Targeting the right people: audience demographics

By keeping a watchful eye on your audience demographics, you can develop an effective marketing strategy. Once you figure out the main target audience of your product or service, you’re one step closer to finding out how to focus your marketing efforts (and money) on the groups most likely to buy from you – if you’re targeting the wrong people, you could be making an incredibly costly mistake.

In this article, we’ll be exploring target demographics – what they are, what they mean in terms of your business and some clear examples to help you know what to look out for. We’ll also be informing you of how to track them, meaning your marketing efforts are just about to get an upgrade. Ready?

What are target demographics?

There are numerous different target demographics that you may want to track. Things like a customer’s age, location and gender can really help you more effectively market to them. For example, the number of children may have an effect on the number of items bought, so if you find out that a customer has three children, you may want to consider offering them a discount if they buy groceries (or similar items) in bulk.

Look for identifiers of a customer’s education level, occupation, income, marital status or living status (whether they rent or own a home) to tell you what you need to know – the more you know about your audience, the more you can tailor your marketing to entice them to make a purchase. When you are using Facebook Ads, you also want to keep an eye out for a customer’s hobbies or interests, as these can be used to target them. For example, someone who enjoys baking as a hobby can be targeted if you are a cake supplies company, increasing the chances of a sale.

How to find target demographics

One of the main ways to find information is through research – the same goes here! You can use social media or a data collection tool to find quantifiable data about your audience, such as their age, location, interest, spoken language and a lot more helpful stuff – this is also information they provide themselves willingly, meaning you will be able to find it easily. If you’re struggling, though, consider putting out a poll or survey to find this out – you’ll also boost your engagement with this tactic, so it’s a winner!

To really resonate with your audience, give them what they want. They’re using the internet to find something – whether that’s more information, a specific product or local services, you’ll need to be there to fill in the gaps. Identify trends or patterns in browser searches using AnswerThePublic, which shows search trends around a certain topic. From there, you’ll be able to figure out how to best serve your customers.

Next, keep an eye on your competition constantly – mirror what tactics they’re using to see what’s working for them, and implement your own strategies to fill in any gaps they’re missing. Bonus points if they’re a well-established brand with lots of history – this will give you plenty of information to work from! It’s important to stay relevant, so avoid using any outdated information and always stay at the top of your game!

Effectively using target demographics

To identify your target demographics:

• Think about the products and services you offer to your audience
• Consider what needs are being met or solutions provided by your products or services
• Tailor services to those specific customer needs
• Reach out directly to customers for feedback and create personas
• Conduct secondary market research
• Review your competitors

Target acquired!

That was all about target demographics – what they are, why you might want to use them, and how to do so! Now, you should have a better idea of what categories to look out for, meaning you can more effectively appeal to your audience. Here at the Identity Agency, we’re all about good marketing, so get in touch if you have any questions!