If you really want to offer your website visitors a good service, you will have to use a customer segmentation model. This article explains exactly what this is and why it is so valuable for your marketing.
Segmenting and grouping your different customers in a data platform can be an intensive and complex process. You can choose to do this yourself, or you can use a predictive algorithm. The most important principle here is that you have groups of customers in your customer base with similar attributes, website behaviour and purchasing behaviour. Once you understand how individual visitors interact with your product or service within a particular segment, you can start fine-tuning your customer journey. You can then use your marketing to respond intelligently to this. This means you can make sure you can actually deliver what they are looking for, by personalising the offer based on their (or similar visitors from the same segment) preferences.
Effective segmentation
In order to be able to segment accurately and effectively, you first need to have a large amount of data. It is also important that the data is “clean”. Data can be contaminated by storing it in different formats at different locations, merging multiple datasets or simply making human errors while entering or editing it.
It is also important to invest in the development of skills, technology and knowledge in order to be able to use the data in a targeted manner.
What data can you use
To achieve a complete 360-degree customer profile, you can first look at demographic data. Data such as age, gender, education and background can help you to a large extent. However, it is important for the visitor to leave this information behind.
You can then look at a visitor’s click path and website behaviour. How does someone navigate through the site, have they bought your product before, and how long does it take on average between purchases? It has been said many times before, keeping a loyal customer is always cheaper than bringing in a new customer, it is important that your marketing is adapted to this.
If you really want to go into depth, you can look at psychographic data. You can get valuable information about someone’s passion, opinions and priorities. It is usually used to map out a customer’s emotional connection to your product.
Finally, you can also use technographic data. This looks at what kind of device someone is using, whether visitors actually receive marketing communication and which medium is most suitable for which message to which person.
What is a customer segmentation model?
A customer segmentation model is the starting point for differentiating between your customer segments. After all, you want to determine a suitable marketing approach for each part of the customer journey. This is only possible if you follow the visitors while they are visiting the website and save the resulting data in a data platform. You can then segment, or differentiate between groups. A customer segmentation model is literally the visualisation of the subdivision of different visitors among the different visitor segments. A distinction is made between the different types of data mentioned above.
Why segment?
Suppose you have all the necessary data at your disposal. It’s time to put your data to work! By dividing your customers into different groups, you can provide a better service. You can personalise the offer, for example, tailor your marketing communication to the individual and ensure that you always communicate via the channel they prefer. Not every visitor segment is prone to every type of marketing, segmentation can help you offer the perfect marketing mix per individual visiting your website or other sales channel.
Shopping Minds Data Platform
The purchase funnel below has been devised based on the various behaviours in the various segments. The deeper someone is in the funnel, the higher their purchase intention. It is therefore possible for someone to work their way through the funnel from top to bottom, but this is not a given. Someone may even take a step back, or enter the funnel at a later stage in another segment.
On the Shopping Minds Data Platform a distinction has been made between the following groups:
Bouncer: A visitor is defined as a bouncer when they land on a page, look at only 1 page and leave the website.
Browser: A visitor is considered a browser when they view one or more list pages or detail pages and then leave the website.
Funshopper: A fun shopper is a visitor who places one or more items in their basket during the visit, and then leaves the website without checking out. For companies in the travel industry, this type of visitor is called a searcher. The visitor will have completed a search on the website (by location and/or date) and then leave the website.
Leaver: A leaver is a visitor who places one or more items in the shopping cart, looks at the shopping cart and then leaves the website without making a purchase.
Buyer: A buyer, it’s in the name, is a visitor who buys a product or service on your website.
A distinction is made in how a person passes through the funnel. A comparer will go through this differently than a judger.
Judger: Someone who looks at a product, gives it a lot of attention and compares it. They enlarge photos, for example, read reviews, select different options such as colour, size or quantity and look at alternatives. They are really interested in a particular product.
Comparer: A comparer knows what they want and compares it on different websites. Aspects that are compared can include price, colour, size and model. If a comparer has left the website, the next goal is to get them to come back to the website. This can be done via Adwords and display advertising, for example. Below, we will go into more detail about retrieving visitors.
Would you like more information?
Would you like to know more about what a customer segmentation model can mean for your marketing? Do you want to know what the Shopping Minds Data Platform offers with regard to customer segmentation? We can visit your company and give you a free demo, or you can try it for yourself with the Twinkle Insights. We will provide you with login details and instructions on how to use the platform. As an e-commerce website, you can then target visitors based on purchase intention, in order to optimise your marketing, increase the relevance in the product range and thus improve the conversion on your website!
