Are you absolutely sure that the information you collect from your customers isn't going to waste? How do you know it's not? If you're not segmenting it properly, then you might as well be throwing most of your list into the trash! We asked all the experts at Postlead.io for their favorite tips on segmenting a direct marketing audience. They found it difficult to narrow it down to just five, but these are great to start with if you haven't gotten into the right rhythm yet.

1. Pick Unique Demographics

Demographic segmentation is by far the most common type that marketing experts use to break down their mailing lists, but unfortunately many people only ever pick the most basic ways to divvy up their customer base. That's not to say that you don't want to look into the age or median income level of interested parties. However, you'll want to go beyond this. There are probably dozens of unique demographics that are particular only to your industry, and these matter much more in some cases because they're an excellent indicator of the kinds of products and services these consumers will want to buy.

2. Know Your Geographic Limitations

Once marketers are done drawing virtual lines based on demographics, they invariably turn to geographical location to divvy people up. This makes a ton of sense, considering that you're already tracking addresses. Make sure you know your limitations, however, before you start to conduct this kind of study. Your company many only serve consumers within a certain radius of your business. If this is the case, then you'll only want to mail people who live in this area. This might sound self-explanatory, but many businesses waste a great deal of time and money accidentally marketing outside of their own geographical area simply because they don't check to see where certain addresses are.

3. Use Your Own Pain Points

Companies that make any kind of B2B sales already know the kinds of things that cause them problems. If you apply these pain points smartly, then you can use them to your advantage. Make a list of every problem you have that your own B2B products and services can act as a solution for. Once the list is finished, you'll have a solid profile of the kind of company you want to go after. You might even be able to break it down into further segments based on what problems you speculate that each one might be having.

4. Scrub Regularly Across Segments

Think back to the last time you actually took the opportunity to clean out your mailing list. If it's been a while, then you need to scrub right away. Even if it it hasn't been all that long, you should take a few moments to make sure that everything is up-to-date. Some marketing experts have suggested that you only need to scrub people from one segment at a time. While this used to be good advice, these days you really need to look at your list as a whole and see who doesn't belong on it anymore.

5. Let Your Customers Sort Themselves

Give your customers the opportunity to answer demographic questions that properly sort them automatically. In many cases, people are more than willing to share more information with businesses that they trust. Once they get to know you better, they might be ready to write more about themselves in a long-form survey. Use the information they provide to sort them into segments as opposed to trying to second-guess everything about your cohorts.

Marketing with a Creative Outreach Tool

As soon as you have all of your segments in place, you'll want to be able to create personalized and targeted direct mailings so you don't let all of this solid information go to waste. Postlead.io is a tool that allows you to create personalized direct mailings that you can track every step of the way. Contact us online today to learn more about how this technology can revolutionize your company's marketing operations.