In today's super-competitive business landscape, a one-size-fits-all marketing approach simply won't cut it. But we’ve known that for some time, haven’t we! Your audience is not uniform or consistent; it comprises unique demographic and social subgroups with distinct needs, pain points, and preferences.
To maximise business conversion, you need to tailor your message to these groups of customers. But how exactly do you do that? In this blog post, we'll dive deep into how to segment your audience and customise your messaging for better conversion rates.
Understanding Your Audience
Conduct Market Research
The first step to tailoring your message is understanding who you're talking to, and that doesn’t just mean quant research. Market research can help you identify your customer demographics, psychographics, preferences, and more. Use surveys, social media insights, and customer data or speak to your sales team and people on the floor to get a comprehensive view of your audience.
Create Customer Personas
Based on your research, develop detailed customer personas. Fictionally, generalised representations of your ideal customers. Personas help you visualise who you're targeting and make crafting a message that resonates easier.
Segment Your Audience
Demographics
Even within demographic groups, there are significant differences. Consider age, gender, occupation, suburb and living arrangements (owning a home versus renting) along with other demographic factors when segmenting your audience. Different age groups have different communication preferences; what appeals to a Gen Z individual will probably not resonate with a Baby Boomer.
Psychographics
Psychographs include lifestyle, values, and personality traits. You're more likely to connect with a fitness enthusiast by using active, motivational language than with someone who's indifferent to health and wellness. A case study by MarketingSherpa found that using psychographic targeting increased email open rates by 40%.
Behavioural Metrics
Look at customer behaviour — are they first-time visitors, repeat customers, or loyal patrons? Tailoring messages based on behavioural metrics like past purchases or browsing history can be highly effective and is an area that is poorly managed by many businesses. It’s no longer OK to reuse the same acquisition ad as it is for retargeting. If you are doing this, you’re doing your business a disservice.
Craft Your Message
Value Proposition
As in previous blog posts value proposition should align with the specific needs and wants of the audience segment you're targeting. Are you offering a solution to a pain point or fulfilling a dream? Make this clear in your messaging and ensure it’s simple, clear and concise.
Language and Tone
Your tone and manner should be reflective of the audience you’re targeting. For example, a younger audience often appreciates a casual, informal tone, while a corporate audience expects the opposite. This could mean variable landing pages and ads specifically targeted to resonate.
Channel Preferences
Different customer segments may prefer different channels of communication. Some may frequent social media, while others prefer email or print or can be reached more effectively by catch-up tv.
Test and Optimise
A/B Testing
You can’t fit a round peg in a square hole, so run A/B tests to see which version of your message resonates more with your target audience. This allows you to fine-tune your approach for maximum impact. Use your best version as the baseline and continue to refine. If unsure, check out our latest blog articles on test and learn here.
Look at conversion rates, click-through rates, time on page and other metrics to measure the effectiveness of your tailored messaging. If something’s not working, don’t hesitate to go back, review and test landing pages, too.
Iterate
The preferences of your customer segments will evolve over time. Watch and listen for shifts in behaviour or needs and adjust your messaging accordingly.
Conclusion
Tailoring your message to specific customer segments is crucial for maximising business conversion. It may require an initial investment of time and resources, but the payoff in terms of customer engagement and conversion makes it well worth the effort. And this is something once started, should be a continuing project. By understanding your audience, segmenting them thoughtfully, crafting a targeted message, and continually optimising, you can significantly enhance your business performance.
About the author
Connect with Cath
Cath is Head of Strategy at MPA. A seasoned professional in marketing and media, Cath has worked across multiple Agencies and Clients from multinationals to start-ups