Get started with STP marketing

If the first rule of marketing is to know your customers, the second rule may be to position your product to better meet their needs. There are countless products out there, and yours can’t be everything to all people. But once you find your target market and decipher the best way to reach them, you’ll increase your chances of finding success exponentially. This is exactly what STP marketing is all about.

What is STP in marketing?

STP marketing is one of the most common marketing models—in fact, you may do it without even realizing it has a name. STP stands for segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and the strategy focuses on personalizing messaging to engage with different audiences. An easy way to think of this model is with this formula:

segmentation + targeting = positioning

Let’s dive into each part of the equation.

Segmentation

Segmentation is all about determining who your audience is. Sure, you can try to broadly target buyers generically, but chances are, your message will resonate less, and you’ll miss out on many who would otherwise be interested in your product.

Conversely, if you segment your audience into smaller groups, you can focus your messaging so it’s more relevant to them. There are countless ways you can segment your audience, but some to consider include:

• Psychographic, like hobbies or interests

• Demographics, like gender, marital status, or profession

• Behavioral patterns, like browsing habits or brand loyalty

• Geographic, like specific regions, countries, or even climates

Targeting

After you’ve segmented your market, the next step is targeting. In this stage, you’ll narrow down these segments to determine which are most valuable to pursue. There are many metrics you can use to determine this: 

• Size: You may want to start with the largest segment, since the customer potential is the largest.

• Reachability: The segment you decide to market to should be easy to access.

• Profitability: Consider which customers would be cheaper to acquire with significant ROI. Who has the most spending power?

Positioning

Once you’ve determined who to target first, it’s time to apply the insights you’ve acquired from the first two steps and figure out how to market your product to your selected audience.

It’s not just about describing your product; it’s about positioning it from the perspective of the buyers in your segment. What value proposition will resonate with them? What channel can you reach them on? For example, if your product is for teenagers, you’d likely yield much stronger sales from trying to reach customers through social media instead of direct mail campaigns.

Why use the STP model?

There is a reason the STP marketing model has proven so successful. It’s associated with many benefits, such as:

1. Increased engagement: As you tailor your marketing to appeal to specific segments, your messaging will resonate more with those individuals, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

2. Better ROI on marketing costs: Since you’re approaching marketing more strategically, you can expect a higher return on investment. You’ll save money on wasted budget from trying to reach segments that aren’t likely to yield results. 

3. Stronger product: Because you are spending time getting to really know your buyers and experiencing more engagement, you can make improvements to your product based on what you learn about them and the feedback you receive.

How to create your own STP model in Lucid

With dozens of ready-to-use templates, dynamic capabilities that enable team collaboration, and integrations with many apps you already use and love, Lucid makes every stage of the STP marketing process seamless. 

Segmentation

Our market segmentation matrix template can help you stay organized as you identify your ideal market. Lucid’s many sharing options make it easy to collaborate with your team and collect the best ideas about ways to segment your audience.

Targeting

Buyer personas are helpful during this step to better understand the different segments and more easily determine who to prioritize first. Chart pain points, desires, goals, and personality traits with this persona template. Plus, utilize dynamic shapes to visualize specific data.

Positioning

Performing competitor analysis is a key step toward understanding how to best position your product. You’ll need to consider how others are attracting your audience segments and what you can do to reach them more effectively. Our competitor analysis template helps you compare your business with competitors by plotting them on an axis.

A product positioning map is also helpful. It allows you to examine the value your product offers, how it fulfills buyers' needs, how you compare to the competition, and what you need to change to stand out.