Social Reef: An Industry Perspective

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Slicing and Dicing. The Importance of Audience Segmentation

Marketing and Innovation Blog had a great post on how Lego (yes folks, the people that make those little plastic pieces that are strewn all over the house by creative children) segments their customer base.

Lego, like smart brands do, does not believe in the one size fits all brand and marketing strategy. They acknowledge that just like in life they are experiencing different types of relationships with their existing and potential customer base.

Brands that segment their customer and partner base are doing so because it’s good business and it helps define how you communicate with your audience. It’s about not only establishing a relationship but fostering it and gaining value from it.

If you think of segmentation like life than it’s an extremely simple concept:

• Top customers/partners = Closest Pals. Yes, just like on Facebook sometimes in life you need to think about segmenting people in your life. Who are those closest pals, the ones whose status updates, photos, super pokes etc. you are just so eager to see, comment on and share back with over and over again through out the day. They are your trusted advisers who will actually agree with you when you are having a “bad hair day” and high five you when you blow away everyone on the field. Well take that to the business world and you know in your heart of hearts there are a group of customers you feel that way about. That segment of customers you are really hoping you can learn more about, foster that “customer intimacy” with and have as your “go to person” when you are seeking product input, needing a press quote or want on your advisory board.

• Active Customer/Partner Network = Your Frequent Peeps. These are like the people in your Gmail “most contacted” list or on your Twitter Faves. They are the group of people you communicate with often. Who you enjoy hearing from, like to bounce ideas off of, may have the occasional catch up lunch or drink with and always keep the conversation lively. In the business world you have that same group of customers or partners. The folks who can’t wait for the next version of your product to come out (so much so they’ve devoted at least 5 blog posts to it), they show up for every event you host, frequent the message boards, tell their friends all about you and your products and are happy to send feedback.

• Occasional Customers/Partners = The Lunch Bunch. These are the people in your life (friends, former classmates, colleagues etc) that you get together with maybe once a quarter, every six months or once a year. Whenever you do though it’s usually filled with lots of laughter, good stories and that feeling of “gosh I wish we did this more often”. This is a group of people who all have busy lives but still are connected and appreciate the bond of friendship and enjoy what each other has to say. In the business world this would equate to the customer or partner you may not see at every product launch, conference or promotion but who purchased or sold your solution a few times and still believe in what your brand represents. These folks keep tabs on your brand, appreciate receiving the quarterly newsletter or promotion and look forward to the next opportunity to engage with you.

• One and Done Customers/Partners = Some of Your Holiday Card List. Let’s admit it we all have folks on our holiday card list that we haven’t seen or spoken to in years, yet we feel inclined to drop them a note once a year. We enjoyed a nice connection with them once and who knows may do so again, so why not spend money on that first class stamp. This happens very often in business. There are a group of customers and partners who showed interest in your brand at one time. They even went as far as to buy your product or sign up for your partner program but for whatever the reason they have not stay engaged. And every year you struggle with how to win them back, do you keep them in the database or is it worth the marketing dollars to re-spark the brand flame.

• Target Customers = People You Admire or Spark Interest. We’ve all experienced meeting the friend of a friend at a party, restaurant or baseball game and thought “wow, they are really interesting and would be fun to get to know better.” Well those folks and your target customer have a lot in common. In both cases you/your brand seems to have something in common with this person, you already run in the same circles and each of you may offer the other some value--great insights into something you are involved in, a solution to a problem, a new way of doing things or having fun. You want to make the effort to get to know them but don’t want to be too pushy (i.e. seem like a freak and scare them away) and you are willing to invest the energy (i.e. time, resources and budget) in starting a new relationship.

You see when you can start thinking about your customer and partner relationships like your personal relationships it gets much easier to see where they fall on the effort scale and how best to engage with them.

You are probably not going to throw a sheep on Facebook at someone you just met and friended two days ago so do you really want to throw a direct mail piece, weekly email and telemarketing calls all at once at a target customer? Likewise you wouldn’t ignore one of your best buddy’s emails, tweets or phone calls, so why would you not frequently touch base with a customer or partner who have spent significant money on your brand, attend all your events and rave about you to their friends?

So think about your customer and partner relationships, determine where they are on the intimacy spectrum and remember every good relationship involves more than one party so keep the lines of communication open.

“Relationships of trust depend on our willingness to look not only to our own interests, but also the interests of others.” --Peter Farquharson

We look forward to getting to know you better!

The DoubleShot Team