In a field as broad as healthcare, it is important to stay ahead of the market by developing new strategies that can help reach a larger audience. But it isn’t just about reaching a larger audience anymore, it’s about reaching the right audience. A very effective way to do this is through Audience Segmentation.
Consumers are constantly being bombarded by too much information and ads on social media platforms that they sometimes do not know what to choose. It is the job of the marketer to stand out above the noise by being different and this can be done using personalized marketing.
Audience segmentation is the division of an audience into groups using certain criteria or demographics in order to target them properly. It makes the job of a marketer easier as it enables them to think like the consumer and predict their behaviour to catch them off guard and make more sales.Â
Audience segmentation is now being integrated into healthcare marketing where the marketer tries to understand consumers and patients behaviours to market to them properly. Especially in this period of patient-centred care where the patient manages most of their healthcare, it allows the healthcare market to fully understand, communicate and engage an audience.
There are usually two ways by which an audience can be segmented:
- Geographically
This audience segmentation is based on their geographic location. It allows you to understand the place your target audience comes from, their awake time and the language they are more likely to respond to, allowing for more efficient targeting.
- Demographically
This could be in the form of age, religion, gender, income, and many others. You would want to target customers who can afford your product and this is where demographic segmentation comes in. For example, for an energy drug, you would want to target middle-aged people who are the people who would benefit the most from it.
Benefits of Audience Segmentation
- It helps to improve patient relationships and engagement. Having access to psychographic information like a patient’s behaviour allows you to understand them and treat them more effectively. This allows you to give them the products that are most likely to impact and improve their health.
- It helps to improve healthcare marketing. Research shows that healthcare marketers who use audience segmentation are more likely to have better results than those who don’t.
- It helps to improve product development. Manufacturers use audience behaviour from segmentation to work on making products that are tailored to their specific needs.
Audience segmentation needs to be adopted by more marketers as it can hugely revolutionize healthcare marketing.