How should you segment the market to get to product market fit fast?

Market Segmentation for Software Companies

SaaS Chief Marketing Officers and VPs of Marketing have to use the correct positioning and messaging to maximize impact as your company grows fast and audience needs change.

Consider mapping your Marketing Segmentation to the Technology Adoption Curve. There are 4 basic ways to segment your prospects and customers:

• Psychographic  Segmentation - Based on personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyle.
• Job-to-be-done Segmentation - What's the work that the audience needs to do? How does it impact their customers?
• Demographic Segmentation - How old are your customers? What is their gender? What is their Education, Nationality, Religion, or Ethnic Background?
• Firmographic Segmentation - What type of industry is the business in? How big is the company? Where are they located? How old is the company? What is their business model?

These four approaches are also the basis for your customer personas. If you're creating a new product category, your audience will travel along the so-called Product (or category) Maturity Cycle. 

Following the listed sequence of segmentation methodology sets you up for successful marketing to the type of customers that you need as the maturity of your product evolves.

For reference, below is the traditional Technology Adoption Journey. The chasm represents a fundamental shift in marketing needs as your audience will now want to see "proof" of your benefits before they buy, and they will be deciding based on pragmatic, usually economic grounds.  The innovators want to "part of your product" and may not even see themselves as customers, but co-creators of your solution, or the product category you are establishing. The early adopters are comfortable taking some risk in exchange for benefits. The benefits can be economical but can be more personal in nature as well (status, a competitive advantage).

Using a different approach to market segmentation as your product category matures is crucial to effectively reach the right type of "Product Market Fit" at the right time.