The concept of demographics started in the 1970’s when business owners started paying attention to who bought their products or services. The demographics of a customer include their age, ethnicity, salary, family status, etc. This tool was common amongst the traveling salesmen that would go door-to-door to sell household goods. To save time, they would segment their market to neighborhoods of wealthy families and would choose a time of day where they knew the woman of the house would be home. The salesmen would sell more vacuums while going to fewer doors because they understood their market by using demographics. Using demographics helped them see results faster!
Later psychographics came along to understand why their customers purchased their product or service. This focused on knowing their customers’ lifestyles, behaviors, hobbies etc. Knowing your customers’ psychographics enables you to take your messaging to the next level. You can grow your business by choosing channels and creating messages that will show your customer that you are the best route to go when buying the product or service that you offer.
But how do you find this data let alone how do you use it? There are a few tools that you can use to find this data. Using surveys and personality tests are great ways to find both the demographics and the psychographics of your customers. Amazon is great at following up with its customers by sending a survey via email to ask about their shopping experience. It asks for referrals and other pieces of information to help gather the demographic data and psychographic data. But what do you do with it when you have it?
Building personas are crucial to properly marketing your business. Having a minimum of 2, but no more than 7 personas that represent your ideal customers will allow you to write your marketing copy with the direct intent to personalize the message. If a potential customer sees that you understand their needs and wants, they will most likely choose to purchase from you than another business. Using personas can help you grow your business today by showing that you understand the customer.
Do you want to grow your business by using demographics and psychographics but don’t know where to start? Then contact us at Half a Bubble Out. We are a passion and provision company that offers marketing, advertising and consulting, and can help your small business start understanding your customers today!