Market Segmentation

[Sariscos]

Market Segmentation strategy is a lot easier on the web than most would consider. In the past, advertisers would have to bid on traditional media space in order to market to specific markets. If you were selling Count Chocula, you would have to be in children's magazines or advertise during children's programming time slots. If you're selling pharmaceutical drugs, you'll have to wait for adult programming. It's not as effective in the traditional market space because you might be trying to sell a toy geared more towards a boy and maybe half the viewers are automatically disqualified because they're girls. Even though you're paying for 1 million views, only 500K are qualified for your product. That's a tremendous reduction for what you were looking to do.

On the web, it's much easier to segment, especially if you're a webmaster. If you have a website that you're required to sign in with an account, you can gather details about your users and segment based on age, gender, location, interests, etc... It's very valuable to segment out your viewership because you can charge higher rates to advertise. Essentially the more you can segment, the higher you can charge. In theory, if you really wanted to reach one person to advertise to you, you can charge them a fortune because that's some uber-specific criteria that only you're privy to generating.

[rocco88]

Excellent article. Thanks for the knowledge.

[Infopreneur Bry]

Great post! Segmentation data is readily available online which can be a powerful tool when planning an online strategy. It's great to know not only who your target audience is, but their buying & surfing habits, what's currently working, and what you can do to fill any gaps in a helpful manner. Segmentation usually means smaller numbers, but better qualified potential customers/clients.

Cheers,
Bryan

[dollyclay]

Very informative post. Market Segmentation should be measurable, accessible by communication and distribution channels, defferent in its marketing mix, substantial enough to be profitable. It is one of the steps that goes into defining and targeting specific markets.

[gemetzel]

what data do you think users are willing to give away, when they register on a shopping site? I think there's a trade off between gathering more information from my perspective and growing concerns about data safety from the users perspective.
So far I gather the following information on my site:
First name,
email,
gender,
age (I have 4 "groups" to select from),

do you guys think that's too much information or I can ask for more? like legal status and such...

[yuvalc]

Gemetzel,

You could most certainly ask for more, yet you have to be cautious and do it in a way that is not a axiom for intruding privacy. For instance, offer you visitors to connect to you via Facebook Connect, this way you'll have all the information Facebook offers it's partners, which is SO valuable. If the visitor came in from Google, analytics tools can determine which keyword was searched.

There are many neances to each site and each industry. If you give out some more information I will be able to assist further.

Yuval @ Personyze

[trinsleynewton]

but it is more effective in organic market, because in local you only target specific customers.

[Rauny]

This segmentation is really beneficial for beginners.

[RachEv]

It's defiantly one of the keys to making money online. You need to know your market.

[vididong.com]

OK this is segmentation, what about Targeting and Promoting

[anigma]

Market Segmentation strategy is a lot easier on the web than most would consider. In the past, advertisers would have to bid on traditional media space in order to market to specific markets. If you were selling Count Chocula, you would have to be in children's magazines or advertise during children's programming time slots. If you're selling pharmaceutical drugs, you'll have to wait for adult programming. It's not as effective in the traditional market space because you might be trying to sell a toy geared more towards a boy and maybe half the viewers are automatically disqualified because they're girls. Even though you're paying for 1 million views, only 500K are qualified for your product. That's a tremendous reduction for what you were looking to do.

On the web, it's much easier to segment, especially if you're a webmaster. If you have a website that you're required to sign in with an account, you can gather details about your users and segment based on age, gender, location, interests, etc... It's very valuable to segment out your viewership because you can charge higher rates to advertise. Essentially the more you can segment, the higher you can charge. In theory, if you really wanted to reach one person to advertise to you, you can charge them a fortune because that's some uber-specific criteria that only you're privy to generating.

i agree on that one, it seems that traditional mktg would be extinct few more years from now. innovations have taken its lead to the conventional 4p's.

[dubailandscape]

Wow! What a great post, I like it and really impressed from your post. Keep writing more...It is very useful.