Segmentation is everything
I mentioned it yesterday. And segmenting your market is so important that I write a lot about it. The old way of pitching products – “we're for everyone” – just doesn't work anymore.
I've spent time talking about behavioral segmentation for anonymous personalization with Bento, and using it for a first party data strategy with LogicHop. If you've not read those articles and aren't paying attention to behavioral segmentation, you're missing out.
But today I want to talk about marketing. Specifically what you do after you define your segments.
A Quick Recap of My Formula
I have a formula, one you've likely heard me talk about, when it comes to product marketing. It goes like this:
Micro-Segment > Pain > Feature > Story
What that means is that you can't tell the story of your product if you don't already have the features that help you tell the story. Marketing generic messages won't work today.
But that's not enough. If you bake in the right features, you get perfect stories. But how do you get the “right” features? You need to solve pain. But which pain? Those that your micro-segment feels.
Anyway, if you need more explanation on this stuff, you can look me up or give me a call.
I just wanted to recap all of this because we're now going to talk about Story. We're looking at how to market well once you have your micro-segments.
Marketing Your Micro-Segments
So let's assume that you agree with me. You can't sell with generic platitudes any longer. That means you have to find segments small enough that your message and campaign work well for that group. If it only partially works, your segment is likely too large.
So if you agree, we're still left with the HOW. How do you market to your segment?
Let's look at two examples.
Check out How ConvertKit Does It
Let's look at ConvertKit's homepage to see if we can find their micro-segments.
Can you guess what they are? Maybe musicians, authors, podcasters, and coaches, right?
So what do they do after defining their micro-segments? They're going to sell the same key things you can do:
- Build landing pages
- Personalize content and build relationships
- Earn money
But they're going to shape it differently. Check it out:
Notice that they didn't change the overall value propositions. But they shaped the language for these micro-segments.
First, for authors, they use language that makes sense – “grow your readership” instead of “grow your audience.” When you read the details below each headline, they're contextual to the micro-segment.
They do the same thing when talking about personalization. Again, look at the headline – “casual readers” isn't going to appear on the musician page or coach page, right?
Notice that the key feature of segmenting their audience and using tags isn't different than what they would say to others. But the use of “romance readers” is perfect for this audience compared to the other micro-segments.
Lastly they highlight the ability to earn money. But they again shape the writing for the audience.
This isn't rocket science. But so many people create a features page, or a product page, or just work on generic copy on their home page, and use hope as a strategy.
Creating dedicated pages for each micro-segment allows ConvertKit send targeted traffic to the right place (which also makes their ads more effective).
Check out How Monday Does It
Another company that does a great job marketing to their various segments is Monday.com. They clearly offer a versatile platform that “works for everyone.” But they know better than to market that way. So they define several micro-segments and shape their messages appropriately.
Let's look at their menu navigation under Solutions.
You likely see their micro-segments right away. First, on the left is the various teams. On the far right they have another break out by business type, including their page for SMB customers.
There are few companies that create such a great example as Monday.com. Unlike ConvertKit, each page isn't a re-shaping of key features for different segments. That's a great start. But Monday.com goes further. Because of the expansive nature of their platform, they literally pick different features to highlight for different teams.
This is only possible if you segment your market.
You can't do any of what you'll see from Monday.com if you don't do the work of segmenting your market and creating those micro-segments that shape your stories.
Let's look at two examples.
Remember that this is the same exact product. One platform. Yet two very different stories they're telling.
What do they show us when we visit the marketing page? Look at the focus on pain resolution. These are pains that are specific to marketing folks.
Look at how they shape the integrations they support. These are, again, very focused on what a marketing person would want to see.
Now head to the software development page. It looks different on both accounts, right?
First, if you land on the software development page, you might think this product was just for, and only for, you!
And as you move down the page, you'll notice a completely targeted pitch for this different micro-segment.
And check out the products they showcase as who they integrate with on this page. Notice Github instead of Hubspot? It's perfect!
Marketing is Much Easier to Micro-Segments
I hope what you take away from today's post is that it's a lot easier to target your messaging if you focus on micro-segments. And you can only do that if you segment your market.
So start there – break up your large segments into micro-segments, and from there you can start creating pages that are focused on specific micro-segments. Lastly, once you have those pages, you can start tailoring your message to each.
You'll immediately see a difference. But don't take my word for it. Check with Monday.com and ConvertKit to see if they're still doing it (or whether they've found a better strategy).
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