If you plan on converting leads into customers or buyers, efficient lead targeting and segmentation must be at the core of your marketing strategy. Whatever business you’re in, your target consumers will be a diverse group of people with varying wants, which will alter as they progress through the buying process and get closer to making a purchase. 

You should segment your leads at the time of capture and on an ongoing basis as their relationship with your brand changes. This will allow you to offer messaging to each of these prospects, meeting their individual needs at each stage of the sales process.

What is lead segmentation?

In order to efficiently and effectively target leads, you need to properly segment them first. In a nutshell, lead segmentation is the process of dividing your database of leads into smaller groups depending on their behaviors. This, in turn, will allow you to send more persuasive marketing communications – one of the core objectives of an efficient E-CRM.

For example, you have people that have only visited your homepage and left, but you also have people who have browsed through your website, even looked at some of the products. And, hopefully, you have the ones who have added items to the cart but abandoned the purchase, and the ones who have made it all the way to the end and made a purchase. 

Knowing this, you have the freedom and advantage to send different messages to specific groups of visitors. For those who have only visited your homepage, you might want to engage them by pointing them to product list pages. For those who have already browsed some of your products, it may be a good idea to offer them similar products or discounts.

Why is lead targeting important?

When you know your potential customer’s behavior, you can motivate and entice the cart abandonment segment with some promo code or discount – for instance, one that is time restraining in order for them to make a purchase in the next few hours or days. These specific contents and messages are much more effective than sending generalized promotional offers. 

Without lead segmentation you are not addressing specific needs, nor are you demonstrating which problems you’ll solve for them, that is, providing any incentive for customers to choose you above the myriad of other companies offering a similar bundle. According to Venture Harbour CEO, Marcus Taylor, lead segmentation resulted in an 89% sales uplift and 58% increase in average order value for one of their ventures.

How to efficiently target leads

Segmenting and targeting leads using traditional marketing methods can be very time-consuming and often is not so efficiently organized, specially if you are dealing with thousands and thousands of leads. However, today, there are a number of marketing automation tools like Mautic that enable you to automate those tedious tasks and give you more time to focus on creating a successful marketing strategy or on other processes and tasks.

Mautic’s solution provides detailed contact tracking and automates the process of finding and nurturing contacts through landing pages and forms, email campaigns, text messages, web notifications, and integration with your CRM and other systems in a smooth and easy way.

Nikola Radenkovic is a Techical Specialist at Sales Snap. You can follow him on Linkedin and read more of his marketing tips on the Sales Snap blog.

I was traveling the other day and found myself at a restaurant seated next to a couple of gentlemen from the local car dealership. Normally I don’t find myself listening in on the conversations of those around me, but the restaurant was quiet, and I couldn’t help but follow along. It started slow, and as they continued, I gathered that one was the manager and the other was the GM. As they began to discuss the current state of the dealership, the conversation began to take an interesting turn.

The manager was talking about how challenging it was to keep team members from leaving the business. He was expressing frustration that some of the individuals that had left, were now back asking for their jobs back. And as they discussed the nature of their departure and return, the manager began talking about the culture of the business. “It’s not like it was when I was on the sales floor”, he chided. “When I was working the floor we did whatever it took to make the customer feel welcome.”

The day was cold, overcast and it had been raining, and as the manager continued, he said, “You know, on a day like today, our team would have been standing at the front door with umbrellas, waiting for customers to arrive. And when they would, we would be out there asking the customers what they wanted before they event stepped out of the car. And if they did, we’d have the umbrella handy to cover them as they walked into the dealership. Now, the sales team simply stands at the front door and hovers, waiting for them to walk up to the door.”

And if they did, we’d have the umbrella handy to cover them as they walked into the dealership.

He continued to express his disdain for the current sales team and how they have lost the hunger or drive to meet the needs of the customers who have come to their dealership. “It’s a different group.” he muttered.

Why Automation

I think it’s important for us to do a bit of a reset on the purpose of automation. It has only been a couple of years since automation has really taken off, and already, there are marketers that believe automation can replace the entire function of marketing. They are like the sales team in the story our manager talked about. They have quickly forgotten the art of marketing. They have forsaken the customer and believe that they already know exactly what the customer wants, and will wait for them to “make the right decision”.

Friends, marketing automation will not, and should not, replace your marketing team. It was developed to help you see your marketing environment in a more holistic way. It helps you take into account the location and potential needs of your customer and help you provide information and value to them in a quick and efficient manner.

Personal Automation

So let’s get back to our manager. When he was on the sales floor, he was always thinking about the customer. When the rain clouds were out, he was prepared with an umbrella, ready to meet their needs before they even asked. As marketers, we should always consider the needs of the customer based on their environment.

Where are your customers? What is their environment? Is it raining or is it sunny? Who are they with? Is it lunch time, are they hungry? The list goes on and on and on. These questions help us gain a critical view of our customers. When we see them in a way that is not a data point, but a person, seeking value, we will look at them and our marketing in a different light. Here is a great article on developing a value-based model for your business.

Time to Get the Umbrella

As you continue to seek the perfect automation tools to help you share your product or service to your audience, please take a long, hard look at your customer. They are the reason you are in business. Providing value to them goes beyond the sale. As we’ve discussed, you certainly want to maintain a healthy view of your goals, but if you don’t keep your customer front and center, your automation efforts will feel not feel personal. They will end up feeling like the car sales team that our manager talked about.

So stop staring out the window, get the umbrella, go out in the rain and put your feet into the shoes of your customer. Because when you do, your marketing efforts will feel less automated and will start to feel more personal.