Most entrepreneurs think about their customers in terms of industry, company size, or role. Useful, but incomplete. The most powerful way to understand your market is to look at what people actually do inside your product.
This is your weekly Entrepreneur Insights 5-minute read with ideas to improve your business in a How to series format.
The last issue we explored was how psychographics can be an effective tool to segment the market. For this issue, we will use behaviour to do the same.
Behavioural segmentation at the product level helps you ship the right features, improve retention, and increase expansion revenue. Here’s how to do it.
1. Define the behaviours that signal real value
Start by listing the in-product actions that are most closely tied to success. For example:
- Customers are upsizing for greater value
- They are downsizing but buying more frequently
-They are fiercely loyal and are champions and are spreading the word to others
2. Group users by usage patterns
Turn those value events into simple behavioural segments:
- Dormant: Signed up but barely touched the product.
- Onboarders: Started setup but didn’t finish the core workflow.
- Light users: Completed onboarding, log in occasionally, but use only basic features.
- Power users: Use key features regularly, often invite others or connect integrations.
- Heroes: Renew, upgrade, or advocate for you; your highest-value customers.
3. Design targeted interventions for each segment
Instead of one-size-fits-all communication, design specific nudges and offers:
- Dormant: Send a “2-minute quick start” checklist focused on one first win, not every feature.
- Onboarders: Help them complete the next step. Short in-app prompts or emails that say, “You’re 1 step away from X result.”
- Light users: Highlight one or two high-impact features they haven’t tried yet, with concrete use cases.
- Power users: Offer advanced tips, early access to new features, or invite them to a private webinar to deepen usage.
- Heroes: Ask for reviews, case studies, or referrals, and reward them with exclusive benefits.
4. Let behaviour guide your roadmap
Finally, watch how each segment changes over time:
- Which prompts move people from dormant to onboarded?
- Which features, once adopted, correlate most with power users and champions?
- Where do people consistently drop out of the setup or upgrade flow?
Use these insights to prioritize your roadmap. Features that increase the number of power users and heroes are usually worth more than those that impress on a demo but don’t change behaviour.
Quote for the week
“Too many companies try to create a product for everybody, and end up satisfying nobody.”—Al Ries & Jack Trout, marketing authors and market positioning experts
Ask the Editor
Fill out the contact form here.
See you next week for another edition of weekly Entrepreneur Insights. May you always have the mindset of an entrepreneur.
Sajjad Hamid is an SME & Family Business Adviser who supports entrepreneurs in scaling their ventures. In his spare time in Trinidad and Tobago, he cultivates organic tropical fruits and vegetables, practising sustainable farming in his home garden.
He is the author of Build Your Legacy Business: Solopreneur To Family Business Hero. Sajjad is a Fellow of the Family Firm Institute. He writes a column titled Entreprenomics in the Business section of the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. You can contact him at [email protected] or visit www.entrepreneurtnt.com.
Responses