Divide and conquer. An ancient political strategy widely used throughout history. Both the Roman Empire and the British Empire divided their constituencies into small tribes in order to control their lands and territories. It was used by the Romans when they took Britain, when the British Empire took India, and when the Anglo-Normans took Ireland. Julius Caesar used it to subdue the Celts. A staple political strategy, divide and conquer is still used by many countries today.
But in Marketing?
Sure, but not in every sense of the word. The theory, however, is basically the same: in Customer Segmentation, a company’s customers or prospects are divided into smaller groups according to type. These sub-groups are characterized by specific attributes like their needs, buying patterns, and other relevant profiles such as age, income, and so on.
Learn more about: Demographic and Psychographic on Customer Profiling
When it comes to finding leads or prospects, segmentation is vital in establishing whether there is adequate market for your product or service and in identifying the type of people that would make your ideal customers. The goal is to send out specific and relevant marketing messages to each group and ultimately, get better and qualified leads out of them.
Related: Often Overlooked Ways in Generating Leads in Australia
So how exactly do we find better and qualified leads by dividing prospects into groups?
- By dividing the market into meaningful and measurable segments according to customers’ needs, their past behaviors or their demographic profiles, you are essentially filtering the prospects or weeding out the undesirables from the pool of potential leads. Reach the right prospects for your marketing campaign list in Australia, learn how.
- By streamlining operations and targeting only those leads that are most likely to avail of the product or service, you make sure that the most qualified leads are in the frontlines.
- By giving your prospects exactly what they’re interested in, you’re able to create a better relationship between that prospect and your brand. Over time, they’ll look for marketing from you.
Here’s a 2-parts guide in understanding buyer’s decision:
– Understanding the B2B Buyer: 4 Rationales of a Purchase Decision (Part 1 of 2)
– Understanding the B2B Buyer: 4 Rationales of a Purchase Decision (Part 2 of 2)
- When a group of customers is sent personalized messages as part of a marketing mix that is designed around their needs, it’s easier for companies to send those prospects special offers meant to encourage them to buy more products or avail of the services.
In identifying new prospects and segmenting them, the idea is to draw in your mind a picture of the individual or company that represents the type you are aiming at. If you take two very different types of prospects, you can see that they will have very different needs, wants, values and opinions. And they will respond quite differently depending on the marketing method you use.
