How to get started with audience segmentation

Summary

• Audience segmentation can help you to create an EVP and communicate better.
• Good segmentation considers how people think and make decisions.
• Start by using a tiered model to split your data and guide the overall strategy.
• Only create segments that make meaningful changes to how you communicate.

What is audience segmentation?

No audience is truly one-size-fits-all. Whether you're communicating internally or externally, different groups need different things, value different things, and come with different levels of knowledge and context. Audience segmentation is the process of dividing people into meaningful groups so that your messaging speaks to them more clearly and effectively.

Why does audience segmentation matter?

Segmentation plays an important role in helping you to understand how to communicate with your audience and can be incredibly useful when creating an EVP.

When communicating internally, segmentation matters because different levels of your workforce will need specific levels of detail, framing, and explanation. For example, you would communicate different elements to a local leader than you would to someone in HR, or an in-role colleague.

External audiences are similar, but on a much larger scale. They don't all need the same information or want to be communicated with in the same way, using the same channels, or at the same frequency.

How to do audience segmentation

We'd recommend starting by using a tiered model. Split your data into a small number of high-level segments that guide the overall strategy, with lighter sub-segments only where they add clear value.

Start with the most intuitive distinctions. Look at things like role, seniority, skillset, working pattern, business unit, or geography. These are the kinds of differences hiring managers instinctively recognise. Location often matters because market expectations, competition, regulation, and salary norms vary significantly by region. Role-based segmentation is equally important because a data scientist, a retail supervisor, and an operations manager rarely evaluate an employer on the same criteria.

There are two simple rules that can also help with the decision-making process:

1. Examine what changes

Only create a segment if it meaningfully changes the message, the channel, the value proposition, or the call to action. If it doesn't change what you do, it isn't a segment that matters. The biggest mistake people make is creating far too many segments based on tiny differences that don't actually change how you would communicate with your audience.

2. Test your segments

Ask yourself, would someone in this segment recognise themselves? And would a recruiter, hiring manager, or communicator genuinely change how they engage with them because of it? If not, the segment doesn't earn its place.

What to consider with audience segmentation

Some of the best segmentation goes beyond demographics and focuses on mindsets, motivations, barriers, and behavioural patterns — because these are the things that drive how people think and make decisions. Here are a few areas to consider as you build up your audience segmentation.

It's not about quantity

Segmentation shouldn't be driven by the amount of data you have. More data can easily lead to over-fitting, where you end up with dozens of overly granular segments that sound clever but aren't usable.

Consider your needs

Segmentation also needs to be operationally realistic. If your careers site, CRM, or EVP framework can only support four segments, there's no point building twelve. Ultimately, audience segmentation should make communication clearer, not more complex. Keeping segments simple, meaningful, and rooted in real behavioural or attitudinal differences results in something both usable and effective.

Interested in exploring how to define your EVP so that you can reach the talent that matters to your business? Get in touch - hello@thirtythree.co.uk and we'll help you get started.