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1. SEGMENTATION
The best analogy I can think of for communicating the value of a segmentation strategy is the
gun range. Now, I’m not a gun guy, but bear with me.
An un-segmented marketing strategy is like trying to fire an uzi one-handed while facing away
from the target. Bullets are going to go everywhere, spraying indiscriminately (and dangerously)
around the room.
Segmentation, on the other hand, is like lying down and resting a sniper rifle on a tripod, relaxing
your body and breathing in and out – eye trained down the sight and with no pressure.
I’ve never fired a gun in my life, but I’m confident even I could hit the target in those conditions.
What is segmentation?
Market segmentation is the act of subdividing your market or contactsinto groups with similar
characteristics, needs, or interests who are likely to exhibit similar purchase behavior.
Segmentation increases everything from email open rates to customer loyalty. It’s incredibly
effective in all areas of your marketing and sales funnel (but I’ll be giving you a few segmentation
strategy use-cases below, so be patient for a second).
There are two primary kinds of segmentation:
1. Explicit Segmentation: Characteristics of a lead or customer which are given clearly to
your business either through conversation, lead generation, or purchase behavior.
2. Implied Segmentation: Characteristics of a lead or customer which are implied in their
actions, demographics, or purchase behavior.
A few examples to make those a bit clearer:
Explicit segmentation would be things like…
 Customers who bought in the past 6 months.
 Leads who selected B2B as their industry type in a landing page.
 Customers who live in Canada.
Implied segmentation would be things like..
 Customers who downloaded the Guide to Landing Pages, and are likely to be interested
in that subject.
 Leads who viewed our pricing page twice in two days, and are likely to be interested in
buying.
 Customers who purchased a wet suit, and are likely to be interested in watersports.
Why you need to be careful of explicit segmentation…
People are more complicated than what they look like, their gender or their geographic location.
You know that.
The difficulty arises, of course, because segmentation is generalization. We’re generalizing that a
selection of our merchants who act and behave a certain way represent a larger whole – and
we’re budgeting for that generalization.

2. Yet (particularly with explicit segmentation) this can be dangerous. For instance…
image: https://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/segmentation-
strategy.png-e1455671513868.png
On the surface, we could say that all 40-something mothers with a high yearly income will be
interested in receiving advice about healthy cooking strategies. We could create an entire
marketing strategy around that assumption: create content which nurtures 40-something mothers
towards an annual subscription to receive organic, local food on a bi-weekly basis.
Except some 40-something mothers don’t like to cook.
But should that stop me from segmenting by explicit characteristics?
No, of course not. You can’t please everybody all the time. If you find that a statistically
significant indicator of interest is having a couple kids and a six figure income, then run with it.
I just want you to be aware that segmentation is only so powerful, and (as with literally every
marketing strategy out there) testing is a crucial element.
What are you looking to achieve through segmentation?
There’s no point in segmenting your business’ contacts unless you can establish how to alter
your marketing strategies based on that segmentation.
Here are a few things you need to identify about a segment once they’ve been defined:
 Establish their beliefs and attitudes towards your business or your industry (if they’re not
familiar with your business specifically).
 Establish what drives them to choose a business that supplies your product or service.
 Establish what interest they’re likely to have in specific elements of your product or
service.
 Establish what marketing channels are likely to be effective in targeting them.

3.  Establish if there are details which might be more easily measurable than your current
model. (i.e. Can we simply ask leads for explicit characteristics than define their segment
from implicit actions?)
The 5 Characteristics of a Strong Segment:
For segmentation to be useful, it has meet these five requirements:
#1. Focused but significant:
There’s no point in segmenting so specifically that creating a tailored marketing program for that
segment would yield a negative ROI. Your segment should be “the largest possible
homogeneous group worth going after.”
#2. Differentiable:
Segments must be easily distinguished from each other, as well as likely to respond differently to
different marketing approaches and strategies.
#3. Relevant:
Segments must be structured such that the knowledge aids your business’ marketing goals.
There’s no point in segmenting your SaaS customers by hair color, as the information is useless
to you. Equally, there’s no point in segmenting your hair salons’s customers by the size of their
business.
#4. Actionable:
It must be possible for a marketing team to create strategies which will effectively attract and
serve the segment.
#5. Stable:
Stability of a segment is paramount in executing a long-term strategy for it. If your segment is
likely to change in composition or purchase-inclination over time, the effort you put into marketing
to that segment is less likely to succeed than if that segment is stable.
Sources; (Kotler, 2004 & Ederewhevbe, 2013)
Segmentation Possibilities
 Geographic:
o Land or region
o Rural or metropolitan area
 Demographic:
o Age, sex, marital status
o Income, occupation, education
o Religion, nationality, ethnicity
 Psychographic:
o Social status
o Lifestyle-type
o Personal type
 Behavioral:
o Intensity of product use
o Brand loyalty
o User behaviors
 Industry
 Intermediary or final consumer?

4.  Type of corporation (public or private sector)
 Size of corporation
 Interest
NOTE:When segmenting by demographics, many businesses fall into the trap of believing (as
they’ve already segmented) no further segmentation is needed. Thisis particularly prevalent
when we’re talking about businesses doing business abroador towards one gender – where the
obvioussegmentation is “often overemphasizedand inappropriate.” (Source)
Read more at https://www.business2community.com/marketing/complete-guide-implementing-
marketing-segmentation-strategy-01456279