Customer Segmentation | Know How
Customer segmentation describes the process of categorizing your contacts around similar characteristics. By simply organizing contact information based on specific attributes, each purchase becomes an opportunity to better understand your customer, gain valuable insight, and plan targeted engagement. Customized outreach gives your business a personal touch that speaks to customers and builds trust. In short, thoughtful segmentation drives growth and garners buyer loyalty.
The ShippingEasy platform gives you the benefit of accessing a wide variety of information about your customers and offers different ways of segmenting the data using our tools. Learn more about ShippingEasy's Customer Marketing solution.
Lists
Contact lists are the simplest yet most diverse way to organize your customers. To get started building a list, you must first filter your contacts for the customers you want to include. Learn how to filter customers based on specific information.
Using ShippingEasy's prebuilt segments from the available filters is a great way to get started segmenting your contacts. This allows you to filter for specific segments of customers based on email engagement and purchase history.
Once you have filtered your contacts, you can create a list based on the customer segment you would like to target. One example of a strong customer segment comes from their geographic information.
Geographical Segmentation:
- City
- State
- Country
- Language
Emails that contain personally-specific information are more likely to be read and followed with an action.
For example:
A customized shipping notification email tailored to a customers geographic information might look like this -
Hello [variable for name]!
We are shipping your product.
We love every time we get to ship to [customer's state]!
Geographical segmenting can help you boost sales by:
- Customizing products with flags or images of their state.
- Recommending regional items such as sporting goods or outfitting supplies.
- Offering sales to correspond with events specific to an area, such as festivals.
Tags
The use of tags in ShippingEasy allows you to mark customers based on a variety of criteria. Those tags can then be combined with contacts lists to create a useful customer segment. Learn how to tag customers.
One extremely effective segment that utilizes tags is customer behavior.
Customer Behavior Segmentation:
Behaviors to pay attention to:
- Are they using your website on a mobile or desktop?
- What kinds of products have they purchased?
- What time are they purchasing? Look at the time the order is downloaded or check your store orders page for the most accurate time frame.
- Are they a first time buyer?
- Have they purchased over a certain amount?
Once behaviors have been identified, use customer tags that make them easy to find when making a list. A list created with tagged customers can be used in campaigns triggered to be sent by the specific event or time frame.
For example:
You notice that a segment of customers typically make purchases in the morning every time they buy so you create a tag titled "AM Shopper".
Once you've tagged these customers, you can filter for these tagged customers to send emails alerting them to new products, sales or offers at their preferred shopping time. This helps buyers more easily find their next purchase and allow them to make that purchase at a time that is convenient.
Email Surveys
An approach to customer segmentation that builds on both the contact list and use of tags is the inclusion of an email survey. While ShippingEasy does not have a built-in survey tool, services such as SurveyMonkey allow you to create a quick survey that can be linked into any campaign. Learn how to create an Automated and Regular campaign with ShippingEasy.
Surveys can help you know definitively who your customers are and where their interest lie. This enables you to make better connections between them and your products. Incentivizing the survey with offers such as "Answer 5 questions for free shipping!" can help boost customer engagement.
Two segments that perform well with surveys are Demographic and Psychographic.
Demographic Segmentation:
This is one of the primary groups of segmentation that sellers think of when beginning to group their customers. This data includes:
- Gender
- Age
- Income
- Education
- Occupation
- Marital status
For example:
Your survey could ask questions that determine their gender and marital status. Then use tags to make notes of these survey results.
Psychographic Segmentation:
A few suggestions for psychographic segmentation are:
- Lifestyle
- Opinions
- Concerns
- Values
- Interests
- Attitude
Doing a little more work to get to know your customer establishes a two-way relationship built on trust and loyalty. It can give you insight into how your brand is affecting customers and where you can boost visibility.
For example:
The survey example above could also include questions about the customers' family, such as number of children or gender of their spouse.
To understand the usefulness of these examples, say you sell clothing. Knowing more about these demographics and psychographics allows you to make product recommendations that fit their needs. In the case of the examples, a single woman may have different habits than a married woman or mother, who might also be buying for her spouse or children.
As you can see, the ways in which customer segmentation can improve and strengthen your business are numerous. By keeping your data organized, making meaningful contact and staying open to the feedback, segmentation can take the guesswork out of the more elusive questions about your customers. Having a well-known customer base will reflect positively in all the work that you do!
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