5. Importance of Segmentation
SEGMENTATION IS THE KEY
to increasing email marketing metrics
and conversion rates for marketing
campaigns – and to improving
prospect engagement
6. Segmentation Basics
Demographic/Profile Behavioral
• Web pages visited
• Title • Forms submitted
• Department • Emails clicked
• Geography • Whitepapers
• Company size downloaded
• Industry • Webinar
registration &
attendance
7. Build a Segmentation Strategy
Define the profiles and behaviors that
characterize your existing best customers
Build desirable, productive segments by
understanding who buys now, and why they buy
Create “personas”– profiles of ideal buyers – and
then look for prospects that match the personas
9. Build out Prospect Information
• Information a prospect
Explicit: gives you, such as via a
form
• Gathered by observing the
Implicit prospect, i.e. what website
pages they visit
11. Progressive Profiling
• Use a sequence of simple forms to build up
profile of a visitor over time
• As you collect more data, programs can
become more targeted
Keeping forms short and simple increases
conversion rates
12. In Action: Progressive Profiling
An anonymous visitor clicks on a whitepaper link on
your website
Form asking for just name and email address is
shown
Next time this visitor clicks on a different link, a form
that asks for company, job title and industry is
displayed
For the 3rd subsequent asset contact requests, form
can request phone number, # of employees, etc
14. Dynamic Segmentation
• Define dynamic segments by combining
profile attributes with observed
behaviors
• As people take action, they automatically
move into that specific segment
• Set up automated campaigns and actions
for these dynamic segments
19. In a Nutshell
• Measure marketing interactions with your
prospects
• Combine this behavioral data with
demographic information to define highly
targeted segments
• Automate personalized campaigns to
these targeted segments
20. 7 Steps to Getting Started
1. Begin with two or three segments
2. Begin with simple campaigns targeted
specifically to those segments
3. Collect progressive data and refine
4. Measure success at every step; consider using
at least two metrics
5. Analyze at regular intervals
6. Watch for patterns and adjust
7. Keep evolving
#AOWEB
21. Ready to Learn More?
Sign up for a demo:
act-on.com
blog.actonsoftware.com
Can’t Wait?
Call our hotline at: 1 (877) 530-1555
Email us: sales@act-on.net
Editor's Notes
Hello, I’m thrilled to be here today!
In this session, we’ll start out discussing the basics of segmentation, ways to build out the profiles for your prospects, utilizing dynamic segmentation and content to further segment – and automate those segments, and the key steps to getting started.
Let’s start at the beginning with an overview of the basics.
Segmentation is the key to increasing email marketing metrics and conversion rates for marketing campaigns – and to boosting prospect engagement. You can improve your marketing effectiveness by targeting your campaigns to appropriate segments, rather than blasting the same campaign out to all your prospects.
Improve your marketing effectiveness by targeting your campaigns to appropriate segments, instead of just blasting them out to all your prospects. Two main components to look at when starting your segmentation strategy are demographic or profile data – who the company and person IS/what they do versus behavioral – what they are interested in or what they are doing. The real power of segmentation, however, comes when you combine these two components to get a clearer picture of your target.
The first step to building your segmentation strategy is to work with your historical data and your sales department to define the profiles and behaviors that characterize your existing best customersLook first for prospects with identifiable common problems or needs that your product or service addresses effectively. Good segments containmembers who are as similar as possible to each other inside the group, and as different as possible from other groups. The more contrast, the easier it is to define appropriate marketing tactics and content. Other desirable segment characteristics include:• Well-defined needs, preferably in strategically painful areas• Size. The segment should be large enough and potentially productive enough to justify the effort• The willingness to pay for a solution. Look for a shared purchase procedure, and the habit of dedicating budget to solve the problems your solutionaddresses• Reachable through marketing tools
Once you have your segmentation strategy determined, it’s time to look at your prospect database.
There are two primary ways to capture data:1. Explicit: This is data that a prospect gives you, such as a job title, or that you can gather directly, such as an IP address. You might capture such data when a prospect fills out a form on your website.2. Implicit: This is data that you gather by observing the prospect, such as which website pages they visit, or by analyzing explicit data sources, such as linking an IP address to a particular company. You could gather such data from programs like a website visitor tracking tool.
You can use online forms in many ways to capture data – people can fill out a form to register for a webinar or download content, or sign up for a newsletter.
Oftentimes, you simply don’t have much information about a prospect to begin with. Sometimes you just get a list with just first name, last name and email address (we refer to these as FLEAs). These are early funnel contacts. Actions can be taken to learn more about these and move them further into the funnel. And, as you learn more about them, these contacts can then be dynamically entered into appropriate segments.
Here’s an example of how progressive profiling can help you increase your conversion rates – by asking for very little information on each form – but increase your knowledge of the prospects demographic information over time. You’re also collecting behavioral data about what pieces of content they are interested in.
Once you have this information about the prospect – it’s time to get dynamic!
Using a marketing automation system, it’s easy to create dynamic segments by combining profile attributes with observed behaviors. Once you create these dynamic segments, new prospects will move into them as soon as they hit the requirements. Your marketing automation system will also capture every interaction in each prospect’s individual activity history, so when the prospect becomes sales-ready, the sales rep reaching out will know everything possible about the prospect’s needs and interests.Setting up automated campaigns or actions allows segmentation to run in the background as your marketing team works on other projects.
Here are a couple different examples of dynamic segments and automated triggers that can be set up.
In addition to dynamic segmentation, marketers are also using dynamic content to drive the relevancy of their email marketing campaigns. Dynamic content is a marketing automation feature in which the marketer creates a single campaign that can be sent to multiple segments, while ensuring that text, images, offers, etc., change dynamically to suit the segment a prospect is in. Sending email campaigns this way saves time and allows you to see at a glance how the campaign performed overall, before breaking results down by segment.More than ever, your prospects and customers expect targeted, relevant communications. The benefits include: stronger customer and prospectrelationships, higher email open and click-through rates, increased sales, and enhanced ROI. The challenge is to deliver personalized email communications to your customer base without spending too much valuable time.
Here’s an example of dynamic content. This is the same email message, sent to two different segments.• John is in a segment defined as “CXOs focused on sales results”• Heidi is in a segment defined as “marketing directors responsible for the productivity of a small marketing team”The marketer set the campaign up with dynamic content, then ran only one campaign.
Measure regularly and adjust as needed. And the key is to automate everything that can be automated – forms, progressive profiling, scoring, segmentation, campaigns, nurturing, and the handoff to sales.
Begin simply, with two or three segmentsBegin with simple campaigns, targeted specifically to those segmentsCollect progressive data and refine; you might move a prospect from one segment to another as you gain information. (Marketing automation can make this happen without taxing resources)Measure success at every step; consider using at least two metrics, perhaps sales bookings and conversionsAnalyze at regular intervals; how often depends on your sales cycleAs you see patterns of good and less-than-good results developing, adjust your campaigns and/or segmentsKeep evolving. The whole process is dynamic, as customers, context, trends, economics, and your own products and company are always changing
Thank you for your time today. I invite you to visit Act-On.com to learn more about how we can help you achieve your marketing goals.
