PSYNCHRONOUS POINT OF VIEW: Segmentation is in for 2007

This is truly a great year for marketers – especially those interested in benefiting from segment marketing. While the idea of segmentation is in no way new, we've all been limited in the past tactically by extremely manual processes that yield minimal results. In this article, I'm going to show you three ways our Gravity marketing communications platform can enable more effective segmentation in your organization.

Manual and Automatic Segmentation

When you import a list into Gravity, think about the names and if there is anything that would help bucket them into your current segments. The list may be from a trade show where a request was made for information on specific product line or may be added to your 'key customer' segment. Later you will be able use these segmented names in highly targeted online and offline campaigns.

By far, the easiest and most powerful way to segment is to have Gravity learn and automatically segment your customers and leads based on online behaviors. Remember, Gravity is keeping track of what each of your visitors is interested, every page that is viewed and every campaign response. Let Gravity do the work for you by always keeping each visitor in the correct segment. You'll find you have many more names to work with in your segment marketing.

And don't forget your surveys! This is one of the most important areas to examine in segmentation because your customers are going out of their way to volunteer valuable information when they fill out a survey. They are essentially raising their hand and telling your what segment they want to belong to. Take advantage of this and use this provide them relevant content and offerings.

Communicating to Segments

There are many great ways to communicate to your segments with your Gravity platform. The PrimeTarget module is perhaps the most effective because once it is set up, Gravity begins displaying relevant online content to each segment every second of every day. This could be the primary message on your homepage or a rotating banner on your sub-pages. This changes the entire experience of your web site visitors to be tailored to their interests instead of wasting screen real estate with irrelevant products and services.

Email marketing can be an extremely effective and efficient way to communicate with customers and prospects. But as people find themselves with an increasing amount of mail in their inbox, it has become critical that companies work hard to keep the interest of every email subscriber. The best way to do this is to use segmentation marketing with your emails instead of using your entire list for every email blast. You will see response rates go up and opt-outs go down.

In the same way that you can use segment marketing for online communications, don't forget direct mail in your offline. These days digital printing can allow you to offer different messages, copy, and imagery on each card to both segment and personalize. For the best response rates, use personalized URLs (psynchronous.com/johnsmith) in your direct mail for a truly one-to-one communication. If your customers and prospects see that you've carved out a little place just for them, they'll appreciate the attention.

Segmentation Analytics

Are you blindly looking at your campaign performance and website analytics as if all of your customers are in the same group? Gravity can help by allowing you to filter any report by segment. This is important in understanding the KPIs of each group as well as their behaviors and interests. You'll be able to optimize your website and campaigns more effectively.

If you have any questions at all about segment marketing, please don't hesitate to contact me at any time.

Kevin Zundl
Partner, Strategy & Analytics
kevin@psynchronous.com