Focus on what you already have: Using existing data to segment and nurture

In our last ‘focus on what you already have’ post, we shared tips on using the background knowledge already present in your sales and marketing teams to create buyer personas. 

Background knowledge is one thing, but what about the cold hard facts you could be sitting on that you’re not utilising? We’re talking data. According to DOMO, it’s estimated that 1.7MB of data is generated every single second. Crazy right? But it does raise the question, how much data are you generating in your business that you could be using to inform your marketing strategy?

Cue intelligent segmentation based on the information you have.

Segmentation by persona type

First up, you could use your buyer personas to segment and target. Split out your typical buyers into groups: the gatekeepers, the technical informers, the stakeholders, the budget holders. Here you can focus on the challenges and motivations of the wide range of people you come into contact with and target based on what you know about these people. Here you can think outside the box, incorporate rational messaging but also think about the emotional reasons someone may choose to buy from, or work with you. Consider your buyers as actual humans and solve their problems. Base this on the facts and the logic you already have.

Segmentation by prospect type

Alternatively, you could segment based on prospect ‘type’. What this translates to is segmentation based on interaction level, i.e. how much the prospect knows about you, your business or offering. Are you trying to target existing customers? Have you worked with the contact before and do they have knowledge of you and your business? Or are you trying to build relationships with new contacts? Segmenting by prospect type allows you to alter your messaging to either educate and inform, or simply add value and reinforce how you can help that particular prospect.

Segmentation based on need

Geographical segmentation can be useful when grouping prospects based on objective. Creating groups of prospects based on the specific locations they are looking to target can help because they’re all sharing a common goal. Whether the target territory is the UK, Europe, US, or Asia, each prospect within these subgroups will share common challenges and therefore you can target based on solving this particular challenge.

Segmenting by need can also be done by translating need into service type. This approach works particularly well for ramarketing as we’re a service based business and we can group our prospects based on the services we know they need or are interested in. Depending on the origin of the data this is something you’ll likely know about your prospects. This will allow you to craft your target messaging to promote your various offerings.

Using data to nurture

Once your segments are in place and you’re ready to begin targeting each segment, it’s important to keep data front of mind and use it to inform what you’re doing at each step.

Use data to validate what you already have

When working with large sets of data it’s common that there may be a few missing pieces of information. For example, you may have a prospect’s details but their email address may be missing. As long as you have permission to contact in line with GDPR, there are tools available to fill in this missing information. Tools like Get Prospects or Email Hunter can be hugely helpful.

Use data to track interaction

When a campaign is live, it’s constantly generating data. It’s common to wait until the end of a campaign to analyse its data and report on performance but it’s way more useful to track its progress throughout the campaign to polish and refine anything that may not be working as well as it could.

Website tracking tools and lead generation tools such as Lead Forensics can be hugely useful here. You can learn from the data. You can track the call to actions areas that are triggering the most interactions and click throughs to your site, heat mapping can show which areas of your landing pages are working effectively, and you can monitor leads generated in real time. 

Whatever you’re planning in the ‘next step’ of your campaign, the data will demonstrate what’s working well or what you need to change to maximise the performance of your campaign.

Finally, make sure you’re really clear on what the data is telling you. For example if you want to know how many people have seen your social media posts, you can look at impressions. However if you want to know how many people have actually interacted with you, look at engagement stats. Be really clear on the metrics you’re using to analyse and what they’re really telling you. 

For more advice and to listen to our ‘focus on what you already have’ webinar on demand, you can view it here!