
Using this template
You can use this template as a starting point for your audience segmentation and then customize it to work for your particular needs.
What does audience segmentation mean?
Audience segmentation refers to the practice of dividing a broad audience into sub-groups based on common characteristics. Audience segmentation for internal communications follows pretty much the same rules, though the traits we might choose to work with are a bit more specific to our function.
Why should you segment your audience?
1. Avoid communication overload
One might think that with how far we’ve come in terms of workplace technology, the all-staff email would’ve fallen by the wayside. Sadly, it’s alive and well and still vastly overused. Worse, with a proliferation of communication and information channels, the background noise has only gotten louder. Segmenting your audience creates space for messaging to cut through as you move away from telling everyone everything to telling specific groups of people what they need or want to know.
2. Target your messaging
One way to use audience segmentation is to tweak and tailor your broad message (in terms of content or delivery) to specific segments within the larger audience.
You can also target your messaging when something isn’t relevant to your broad audience. In these cases, in the interest of serving only related content, you would choose to push that content only to those for whom it is appropriate. To do that, you need to have a reasonably good way of sorting your audience based on different variables relevant to the particular content.
3. Support specific needs
It’s good to remember that equity is not equality. Different people within your organization will have various obstacles, needs, and opportunities. Whether it’s people new to the workforce with less experience, employees with a lower technical facility, or employees with diverse cultural or religious backgrounds. Segmenting these groups can add power to each message you send.