In the digital age, phone numbers are not just contact details—they can also serve as powerful data points for user segmentation. Businesses use segmentation to divide their customers into smaller groups based on shared characteristics, allowing for more personalized marketing, improved service delivery, and better resource allocation.
While phone numbers may seem like simple strings of digits, they can reveal a surprising amount of information that can help businesses understand and categorize their audience more effectively.
1. Segmenting by Geographic Location
The first and most common way to segment users by phone numbers is by area code or country code. Every country has a unique dialing code (e.g., +1 for the USA, +91 for India), and many countries divide numbers further by region or city.
Benefits:
Targeting regional promotions or offers
Sending time-zone appropriate messages
Understanding regional demand and behavior
Example:
A restaurant chain can send lunch discount codes only to users in a specific city using area codes from their phone numbers.
2. Identifying Mobile vs. Landline Users
In some regions, the structure of a phone number can indicate recent mobile phone number data whether it's a mobile, landline, or VoIP number. This can be useful for tailoring communication channels.
Benefits:
Avoiding SMS marketing to landlines
Choosing between voice calls, texts, or app notifications
Improving delivery rates and user engagement
Example:
An appointment reminder system may send SMS to mobile users and automated voice calls to landline users based on their number type.
3. Behavioral and Demographic Clues
Although a phone number alone doesn’t reveal personal details like age or income, it can sometimes serve as a proxy for demographic data, especially when paired with other information.
Combined with a user profile, a phone number can help:
Track usage patterns
Identify preferred communication methods
Link accounts across platforms
Example:
A telecom provider could analyze call and SMS usage patterns tied to specific numbers to identify users likely to upgrade their data plan.
4. Segmentation by Carrier or Network
In some countries, specific number prefixes are associated with certain mobile carriers. This allows businesses to segment users based on network provider.
Benefits:
Offering carrier-specific promotions
Understanding service quality for different networks
Building strategic partnerships with telecom companies
Example:
A fintech app may notice users from one carrier are more likely to complete mobile payments, and optimize campaigns for that group.
5. Engagement-Based Segmentation
Over time, businesses can use phone numbers to track and categorize users based on engagement behavior, such as:
Open rates of SMS campaigns
Response time to calls or texts
Click-through rates on mobile offers
This helps in creating high, medium, and low-engagement segments for personalized outreach.