The term heavy user represents a couple of different things. When it comes to marketing and advertising, it represents one specific type of user that we are going to cover in great detail in this article. You will learn what defines a heavy user and why identifying them matters to someone doing internet marketing or advertising online, as well as strategies specifically designed for this type of user.
What Is A Heavy User?
If you were to ask an internet service provider what a heavy user is, they define it as someone who uses a great deal of bandwidth, possibly by downloading movies or games. But from a marketing or advertising perspective, it really isn't that different.
A heavy user is someone who spends a great deal of time online. The heavy user may use their computer for multiple purposes and in fact, may not get off their computer very often. For example, they may use their computer for communication with their family through a video calling service like Skype. They might get all of their news and information from their computer. They might use their computer for all of their entertainment including gaming, movies and books. Finally, they might actually work online and spend not only their free time on their computer but also their work time.
The Problem with Heavy Users
When it comes to marketing, there are a couple of problems with heavy internet users that you should be aware of. First, depending upon your product or service, they may be your best customer. For example, it is a marketing truism that 20% of the customer base consumed 80% of the product.
For example, people that buy beer can demonstrate this perfectly. 20% of the beer drinkers in the United States consume 80% of the beer sold. But just because a user is a large consumer of product doesn't mean that they are going to be your best customers Dash the people you want to target the most.
How to Identify Heavy Users
Marketing experts have had problems in the past identifying heavy users. They have used various methods to accomplish this goal including the simple mean analysis where the segmentation is based upon a single variable and then compared. But there is also the basic cluster analysis, which bases the results on sets of multiple variables. These characteristics are shared between both of these methods, and may include things like cluster or segments size, psychographic and socio graphic data, lifestyle and more. The main difference between these two is that the segmentation analysis assumes differences between that audience and the control group. The cluster analysis assumes no differences.
Conclusion
Heavy internet users can definitely be a benefit to your marketing and advertising efforts, but they need to be approached in a different way than other internet users. The marketing you do has to be specific to them and appeal to their needs which are different than those casual internet users. You can attract a heavy user with a great deal but it means nothing because your competitor could do the same thing tomorrow. But these users are a big part of your market, so you want to ensure that you are marketing to them the best that you can.
