Know Your Customer – It’s Not Just About Demographics Anymore

This guest post is by Wendy MacQueen, www.mormac.ca

Know Your Customer

Throughout history, businesses have used demographics to define their customer base and tailor where they deliver their marketing messages. These tried-and-true methods of marketing helped businesses focus only on their customer, rather than a mass approach.

Now, in the 21st century, we have access to customer information that far surpasses the basics of demographics.

Demographics are the standard pieces of age, marital status, income, sex and education. Within each demographic category, there are many different groups of people defined by more than these five items.

Think of yourself. Your age, marital status, income, sex and education. Now think of a friend that fits the same profile. Do they like the same kind of clothes or food that you do?

There are two deeper definitions at work in truly knowing your customer. The first is lifestyle, or to use the fancy word, psychographics.

Psychographics take into consideration things like where people choose to live, their hobbies, interests and leisure-time choices. The value here for the small business owner is the opportunity to mold the messages to reach a more fine-tuned group. There is also the advantage that your competition probably isn’t looking this deeply into their customer definition so you have a leg-up.

An example: A tutoring business knows their demographic is women, 35-50, high education level, high income. And their competition knows this too. But when they drilled down deeper into their customer’s habits, they discovered the majority love to read and garden. And over 70% were into food. Knowing this, the company could target messages in garden magazines and on food-related programming. There is big value in speaking to your customer when your competition is nowhere to be found.

To discover the psychographics of your customer means you need to interact with them. Surveys, either online or in-person, that include questions about their leisure activities, can help you develop unique ways to reach them. This information can also have value when you are developing special promotions. If your incentives or give-aways speak to your customer’s leisure preferences, they are more inclined to find value in them.

The second, and arguably the most difficult, definition pertains to the personality or intellect style of your main customer. This information helps you formulate the writing style for your marketing materials but also gives a great tool to your sales staff.

Personality/intellect styles are how your customer talks, how they listen and how they read. There are basically four “types” – task-oriented, analytical, intuitive and emotional. Everyone has portions of each of these styles in their make-up, but the majority of people have one type that stands out.

If you are tuned into your customer’s personality/intellect, you can shorten the sales funnel and create engaging marketing materials.

Example: A small business owner is an emotional personality/intellect. She loves to use adjectives and tells lots of personal stories. Because these are her preferred ways to communicate, she insists her marketing materials be written this way and that her salespeople follow this style. Her audience however is task-oriented. They prefer blunt facts and cutting-to-the-chase as quickly as possible. They make fast decisions. Because the owner uses lots of adjectives and personal stories, her task-oriented audience stops listening. They have already moved on to something else. The result? They don’t hear key pieces of information that might make them want to spend their money.

To manage this deep definition well, you need to learn what personality/intellect style you and your salespeople reflect. There are a number of online resources to help you do this. Familiarize yourself with the characteristics of each personality style and start watching your customers. They will show you what style is the most prevalent in your business.

Going deeper than demographics can speed you up in the race against your competition. Take the time to really know your customer and modify your messages to meet their needs.

About the Author: Wendy MacQueen is owner of Mormac Brand Re-engineering, a full-service marketing and training company. Educated in the psychology of message-delivery, Wendy has over 25 years of experience in marketing communications including assisting businesses from large multi-national companies to small sole proprietorships.

She has been recognized at the international and national level as a strategist/tactician, brand developer, copywriter and radio producer. Her portfolio includes strategies, tactics and creative that have increased sales for businesses in franchise, retail, manufacturing, financial services and many others.

Wendy assists companies in identifying their true audience definition and expressing their brand to increase sales. She brings experience in stage, radio and television performance to her delivery of marketing seminars for audiences of every level of expertise. She has coached senior executives, sales and customer service representatives in media relations, marketing practices, speaking skills, active listening and using intellect styles in sales and marketing.