Audience Segmentation in Digital Publishing

The practice of segmenting an audience into categories based on predetermined criteria like behaviour, geographic location, historical data, product consumption, and other factors is known as audience segmentation. Audience segmentation is crucial for the ad tech business for ad targeting, tailored marketing campaigns, newsletters etc. For example a user who is into fitness would respond to fitness-related adverts. This is where audience segmentation comes in handy: understanding your target audience's preferences and interests allows you to offer them targeted advertising that encourages them to subscribe or return for more.

This is accomplished through the use of website cookies. The cookie data is first sent to the user's web browser by the publisher's website. Once installed, cookies track the user's activities until the user deletes them or the cookies expire on their own. The viability of 'audience segmentation' is being questioned in the face of data protection and privacy legislation. So, what are publishers' options? 

What are the benefits of segmenting your audiences?

Publishers should divide their audiences for a variety of reasons. Let's take a look at each one separately:

Competition

This is likely the most essential reason for audience segmentation. Publishers face fierce competition in online marketing, making it tough to sell their products or services. However, if you're clever enough to segment your audiences and target them with segmented advertisements, you'll be ahead of the game and have a greater chance of converting leads into customers. Companies that segment their consumers are 130 percent more likely to grasp their objectives and 60 percent more likely to comprehend their issues and challenges, resulting in enhanced lead creation and revenue targets. 

To build meaningful relationships with audiences: 

Companies may use audience segmentation to generate more tailored and audience-centric content that appeals to individual consumers while also assisting in the development of meaningful relationships.

Personalisation

Customers want super-relevant and personalised experiences over a generic one, so tailor your approach. You can distribute this at the proper moment via audience segmentation. Because search engines and social networks collect so much demographic and behavioural data about individuals, you can utilise it in your marketing strategy to more accurately personalise your messaging and adverts. According to a Mailchimp survey, personalised segmented messages had 14.31 percent greater open rates than non-segmented campaigns. They also saw a 101 percent increase in clicks compared to non-segmented advertising, as well as fewer bounce rates, unsubscribes, and spam reporting incidents.

“As there is an enormous volume of data placed at multiple locations the publishers and digital agencies find it difficult to understand the mass audience. And, it is a consumer-driven digital age! Hence, it is essential for publishers to concentrate more on individual consumer needs instead of endowing with generic content.”

Types of Audience Segmentation 

Consumers are classified by marketers depending on their demographics, activities, and stage in the buyer's journey. The method you employ to segment your audience depends on the product or service you're offering.

Demographic: This is the most popular — and often the most straightforward — way of audience segmentation. You may use demographics to segment your audience by age, income level, job type, and geographic location. This method is most implemented because it works.

Behaviour: This strategy goes a step farther than just categorising people according to their demographics. Examining consumer behaviour requires looking at what people purchase, how often they buy, and why they buy the product or service in the first place.

This strategy goes a step farther than just   categorising people according to their   demographics. Examining consumer behaviour   requires looking at what people purchase, how   often they buy, and why they buy the product or   service in the first place.

Someone who makes frequent modest purchases, for example, requires a different message than someone who only makes large purchases once in a while. This is due to the fact that those folks are shopping for various products and will most likely purchase for different reasons.

Your message is personalised to reach clients when they're most likely to convert via behavioural segmentation. Prospective buyers, first-time purchasers, frequent consumers, and defectors who have gone to another brand are examples of these groups.

Level of engagement:

Customers who are regular demand different marketing strategies than those who are uncommon. Someone who is actively involved in your business, such as by subscribing to your newsletter, is more likely to be receptive to your message than someone who only buys products on a regular basis. This isn't to mean you should ignore or deprioritise non-engaged users. For these users, you may develop a personalised campaign. Many companies provide "win-back" incentives to these customers.

Device:

Your website's visitors will not all access it in the same manner. It's likely that half of the audience will be watching it on their mobile devices these days. People use desktop and mobile devices in various ways, and your website should support both. Some of the modifications you'll need to make are self-evident, such as resizing your site's mobile version for smaller displays. However, consider the situations in which people will be viewing it. Mobile visitors are more likely to visit your site while on the go, which means they will most likely just read brief content. Long-form information should be saved for your desktop users.

Audience segmentation is getting increasingly difficult as rules like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) take effect. Of course, the audience's safety and privacy are paramount. However, in order for the advertising business to function effectively, it needs audience targeting data. Users are increasingly more suspicious of data collecting tactics as a result of occurrences like the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and they frequently disable third-party cookies. Publishers are responsible for data security because audience segmentation is begun by them. 

Evolok provides easy-to-deploy solutions to the biggest technical challenges faced by publishers and media businesses today. Our software has multiple data points to capture reader data, which will help your business to form its ideal customer segmentation strategy. Every page view created by every visitor is collected and stored, whether the user is subscribed, registered or anonymous. New visitors can be segmented by their favourite content/author/section, location, device, visit count, dwell time and general browsing history. Users that have created a profile can additionally be segmented using personal info, such as name, gender, legacy with the brand etc. Subscriber segmentation adds further detail which includes product choices, renewal dates and payment preferences. 

Segments can be created and stored for future use, or can be instantly targeted with automated Call-to-Actions in real time, as soon as the visitor meets the criteria of a particular segment. Segment criteria can include multiple metadata so targeting can be extremely granular. Call-to-Actions include pop up notifications, push notifications, email and advertising inventory. To know more about our service or to book a demo session contact us today.