Messaging personalization in business has become an important component of modern marketing strategy. It improves interaction with the target audience, increases customer loyalty and increases sales conversion. For example, when a subscriber receives an SMS that looks like it was written specifically for him, he feels more attention from the brand and the involvement in the purchase increases.

However, in order to create effective personalized SMS messaging, you need to know the audience, which means you need to be able to properly segment the customer base. 

Why customer segmentation is needed and how it helps the business

Segmentation of the customer base is a marketing tool that allows you to optimize interaction with customers. This process consists in dividing the brand's audience into groups according to criteria and characteristics that can be used when creating personalized messaging and other marketing campaigns.

This method is relevant for businesses that offer many products and services targeted at different groups of people. If the target audience is heterogeneous, buyers have different needs, motivations, opportunities. 

Customer segmentation allows you to better understand the individual needs and preferences of consumers, identify the most promising groups and create targeted advertising messages tailored to their interests.

The main types of segmentation of the customer base include such approaches:

• demographic,
• behavioral,
• geographical,
• psychographic.

Each of these types is useful depending on the goals of the brand's marketing campaign. 

How to properly segment the customer base for personalized messaging

Let us consider in more detail how the approaches work and in what cases to use one or another.

Demographic

Demographic segmentation is one of the most common types of user differentiation. Based on consumer characteristics such as age, gender, income, occupation and education. 

For example, if a brand specializes in mass-market clothing, the company will send messaging with information about new products to customers of different age groups, since clothing for teenagers is different from products for older people.

The demographic approach to customer segmentation allows you to correctly form the tone of the letter. So, women are usually loyal to elegant fonts and a caring tone of voice, while men prefer informative texts without artistic techniques. 

Without knowing the gender of the buyer, it is difficult to form a general working offer. Therefore, many well-known brands with a large assortment of goods for men and women, such as H&M, Zara and others, are engaged in demographic segmentation of the customer base.

Behavioral

Behavioral segmentation of customers uses data on consumer actions, such as purchases, interests, preferences, frequency of visiting the site, and more. This approach is often used to identify users who are actively participating in loyalty programs or other marketing campaigns.

For example, in fitness clubs, segmentation of the client base is carried out based on data on those who regularly attend classes and those who have not appeared in the gym in recent weeks. Messaging is sent with personal offers to a second group of people in order to retain customers and increase their activity. 

If a company sells electronics, it is correct for it to segment its customer base by purchase history. Consumers who buy only laptops receive SMS messaging with information about new models.

Geographical

To divide the target audience by geographic criteria, it is necessary to collect data on the location of subscribers, such as address, city, country, and others. This type of customer segmentation is useful for organizations that offer services or products that target a specific region or locality. These businesses include fast food, restaurants, delivery services, and others.

For example, cafeterias send SMS only to those visitors who are nearby. You can organize mass messaging with information about special offers for people living in a certain city or region.

Segmentation of the client base by GEO allows you to make advertising messages more relevant since the user is more likely to pay attention to SMS from an establishment close to him. The main thing is to use location information in the email preheader to focus the subscriber on it. 

Psychographic

Finally, psychographic differentiation takes into account personal qualities, lifestyle and worldview. It includes such parameters as the level of education, interests, beliefs, as well as the obvious: what kind of music a person listens to, where he goes on vacation, whether he participates in social movements, etc.

This method requires special sensitivity since modern consumers do not like to share information about their personal lives.  

It is important to remember that each business is unique and, in order to get the most out of personalized messaging, requires an individual approach to segmenting the customer base.

How to determine the most appropriate way of segmentation of the customer base

If you want to properly segment your customer base, you should decide on the choice of method. At the same time, do not forget that deeper personalization usually leads to more user engagement: according to statistics, 45% of buyers prefer sites with personal recommendations. 

However, in order to correctly segment the customer base, many questions must be answered, and often it is not so simple. 

The best way to get data is to ask the users themselves. To do this, you can use SMS messaging or questionnaires on the site, but it is important that the questionnaire form is as short as possible and does not take much time.

You can check whether the segmentation of the customer base is done correctly using the checklist:

1. Do all users assigned to one segment react to your product in the same way?
2. Can you describe the customers of one group – who are they and what do they want?
3. Does each segment include enough people?
4. Can you drive the behavior of consumers from a single segment with advertising?

If the segmentation of the client base is done correctly, this will automate communications with each group of the target audience and avoid the need to figure out how to present the offer to the buyer every time.

Final Thoughts

Customer segmentation is a key factor for successful personalized messaging. With the right approach, you can achieve higher returns on marketing campaigns, increase customer loyalty and increase revenue.

To do this, you need to take into account many factors, such as geographic location, demographics, purchase history, behavioral characteristics. Decision Telecom provides a wide range of solutions to manage customer data and improve communication efficiency.

It is important to remember that customer segmentation is not an end goal, but a tool to achieve high performance. Be attentive to the needs of your audience, choose methods that suit your brand and create marketing campaigns that work!