How To Best Segment Markets for Demand Generation Success

Everyone wants to be wanted. But how do you ensure that customers look to you when they are seeking a solution you offer? Demand generation can help draw attention.

To create successful demand-generation campaigns, marketers need to better understand their prospects. Once they have solid data about their audience, it takes refining to use it effectively.  They must conduct market segmentation in order to tailor their campaigns to the customers they attract.

Market segmentation–or separating buyers into groups based on commonalities–is critical to demand-generation strategies. This is why marketers must take time to study their audience. These techniques can help to segment their markets:

• Evaluate marketing channels.
• Conduct thorough research on customers’ needs.
• Create relevant content to match the buyer’s journey.
• Nurture your quality leads.

We cover all these market segmentation strategies in this guide. Let's go!

Evaluate Marketing Channels

Relying on one or two marketing channels and two customer touchpoints is often not enough today. People consume information online through different channels and have different preferences for touchpoints. Some use social media; some prefer emails. Others love podcasts, while some want videos. 

A multi-channel marketing approach is critical if businesses want to succeed in demand generation. Part of using many channels in demand generation is evaluation. Auditing the channels is vital for easy market segmentation and demand generation. 

These techniques can help:

• Identify the target audience to achieve demand-generation goals. Analyze customer base, conduct market research, and create buyer personas.
• Determine the distribution channels. Research what customers are using to find your products or services.
• Test paid digital campaigns using Google Analytics. You can use tools from specific platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.
• Check email campaign performance using email monitoring software, testing, and analytics tools. Include metrics such as availability, latency, spam rates, and error rates.

Conduct Thorough Research on Customers’ Needs

Businesses that want better demand-generation strategies must first understand their customers' needs. This understanding comes from thorough research and quality customer data on the varied needs of customers.

When searching for products, customers are particular about the product's price, functionality, and design. The experience of other users is critical when making a choice. 

For customers looking for services, they look at the price, transparency, and alternative options. Customers might also look for empathy or similar feelings and needs from other users.

Once you know what customers want, segmentation and creating demand-generation strategies become easier. Conduct thorough research using these strategies:

• Create focus groups. Interview people who represent the target users. Use online surveys to gather feedback or create communities on social media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
• Use social listening to check keywords, conversations, and hashtags to identify trends and marketing opportunities.
• Perform keyword research to get insights on customer questions, solutions, problems, and pain points.
• Anticipate needs to ensure your products or services meet their needs and expectations.
• Understand the buyer's journey. Choose the best keywords or key phrases to meet customers' needs at every stage.

Create Relevant Content to Match the Buyer’s Journey

In the previous section, we mentioned the buyer's journey, but what does it mean? The buyer's journey refers to the different stages a person goes through to buy a product or order a service. A person starts the journey unaware of the product or service or does not know that they need it.

A triggering event can change the individual's situation, which starts the buyer's journey. For example, someone looking for back pain relief stumbles upon an article that says an old mattress causes back pain. With this information, they begin the journey of three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Segmenting buyers using the buyer’s journey and creating relevant content to meet the buyer where they are promotes awareness and demand. Content can guide the customer into making good decisions and considering the products or services. 

Creating valuable content is one of the ways to optimize local B2B demand generation techniques. Here are the different stages, along with the best content for demand generation:

     1. Awareness Stage

At this stage, the buyer knows their problem and needs a solution. The company must identify themselves as a solution and establish their goals using blogging, search engine marketing (SEM), and social media marketing. Some great content formats for the awareness stage include blog posts, whitepapers, social media posts, and how-to videos.

     2. Consideration Stage

During the consideration stage, the buyer is weighing their options. They may create a list to compare various products or services that they think will solve their issues. Businesses must extend their engagement to nurture their leads. They must build trust through blogging, SEM, email marketing, and social media. Typical content formats to help users at this stage include case studies, comparison guides, and free samples.

     3. Decision Stage

During the decision stage, the buyer has decided to purchase and is researching various providers. Marketers must grab this opportunity to win them over. Various channels to connect with their customers such as email marketing, chatbots, live chats, and their website is invaluable here. Content for this stage can be a free trial or demo and coupons.

Nurture Your Quality Leads

A thin line exists between the consideration and decision stages of the buyer's journey. Some customers decide right away, while others might take their time. This is where businesses extend their demand-generation strategies and nurture quality leads.

Undecided leads on your buyer’s journey can often fall off the map. Use your market segmentation to guide customers back onto the path that is right for them. Lead nurturing purposefully engages the target audience through relevant information, creating excitement and supporting them in any way possible until they purchase. 

Here are some techniques to effectively promote lead nurturing:

• Use targeted content based on the customer’s goals, interests, and objectives.
• Include a multi-channel approach to lead nurturing. These include email marketing, social media, dynamic content, paid retargeting, etc.
• Follow up with your leads using marketing automation tools through email, calls, texts, or messaging.
• Personalize marketing efforts. Send personalized emails with tailored messaging, offers, headings, calls-to-action (CTAs), etc.
• Utilize lead scoring to rank prospects according to their perceived value. Assign numeric values for every behavior, such as conversion events, browsing actions, and social media interactions.

Summing Up

Market segmentation can improve demand-generation campaigns. You can effectively segment markets by evaluating marketing channels, conducting thorough research on buyers’ needs, and creating content to match users in the buyer's journey. Once leads are segmented, nurturing them is critical to reaching the end stage of their journey.

Demand generation requires expertise and dedication. Partner with an experienced agency to help you improve demand generation and achieve your marketing goals. Contact Digital Authority Partners (DAP) today.