Hey Smart Marketers!
Every single day…
In my LinkedIn or Twitter feed…
I can read about the “benefits” of Segmentation.
As if all SFMC Marketers turned into snipers!
But you know what? Too much segmentation kills your marketing efforts.
Yes!
I’m going to write again… just to make sure you got my point: Too much segmentation is NOT good.
You need to know when you’re over-segmenting.
And You need to find a balance.
Follow me as I dive in!
The Pitfalls of Over-Segmentation
First, let’s see what can go wrong when you over-segment…
1. Customer Alienation:
Today, more than ever, customers feel like they have no control over their privacy and data… When it comes to marketing, sometimes being too specific could lead to a lack of trust towards your brand.
2. Content Fatigue:
Even with AI support, your marketing team can get overwhelmed if you ask them to cater a significant amount of content for each and every segment.
AI can’t do everything… but humans can burn out!
3. Increased Costs:
Maybe 1 million Super Messages cost just the same if you shoot them at once or 10 times 100K… but managing one campaign, one email, one journey or one content block isn’t the same as managing 10 of each…
There’s an exponential growth in marketing assets as you increase the number of segments.
And operational costs can skyrocket!
4. Inconsistent Branding:
We all know the hardest part when you consider your marketing strategy is to keep coherence consistency. When using numerous segments, at the individual level, it becomes a real challenge to avoid inconsistencies in the brand messaging.
But, how do you know you’ve gone too far?
How to know you’re over-segmenting:
If you’re asking yourself, I think you’re already over-segmenting… but here are 4 signs to be sure:
1. Excessive Number of Segments:
We can argue if you need 200 segments or not…
But what I’m sure of: if you have created 200 segments in the past month, 198 of which never got refreshed and have 196 of which were used only one time… and you’re the only campaign manager…
You probably over-segment.
2. Diminishing Returns:
This one is a strong indicator: you’ve got more segments, but the return on investment is not proportional to the time and resources spent on it.
3. Content Overload:
You are down to 5 levels (or more) of folders in Content Builder.
4. Complexity:
You only hire SQL rockstars, you’ve got DESelect Segmentation and Data Cloud and still… segmenting is complex within your organization.
(well, in fact you don’t need all this but you see the point.)
How to find a balance?
Pareto Law guys!
Whenever you feel you’ve gone too far:
- Identify the 20% of your segments that represent 80% of your ROI
- Eliminate the other 80%
- Make your segments less “hyper-targeted” to include the left-over customers
- And let it grow again!
Because it will!
See you next week!
Other ways I can help you: