How Well Do You Really Know Your Audience?

Do you actually know your audience?

Your first reaction may be to say, of course!

But pause for a moment. Do you know exactly what to say in your marketing?

If you don’t know the messaging that sparks conversions, then you may not know your customers as well as you think. Knowing your audience helps you discover the content and messages people care about. As a result, you will know the precise tone and voice needed to initiate meaningful customer conversations and create value-specific propositions.

The best marketing messages come from your customers. It’s time to get to know them with these audience research techniques.

Demographic Segmentation

Demographics is the study of populations. It uses statistics to study the makeup of groups of people. Demographic segmentation categorizes audiences by statistical data about: age, gender, income, location, family situation, education, ethnicity, etc. It is an important tool needed to divide your market in broad strokes and build audience profiles. However, it will only take you so far in understanding your customers.

Obviously, it is important to know if your business is talking to parents in their 40s versus single people in their 20s—there’s a big difference in tone and voice between these two targets. However, demographic data doesn’t tell you how your audience feels. So when it comes to audience research, it is important not to stop with demographics.

Behavioral Segmentation

How do your customers act? Behavioral segmentation focuses on uncovering customer purchasing habits, spending habits, customer journey stage, engagement level, and brand interactions. Behavioral segmentation focuses on what your customers do rather than who they are.

It is a type of targeting that is particularly effective in discovering customer purchase patterns and spending trends. For example, you can discover whether your customers are more likely to shop online or in-store, how often they use coupons, or how likely they would shop a sale.

Perhaps most importantly, behavioral segmentation helps you understand what kind of shoppers your customers are. Are your customers complex shoppers that actively research the best option before purchasing? Are your customers variety seekers that enjoy trying out different brands even when they enjoy a certain brand’s product? Or are your customers habitual shoppers that frequently return to familiar brands without much thought? Knowing how your audience approaches their buying process is invaluable information that will optimize your marketing approach.

Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic segmentation categorizes audiences by factors that relate to one’s personality or character, such as: personality traits, values, lifestyle, interests, motivations, priorities, and even conscious vs. subconscious beliefs.

This type of segmentation can be more difficult to uncover since it is not data-driven like demographics. However, psychographic information is one of the most important audience research tools because it gives you invaluable insight into how your customers feel. It delves into the motivations behind behavior rather than tracking the behavior itself and tells you why the customer buys. For example, a business that knows its customers value luxury status and exclusivity may create “members-only” loyalty tiers to motivate purchasing behaviors.

Are your customers introverts or extroverts? Optimists or pessimists? Spontaneous or planners? Strong environmentalists? Vegans? This may seem like trivial information to learn, but personality traits, hobbies, values, mental outlooks, and lifestyle choices all have strong correlations to buying behavior.

You’ll learn exactly how to position your products or services to engage their interest and trust. For example, if your audience is surveyed as largely introverted, your business may choose to use imagery of people enjoying their alone time in your marketing materials to better connect with them. Introverted customers who see marketing images with crowds, large parties, or outgoing behavior may feel misunderstood by your brand.

Geographic Segmentation

Geographic segmentation categorizes customers by using a defined geographic boundary, such as ZIP codes, city, country, time zone, language, cultural preferences, climate, radius to a certain location, and whether customers live in urban or rural areas. This is the simplest form of segmentation and easy to implement.

People living in urban areas may have different experiences and needs than those living in suburban or rural areas. Geographic segmentation works well for small businesses who need to target specific, localized areas as well as large, national businesses who want to find regional hotspots.

Do You Know Exactly What Your Customers Want to Hear?

Is your business ready to create highly-precise marketing campaigns that truly connect with your audience and transform them into loyal customers? Sun Sign Designs will help you understand your audience and tailor your digital marketing tactics, so your business is the clear solution to your customer’s problems, wants, or needs. Contact us today for a consultation.