As marketers and entrepreneurs, we sometimes get ourselves into a pickle trying to maximize conversion for every kind of customer. However, we all know that a better long-term strategy in converting more customers is to engage in practices of segmentation – like psychographic segmentation for instance.
Creating general campaigns usually works in the beginning; it helps set the standard for your selective segmentation as time goes by. It allows you to open new markets and identify potential customers for your business. This article aims to open new areas in segmenting your customers.
Instead of looking at income brackets, we will be looking at emotional factors that affect decisions and how we can group these factors properly in ensuring that conversion is highly likely.
The Importance of Segmentation
Businesses run on efficiencies and the more efficient the company, the better it is likely to perform. Segmentation allows you to focus your marketing resources on particular segments of your overall market that are more likely to buy from the company.
For instance, if you were to release an expensive line of your product – let’s say a more bespoke level of internet marketing services, it will generally appeal to parts of your market share that have a higher propensity to make money. It is also implied that those who make a smaller amount of money would not even consider these services.
However, how about if the real kicker in this product or service is the emotional appear for instance? Imagine that you can get any income bracket to purchase the upsell if it is packaged in a way that appeals to emotions. For example, you can sell it as a product that safeguards their business’ success in the future. What sort of idealistic B2B client would not want that? That goes beyond income brackets.
B2B versus B2C Customers
B2B and B2C customers differ in a variety of ways, B2B relationships tend to last longer and create more repeat sales than B2C relations and, as a result, there is more focus on the relationship that you have.
B2B relationships tend to last longer and create more repeat sales than B2C relations
The personal relationship is one of the factors that drive the sales process. You are talking about complex products and services with real long-term purchase periods, and that is why there is a mix of different factors that drive the sale.
Also, there is the rationalization factor because B2B customers do not make impractical decisions compared to B2C customers that can make decisions due to impulses. However, this does not mean that there is no emotional component in B2B transactions, when in fact psychographic segmentation is partly the analysis of the emotions that could be associated with a B2B deal.
Related: The B2B Buying Process Has Changed: Here’s How Not to Get Left Behind
The Beauty of Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographic segmentation goes beyond the typical social and economic demographical factors that we have studied as marketers. It involves the careful analysis of the behavioral factors that influence a decision for a potential or current B2B – and B2C customer.
Psychographic segmentation looks at factors such as the emotional responses that cause a specific buyer from a particular demographic to make a buy decision towards your product or service. It involves data collection and fine tweaking particular campaigns to elicit certain emotional responses that could be highly beneficial to the company.
This is a more complicated process than trying to find out the geographical demographics of your customers because we are looking for emotional responses that we can quantify and use for our benefit.
Related: Industry Insights: How to Influence Today’s B2B FinTech Buyers
How do you go about Psychographic Segmentation?
In the example above we talked about a new product in an Internet marketing service that is priced higher than usual because of its custom/bespoke nature. However, we have failed to take into account another kind of customer there. How about those that do not fall into the same income bracket, but are willing to spend more on their Internet services depending on the emotional stimulus that you would attach to your campaign.
Psychographic segmentation involves a lot of data gathering with your current and potential customer base because you are trying to find that particular behavior that elicits a specific response. Also, we have to take into consideration that customers differ from one another, and what could work for some could be different for the next batch.
A useful way to go about this is to get your CRM software prepped and ready for your data. We are trying to analyze the personal and professional lives of your current and potential customers. We are looking at what makes them tick and what the factors that dominate their decision-making process are.
Grow
In reality, segmentation is more than how much money people have in the bank and how old they are. It is the process of analyzing emotions, responses, and behavior. This makes your marketing campaigns more effective and efficient.
