Many knowledge commerce entrepreneurs go after a specific niche. But, chances are, segmenting their audiences further could still help them improve their marketing performance.

In this guide, we’ll cover what knowledge entrepreneurs need to know about segmentation and share tips for how to implement it.

What is segmentation?

Segmentation is “the process of dividing a company’s target market into groups of potential customers with similar needs and behaviours,” according to the Business Development Bank of Canada. This means business owners must understand the relevant subcategories of their audience.

The broader the market is, the more likely there are different subgroups of customers. In a big market, such as air travel, an airline brand could have numerous customer groups. In a smaller market, such as online courses for balloon designers (like Kajabi Hero Twister Sister Studios), there may be fewer customer segments. 

Creating content for segmented audiences can take more time than making content for your whole audience. Instead of making one advertisement, a knowledge entrepreneur could make five or ten versions of the ad. These ads would all appeal to their differing segments.

Segmenting advertisements

Segmentation also involves analyzing markets and deciding which groups to target. 

Let’s take Facebook ads, for example. At the surface level, when boosting a business page, you can choose a radius, age range, and gender. 

For other ads, you can narrow down by demographics, behaviors, or specific interests. So, a weight lifting coach could segment their ads broadly to people interested in fitness. Or, the advertiser could get narrower, and only target people interested in specific aspects of weight lifting. 

Facebook also allows advertisers to target other fields. So, the weight coach could target people who are interested in certain gym chains, for example. 

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Why should business owners segment their marketing?

Segmentation wasn’t the standard practice until marketers discovered that tailored marketing performs better. The increased performance of that targeted content can and often provides a better return with higher engagement.

Here are some specific benefits:

Improved campaign performance 

Segmented marketing campaigns usually perform better than mass marketing campaigns. This may be in the form of a higher percentage of engagement or a better conversion rate. 

MarketingSherpa shares a case study of how one technology company found that segmentation doubled their email open rates and tripled their click through rate.

Statista found that personalized emails had an average open rate of 18.8% compared to non personalized emails coming in at 13.1%. And, the click through rate was slightly higher for personalized emails as well.

Better user experience

People prefer messaging that better addresses their needs. People attach to brands that fit their aspirations, self-image, or lifestyles. This can help your potential customers have a positive association with your brand.

More reasons to speak to your audience

Instead of a general promotion of your business or new course, with segmentation, you have more unique reasons to speak to your audience. Given how frequently that organic social media algorithms want accounts to post, this is helpful. 

Better return on investment

Segmented marketing can bring in more sales or higher value sales. This can provide a better return on the time or dollars invested into the campaign. Campaign Monitor reports that marketers have seen a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns. 

This increased return can be a result of more engagement with the content and people finding it more appealing. For example, Segment shared in their State of Personalization report that 49% of customers bought something on impulse because an ad spoke to them.

Better audience building 

Your segmented marketing content could resonate more strongly with people who see it. This could encourage them to take actions such as visiting your website, follow you on social media or sign up for your email newsletter.

When these people take action, they can enter the top of your sales funnel, and hopefully one day convert into a paying customer. But, it all starts with consistent work to grow and engage your audience.

What are some examples of segmentation?

You’ve likely seen clear examples of segmentation - usually in advertisements. An automotive brand might segment their audience for trucks as mostly males who live in a somewhat rural area and have a hobby that requires towing. Then, another segment might be middle-aged mothers whose top priority is safety.

But, those clear examples don’t always align with what works for knowledge entrepreneurs. Kajabi Hero Roger Hol shares his advice for approaching segmentation in the knowledge commerce industry:

“Everyone who opted in to join a weight-loss challenge has different motivations, needs, and struggles as to why they want to lose weight. As humans, we like to be seen, heard, and understood. That should be met with relevant emails - not the same to all. 

Imagine what happened when those 1400 that opted in to this weight-loss challenge received the same email. They will not find trust, so it will be hard for the person selling the course to convince them to buy, even though it might be perfect for them. You can save time, energy, and money with better segmentation - to be more relevant to your small groups in your entire list.”

So, in this example, a fitness coach might segment their audience people who want to lose weight to improve self-esteem, increase mobility, or decrease the risk of other health problems. From there, the entrepreneur can tailor the messaging to these groups. By connecting with the audience’s deeper motivations, the likelihood of purchasing and completing the course should increase. 

What are some ways to segment an audience?

There are many ways to divvy up your audience. Here are some options:

• Location
• Industry
• Job title 
• Generation or age
• Purchasing habits
• Interest level
• Language(s) spoken
• Benefit segmentation‍

You can combine multiple to get hyper specific audiences. Think about the scenarios, demographics, and needs of your audience and use those to decide which specific criteria you will use. 

For example, maybe you sell a course that targets women in New York City, or to people who speak English as a second language between the ages of 18 - 25. 

There are more ways to segment that are specific to your offering. If you’re a parenting coach, you could segment by the number of children an audience member has. If you’re a sales coach, you could segment by the average deal size your client makes. 

How do you execute segmentation?

To get the benefits of segmentation, you have to go through the process of collecting data and categorizing. You don’t need to create permanent cohorts of customers. And, someone could be in multiple segments. 

Here are some ways to execute segmentation: 

Utilize your CRM

A CRM is essential to segmentation. It will store the information and may be able to pull reports that give you your segments. In the Kajabi CRM, you can collect information via forms or assessments from your students.

Kajabi Hero Bob Latham of Elsewhere Ministries shares that on Kajabi, he “[sent] an assessment out and tag all of the answers. I asked, ‘what do you struggle with the most?’ then had 10 different selections (click all that apply) and then tagged each answer. In assessments, it gives you a full report.” Then by tagging the people in the CRM with the relevant tags, that will help when needing to filter your audience into segments.  

Survey your audience

To collect lots of information about members of your audience, you could send a survey. Not all of the recipients will fill it out, but some audience members may jump at the chance to give you feedback. 

Here are some suggestions for information that would be helpful for knowledge entrepreneurs when segmenting: 

• What type of knowledge product(s) the respondent is interested in
• Which topics the respondent would like to learn more about
• Relevant goals that the respondent has 
• How much experience the respondent has with online courses, coaching, or membership sites
• How much the respondent would be willing to spend on a given knowledge product
  

Search Engine Journal recommends a survey take only two or three minutes to complete. So, choose a small number of questions or make most of the questions multiple-choice to speed up the survey and collect more information. 

Use external data

Collecting outside data can help you shape your segments by informing you on related areas. For example, if you coach first-time home buyers on the home purchasing process, you could use data on median income by location, home buying rates by zip code, and median home values. 

Using outside data can point you in the right direction when thinking of how to segment your audience, even though the data doesn’t reflect your unique audience.

Some sources for this external data are:

• U.S. Census Bureau
• Bureau of Labor Statistics 
• US Data
• Social Explorer
• Statistics Canada
  

Create buyer personas

Buyer personas are an aspect of market research. They are fictional representations of different members of your customer base. They are a great tool to think about your current customers, ideal customers, and potential customers.

Hubspot is a great source of information on buyer personas.

Since they are fictional, you likely won’t have clients that match them exactly. The real value in creating buyer personas is the introspection and analysis.

Segmentation with Kajabi

Kajabi facilitates our Heroes’ segmentation across multiple parts of the platform. Heroes can collect data with forms and use custom fields then store the data in the CRM. 

Watch our tutorial on using tags with Kajabi:

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For example, a knowledge entrepreneur that sells cooking courses and recipe eBooks can segment their audience in any number of ways. Perhaps they decide to segment by the type of cuisine, level of difficulty, or even various dietary restrictions. Then, they can use the Kajabi tools to help them execute different segmented marketing campaigns that can help them bring impress potential clients and turn them into paying customers. 

Kajabi empowers segmentation so you can reach your business goals.

Kajabi is the best way to turn your knowledge into income

At Kajabi, we’re working to build a world where everyone can build a life and business around their income. 

With Kajabi, you can sell your expertise online. Create online courses, establish membership sites, offer coaching programs, host a podcast, and sell other digital products. Plus, you'll get marketing tools like a website, CRM, email marketing, landing page templates, and helpful analytics to help you spread the word about your products and earn more revenue.

Fully explore what Kajabi has to offer and start building your business during a free trial. Start your free 14-day trial of Kajabi today!

‍Still researching? Check out Kajabi’s free downloadable ebook guides on launching and growing a knowledge commerce online business!

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