The ability to segment your contacts based on a variety of different factors allows you to personalize your messaging in such a way as to grab and hold their attention.  It also helps you to communicate with them through their preferred method and pitch them solutions that truly fit their needs.  Here we break down some of the most common ways to segment your audience as it pertains to demographic and psychographic information.

Demographics:

Location – Certain products and messaging will resonate with a particular region better than others.  Segmenting by location allows you to personalize your outreach as well as which products you offer to this segment.  This type of segmentation also allows you to better cultivate your delivery times.

Age – While many topics of conversation transcend age, there can be differences in their preferred methods of communication.  While younger generations may be more receptive to building relationships through social media, more experienced folks may be more likely to prefer email and telephone outreach.

Job Role – Job titles have become a bit ambiguous these days so researching what an individual contact’s role is can be much more effective when developing your segments.  Particularly when using an account-based marketing approach, you will be reaching out to different levels of contacts.  Some may be decision makers, evaluators or influencers and all will require a different approach.

Budget – Pitching products or services to a company that has no conceivable way to afford them does not make much sense.  Most companies offer multiple solutions and knowing which ones are a good fit for a particular group of companies will help you to market to them more efficiently.

Niches And Markets – Many companies offer solutions to multiple industries, verticals and micro-verticals.  Being able to tailor your messaging to a particular niche will allow you to focus on specific pain points.  This allows your outreach to be more personalized and effective.

Company Size – The size of a company can often dictate their budget and their need for a particular product or service.  You may also have solutions or packages that fit a particular company size.  In these cases, segmenting by company size makes a lot of sense.

Psychographics:

Personality – Knowing certain personality traits of a prospect can help you to tailor your messaging.  Is this contact someone who is strictly out for profit? do they love to help people? are they the creative type or more numbers oriented? Knowing these traits ahead of time will make it easier to build a relationship with them.

Opinions – What do your prospects find important? Knowing the degree to which a prospect values family, free time, social issues and work is another way you can personalize your approach.

Interests – Is your prospect interested in a particular sport, music genre, history or science?  Knowing this information can help you to craft content that touches on these subjects, making it more likely to get their attention and engagement.