Segmenting your visitors makes website personalization possible. Here’s why you need to tackle it now.
Market segmentation is when you divide your customers into categories based on characteristics they have in common. Marketers have been practicing segmentation with email lists for years now. Their goal is to send emails that target recipients with personalized messages, along these lines:
Dear Laura,
How are you enjoying your Samsung Galaxy S9, purchased on September 8? You might be interested to know we also have a Smart Battery Case to go with it. Click to link to find out more!
-Your Samsung Family
And with ROI estimates topping 4000% for email marketing campaigns that send out personalized content like the example above[1], there’s no slowdown in sight for this proven marketing technique.
But personalization — and the segmentation that drives it — shouldn’t stop there. Businesses who want to send the right message to the right person at the right time should also pay attention to their website content, not just their email content.
Why? Because with those eye-popping stats on ROI for personalized email campaigns, it’s tempting to try and reproduce those results with personalized website content. The good news is that, unlike just a few short years ago, it’s no longer out of reach for small- and medium-sized business.
Segmentation Isn’t Just About Sending the Right Emails
The Digital Marketing industry moves fast. In a very short time, the technology has advanced far enough so that we now have the tools to deliver not just personalized email content but also personalized website content.
We already know that emails are six times more apt to be opened when they are personalized[2]. But that’s not rocket science — people respond to personalization. It’s not news, either. It’s just common sense.
The real news is that personalization can now be applied to a wider range of content-delivery vehicles, including your website. And in case you hadn’t noticed, the big brands are already doing this. It’s just that now, the tech is available to smaller budgets so marketing agencies can offer website personalization to their clients without asking for a king’s ransom in return.
Looking Ahead: What Does Website Personalization Look Like?
If you’re unsure of what it means to personalize the content on your website, consider any major mobile carrier’s website. Last time I checked (and I’d bet a complete set of luxury leather luggage it’s still this way), each one I visited greeted me with info about coverage in my city.
That’s website personalization.
Companies use basic geographical information about their visitors all the time to deliver personalized content. They get the data from info that’s transmitted when your browser accesses their server. There are other data that get passed through, too, such as
- The device you’re using
- The browser you’re using
- The operating system you’re using
And that’s just a baby version of segmentation. There are a great many more ways you can segment your visitors.
But we’re getting ahead ourselves here. The main goal here is to have you start wrapping your head around the importance of segmenting your website visitors. We’ll leave the “how” for later.
Larry Goldstick is the owner of Capture Digital Marketing based in Jupiter, Florida.
Capture Digital Marketing is a full-service digital marketing company that specializes in creative solutions to help businesses optimize their digital presence through website development, online marketing, and individualized SEO services. Our team of professionals, work with small and mid-size companies, entrepreneurs, and independent business owners, to develop digital strategies that drive revenue. For more information, contact us today at (561) 630-3699 or email larry@capturedm.com.
[1] https://www.campaignmonitor.com/company/annual-report/2016/
[2]https://www.experianplc.com/media/news/2014/experian-marketing-services-study-finds-personalized-emails-generate-six/