Organizations typically have a primary audience with which they must communicate. In order to know how best to reach this audience and what to say to it, we need to define it in a number of different ways. Demographics and psychographics are the scientific methods we employ to get a clear understanding of our audiences.
Demography, says Webster, is “the statistical study of human population, especially with reference to size and density, distribution, and vital statistics.” Webster has no definition yet for psychographics. Hoover ink says, "demographics studies which people buy, psychographics studies why people buy.”
Let’s take a look at how we use these tools to our best marketing advantage.
Demographic attributes we use to understand our audience might include age, gender, culture, employment status, industry, income level, marital status, job title, sales cycle, and geographic location.
These attributes help us determine specifically who buys from you. Do the work to uncover your best buyers. Don’t attempt to market to all carbon-based life forms. You don’t have enough money to reach them all through communications. Even if you have a diverse market, find out who buys the most or most often from you and focus on them. Determining this core demographic will improve your marketing efforts drastically.
If you want to put your marketing on steroids, add psychographics, the emotional and behavioral qualities of your target market. These attributes may include the emotion, reasoning, psychology, logic, and thought processes behind buying decisions. Here, you’ll want to delve into your buyer’s interests, hobbies, professional associations, previous purchases, and related products purchased.
The Survey Says...
Your current customers hold the key to both the demographic and psychographic attributes of your key audience. Survey them to find out:
- Why did your clients buy your product?
- Why did they buy from you and not a competitor?
- What made them buy from you at a specific point in time?
- Was it an impulse decision or did they ponder it?
- What do they like the most/least about your product?
- What is the benefit of the product?
- Are they willing to refer others to your product?
Once you have a clear understanding of both the demographics and psychographics of your audience, you can craft better messages and place them in the most effective venues.
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