Digital marketing is a complex field to master, and it changes around so constantly and unexpectedly that it’s also hard to predict, even for professionals. It might seem like it’s just too much to handle on your own, especially if you’re just starting out or if are learning about it strictly out of necessity. Lucky for you, there are some aspects of digital marketing that are both stable and provide solid results all the time, like geographic segmentation. Heard of it before?
In short, geographic segmentation means dividing your target market based on—you guessed it—geographic locations so you can tailor your content and messages more effectively to them. This includes ads, promotions, and all your digital content in general. Still, you might wonder just how important this aspect of marketing really is, which is why we have created a list with the top five reasons why geographic segmentation is the key to a strong marketing effort.
1. It is more cost-effective when working with small budgets
If you have a small business or are working with a very tight budget, geographic segmentation can allow your strategy to be effective for a much more reasonable price while avoiding the most inefficient-spending traps of digital marketing. This is because segmentation will give you enough information about your target to focus all your efforts into a well-defined area with a certain type of people in mind.
Once you factor in the creative efforts to the guidance of geo-targeting for local advertising, your resulting message is more likely to resonate with a specific audience and send them further down the funnel instead of just sending out the same message for many different people, which costs more and is markedly less effective. Thus, it’s the more budget-friendly option out of the two of them.
2. It still works well in densely populated areas
One of the biggest benefits of geo-targeting is that you can divide a densely populated city in more manageable populations. Just because your target audience is located in a big city doesn’t mean that the rest of the people will also resonate with your message. As you might imagine, people living in different areas of a city will have different backgrounds and even cultural preferences. The population of a large metropolitan area will include people of, say, the city proper and a nearby suburb-city. Just this information is enough for you to know that you can’t speak to them in the same manner, and your strategy must vary as much as your audience does.
3. You can learn past, present, and future customer behavior
Working with a certain population means getting to know them. Creating your client personas and avatars goes hand-in-hand with geographic segmentation, so you’ll see patterns emerging in time. This means that, with enough knowledge and practice, you will be able to predict certain behaviors from different people living in a particular area and to anticipate their reaction to different strategies.
Determining the present and future behavior of an area is one of the most valuable skills you can learn thanks to geographic segmentation, and it will certainly prove to be one of your best allies if you continue to do business with a certain population. Become good enough at it, and you might even soften the blow of future crises or rapid changes in consumer preferences.
4. It lets you target location-specific keywords
Keywords are to digital marketing what flowers are to bees, but to go after those highly competitive and hotly contested keywords is really a futile endeavor unless you are in the marketing department of a gargantuan corporation with a monstrous budget. Well, that is if you are playing in the same all-encompassing playing field as the rest of the big guys are. If you are doing things right with your strategy, have a well-optimized online presence, and take those highly competitive keywords while adding the location of your target audience, then you’re essentially bypassing the competition.
5. It’s easy to do (but hard to master)
Geographic segmentation is just one of many types of segmentation out there — psychographic, demographic, behavioral, etc. The geographic variety, however, is one of the easiest to perform because most internet and digital marketing tools have the capacity to determine where a person lives than, say, their behavioral tendencies or income. It also eliminates much of the subjectivity and guesswork of what would compel them to buy something: Geographic location is a fact, and trustworthy conclusions can be made from it.
Nevertheless, there are a few things about geographic segmentation that might not be so apparent or easy to include in your digital marketing strategy. In this case, it’s still better to trust the advice of a professional than go with your gut, since the former will avoid making common mistakes. After all, the bottom line is what matters, and you don’t want to risk it on a whim!
