling them to provide products apt for the market needs. These two companies primarily use lifestyle as their main market segmentation strategy as they proffer premium products to high-end markets and consumers.

Demographic Market Segmentation Tactics

Tactics will differ depending on your type of product and service. If you are dealing with kids’ products, your interest will be in demographics such as family size and gender. However, marketing tech products for wellness and healthcare, your attention will shift to education, age, and income levels.

Using tools such as interactive maps can help pinpoint key demographics in the area you are targetting.

Regardless of your company’s size or niche, here are the top demographic segmentation best practices for higher ROI:

  • Consider the industry of your business. Are you in B2B market, B2C market or both? It’s more difficult to penetrate B2B markets than consumer markets. You’ll have to consider factors such as business size, niche market, and technologies.
  • Create sub-segments under each main segment. If you are marketing to families earning below $100k, you need segments detailing how these families spend their income.
  • Don’t just rely on government data. Such data can be old and therefore, do not reflect the current market statistics. Do the legwork and try to partner with other organizations to obtain accurate demographic data.
  • Prepare the platform for call tracking and A/B testing. When collecting and analyzing demographic data, ensure that you obtain variables that will serve as ingredients for your ads.

Demographic segmentation is easy and straightforward, except for those in the B2B market industry. Segmentation allows you to identify your target market and estimate its potential. Once you size up your market based on demographics, calculate the value ratio. This ratio is crucial as it gives an estimate of the returns on investment.

With demographic information acquired, A/B testing can be strategized to estimate the value ratio for different ad campaigns.

A/B Testing

After completing your homework on demographic segmentation, it’s time for A/B testing. This is a tried-and-true technique for measuring and evaluating your conversion funnel.

Split testing enables you to get data directly from the target market, eliminating guesswork. A/B testing relies on hard data. It provides you with insights on how prospects respond to particular campaigns. The method involves drawing comparisons from multiple marketing assets to test which one has more conversion.

Configure Your Split Testing

Consider using A/B testing to test the effectiveness of the headline of an email ad. You will create similar email marketing copies. Based on keyword research and psychographic research, you select two headlines that you think will create high response rates. Use these two different headlines on copies with the same content. The headline with the highest click rate response will come out as the most viable option.

When testing if your product appeals to people of a particular age, you can create campaigns tailored for different age groups. Then, check the funnel results and see which age group promises a higher ROI.

Analyze Your Results

A/B testing is an important addition to your digital campaign. It optimizes your marketing funnel by giving you the most reliable variant. Performance metrics of conversion vary depending on the ad campaign.

So, who is A/B testing for? Any website or digital campaign struggling with unqualified leads or blogs with low viewership can leverage split testing. Ecommerce stores with high rates of cart abandonment can also use this technique to reduce churn rates.

When used correctly with demographic segmentation, A/B testing provides insights on customers’ pain points. This method offers vital metrics that can inform marketing strategies. If you want to realize high ROI and minimal bounce rates, you might want to try split testing.

Some of the A/B testing campaign elements to use includes CTAs, headlines, offers, themes, product descriptions, pricing schemes, graphics or images. You can realize best results with this approach by targeting the right market. Call tracking comes in handy when it comes to proper market targeting strategy.

Call Tracking

Tracking your phone calls is one of the most reliable ways of locating your prospects and monitoring their behavior across various customer interfaces like social media, review sites, and stores they frequent for their shopping.

Additionally, you can avoid attribution blind spots and concentrate on leads that have a higher chance of entering the conversion phase. This enables you to know which marketing channels are generating your leads. For instance, you can easily denote the source of the current surge in traffic or inquiries.

Analyzing Call Data

Call tracking enables you to identify ad campaigns that generate high response rates. When used with market segmentation and A/B testing, it facilitates creation of a highly productive marketing matrix. Also, you can accurately attribute your leads and phone calls to their sources by using call tracking.

You can integrate call tracking analytics with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools for higher productivity and market visibility. With visibility, you can quickly pinpoint which campaigns use lots of resources but drive sales by low margins. Eliminate underperforming campaigns and concentrate on those with high potential.

This tool also provides important demographic information about your prospects. Using area codes, you can determine neighborhoods or businesses that respond well to your campaigns. Knowing the name of the caller, location, duration of the call, phone number, and voicemails, allows you to make intelligent calls to qualify leads.

Strategizing Segmentation Data

Regardless of the campaign methods in use, demographic segmentation, A/B testing, and call tracking provide invaluable information regarding your target market. Use these strategies whenever you want penetrate new markets or when you want to introduce a new product to consumers.

You can also employ these marketing tactics when your business is struggling with thousands of unqualified leads. This triple-combo marketing strategy will increase ROI, improve visibility, reduce churn rates, and accelerate conversion rates.