In the era of e-commerce and digital marketing, it’s important to remember that your market is most likely spread out over a wide range of places, sometimes even across the globe. To reach your audiences effectively, geographic segmentation needs to be part of your marketing strategy.

Perhaps the most obvious aspect of geographic segmentation is the actual physical location of your customers since where they live has a significant influence. A person’s country, state, city, or even neighborhood are not only points of pride but will also influence their wants, needs, and what is available to them.

Many search engine queries are local in nature. Think of all the times you’ve searched for a nearby store, restaurant, or other destination. In most of those situations, you’re looking for something within reasonable driving distance. The same applies to e-commerce, services, and shipping. Whether you’re trying to get yourself to the product or service or get it shipped to you, it’s a safe bet that you’re looking for the nearby option that closes that gap.

In marketing, it pays to keep that concern in mind with geographic segmentation. If your business can only serve a small geographical area, it makes sense to focus your ad spend on that area. If your product or service is available in a larger area, pay attention to how your target market’s wants and needs might shift in different locations. Depending on the brick-and-mortar, shipping, or internet options available in particular areas, your product or service might have more or less availability from place to place, which can influence your messaging in certain geographic markets.