Audience segmentation is a tried-and-true marketing practice. And in today's digital-first world, it's one that has amplified potential with the technology, integrations and data available to bring the most relevant experiences and content to audiences wherever they happen to be鈥攁nd on whatever device they happen to be on.
Segmentation continues to be a key focus when it comes to marketing strategy today, as we recently saw at the , where experts talked about best practices and what's new.
In its essence, segmentation is dividing an audience into groups based on similarities and then sharing personalized content with them.
However, there are many ways to up-level segmentation, such as by leveraging modular content, which is content that has been broken into component parts that can be reassembled for presentation to different segments.
The building blocks analogy is good at showing how modular content can be broken down into smaller pieces, but it only goes so far. Beyond building blocks, modular content is inherently reusable. You can only really use an individual Lego block in one construction at a time, if you want to use the Lego block in another masterpiece you have to tear down what you had built before. But modular content lets you reuse the same component.
To get a deeper understanding of what's possible with the right digital marketing strategy, let's dive into segmentation and how it works with modular content to deliver personalized experiences across channels.
Segmentation first steps
Marketers define their audience segments using various sets of marketing information, such as click patterns, location or buying history. They might want to group people who live in a certain area, or who are interested in certain activities. Good segmentation delivers relevant, actionable content to the end user. It's a critical part of successful customer engagement.
Ultimately, the challenge with segmentation is the work required to do it well, including oftentimes the number of tools and data organizations find themselves using to try to do it right. Experts like those at ContentTECH know that there is room for segmentation practices to improve and go further.
In a Contently study we just released, only 56% of marketers said that they created personalized content with specific audience personas in mind. This number is troublingly low. If you want to break through, you need to have a specific persona in mind when creating content.
The bottleneck can be broken with the right technology.
Brightspot CMS's segmentation tools, for example, support the creation of specific audience segments by different behaviors, against which variations of the same content asset鈥攚hether that's a page, article, navigation element, module or more鈥攃an be assembled based on the defined audience target.
This where your modular content strategy really can deliver.
The power of segmentation and modular content
Modular content allows marketers to look at content in its smallest usable component, such as a single sentence. It gives businesses finite control of their content in order to be able to distribute based on device鈥攆rom a smartwatch on a wrist to a large desktop computer screen.
Where modular content and segmentation fit together is the ability to tailor and deliver custom messages or content to a particular segment. For instance, you can easily create a title or an offer for multiple different segments while spending less time on reviews and distribution. Modular content lets global brands drive one single message but speak in many voices to suit different segments.
This thinking is supported by the experts interviewed for ContentTECH's 2021 summit preview this June.
You also need an infrastructure that supports component-based authoring and single-sourcing. Reusing the same content for new and different deliverables saves time, money, and allows you to personalize content and scale at the same time.
Modular content can also help with measurement. You can easily track where individual components are being used and how they are succeeding or lagging with different segments. This allows you to you avoid overusing certain assets and lets you more easily manage and update key messaging. It's clear that when done well, segmentation and modular content are foundational to deliver the truly personalized experience that customers expect today.
Move to what's next
The ContentTECH experts emphasized that although segmentation has been around for a long time, it is still vital to any digital-marketing strategy. By enabling personalization, it helps to build user affinity and drive the highest ROI from content.
Brightspot has been a pioneer in developing a CMS that enables modular content capabilities. This enhances the impact of segmentation by enabling deep personalization with increased ease and speed. The faster marketers can share content that drives results, the faster they can move on to what's next for their business.
To find out more how we help support your audience personalization and segmentation needs, talk to a Brightspot expert today.