Segmentation is a cornerstone of marketing strategy. Good traditional marketers use the concept extensively to maximize the efficiency of their efforts. A lot of online marketers also use some element of segmentation, but only use it in terms of their users. Webmasters in the same vertical are often not thought of as "customers" that need to be put into segments and sub segments. The fact is that they are no different from any other target market. Some target markets provide sales, some provide leads, and webmasters provide links.
When to Make Webmasters a Distinct Target Market
Webmasters do not always need to be considered a separate target market. The determining factor is how well your users match up against the webmasters in your vertical (see the diagram above). When you users and webmasters are virtually the same as is the case for many online marketers and tech companies, webmasters do not need to be broken out separately. However, in verticals like senior living, or home services, the differences between the users in the vertical and the webmasters is more distinct and requires the consideration of a webmaster target market.
The first thing that we need to do before getting into segmentation is define broadly what makes a good market segment. A good market segment is a subset of the population that can be profitably marketed to with a unique product or feature. You should consider creating unique content just for webmasters.
Online Targets
In the most broad sense you could break the webmaster segment into groups based on type of web site:
- Bloggers
- Hobby Sites
- Associations and Organizations
- Corporate Webmasters
- News Sites
- Social Sites
This list can be broken down even further to develop smaller segments. This is especially true for hobby sites (mom and pop) sites. For instance, there is a subset of hobby sites in your vertical that provided links pages. What kind of content are those people really looking for. Most likely they are linking to sites that are almost identical. Differentiate and create content that makes these "links" pages more diverse and a better experience.
You can also split up bloggers into many different categories. In the education vertical there may be these categories of bloggers:
- College Humor Blogs
- College Industry Blogs
- Curriculum Specific Blogs
Once you have identified these segments, create content for them and then market that content. Contact them and tell them that you created this content just for this type of site. This is a much easier sell then trying to attract links to a one size fits all web site.
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