For five years I worked in the catalog industry where segmentation is part of daily life.
Much of the job centered on segmenting the housefile and outside lists to mail.
Early on we used RFM (Recency, Frequency and Monetary) to segment the housefile, inter-company and other owned lists. I read a great book during this time put out by the former CEO of LL Bean and he mentioned how RFM kind of came on in the ’70s (I think). It was a really good way for marketers to segment to make their efforts more efficient (profitable).
Later on we used an outside data company to help us with modeling the housefile even better than RFM could do. It took into account more factors all aimed at mailing catalogs to customers with the highest likelihood of purchasing.
This entire period made me understand the importance of marketing segmentation. The concept is for marketers to make the most efficient, profitable business model possible.
I think we all strive to get to true one to one marketing, but since that’s impossible to perfect we rely on segmenting. And it works pretty well.
The reason marketing segmentation works is that people are basically the same.
That statement probably makes you a little frustrated or angry. We all want to be different than everybody else. In our own minds we’re different from everyone else, but we’re actually very much the same in a lot of ways and different in just a few.
The reason marketers can segment customers is because we all share common interest, backgrounds, tendencies, etc. There are things that connect us with others and as a result marketers can target us.
That’s why I think blogging is a great way to achieve marketing segmentation (efficiency and profitability) for your business.
Blogging and Marketing Segmentation
When you take on business blogging as a marketing strategy you’re segmenting your business to a specific audience.
We’ve discussed before on the GBW Blog that if your target customer is generally over 35 years old they probably aren’t using the Internet very much. That’s a generalization that holds pretty true.
The exception would be if your target audience is someone specific like a marketer or Internet professional that is always on the Internet as part of their job. These folks tend to always be tuned in to what’s happening online. As a result, they read blogs.
People that search for information all come in contact with blogs whether they realize it or not. Blogs are a source of content and information on the Web. The nature of a blog is to provide a continuous stream of information. Some of the information has a lifespan. It addresses topics of the day, week month or year, but other content has a long lifespan that could probably live forever.
A good mixture for any business blog is to blend these two together. You want that lifelong or evergreen content to bring you new visitors while the new stuff can keep their attention for as long as you’re willing to create.
Business blogging will bring your people that are curious. They’re searching for information. They find that information via search engines, social media and direct referrals from people (and other sources like professionals, websites, etc.) they trust.
Your blog will also naturally segment by the topic you’re writing about. People that are interested in your topic or work in your industry will be searching for the best information to make their lives – personal or professional – better.
If you can satisfy that thirst for information you stand a good chance of winning new customers through a business blog.