How do you know which subject lines are most effective? Do you know if a traffic boost is from the last email you sent or a previous one, or is it from something else entirely? Are people even reading the unique content you send out?

That’s where marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) come into the equation. They are metrics that highlight improvements, successes or even failures.

KPIs can be used to show what works in an email campaign, what doesn’t and how things can be improved. Metrics can also be used to track performance in all areas of business, including live events, customer feedback or general sales.

If you want to optimize your email marketing campaigns, the following 10 KPIs are what you should be paying attention to.

1. Open Rate

It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to do, be it chasing more sales, generating leads or simply increasing traffic to a site. If no one opens your emails, then it’s all for nought.

The open rate KPI tells you how many people opened your email, read what was contained within and where it ended up. It’s not always reliable, because some email services automatically mark a message as read when you scroll by.

Even so, it’s a valid indicator of who’s interested in your content and who isn’t. Higher numbers reveal the success of a campaign.

2. Click-Through Rate

The click-through rate tells you how many people followed the links contained within your email.

If a tool doesn’t provide this, you can divide the total clicks by the emails delivered and multiply it by 100. The result is the percentage of users following your links.

3. Conversion Rate

While most metrics track specific actions, this one is more about the end result. It focuses on why you sent the email or campaign in the first place, and whether or not your goal was met.

For example, did you want customers to make a purchase, register on your site or browse web content? Whatever it is you wanted your audience to do, how many actually followed through? That is your conversion rate.

It tells you what your campaign achieves and whether or not your audience is interested in its content.

4. Total Sales

The total sales metric involves the full impact of sales as a result of the email campaign. It’s not only about sales directly from email, but also what customers and visitors do as a result. Maybe they didn’t like a product featured in the email, but bought something else instead.

5. Total Number of Unsubscribes

If people don’t enjoy your content, they’re going to unsubscribe. This metric is as important as your new subscriber rates. If you’re bleeding followers, then you’re clearly doing something wrong — and you’ll never know what’s happening if you’re not tracking it.

6. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a lot like unsubscriber counts with one exception: most of these events are accidental. When an email bounces, it means either the address in question is not correct, not in use, falsified or a server is down. On some rare occasions, a bounce may happen because an inbox is full.

Either way, this occurs when there is a delivery problem — which means one less person is receiving your emails and improvements are needed.

7. Cost Per Lead

What is the total cost to acquire a new customer or generate a lead? How much are you spending to develop an email, send it out and reply to various communications? Do you have a dedicated team in place, or are you doing it yourself? These are all things to consider.

8. Time on-Site

You may be generating a lot of traffic as a result of an email marketing campaign, but is it truly worthwhile? Are your visitors staying on-site long enough to make a difference? Is it translating to sales or conversions?

9. Contact List Growth

Most marketers have a system in place to collect new email addresses, which are then added to their newsletter or updates list. Over time, it means the contact list for a campaign grows instead of shrinking.

This is an important metric to track. Not only does it tell you how big an audience your emails are reaching, but it also signals just how effective a campaign is.

10. Social Growth

Alongside traffic, you might also be looking to grow social exposure or follower counts through an email campaign. This is another metric to track if so.

KPIs Can Help Achieve Your Goals

Depending on what you wish to achieve, you don’t necessarily have to monitor every KPI on this list — there are others, too. Choose metrics that align with your goals. If you want to boost follower or audience count, then you should be looking at bounce, unsubscribe and open rates. If you want to increase site traffic, then look at click-through rates, time on-site and social growth.

The 10 email marketing KPIs you see here are some of the most important, meaning you really can’t afford to ignore them.

Cover Photo by Hoster on Unsplash

The post 10 Important Email Marketing KPIs You Can’t Afford to Overlook appeared first on Reflective Data.

For example, duplicate information could mean that members of a marketing team call the same person multiple times. Then, a potential lead gets frustrated, and marketing professionals waste time.

Or, duplicate data could give incorrect statistics caused by inflated numbers. If one legitimate user appears in a database several times and that’s a common occurrence, marketers could reach falsely positive conclusions about the effectiveness of a marketing campaign or the reach of a new product.

Here are five things that marketers and other people who work with data can do to stop duplicate data from becoming a pervasive problem.

1. Have Stricter Data Entry Practices

Human error is one of the primary causes of duplicate data. If people aren’t careful enough to input data without making errors, the steps marketers take to check for identical records might fail. For example, maybe there’s a valid email address in the database that’s john.smith123@mydomain.com. But, if a person also mistakenly types that email address in another instance with “.con” on the end, it would not appear as a duplicate.

Marketers should implement quality control measures for data entry. They may include having at least two people check information before submitting it to a database. Problems can also occur if too many people take responsibility for entering data. When they don’t follow all the same procedures, duplication could happen.

Data quality shortcomings arise due to several reasons, some of which relate to other tech tools. If a company uses an optical character recognition (OCR) program to speed up data importation, it’s especially important to have human oversight that boosts quality control.

2. Use Automation to Help Spot Duplicate Data

Automated tools can cut down on the manual labor used when looking for data duplicates. And, options are available for popular applications that store data, like Google Sheets. While utilizing that spreadsheet program, people can depend on a manual formula or install an add-on that looks for multiple instances of the same information.

Becoming familiar with either the manual command or how to use the add-on can help people find duplicated data faster, putting them a step closer to removing it.

Also, when choosing an automated tool designed to assist with locating duplication, people who work with data should always research the possibilities and read reviews from users before picking options for their needs.

3. Apply Human Insights to Any Data Deduplication Tool

Tools exist that make it easier for marketers to remove duplicates from their databases. But, they should not become overly reliant on those solutions. For example, if a platform shows an entry of a duplicate address, users should not automatically regard it as an error.

For example, an address for an apartment in a college town could have a different valid occupant for each semester or even less often. Alternatively, there could be cases where two people from the same household sign up for the same service but have different subscriptions because they chose different feature tiers.

When data analysts use any interfaces that assist with removing duplicate data, they must take a closer look before deleting information that seems redundant. Even the best tech suites for controlling duplication can’t view the data with the context that a human can.

4. Change Duplication Removal Methods As Needs Dictate

Excellent data deduplication needs a methodical approach. Once marketers and data analysts come up with a method for removing duplicates, they need to log every step of the process and make a note of when each one happens. Otherwise, it’ll be impossible to keep track of what works and what doesn’t. It’s also best to test a deduplication process in a sandboxed environment before moving it to production.

Then, even after a deduplication method seems ideal, companies should still be open to changing it as necessary. For example, if an enterprise links another source of customer data to a marketing tool, that action could cause unwanted duplication. Then, the presence of another new marketing tool makes it necessary to change a previously successful deduplication process.

5. Prompt People to Avoid Signing Up Twice

Some duplicate data happens because customers can’t remember registering at a website before. So, one simple data deduplication marketers and data analysts can use is to ensure that sign-up forms urge existing users to log into their accounts instead of registering again.

Start Tackling Duplicated Data

Data duplicates are common, but not impossible to reduce. The steps suggested here can help data experts get to the bottom of duplication problems and start to solve them.

The post 5 Data Deduplication Strategies for Marketers appeared first on Reflective Data.

As you’ve likely heard before, a tool is only as good as the hand that wields it. If you’re unaware of the full range of capabilities and features your platform provides, you’re falling short of its full potential. More than that, you’re prone to errors that could compromise your marketing performance.

With this in mind, what are some of the most common analytical mistakes marketing professionals make? It’s wise to understand the pitfalls of analytics platforms, so you can avoid them with ease.

1. Choosing Favorite Tools

While some tools are more effective than others, you’ll never find a one-size-fits-all solution. No algorithm applies to every situation, and no data source provides all the information you need. You might prioritize certain features of your platforms over others, but it’s crucial to experiment and explore.

Some of the features you’ve overlooked might have incredible potential, but you won’t know until you’ve examined them. When marketing professionals play favorites with tools, they waste money and increase turnaround time. You’ll avoid these common mistakes as long as you keep an open mind.

When you’re developing your marketing strategy, try both new and old things, searching for solutions that are appropriate for your set of circumstances. These circumstances will change, and you have to evolve with them by adapting your approach. Dependence on any one tool is counterintuitive.

2. Picking the Wrong Graphs

You want to communicate your results to your team through data visualization, but it isn’t such a simple task. You might confuse them if you choose the wrong type of chart or graph, leaving them with more questions than answers. You have to represent different kinds of information in different ways.

As an example, line and bar graphs are best for showing progress over a period of time. Pie graphs are ideal for displaying the number of people in your customer base who come from various geographies. When deciding on data visualization, ask yourself what you want to achieve with a chart or graph.

When you look at data visualization within the context of your marketing goals, you’ll have a better understanding of what information is important and how to show it. Start with your initial intention for the data to sidestep some of the mistakes others in your position have made in the past.

3. Starting With Metrics

While many companies use platforms for collecting, storing and analyzing data, not all of them follow a coherent plan. In truth, it isn’t enough to have access to information. Once you obtain the data, you need to approach it with a clear and agreed-upon goal that your team understands.

It’s one of the mistakes startups often make with data, failing to set strategic priorities early in the process. You integrate something new into your website — like a favoriting feature — but you haven’t defined your goal. Without that goal, you don’t know what success looks like, or whether you’ve achieved it.

Amanda Richardson, chief strategy officer for the travel company HotelTonight, poses the important question: “…what’s the key metric that’s going to determine success?” Richardson goes on to explain: “Without that clarity, you end up with a situation where one person is saying, ‘That was great for our most popular users, who favorite an average of 12 hotels’ and another is saying ‘But this was intended for new users.’ And you’re thinking, ‘Was it?'”

Improve Your Marketing Strategy

A tool is only as good as the hand that wields it, and now you know how to use yours a little better. As long as you avoid these three mistakes, you’ll make the most of the platforms you employ every day and improve your marketing strategy.

The post 3 Analytical Mistakes You’re Making and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Reflective Data.

Creating these visuals on your own can take more time than reading through the slog of information. The good news is that technology has created data visualization tools for marketers to easily pour their data into and create the visuals for them.

There are open-source data visualization software, apps for mobile devices, tools available for free and much more when you start finding the need to get your hands on one of these programs. If you’re currently shopping around, here are a few of the best ones available.

1. FusionCharts

FusionCharts is entirely JavaScript-based, with availability on mobile devices. Since it shares a customer base with Apple, Google, Facebook, Intel and other giant companies, you’ll have access to direct support from the developers and comprehensive tutorials. FusionCharts is even available through an indefinite free trial for developmental reasons.

2. Tableau

Tableau is one of the most powerful, secure and flexible analytics platforms in the industry. Available in mobile apps, desktop programs, servers and everything in between, Tableau has been in this game long enough to know what marketers need. They use proprietary programs to identify all the problems marketers face firsthand. Tableau’s server option starts at $12 a month, but the desktop program is available for $70 a month. They also offer a 14-day free trial.

3. Sisense

Sisense is an outstanding analytics platform for big businesses. Working with NBC, General Electric, Rolls-Royce and many more, they offer powerful reporting and fast dashboards. The interface is easy to learn and use while remaining flexible. However, the price is a little costly. You can only get a real price through a quote based on your specific needs, but one can expect $160 a month at most.

4. IBM Cognos Analytics

IBM is known worldwide for being a technological innovator. Their analytics program is entirely self-service, allowing you the freedom to complete any task at your pace. Uniquely, Cognos Analytics uses artificial intelligence to make everything even smoother. Pricing starts at $70 a month.

5. Grow BI Dashboard

Grow Business Intelligence Dashboard is all about self-serving analytics and reports for their customers without being expensive. Recommended with five stars from GetApp, Capterra and other review sites, Grow can help centralize data in real time. What’s more, as of right now, Grow is free. You can either opt to get the demo version or jump straight into the indefinite free trial.

6. Nexla

Nexla puts a focus on API integration, database connections and FTP servers. They allow data sharing rather than focusing solely on the organizational aspect, yet remain secure the entire time. Nexla is flexible, but easy to use, making it an excellent all-around visualization tool. The free trial lasts for 15 days, after which users can request a customized price quote.

7. Corporator

Corporator differs from the others on this list because of how straightforward it is. The interface is flexible enough without making anything complicated. Corporator focuses on strategic management and key performance indicators to get their mission across. They offer a free trial upon request, as well as quotes based on your business.

Benefits of Visual Tools

Some of the benefits for using visualization tools in business for data may be obvious, but if you’re on the fence about whether or not you need one, here are some things to think about. For instance, 84 percent of businesses find data integral to their core operations, while 95 percent of United States organizations use data for decision-making. Without visualization tools, most of the data will be too comprehensive to be useful.

Even if you are using data without visual aids, you may find they’ll work wonders in propelling your business forward. One customer mapping image could be the foundation of a sales plan, communications improvements, managing referrals in call centers, or any number of things you can imagine.

If you can create a dream with data, you can follow through with visualization tools.

The Future of Visualization

While some may find typical pie charts obvious, other businesses may not know they need such tools until it’s too late in the game. Regardless, the advancement of visual tools doesn’t stop here.

As technology advances, so do businesses. Even touchscreens have completely changed the game on data visualization. Whatever’s coming next, whether it’s an advancement related to instant 5G or the rise of personalized advertising, we’ll know soon enough.

The post 7 Best Data Visualization Tools in 2019 appeared first on Reflective Data.

But despite the conveniences it offers, online shopping does have shortcomings. For example, people can’t smell a bottle of lotion and dab some on the top of their hand to see how well it absorbs into the skin. They also can’t touch the fabric of clothing or a sheet set to determine how durable it feels.

The face-to-face interactions between shoppers and shop employees are usually gone with online transactions too. Although some websites have live chat features, people can’t readily get the advice of a salesperson by asking them if they’ve personally used a piece of merchandise. They can’t find out if there’s more of a sold-out item in the back that hasn’t been put onto shelves yet.

One way brick-and-mortar businesses are competing against online shops is through a technique widely used in apps and on websites: geofencing.

What Is Geofencing, and How Does It Work?

Geofencing is the practice of using GPS or RFID technologies to define a virtual boundary around a business. Then, when people in an area move into that defined zone, they receive targeted marketing that encourages them to come into the establishment immediately. A store might use geofencing to target people currently within 25 miles of a given business and send text messages to those individuals so that they might come later.

Here are some ways brick-and-mortar businesses can benefit from geofencing.

1. Geofencing for Brick-and-Mortar Businesses Can Come After Online Efforts

Sometimes, brands with both brick-and-mortar stores and online presences launch geofencing campaigns for their physical locations after online-based attempts have favorable outcomes. In one example, Norton, the brand known for security-based computer software, partnered with RetailMeNot, the app and website that helps people find deals.

The two brands collectively took on a brick-and-mortar project after teaming up for years to boost Norton’s online sales through the RetailMeNot app. The goal was to promote a Norton product by sending RetailMeNot users a substantial discount available to redeem at a physical office supply chain. In the end, over 10,000 people engaged with the offer.

2. It Brings Online Shoppers Into Physical Stores

Retailers with both physical and online locations also work hard to urge online shoppers to come into physical stores. Sometimes that happens with a hybrid option commonly known as click and collect. People pick out their items online, then go into the store and pick them up.

With geofencing, people might see messages while shopping online that inform them that the items they want to buy are not in stock online but are available in a nearby store. If those individuals are registered users on the site, their addresses are likely on file, and that data indicates a person’s location.

Alternatively, most smartphones have location-based services that allow brands to determine where shoppers are while they’re browsing online. People who buy things through the internet generally appreciate efficiency, so instead of potentially going to another online store and waiting for that merchant to send their items, they could go to the original retailer’s brick-and-mortar store.

Home Depot has an app that senses when people walk into one of its physical stores, then gives them extra content to simplify the shopping experience. For example, they can rely on their phones to scan barcodes on merchandise or use the Product Locator, which has a mapping function to help people know exactly where to go in a specific store to find the stuff they need.

About 45 percent of Home Depot purchases people make online get picked up in local stores. The content that arrives through the app once individuals get within the required distance from the store could spur them to do more inside than merely go to retrieve the items they bought.

3. Geofencing Could Increase Customer Loyalty

Most people can relate to feeling pangs of hunger and knowing it’s time to eat but having trouble deciding precisely where to go. Elephant Bar — a restaurant chain serving American and international fare — successfully enticed members of its loyalty program by sending them text messages as they neared the food establishment’s locations.

The messages were also personalized based on the number of loyalty points a person accumulated. The campaign’s results showed that 30 percent of people who received those correspondences from the chain came into a restaurant on the same day. Such a program gives people opportunities to use their loyalty points or earn more, thereby reminding them of how much their membership pays off.

4. It Gives Opportunities for Data Collection

Habits are part of our lives, and people often don’t even realize when they engage in them. For example, a person might get a cup of coffee at a local cafe and hardly think about participating in that action unless they don’t do it one day and feel the effects of reduced caffeine consumption. If the retailer hones in on that person through geofencing, it’s possible for the retailer to predict habits and influence actions.

What if that consumer got text messages when passing the coffee shop both before and after work but only acted on those text messages after work 10 percent of the time? Then, the content could become increasingly personalized and say things like “Start your morning off with a smile, and get a free pastry with your coffee today.”

Data collection happens in ways other than geofencing too, but the immediacy geofencing offers means brick-and-mortar stores can capitalize on a person’s proximity and potentially gather details at the same time. A geofencing text could tempt a person with a discount in exchange for filling out a survey about overall satisfaction with a brand, perhaps. Then, companies can gain insights, and participants can save money.

What’s Trending?

Like most other marketing methods with staying power, geofencing has substantially evolved over the past few years and is used in increasingly creative ways. One app called TempWorks Buzz lets temporary workers punch in and out of job sites through the app, which features geofencing and facial recognition components.

It’s not hard to imagine a future where that technology gets applied to brick-and-mortar retailers and shows how many people with kids, for instance, enter stores between certain hours, allowing retailers to distribute tailored promotions to shoppers.

Also, a company called Simpli.fi offers what it calls “addressable geofencing.” Its technology allows creating an individual geofence around every property in a neighborhood, then laying the foundation for marketing content that’s extremely personalized based on factors such as past purchases or census data, including the amount a household earns annually.

Simpli.fi asserts that its technology could potentially make all targeted marketing efforts more effective, including direct mail outreach. Potential use cases offered by the company include a car dealership targeting households with cars due for lease renewals and a local dentist office focusing on current patients to let them know about a teeth-whitening promotion.

Geofencing Helps Brick-and-Mortar Businesses Cater to Needs

Regardless of a physical company’s type or size, it’s essential for establishments to understand what customers need and position themselves as able to help. Geofencing, therefore, is crucial for addressing customers at times when they’re closest to locations and compelling them to stop in to make purchases.

The post How Geofencing Works for Brick-and-Mortar Businesses appeared first on Reflective Data.

It means that consumers put an awful lot of trust in e-tailers and ecommerce providers every time they make a purchase. They are providing highly sensitive information, which carries an enormous amount of risk for both parties. Well beyond the moral obligations, however, ecommerce companies are also subject to legal obligations as set forth by regulators. GDPR is an excellent example of a more recent, data privacy and protection policy.

When data is stolen, it can result in identity fraud, further financial theft and similar problems for the consumer. For businesses, it will create brand reputation damage, as well as legal costs and fines when laws have been broken. Not to mention, the financial loss that comes from an impending wave of consumer mistrust.

For 2017, Symantec revealed that U.S. consumers lost a total of $19.4 billion and 20 hours of their time dealing with the aftermath of cyber attacks. The total cost jumps to $172 billion when you include the rest of the world. The stats are frightening, yes, but it shows that security breaches can be incredibly damaging.

It begs the question: Just how secure are our ecommerce systems and data?

Is Ecommerce Data Secure?

A majority of retail CFOs — about 70 percent — anticipate heightened cybersecurity regulations throughout the coming years, as they should. Once the data is passed to these companies and partners, it’s important that they properly secure it, as well as maintain that level of security.

But that requires the systems and processes involved to be secure — are they?

Although it’s a rather ambiguous question, it is a pertinent one in today’s landscape. The fact of the matter is, no digital data or information is secure, at least not completely. That aside, there are ways to lower the possibility of data breaches and cyber attacks, which can help mitigate the risks of dealing in sensitive data in the first place.

Right off the bat, it’s important to note that an estimated 29 percent of all a website’s traffic is there specifically to attack it. It doesn’t matter whether a site is big or small — online platforms are always under attack, and many of those attacks are carried out by bots or automated tools. Failing to establish the proper protections and protocols will mean a data breach, no question about it.

Some of the measures that ecommerce and data providers can use to boost protections include:

• All sensitive data must be encrypted using advanced protocols especially when it’s being transferred over an open connection or stored on a remote server or system
• Traffic encryption is necessary for incoming and outgoing traffic, as is a secure SSL connection
• Proper authentication procedures must be followed and honored, so only the appropriate parties have access to the data
• Data owners — the users — must be able to access, delete and modify the information that is being collected and stored

Nearly all computer security incidents happen as a result of oversight, meaning they could have been fixed if given the proper attention. That’s what makes modern cybersecurity events so infuriating to experts. Take the massive Equifax breach, for example. Here, we have an official credit bureau — an organization directly responsible for the handling of sensitive credit data — fumbling their online security through complete incompetence, technical failure and shady behavior. All of it could have been prevented, and easily.

By acknowledging the fact that most security events happen as a result of negligence or failure to act, you immediately understand why it’s important to take data security seriously.

Ecommerce Is Here to Stay

Ecommerce and online shopping are here to stay, not only because of the incredible convenience they offer but also because of the many opportunities they provide to consumers and businesses alike. But that doesn’t mean it’s the ideal way to shop, nor does it mean doing so is entirely safe.

The best way to lock down and protect sensitive data is to establish foundational security and protection measures — not just for online platforms and website data, but also incoming data from point-of-sale systems, in-store and traditional surveys, and background customer data. This information is often collected when they visit a brick-and-mortar store or browse a site without purchasing goods.

Sadly, there is no clear answer as to how data analysts and security experts can fix modern ecommerce systems or platforms. It involves an incredibly nuanced approach that collaboratively works to protect the many disparate systems and data channels at play.

Deploying data encryption, honoring secure web and mobile connections and properly handling all sensitive data is a good start. For instance, there’s no reason to store highly sensitive data like credit card numbers, expiration dates or CVV2 (card verification) codes. They should just be forgotten or deleted from a database after a transaction is completed.

From there, it’s about authentication or who has access, what you’re doing with the resulting data, and how it’s being stored. Offering things like two-factor authentication, requiring strong passwords and sending suspicious activity alerts can help get consumers involved too.

By continually analyzing and addressing potential threats, and ensuring that all data is properly secured, you can develop an active and dynamic approach to modern cybersecurity. Honestly, that’s the best you could hope for in this landscape. Breaches and cyber attacks are going to happen, regardless.

The post Does Ecommerce Put Your Customers Data at Risk? appeared first on Reflective Data.

1. Psychographic Segmentation

This method of segmentation addresses the consumer’s values, beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, interests and behaviors. It provides a comprehensive framework for your marketing strategy, developed through a multivariate analysis of the psychological factors behind purchasing decisions. With an informed understanding of what motivates your consumer to choose one brand over another — or shop in a particular store — you can adjust your practices to reflect these insights.

So, how do these adjustments manifest? A company can capitalize on psychographic segmentation through qualitative research techniques like focus groups, using the consumer’s language to design questionnaires for large-scale use. They would include questions relevant to a consumer’s experience and lifestyle choices, asking them the extent to which they agree or disagree with a particular statement, such as, “I feel like I spend too much money on bus tickets.”

If you intended to use psychographic segmentation for your marketing strategy, it would require a significant investment of time and money. You’d have to organize interviews, surveys and questionnaires to gather information about your consumer, which is often an extensive process. That said, few other types of segmentation offer such an accurate representation of your consumer.

2. Demographic Segmentation

More common than other forms of segmentation, demographic segmentation is popular for several reasons. It’s comparatively simple, dividing the population based on an assortment of variables like age, gender, income, nationality and occupation. Through assigning consumers to specific groups, a company can market their product or service with far greater precision, ensuring the effective allocation of their advertising budget.

Most segmentation strategies involve some form of demographic segmentation. Companies adapt their marketing to appeal to the type of person most likely to purchase their product or service, and this approach often serves them well. To provide an example, an automobile company would make far more money advertising a convertible to a consumer with the income to pay for it, broadcasting their commercial on a channel affluent individuals would probably view.

Demographic segmentation will likely factor into your marketing strategy, and how you implement it depends on the consumer you’re selling to. You should look at your current customer base and make a note of their attributes, researching their average age and income as you develop your plans. In arranging your media mix to target those who already spend on your brand, you’ll know your money is in the right place.

3. Geographic Segmentation

Companies employ geographic segmentation to focus their marketing efforts on certain locations. They account for factors like consumer preference, deciding to advertise in areas that display a positive response to their product or service. This saves them from spending money on regions that won’t yield a significant profit and allows them to concentrate their efforts elsewhere.

Geographic segmentation is a standard strategy you’ll often see restaurant chains use. They’ll market a special menu item in a part of the country they believe will show interest — or, or on a larger scale, limit their locations to a specific area. In determining potential from region to region, these restaurant chains can avoid poor investments and make informed decisions to better their brand.

To use geographic segmentation in your strategy, you’ll have to consider differences in consumer preference between the north and south, urban and rural environments, warm and cold climates and more. Using relevant databases, determine the best place for your product or service and align your advertising with the culture of your consumers. Every entrepreneur has resources at their disposal to assist them in reaching their goals.

Segmentation Is Key

There isn’t a perfectly objective message that will connect with every audience, and you have to tailor your marketing to the people you know will respond. With psychographic, demographic and geographic segmentation, you can do just that. It begins with research and understanding your consumer.

Once you know their details, you’ll profit.

The post Three Types of Segmentation and How to Use Them appeared first on Reflective Data.