Segmenting your audience allows you to personalise your approach, make your communications more meaningful and your campaigns more effective.

Common criteria used to segment customers are demographic, psychographic, behavioural, geographic, and firmographic but many models extend these further, including, for example, the customer’s media consumption or benefits profile.

The most important thing when creating segments is that the data and insight you use is accurate and up-to-date and is continuously refreshed to keep pace as market and customer dynamics change. Given this is a strategic approach that will determine how your most valuable resources are applied, it is worth taking pains to accurately analyse the data on which segments are built. It is also critical to validate assumptions and avoid bias based on historical experiences that are no longer accurate. Be careful also not to tie yourself in knots by fragmenting your approach into too many niche segments – to be meaningful each segment has to be sufficiently distinct and of a reasonable size.

However, whilst this can be time consuming process, done well, it will really deliver rewards. Our infographic below highlights five benefits of segmentation.