Marketing Segmentation For Online Marketing
Online marketing requires segmentation of the market and this can assume many forms. Before initiating your primary online marketing promotion, it is necessary to know to whom your campaign reaches out to. This means that you be well aware of your recipients. The segmentation of market for online marketing works on similar terms as offline marketing. There is a thin demarcation line that we must adhere to when we switch to online marketing from offline marketing.
For instance, when marketing offline, it is a prerequisite to have prior knowledge about the hang-outs of your target audience and then invest your capital in an appropriate manner so that your audience is able to derive the maximum meaning out of your campaign. This is also true when it comes to online marketing. You must know about the websites which your customers surf or are most likely to search. This also depends from area to area. A particular website might be a local craze while it may not be true in a different city for the same website.
Now, we shall see a few ways in which we can segment our market. An astute understanding of the target audience helps a long way in finding the most fitting place to place our advertisement.
- The simplest method is a demographic segmentation in which the audience is segregated on the basis of gender, educational qualifications, age or standard-of-living. The demarcation can be made based on either of these parameters individually or by clubbing them together. It depends on what best suits your need.
- The market can be segregated in terms of lifecycle segmentation. Here, the segmentation tells us that the customers require different products at varied stages of life. Either of these stages must be targeted. This also includes a survey about the average general age of your customers before choosing a particular stage of life for the product.
- The market can be segmented based on geography. This is called geographic segmentation. Here, we target explicit countries, areas, regions, cities, towns etc. This is very essential in case you have a shop like a service shop or an office.
- Job segmentation means that the target customers are segregated on the basis of their job or occupation. The portfolios and positions are taken into serious consideration. Taking an example, we can target the marketing managers of a particular company or a group of companies (in an industrial area).
- The market can also be segmented on the basis of specialty. Here, a very narrow and a well knit group of audience is selected which is a common field of interest. This requires deep survey and generally is more time consuming. For instance, the target audience can be a group of people who are interested in Harley Davidson bikes or are philatelist or belong to any other social group. The marketing in such cases is based on putting up your advertisement on the official web pages of such group or societies.
The internet holds immense power and has the capability of capturing the global economy. A well focused effort can indeed bear real sweet fruits in this regards.