Are you using these parameters yet for segmentation of prospects?

Author: Gautam Mane

When one is a digital marketer, it is easy to fall into falling in the trap of hoping that the same campaigns and content would work on everyone. That is, sadly, never the case.

What works for one set of prospects or customers might not make the slightest impact on another set. That is why different approaches need to be adopted for different groups of clients. Different content and strategies need to be used. The question now is what parameters to use for such segmentation exercises.

Let us look at some of the most effective parameters that can be used:

1. Email Engagement Behavior 

When you have been using email marketing campaigns for some time, the past behavior of the people on your mailing list is a good indicator of how you can segment them for further campaigns. There are some who would set up filters to send your mails straight to the recycle bin, there are some who would ignore your emails and keep them unread, there are some who would open the mail and then delete, there are some who would open the mail and read it without taking any actions, while they are some who would click through on the links you mailed or actually do what you wanted them to do. Based on these segments, you can treat them differently in subsequent campaigns. Find more details here.

2. Firmographics 

The characteristics of the firm that you are targeting give you pointers regarding the basis on which segmentation is to be done. Every marketer would have his or her own parameters on the basis of which to distinguish different firms. But some of the most common parameters which everyone uses are financial performance, structure, size (financial or otherwise), location and of course industry/sector. Find more details here.

3. Lead Scoring 

Any business thrives on the generation of leads which can potentially get converted into revenue generating customers. But all the leads that are generated will not be of the same quality. Some are ‘low hanging fruits’ which wouldn’t need too much of effort for conversion, whereas some other leads are simply a waste of time, and no amount of efforts would convert them into sustainable pipeline and viable customers.

4. Demographics 

This is the most basic way of segmenting a mailing list or a set of business prospects, but it is still the most simple and popular. The age, sex, location of the recipients are some of the simplest parameters used. Depending on the product or service, and the purpose of the campaign being carried out, demographics might be very useful in some cases, but no too much in others.

5. Sales Qualifying Parameters

This is another parameter that makes sense for B2B marketing. Let us examine two of them here – team size and purchase plans. Corporates which have 12 members entrusted with decision-making and those where there are only two decision makers would need to be treated differently. Again, if a company has no plans of buying in the current financial year, then you need to treat it differently from another company which will be purchasing once every quarter.