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

The first of the baby boomers (born 1946-1964) registered for Social Security in October 2007. Over the next two decades, the boomers will retire, and the fight is on for their retirement savings. Financial Services researcher Cerulli Associates projects new IRA rollover contributions will increase from about $300M per year now to over $400M per year in 2012.

Over the coming decade or two, there will be trillions of potential rollover dollars in play for the investment industry. Employees hold almost $7 trillion in 401k, 403b, private pensions, and other employer-sponsored retirement accounts. Boomers’ money in these plans has to roll somewhere as the boomers retire and leave the labor force.

Companies offering IRAs, including investment firms, banks, and insurers, will rake in new accounts and assets from the flood of rollover money. The battle for share of online rollover dollars is up-for-grabs.

Table 1 shows the top sites receiving referrals from key search terms like “401k rollover,” “rollover IRA,” and “IRA rollover.”

Two key takeaways from these data:

• Informational sites dominate. Consumers are seeking help in understanding their options from sites with strong investment content, including investopedia.com and about.com.
• Only 3 financial services firms – T. Rowe Price, Bank of America, and Fidelity Investments – are ranked among the top 10 for any of the search terms (we can add TD Ameritrade to the list if we expand the search terms to include “IRA” without the term “rollover”).
  • The implication is that investment providers’ paid search campaigns are not particularly effective at driving site traffic.

In terms of assets, Fidelity is the current leader in the IRA space with $539B; Charles Schwab and Wachovia are distant runner-ups. Schwab is on the radar for online referrals, showing up in the top 20 for all the search terms above. Wachovia, however, appears to be bypassing online IRA advertising entirely – likely a strategic move consistent with their model.

I would hypothesize that scalability is going to be the biggest obstacle for investment providers as millions of boomers move out of the workforce. The online channel is central to growing a scalable retirement business and these preliminary data suggest a tremendous opportunity for the first investment provider who develops an effective and efficient online go-to-market strategy.