Most major advertisers have become pretty good at SEO. So, once you have wrung out all the benefits from search optimization, what’s next? How about targeting your message to the right group of consumers at the right time in the right place? That is the principal behind segment-driven marketing.

Compete recently fielded a survey to marketers to see how they are utilizing target segments in their marketing efforts. Overall, the results show that the majority of companies using segment-driven strategies are focusing their segmentation efforts in online and search engine marketing activities.

But there still remains a significant opportunity to improve ROI on web-based advertising by understanding how to use segment-driven marketing more effectively. Some highlights from the survey include:

• 92% of respondents say they are using segments to manage their online advertising and/or search marketing
• 84% of respondents indicate that segment-driven marketing will be more important in their organization in three years (only 39% say it is very important now)
• 76% of respondents say that their segment-driven strategy will be ahead of their competitors in three years

…But returns from segment-driven marketing have been elusive

• 77% of respondents are having trouble demonstrating real business results (i.e. improvements in market share or share of wallet) from segment-driven marketing
• 27% of respondents aren’t seeing improved marketing results from their segment-driven marketing efforts
• Among our respondents, the most consistent obstacle to successful segment-driven marketing has been identifying the right segments

What is Compete’s take on improving segment-driven marketing? Glad you asked. As companies look to get more bang for their online ad buck, we recommend advertisers avoid pursuing the “average” online consumer by initiating more data-oriented, segment-driven marketing strategies.

If you want to learn more about segment-driven marketing, check out a recent webinar led by our CMO, Stephen DiMarco, where he gives real-life examples of successful segment-driven marketing opportunities. And as always, we’re happy to help

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