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Building a USPs Segment
Charley Bader avatar
Written by Charley Bader
Updated over 2 weeks ago

Our Segment Assistant is designed to help you build the perfect segment for your use case, and business. In this article, we'll walk you through how to build a segment designed to serve a USP experience to.

The first decision you need to make is if you want to start with Intent Data, or Visitor Context.

Starting with Intent Data

Intent Data is the best way to start if you don't already have an idea of the visitors you wish to target.

To start with, you can select which Objective Phase you'd like to target. Those earlier on in their journey, in Engage or Build Intent. Or those later through their journey, in Maintain Intent or Convert.

For USP messaging, we recommend thinking about the messages you are serving visitors based on the Phase they are in.

For example, those in Engage likely need messaging around your brand, and why to buy from you, in order to build trust and credibility. As they move into Build Intent, you can start to bring in product related messaging, perhaps about the size of your product catalogue. Maintain Intent is where you can get very product specific, as well as alleviating any concerns around delivery and returns with those USPs. Once a visitor is in Convert urgency style USPs work well, as well as anything around your checkout process, and payment options.

After you've selected the phase you'd like to target, you can then choose what the visitors current Intent to Purchase is. You may want to use this as a way to personalise how urgent your messaging is, as those with a higher intent to purchase will be more receptive to this.

Once you've chosen both of these, you'll then be asked to choose what Behavioural State the visitor is in; Focus, Struggle or Abandon. We'd recommend to use this to help you think about the type of experience you wish to fire. Those in Focus are progressing as we'd expect, so these might be the visitors to use softer delivery for USPs, such as a persistent banner. Visitors in Struggle and/or Abandon will likely perform better with stronger messaging, that attracts their attention, such as a nudge.

You've now got the perfect base segment for your USP use case. However, you might want to add more visitor context to it, such as;

  • Page Info; is the visitor on a specific page (do you just want this to fire on PDPs), or shopping on a specific category. You may wish to make your USPs relevant to specific products.

  • Marketing Source; you may want to fire messaging relevant to the channel they've come from, and where they may have seen your products

  • Product & Page Affinities; you may want to serve visitors USP messaging that relates to a specific product or category. Serving these only to visitors who have built an affinity to that product will likely be very powerful in encouraging them on their shopping journey

  • Buying Stage; you can add additional Intent Buying Stage context to show USPs based on where a customer is in their Buying Journey, combined with the phase they are in. For example, if someone is in Deciding your messaging may be very focused on the delivery and returns USPs, as they've already chosen the right product for them.

Starting with Visitor Context

Visitor Context is useful if you already know something around where you want the experience to fire, and who you want it to fire to.

You'll first be asked what visitor context you'd like to start with;

  • Page Info; is the visitor on a specific page (do you just want this to fire on PDPs), or shopping on a specific category. You may wish to make your USPs relevant to specific product categories.

  • Marketing Source; you may want to fire messaging relevant to the channel they've come from, and where they may have seen your products

  • Product & Page Affinities; you may want to serve visitors USP messaging on specific categories, brands, or individual products. Serving these only to visitors who have built an affinity to that product will likely be very powerful in encouraging them on their shopping journey. More information on affinities can be found here.

  • Buying Stage; you can start with Intent Buying Stage context to personalise the type of USPs you are showing a visitor. For example, if someone is in Deciding your messaging may be very focused on the delivery and returns USPs, as they've already chosen the right product for them. Whereas in Browsing, you'll likely need to show brand specific USPs to build their trust. This Buying Stage can be combined with the Objective Phase they are in later in the segment build

After selecting your context, you'll then move to choosing which Objective Phase the visitor is in. Visitors earlier on in their journey, in Engage or Build Intent. Or those later through their journey, in Maintain Intent or Convert.

For USP messaging, we recommend thinking about the messages you are serving visitors based on the Phase they are in, similarly to a visitors Buying Stage.

For example, those in Engage likely need messaging around your brand, and why to buy from you, in order to build trust and credibility. As they move into Build Intent, you can start to bring in product related messaging, perhaps about the size of your product catalogue. Maintain Intent is where you can get very product specific, as well as alleviating any concerns around delivery and returns with those USPs. Once a visitor is in Convert urgency style USPs work well, as well as anything around your checkout process, and payment options.

After you've selected the phase you'd like to target, you can then choose what the visitors current Intent to Purchase is. You may want to use this as a way to personalise how urgent your messaging is, as those with a higher intent to purchase will be more receptive to this.

Finally, you'll be asked to choose what Behavioural State the visitor is in; Focus, Struggle or Abandon. We'd recommend to use this to help you think about the type of experience you wish to fire. Those in Focus are progressing as we'd expect, so these might be the visitors to use softer delivery for USPs, such as a constant banner. Visitors in Struggle and/or Abandon will likely perform better with stronger messaging, that attracts their attention, such as a nudge.

As you change any of the conditions within your segment, you can look at the Audience Estimator on the right hand side to understand the visitor group you are targeting.

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