When you own an online business, leveraging segmentation can help you market to your customers more effectively. However, creating this advertising strategy from scratch can be challenging. Fortunately, exploring some example use cases and familiarizing yourself with tips and best practices can help you learn e-commerce segmentation.
In this article, we’ll explain what segmentation is and why it’s important in e-commerce. Then we’ll cover some examples of using segmentation for e-commerce email marketing and how to apply this strategy with a specific platform such as WP Engine hosting. Let’s jump in!
An Introduction to Segmentation for E-Commerce Marketing
In marketing, segmentation divides a target audience into smaller, more manageable groups. Segmentation enables businesses to better customize their products and services to meet the specific needs of each group. Overall, companies can use segmentation to target their marketing efforts more effectively and efficiently.
There are many benefits to using segmentation in your e-commerce business. Firstly, creating personalized, tailored messages relevant to each group can help increase conversion rates.
It can also provide meaningful and insightful information about your customer base. In turn, this data can lead to longer relationships and improve your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
One of the most popular types of e-commerce marketing segmentation is email list segmentation. This process involves dividing your email list into smaller groups based on specific criteria, leading to higher engagement rates.
Examples of Segmentation in E-Commerce Marketing
To use segmentation for marketing to your e-commerce customers, it helps to look at some examples. There are many different ways to segment a market.
The most common segmentation methods are geographic location, demographics and psychographics. You can also use a combination of these strategies to refine your target market further.
Geographic segmentation is perhaps the simplest form of market segmentation. You can divide your markets by city, state, region or even country. This approach can benefit companies with products or services only available in some geographic areas.
Demographic segmentation is another common form of market segmentation. You can use age, gender, income and education level to group potential customers.
For instance, if you’re running a clothing store and want to promote a fashion newsletter, you could segment your audience based on gender and advertise different apparel items.
Geographical location information can also help you further segment your audience. For example, the weather in the specific region of your customers can influence what types of apparel they’d be interested in during certain seasons.
Finally, psychographic segmentation is a more complex form of market segmentation. You can use psychographic data to group potential customers based on their interests, lifestyles and values.
How to Use Segmentation to Market to E-Commerce Customers (3 Key Tips)
Once you’ve decided how to segment your market, you need to choose the right marketing mix for each group. The marketing mix combines product, price, promotion and place. You’ll need to tailor each element of the mix to appeal to the specific needs and wants of your target market segment.
For example, if you’re targeting young adults, you might want to use a social media marketing campaign. By contrast, a more traditional marketing approach, such as direct mail or print advertising, could be more suitable for senior customers.
In this example, we’ll focus on email marketing, a powerful and popular channel for nearly every type of customer. Let’s take a look at three tips for getting started with segmentation!
1. Choose Your Segmentation Platform
There are many different types of Email Service Providers (ESP) and platforms you can use for segmentation.
One of the most popular options is Sendinblue:
This email marketing software offers a complete solution for e-commerce sales and marketing. It includes a wide range of helpful features, including segmentation, personalized messaging, A/B testing, and more. It also comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and template library to create stunning email campaigns.
Additionally, you can easily manage your Sendinblue contacts without creating individual lists for every segment. You can also split your contacts and rearrange them into new mailing lists.
2. Create Your Segments and Buyer Personas
When you’re first starting out, it’s a good idea to keep things simple. As you get deeper into your segmentation, you can make your lists more specific.
Sendinblue lets you create email lists of your contacts based on the conditions you specify:
To start, we recommend basing these lists on demographics. For example, you can split them into gender and age groups.
It also helps to create buyer personas or customer journey maps for each of your segments. Both tools can help you understand your audience segments and their needs and motivations.
3. Conduct A/B Testing
To determine whether your market segmentation efforts are successful, it’s essential to track, monitor and test your campaigns. This approach can help you identify potential areas for improvement.
You can use A/B testing to see which campaigns are better received than others among individual groups. This method can help you enhance your strategy and ultimately increase sales.
Sendinblue lets you do this testing directly within your dashboard after you create your campaign:
You can use various methods to segment your market. However, remember that your overall goal is to create a targeted marketing campaign that resonates with your customers and helps you achieve your business objectives.
Conclusion
Segmentation is a powerful technique for marketing to your e-commerce customers. By dividing your email list into smaller groups based on demographics, psychographics or geographic location, you can create more personalized messaging. In turn, this segmentation can result in higher engagement and conversion rates.
Do you have any questions about using segmentation to market to e-commerce customers? Let us know in the comments section below!
Photo by Melanie Deziel