Back-to-Basics - Part II: Customer Segmentation

Attributes for segmentation

Last week, I posted a very simple breakdown of the 4 elements of omnichannel engagement: customers, content, channel, and timing. Successful engagement results from the optimal combination of these elements.

For each of these four elements, you must select attributes that set constituents of the group apart from others, creating segments.

In more practical terms, this is not unlike the process of crafting a sandwich, which requires combining 4 elements: bread, sauce, protein, and toppings. Each sandwich recipe is a specific combination of ingredients selected from each of these groups. In a bakery, the “bread” element of a sandwich can be segmented as baguette, sliced, bun or pita. However, in another setting, more appropriate segments would be Honey Oat, 9 Grain Wheat, Italian, Italian Herbs and Cheese.

The attributes you select to segment your customers, content, channels, and timing will set the tone for the engagement, and must be aligned with your overall engagement goal or intent. This is a very important consideration that is often overlooked in digital strategy.

Selecting the "right" attributes for customers...

In Part II of the mini-series, we’re focusing on customers and the exploring different attributes that can be leveraged to segment them. If you read Part I, you understand that defining "right" will pull you into an endless rabbit hole!

First, let's look at what segmentation driven by each of these 4 attributes can look like.

Needs

This can be in terms of the type of content they need, such as product information, clinical data, or education opportunities. It could also be in terms of what they need to deliver better care to their patients, such as patient tools, navigating the access process, or help finding specialists. In certain therapeutic areas, their needs might be linked to their practice: support for their clinical trials, opportunities to speak to researchers, information to help them make informed decisions etc.

Preferences:

In certain cases, communication style can have a big impact on engagement success: such as “Brief and to the point” or “Detailed and fully referenced”? Other attributes of preference can include channels: face-to-face, email, video, podcast, website; technology: flat images with text, interactivity, animations; and rhythms: time of day, day of week, school calendar…

Behavior:

This is where most pharma companies are quite adept at segmenting their customers, and where data can be purchased to help assign the correct attribute to each customer.

This can include how they interact with pharma: “no-see”, visits corporate website, no e-consent, education content creator; and how they behave in their practice: disease treatment approach, Rx habit, skepticism towards certain products, adherence to standard of care guidelines, awareness of treatment options, etc.

Values:

This attribute is intertwined with some of their preference attributes, as it points to what drives and motivates them. It can be the patient experience, “truth” in the form of scientific data and facts, opportunities to contribute to a collaborative approach to health outcomes, treatment success in the form of metrics and KPIs. Knowing the intrinsic and subconscious driving force of every customer is impossible, but understanding how your offering may appeal to different core values is a vital step in building a powerful engagement strategy.

... depends on what you're trying to accomplish

By now, you’re starting to see that "Reaching the right customer with the right message, through the right channel at the right time" is not a recipe you can find online or in a white paper. It's entirely specific to your situation.

Only use attributes that will impact how you tailor the engagement and build the customer experience.

Omnichannel engagement starts with understanding your customers and segmenting them using attributes that will shape your approach when engaging with them so you can accomplish your engagement objective and achieve your business goals. Your engagement strategy, starting with your customer segments, is as unique as your organization. If you're struggling with customer segmentation, or if you're not tailoring your engagement to the segments you created, get in touch with me and maybe I can help you sort it out!

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What are your thoughts on customer segmentation? How did you choose the key attributes to leverage, and how does that impact your engagement with your customers?

I welcome any feedback on these posts in general. Do you find them useful? Are there points that require further clarification? Drop a comment or question here, on LinkedIn, or send me an email at info@elodiemartin.com.

Stay tuned for Part III which will be all about the content!