Archive for Audience Segmentation
Audience Segmentation, Key for Both Customer Acquisition and Retention
By now, you’ve probably heard about Sony’s PlayStation Network being hacked, and that personal data for 77 million users was compromised. In a recent article in Advertising Age online entitled, “Sony Scrambles to calm Gamers Outraged Over Security Breach,” the author points out that the extent of the damage is still being determined, and that US Gamers that use the Sony network are posting complaints on social media.
While Sony has announced that, once the PlayStation network is back up, it will launch a “Welcome Back” program that will include free downloads and memberships, we think it could take a lot more than free downloads and memberships to restore confidence, reduce defections to X-box and reinvigorate the Sony brand. In the article Mike Mulvihill, President of PR and marketing agency CRT/Tanaka opines, “It’s good that they’ve taken steps to offer something to their customer base, but I think they need to create a dialogue. They have approached this totally as a monologue and that doesn’t work with Americans.”
Audience segmentation can turn this into an opportunity
In creating a dialog Sony can also create an opportunity to turn this adverse situation into an opportunity – one that will not only restore confidence in the Sony brand, but also actually strengthen it. If they do it right they can probably even do some cross-selling and up-selling. They can do this not only at the points of interaction like social media, micro-sites and toll-free hotlines, but also in the communications that drive their customers to the points of interaction.
The key to personalizing those communications is obviously lies in the degree of demographic and psychographic granularity they can achieve in their audience segmentation and profiling. They should already have a fairly rich set of customer data which probably includes PlayStation network usage and other transaction data, as well as the data from warranty registrations. They also could have an external marketing data services provider append data from off-line data sources like catalog, magazine and newsletter subscription lists, etc.
Here’s how audience segmentation and profiling can help
In homes where the gamer is under 16 and one of the parent’s credit cards associated with the account, a free download and membership in a game fan club may be enough to make the gamer happy, but it’s going to take more than that to convince the parents that it’s safe for their kid to plug back into the PlayStation network.
Doing it right means personalizing the dialogue as much as possible. At some point there needs to be a communication to the parent that clearly makes clear what Sony has done to make the PlayStation safe, and that outreach to parents should probably be sweetened with an offer. So, while the communication and offer to the gamer might be based on the child’s online gaming behavior, the language in the communication and the offer to the parent could be based on their profession, income, hobbies, etc.
For example, if they can identify a group of young gamers’ parents that are IT professionals, a somewhat technical explanation of what steps were taken to harden the PlayStation network security would probably be more credible than some laymen’s terms. The discount coupons offered to the parents could be for PlayStation games related to their hobbies, or perhaps downloads or CD’s from Sony Music or movies from Sony Entertainment. The point here is that data appending, audience segmentation and profiling are not just powerful tools for customer acquisition, but they are also critical for customer retention— in good times and bad.
At V12 Group we can enrich your existing customer data by append data from our multi-channel consumer database which is one of the largest in the direct marketing industry with over 208 million individuals and 110 million US households.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you to improve your audience segmentation and both your customer acquisition and customer retention programs.
Audience Segmentation Data Accumulation
In today’s hyper-competitive, global market place audience segmentation is an essential component of any successful marketing plan. For both B2C and B2B marketers, the level of granularity in audience segmentation (enabled by database technology and the access to data provided by the internet), combined with the reach, functionality and cost effectiveness of email marketing and CRM tools, has allowed direct marketers to go well beyond the 1% and 2% response rates typically associated direct marketing in the pre-internet era.
Accumulating Data for More Granular Audience Segmentation
One way to accumulate data for segmentation and build your house list is through a lead nurturing campaign that employs a combination of email marketing, micro sites and even tele-marketing. You start by segmenting your existing customer list based on relevant parameters like age, income, location, and what they have already purchased from you. You can also segment your prospect list by many of the same parameters, depending on how much data you have on them. Obviously, this is a lot easier if you have a CRM tool. If you don’t have a CRM tool, you might want to look into on-line CRM tools, like Salesforce.com, that are quite affordable because they are available on a pay per use basis.
Once you have your list segmented based on what you know about them, ask yourself, “What additional data points would make it easier to sell, cross-sell and/or up-sell to these segments?” You can then take those data points and build a sequence of emails, landing pages, micro sites and even make phone calls to gather a few of the data points you’re missing. To increase the likelihood of getting a response to such a request, we recommend something like:
- A free offer of something of value, like a discount coupon, white paper or “how to” guide in exchange for deeper information
- Attractive “Buy It Now” offers where the order form contains a few questions to answer the missing data points
- Ongoing enhancements in segmentation
As you gather the data points, you can use them to enhance your segmentation and better tailor the next email in the sequence which will help you to move the prospect down the sales funnel quicker.
Another way to accumulate data for audience segmentation is data appending. V12 Group can add valuable information to your existing customer file, appending data from any combination of our 260+ data fields including geographic, demographic, lifestyle, interest and behavioral information. This will allow you to better define your audience and provide you with a targeted approach to increase cross-selling/up-selling opportunities and drive customer retention.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you to improve your audience segmentation and direct marketing campaigns.
Find out how audience segmentation can help with customer acquisition and retention.
Learn more about what makes audience segmentation with The V12 Group unique, and ask for white papers.
Get started with audience segmentation today. Contact us.
Audience Segmentation Drives Successful B2B Campaigns
Audience segmentation is the process of dividing people or companies into homogeneous subgroups based on parameters such as product usage, demographics, psychographics, firmographics, communication behaviors and media use. In today’s hyper-competitive, global market place audience segmentation is an essential ingredient in any successful marketing or product plan. For B2B marketers, the level of granularity in audience segmentation (enabled by database technology and the access to data provided by the internet), combined with CRM tools and multi-channel marketing campaigns, has allowed B2B marketers to go beyond the response rates typically associated with traditional lead acquisition and nurturing marketing programs. Why? Because on- line marketing communications and digital printing make it quick, easy and relatively inexpensive to create and deliver marketing communications to each segment with value propositions that hit the hot buttons specifically related to that segment.
For example, a computer hardware manufacturer marketing IT infrastructure management systems to large enterprises can now consider segmenting their audience by job title and develop separate value propositions and communications for the CIO, CFO and VP of Human Resources. This is important because, while there are some common issues, each has their own issues that the system must address, and each speaks a different “language.” The CIO might be more concerned with issues like how will installing the product line help him to drive down operations costs, or how it will integrate with the existing infrastructure. The CFO will probably be more interested in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), ROI and the payback interval. The VP of HR will be interested in the amount of cultural change involved in implementing the process changes that will be enabled by installing the product line.
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In this type of B2B scenario where we’re dealing with big ticket items,
one-to-one marketing communications are much more powerful than
one-size-fits-all. Contact us to learn more
Another good example of audience segmentation is the major ERP software companies who segment their audience by vertical, sub vertical and job title. This creates the need for separate sets of communications and collateral for the different disciplines in the buying authorities (CIO, CFO, CEO, etc) of companies in individual industries like retail, banking, insurance, manufacturing, etc.
Audience Segmentation using V12 Group’s rich data
At V12 Group Our Business Database is one of the largest multi-channel B2B databases available. Like our Consumer Database, our B2B database is a hybrid file built from compiled and proprietary data sources. It combines postal, email and phone data, as well as more than 20+ selectors to improve targeting including firmagraphic and contact level demographic data.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you to improve your http://www.v12groupinc.com/marketing-data/audience-segmentation-key-for-both-customer-acquisition-and-retention/ and the effectiveness of your direct marketing campaigns.
Use The V12 Group to get started with audience segmentation today.
Find out more about how audience segmentation can help with customer retention and acquisition.
Contact The V12 Group to learn how you can get better ROI on your marketing spend with audience segmentation
Audience Segmentation – Divide and Conquer
A consistent theme you’ll hear from The V12 Group is that marketers should focus on having more meaningful ‘conversations’ with audience segments rather than sending out messaging that tries to appeal to everyone. If you can zero in on a prospect segment’s needs, then you can articulate a set of solutions to each segment in a unique and more appealing way.
And when you combine that with our other powerful data services, you end up with a plan to work on each segment individually, even your current customers.
V12 Customer Profiling Zeroes In
With our data services, you can segment audiences into clusters which are divided up by unique attributes:
- age
- income
- home ownership
- marital status
- ethnicity
- wealth
- behavior
- discretionary spending
- and much more
All of these traits can be run against your current list of customers to determine who your best prospects are for any given service or message strategy.
Contact the V12 Group to learn more about Audience Segmentation.
The 80-20 Rule
When applied to audience segmentation, the 80-20 Rule states that 20% of your customers represent the bulk of your business. Most companies already have some anecdotal data about who these customers are, but through segmentation and V12′s Customer Profiling, you’ll come to know much more about them. Add to that the power of our data appending and you will have a way to turn your marketing outreach into a very effective tool using a multi-channel approach.
Doing It All
Think how successful your next marketing campaign could be if the following scenario were followed (and this is only scratching the surface of all we can do to help you).
Data Processing - People move. Data changes. So before doing anything, you engage V12 Group’s Data Processing experts to go to work on your existing list. Our data processing tools and services will verify address, email, and phone, eliminating duplicates and adding any missing customer contact information. This increased data integrity will result in far more effective campaigns.
Segmenting and Migrating - After identifying the most desirable segments of your customer database V12 Group will begin to generate more detailed data of each segment. Then we’ll identify the levers that will motivate them to purchase. This new understanding of your prospects will be used as the baseline for a tier-migration strategy. In it, we put each customer relationship onto a path in your company’s unique customer lifecycle so that we can help you get them into your higher value segments.
Data Appending for Multi-Channel Success - Your customers will tell you loud and clear how they prefer to be reached. You’ll know because one of 2 things will happen –
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1. They will ignore you completely
2. They will respond to a given media outreach
The beauty of multi-channel marketing with the V12 Group’s powerful data methodology is that you’ll be reaching the right customers using the right media for them. And you can adjust on the fly.
We’ll be talking more about audience segmentation and how it should interact with other V12 Group services to form a powerful marketing tool for your company.
Isn’t data wonderful?