Segmentation of cultural audiences : definition and examples

• Socio-demographic criteria: age, place of residence, family situation, etc.
• Psychological criteria: interests, relationship to the structure, lifestyle...
• Behavioral criteria: consumer habits, loyalty, etc.

Once you've established your segments, you'll be able to get to know your audience better and refine your communications through appropriate targeting. Segmentation is the perfect tool for sending the right message, at the right time, to the right person.

To segment, you'll need 3 things:

A solution that centralizes your audience data. To segment your audience properly, you need to start with a database that aggregates the information gathered from your various digital tools (ticketing, website, resale, online store, access control, cashless, micro-donation...). This will give you a unified view of what you know about your audience and the points of contact with which they are engaged.

A tool that lets you create segments. To create relevant lists, you can rely on criteria that make sense for the cultural sector. To this end, we advise you to choose a CRM solution specialized in your field rather than a generalist solution. In the cultural sector, we'll see that it's often more relevant to segment based on behavioral and interest criteria than on purely socio-demographic criteria. The visual below is a good illustration of this, isn't it?

Ideas and best practices adapted to the cultural sector. Over and above the tool you choose, it's your choice of segments that will guarantee a relevant segmentation. At Arenametrix, we work with over 190 customers, advising them on their segmentation needs. Here are a few ideas and best practices drawn from our experience and the ideas we've developed with our customers.

8 segmentation ideas for the cultural sector

1. Segmentation based on interests

Thanks to this dynamic list, you can set up an adapted communication and propose a rich, tailor-made marketing offer to each contact. Does your contact mainly go to folk concerts? Then they love this musical genre. Send them your concert hall's folk program, while remembering to integrate it into communications on other genres too, so as not to lock them into a single type of proposal.

2. Segmentation by age group

Conversely, tailor your communications to loyal customers: offer them a loyalty package, thank them with special offers at key moments (start of the season, launch of subscriptions, opening of preview sales for a popular event...), invite them to special events or private sales... These contacts need to be pampered!
In its segmentation tool, Arenametrix features a "loyalty" filter that allows you to see in just a few clicks who your frequent visitors are.

4. Segmentation of inactive people

Who are those contacts who used to be among your loyal audience, but who haven't made a purchase for several months? Create a list of contacts according to these criteria and offer them attractive offers to reactivate them: promotions on upcoming events, "come with us: 1 ticket bought = 1 ticket offered" offers, promotions on food & beverages or boutique...

5. Segmentation based on time-to-purchase

Opportunistic buyers are contacts who usually buy at the last minute, following a promotional offer. To identify them, target people who buy tickets using promo codes, or those who buy in the two days leading up to the event.

This type of opportunistic viewer is particularly keen on last-minute deals, and quick to react. The best way to contact them is usually by SMS.

6. Segmentation based on satisfaction

Collecting feedback from your visitors is of crucial importance in managing your customer relations. By creating segments based on the level of satisfaction expressed by your visitors, you can fine-tune the message and the nature of the customer relationship you offer.

All feedback should be processed, but an extremely satisfied contact should not be directed to the same content as a dissatisfied one. For example, this segmentation helps you direct your promoters to public rating platforms such as TripAdvisor to capitalize on their positive feedback and, at the same time, reach your detractors directly.

7. Segmentation based on the purchase of a particular product

Are you planning to promote a specific product or offer? Have you considered analyzing the buying habits and characteristics of your contact base who have already purchased this product?

By cross-referencing transactional information with the personal data of the buyers of a particular offer, you can identify similar contacts in your database, and thus guide your recommendations!

8. Segmentation based on reactions to mailings

The reactions generated by your e-mail campaigns play a crucial role in measuring contacts' commitment to your offer. Indeed, when a recipient clicks on your e-mail, this indicates significant interest, whereas a contact who does not open the message has shown no interest in your mailing. Using these indicators to segment your audience makes perfect sense, because the approaches required for these two situations are radically different, and your communication needs to adapt accordingly.

For recipients who have shown their interest by clicking, it may be relevant to generate a sense of urgency to encourage them to make a purchase.
On the other hand, for inactive contacts, it's necessary to persuade them further, whether by providing additional content or offering a discount, for example.