The B2B market is very competitive. Analysis of data has to be optimized to be successful. But have you ever wondered how some businesses seem to know exactly what their customers need? The answer lies in using third-party tools to analyze customer segmentation data to gain an advantage.
According to Insider Intelligence, data marketing spending will increase to $4 billion by 2025. To keep up with this data spending, B2B businesses leverage third-party tools for B2B customer segmentation to gain valuable insights.
In this article, I will explain how a B2B business benefits from these tools. Additionally, I will touch on the vital customer segmentation tools companies use to understand better customer segmentation and how marketing strategies can be implemented for these segments.
What Is A B2B Customer Segmentation Tool?
B2B customer segmentation tools are software solutions designed to streamline the segmentation process. These tools leverage advanced algorithms and data analytics to analyze vast amounts of customer data quickly and accurately. By automating the segmentation process, these tools allow businesses to uncover meaningful insights about their customers efficiently.
Benefits From Third-Party Apps For B2B Customer Segmentation
The advantages of employing B2B customer segmentation tools are manifold:
- Enhanced Targeting: By understanding the unique needs and preferences of different customer segments, businesses can tailor their marketing efforts more effectively, leading to higher conversion rates and improved ROI.
- Personalized Communication: Segmentation allows businesses to deliver targeted messages and offers to specific customer segments, fostering stronger relationships and increasing customer satisfaction.
- Improved Product Development: Insights gained from segmentation can inform product development efforts, helping businesses create offerings that better meet the needs of their target market segments.
- Optimized Resource Allocation: By focusing resources on high-potential segments, businesses can allocate their time, budget, and manpower more efficiently, maximizing their overall impact.
5 Criteria To Look Out For In Leveraging Third-Party Apps For B2B Customer Segmentation
Before buying the apps you need for your business, here are the 5 criteria to look at when leveraging third-party tools for B2B customer segmentation:
Criteria#1 Features And Functionality
The most important criteria to look for are the features and functionality of your business’s tools. Many tools on the market can help with one specific function or provide a diverse solution.
That is why, when looking at the tools, you should be looking for the ones that help your B2B business specifically for customer segmentation. Features like deep analysis and real-time tracking will help make it easier to separate customers into the right segments to make marketing easier.
Criteria#2 Ease Of Use
When your business gets a third-party tool, you must ensure the tools are easy to use. This will help your business get used to using for customer segmentation. Complex tools would mean less time spent analyzing the data and more time getting used to the app.
Ensure minimal training is required for your team to navigate the tool effectively, allowing them to focus on utilizing segmentation insights rather than grappling with complex interfaces. Also, buying tools your employees already know how to use can reduce time spent on integrating marketing strategies.
Criteria#3 Integration Capabilities
Speaking of integration, getting tools that can integrate with existing tools your business already uses is highly recommended. The last thing you want for your employees is to use a set of tools disconnected from each other. Choose tools seamlessly integrate with your existing systems, such as CRM and marketing platforms. This ensures smooth data flow and prevents compatibility issues, enabling you to leverage comprehensive customer data to implement effective B2B segmentation strategies.
Criteria#4 Value For Money
The following criterion your business needs to consider is the value for money when getting these B2B customer segmentation tools. Some tools will solve all your problems but can cost a steep amount. This can increase customer acquisition costs, reducing the tool’s overall effectiveness. So, ensure you are getting the right tools for your customer analysis. They must be valuable for your business, and data must be effectively analyzed to bring the most value possible.
Criteria#5 Trusted Reviews
Lastly, reviews are an integral criterion for judging third-party tools. The better the tools, the better the reviews will be. Reviews give an insight into how effective an app could be or how user-friendly it is.
So make sure you check out the app reviews before purchasing them. Additionally, make sure that the reviews are given by other businesses in the same industry as yours or close competitors. These criteria will help make purchasing the tools much more accessible.
10 Third-Party Apps You Need For B2B Customer Segmentation
With the criteria for apps out of the way, here are the best apps you need to segment your B2B customers effectively:
- Website Traffic Analysis App
- Onboarding and Guidance App
- Lead Generation App
- Email Marketing App
- Customer Data Analytic App
- Data Enrichment App
- Product Analytics App
- Social Media Management App
- Experience Management App
- Subscription Analytic App
App#1 Website Traffic Analysis App
A website traffic analysis app provides insights into website traffic, visitor behaviour, and demographics of your customers. It is a valuable app for segmenting B2B customers because you can understand how your customers find your website, where they are from, and how they use it.
Your business can analyze data such as geography, referral sources, and on-site behaviour to segment the audience effectively. With these data, your business can make data-driven decisions to optimize its marketing strategies and improve customer segmentation efforts.
App#2 Onboarding and Guidance App
An onboarding and guidance app is designed to help new customers get started with your product or service smoothly. An app like this helps guide your customers so they understand how to utilize your product in a personalized manner. Each customer will be different, so having an app like this allows businesses to offer complex products or services like a SaaS application (software-as-a-service).
However, it can also help uniquely segment your B2B customers. During the onboarding, the app can also collect information on your customers. It analyzes user preferences and pain points as customers use your product for the first time. Your business can segment customers based on their needs and level of engagement. As they are engaging, your business can track customer progress and intervene when necessary to prevent drop-offs or abandonment.
For example, some customers respond to help documentation, while others prefer targeted video tutorials. By segmenting customers based on their onboarding journey, your business can tailor its communication and support strategies accordingly.
With the proper onboarding and guidance app, you can overcome challenges in B2B customer segmentation. Your business can ensure a smooth transition of bringing on new customers while segmenting to the right onboarding tactics.
App#3 Lead Generation App
A lead is someone interested in buying your product or service. They are not yet customers because they only show interest as a lead. That is why a lead generation app is vital for B2B businesses.
A lead generation app helps identify how to gather those leads for your prospective customers. Such an app uses various tactics in data collection like ads, forms, landing pages, emails, and many more to collect the necessary information needed to segment those leads.
For example, leads with high engagement with email content may be categorized as “warm leads” for email marketing. Then, you can segment that customer to those who prefer emails over content marketing. With this app, you can increase the likelihood of converting that lead to a customer.
By segmenting leads based on characteristics like industry, company size, or specific interests, your business can prioritize any follow-up efforts to tailor the marketing messages accordingly.
App#4 Email Marketing App
Email marketing is a great way to keep your customers updated on new sales offers or new product offerings. But which emails will be most effective for which customers? That is where an email marketing app can help you find that out.
An email marketing app can provide advanced analytics on the performance of your email campaigns and segment customers based on their interactions. Such an app helps your business send targeted email campaigns to the right customers. Customers can be segmented according to different criteria, such as demographics and past purchase behaviour.
For example, if your B2B business sells office furniture, you can send emails about new discounts on chairs to customers who bought it in the past. By segmenting email lists, companies can deliver more relevant and personalized content to different customer segments, leading to higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
App#5 Customer Data Analytic App
You might have a diverse business with many product options. This means that you have many different types of customers who are purchasing from your business. You might want to know if these customers are showing patterns in their purchasing behaviours. That is where a customer data analytic app comes into play.
A customer data app stores and manages all the necessary data collected from customers from different sources in one place. Where an app like this shines is its ability to create comprehensive customer profiles, which is especially necessary for creating buyer personas.
It analyzes all the information to help your business segment the customers according to their behaviour, preferences, and interactions. For instance, customers who frequently purchase a specific product category may be grouped for more targeted promotions or product recommendations.
It has analytics capabilities to identify patterns and trends within the customer data. This allows your business to create highly targeted marketing campaigns for each customer segment. This, in turn, maximizes the marketing efficiency of your business with a more personalized approach to each segment.
App#6 Data Enrichment App
All these different apps look at customer segmentation from various angles. But what if you are looking for an app that combines customer segmentation data into one giant, comprehensive analytics? The answer is you need a data enrichment app to do exactly that.
As the name suggests, a data enrichment app enhances customer segmentation data. It takes existing customer data and integrates it with external customer segmentation data to create a comprehensive analysis for customer segmentation.
For example, by combining data on industry trends with how your customers interact with your social media posts, your business gains insight into different segments you might not have thought about. The application for such an app is niche, but the right data enrichment app can take your business to the next level.
App#7 Product Analytics App
Let’s face it. The product you are selling to your customers is everything for your business. So, it would make sense for you to analyze the product itself to segment the customers based on their interaction with it.
That is where a product analytics app comes in handy, especially when launching a new product or selling a digital service. A product analytics app looks at usage, engagement, and what features the customers like about the product.
For example, let’s say your business just added a new feature to a digital product you are selling. For that, you want to know how customers interact with it. The data will show how many customers are using it and the type of customers using the new feature. An app like this can also show how long they have been using the new feature or if there have been changes overall over time with the product since the addition of the new feature.
By knowing these aspects, your business gains insight into what customers are looking for in your product and whether future improvement is viable. That is important to consider because you can see how many of your customer segments want a new feature or product. With that information, your business can make calculated decisions for future success.
App#8 Social Media Management App
A social media management app analyzes audience engagement and demographics interacting with your business. It can also look at when you should post on social media to get maximum engagement for your business.
While it does all the analysis, some social media management apps have advanced features to schedule posts and monitor your posts’ comments. Finally, it can do all of this while also analyzing how well your social media campaign is doing regarding how much sales you generate due to a post.
These insights are helpful because they allow you to understand how your social media campaigns can be run for different customers. For B2B businesses, LinkedIn social media marketing can be a valuable place to reach new customers. If your company depends on social media, then this is the app you need to succeed in the B2B marketplace.
App#9 Customer Experience Management App
As much as the product and social media are essential for your B2B business, the customer is the one who is buying your product. Therefore, customer experience must be a priority for all B2B businesses.
Through various touch points like surveys, reviews, and customer service interaction, a customer experience management app collects all the necessary data. Then, it analyzes customer feedback to help your business create necessary customer segments based on the customer experience.
By segmenting customers based on their feedback, you can identify customer segments with varying needs and expectations. For example, segments may include satisfied customers who provide positive feedback, dissatisfied customers who express concerns or complaints, and neutral customers who haven’t formed a strong opinion yet. With this information, you can cater to these customer segments better.
Additionally, customer experience management apps often offer sentiment analysis capabilities. Every customer needs to be handled differently, so understanding the customers’ feelings can be a great way to find out how to deliver the best customer experience possible.
App#10 Subscription Analytic App
Subscriptions are not what all B2B offers. It is a pretty niche in most major industries. Nonetheless, you can analyze subscription models to gain new insight into customer segmentations.
With an analysis of your subscription models, you can analyze which type of subscription works best for your business. For example, segments may include high-value subscribers who regularly engage with subscription content, at-risk subscribers who show signs of being one-time purchasers, and dormant subscribers who have stopped using the subscription service.
An app with enough in-depth analysis can give you an idea of what type of customers will most likely be long-term subscribers to your product. You could come to this conclusion even before the customer finishes their first subscription. This makes it easier for your business to market your product to those specific customer segments so that you gain a loyal customer base for your business.
Not only that, but you can also utilize this for subscription models like email newsletters that customers can sign up for. You can analyze what is working and what is not and make those changes based on the customer segments. With a subscription analytic app, you can maximize the efficiency of your overall subscription model for your customers.
Using A Bulk Order App On Shopify To Implement B2B Customer Segmentation Strategies
All the previous apps are great for data analysis, but what about implementing the data for customer segmentation strategies for your B2B business? On Shopify, this can be achieved through a bulk order app that helps bring different B2B customer segments to your online store.
Here is an example of a variant bulk order app on Shopify and how it can help bring customer segments together:
On the product page, the storeowner displays all the variants available for the product. The display also shows the different sizes and prices. This is great for bringing together different customer segments on one page. Different B2B customers can now seamlessly buy the variants and amounts they want with a few presses of buttons on one page instead of switching between product pages.
Near the bottom of the picture, you can see the total units selected and the price for all the variants displayed for customers. This lets customers know exactly how much the differently priced variants will total up, making purchasing decisions much more accessible.
You will also notice that add-to-cart and checkout buttons are not highlighted. This is because there is a MOQ restriction. Customers must choose the minimum amount of products to proceed to checkout. With this, the store can handle inventory much more efficiently with the MOQ and ensure the right quantity is sold.
An app like this helps the store bring together all customer segments. It makes marketing strategies easier for B2B customers and creates a great customer experience. Also, read how to overcome challenges in B2B customer segmentation.
Bottom Line
Leveraging third-party tools for B2B customer segmentation can bring success to your business. For that, you need to find third-party tools that fit the criteria for your business. Additionally, there are many tools to check out for B2B customer segmentation. Review them accordingly and choose the one that best suits your business. With the right tools, B2B customer segmentation can become much more manageable.
