Marketing has changed a lot in recent years. The power of data and analytics has transformed our ability to reach and engage customers. If you ask any marketer where the future of marketing lies, they will likely say “personalization”. This is backed by data, as 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them.
Today, businesses that can offer effective and targeted personalization, are those that succeed.
But what does a business need to know about a customer to properly provide personalization? Many would talk about the importance of learning a customer’s demographic details: Their age, gender, location, and more static data.
Whilst demographics are undoubtedly important, they don’t allow us to properly know a customer. For that, we need psychographics.
What are Psychographics?
Psychographics allow us to better understand a customer’s lifestyle. Whilst demographics provide important information about who a customer is, they can’t tell us about their favorite football team or their favorite TV shows. Psychographics can do that and more. We can learn about a customer’s beliefs, favorite foods, and their daily routine.
In short, psychographics offer huge potential for learning about a customer. For the first time, we can gain a greater understanding than ever about why a customer purchases a product.
This information can be used to improve many different aspects of our marketing. If you’re running an online store on Shopify, for instance, you can better identify key words, boosting Shopify optimization.
So, no Need for Demographics?
Well, not quite!
Demographics still provide extremely useful information about customers. If you want to know which areas of the world your customers are coming from, you need demographics. Similarly, without demographics, you won’t be able to find out whether your brand appeals more to male or female customers.
In reality, there are lots of reasons that demographics can be handy. Instead of doing away with them, use them alongside psychographics. Together, the two make a powerful combination that can give you a full picture of your customers. This allows you to build better customer experiences and create more effective marketing.
The problem is that too many businesses overlook psychographics in favor of demographics.
How do I Learn Customers’ Psychographics?
There are lots of different methods for collecting customer psychographic information. Some methods are more expensive than others. Collecting this kind of data is a qualitative process, so it’s better to deal with a smaller amount of high-quality data.
Here are some methods that you can deploy.
- Focus Groups – It’s an age-old process, but the focus group is still an extremely useful tool for gaining data. They’re an opportunity to talk face-to-face with representative members of your customer base. It’s a chance to ask questions about interests and test product ideas. The main downside is the amount of time involved to gather members of a group.
- Online Questionnaires – A questionnaire is a cheaper option for gathering psychographic data. They can be distributed easily using your channels of business communication. You can define your questions to get useful physiographic information. The main downside is that online questionnaires receive lower numbers of respondents.
- Analytics – If your business isn’t using analytics data, it should be. Analytics can provide the most detailed and accurate picture of your audience. A good quality analytics tool even allows you to get very specific data. This includes a user’s favorite products to buy or even their favorite food and drink.
How Can I Use Emotion in my Marketing?
Humans are emotional beings. If we see something that produces an emotive response, we’re likely to react to it. The Harvard Business Review listed “Being fully emotionally connected” as one of the top emotional motivators for customers. If you leverage emotion in your marketing, you’ll receive more reactions.
By looking at your psychographic and demographic data, is there a way that you can use emotion to appeal to your customers?
For example, different age groups prefer certain kinds of humor. If you can incorporate humor in an engaging way within your marketing materials, you can create more of an emotional link with your brand.
If you want to see how humor can be used in marketing, look to the music streaming service Spotify. At the end of 2018, Spotify launched a billboard campaign listing some of the more unusual habits of its listeners. The campaign proved to be a success, catching the attention of many people online, and helping to drive traffic.
Is it Time to Improve my Email Marketing?
It’s hard to overstate the importance of email marketing. In fact,70% of marketers use email to share content with customers. Done correctly, emails can be an excellent way of connecting with an audience and building brand loyalty. This means more sales and higher customer retention rates.
The problem is, however, that many businesses struggle to properly connect with customers through email. Too often, organizations focus on the quantity of email rather than quality.
To be produced effectively, email marketing must be more than just a blizzard of adverts and offers. Customers are much more likely to respond to content that is highly personalized and speaks to their wants and desires. Luckily, if you’ve collected enough psychographic data, you can create just that.
Examine your data. What have you learnt about your customers? How can you use this information to create email marketing that will appeal to them? Talk about topics that will interest your customer and above all, avoid rambling. You want to create short, snappy emails that will entice.
Psychographics are the Future
This is just a short snapshot of the power of psychographics. Have you often spent long hours trying to figure out how to better communicate with customers? Improving physical communication by investing in the cheapest VoIP service is a great place to start. But the ways you digitally communicate are equally important.
So, why wait? Psychographics are the future. If you aren’t already, start working with them today!
