Do you sometimes feel like your marketing strategy is about as effective as throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks? Even with the abundance of demographic data made easily available for just about any audience you can imagine, if that’s all you’re using, you’ve only got half of the puzzle figured out. In this article, we’re going to talk all about the power of psychographic data: what it is, how to get it, and most importantly, how to use it.
What is Psychographic Data?
Simply put, psychographic data is information that allows you to divide your market based on attitudes, interests, activities, and personality traits. While demographics help to explain who your target customers are, psychographic data explains the “why”. When you combine both of these elements, you get a detailed picture of who your ideal customer is—also known as your buyer persona (very important!). Having this information allows you to better develop and market your products because you’ll be able to more precisely match marketing campaigns to each segment. As you learn more about your consumers and their underlying motivations with psychographic data, your marketing strategies should begin to see higher conversion rates.
How Do You Get Psychographic Data?
You might be thinking to yourself, how on earth do I collect psychographic data from my target audience? Worry not, below we’ve outlined two simple methods that you can start implementing today if you wanted to.
Get Personal
One of the most effective ways to collect this valuable data is by simply getting a little more personal with your existing customers. Whether you speak to them on the phone or send the occasional email, including a few questions to see what kind of answers you get can yield some impressive results. More often than not, customers will be happy to provide you with this information if you tell them you want to learn more so you can better serve them.
Look at the Data
Another way to gather psychographic information is by looking at website analytics to spot trends and see what’s been working (landing pages, CTA’s, graphics, etc.). The actions people take ultimately reveal their motivations which will be reflected through the data your website collects from visitors. While this method is a little less direct than asking customers outright, it can give you some good direction to work off of and fine tune over time.
The Different Types of Psychographic Data
1. Activities
While still valuable, activities are a type of psychographic that won’t necessarily be beneficial for every company. For instance, there’s no real way to link an interest in snowboarding to SEO marketing. That being said, activities are good for learning what your customers care about and how they like to spend their day.
2. Interests
Interests are different from activities in that they’re good for identifying what your customers have an affinity for. Think shoppers, social media fanatics, movie lovers, or just about anything else that people can be interested in. With this data, you can break up your market into segments and track which ones have the highest conversion rates.
3. Opinions & Attitudes
Opinions and attitudes are perhaps the most important type of psychographic data because they allow you to “get in” with certain groups or clicks that exist in your market. At the end of the day, everyone has opinions on matters, and those with similar opinions are more likely to stick together. When you express your brand’s attitudes toward something and it aligns with that of your consumers, you have a higher chance of attracting their attention.
How to Use Psychographic Data in Marketing
Okay—you’ve collected all of this information on your target audience, so what’s next? No matter what kind of marketing strategy your brand uses, psychographic data can enhance the results and get you more paying customers, when done right.
Social Media
Perhaps one of the most popular ways to use psychographic data is on social media. If you’ve created a Facebook ad before, then you already know just how specific you can get when defining your target market. Once you’ve narrowed down the main audience you’ll be targeting, start implementing psychographic data such as likes, interests, and activities to further zero in on prospective customers. Though the ad will be shown to fewer users overall, the quality of the exposure will be much higher, increasing lead generation opportunities.
Online Advertising
Online ads are the perfect place to use opinion- and attitude-based psychographic data because it allows you to play on the emotions of potential customers. Once you know the way your target audience feels about a certain matter as it pertains to your ad, you can harness that and have a better chance of capturing their interest with the limited amount of space you’re allotted for online ads. Sure, not everyone is necessarily going to agree with your stance, but when you’re paying for each click, you want only highly qualified leads.
Blogs
Blog posts are another great way that you can use psychographic data because it allows you to identify new topics that your target audience is interested in. This will help diversify your brand’s blog (though not too much!) so you can keep your readers happy while hopefully guiding them through your sales funnel. In addition, you’ll also create more opportunities for attracting new readers as your blog expands to encompass more topics.
Offline Marketing
Offline marketing events are a great time to share your companies values with your target audience. Using psychographic data that you collect, you’ll be able to identify the audience you should be inviting to your event where you can further persuade them that you’re the best solution to their problem because your values align with theirs. This is a powerful way to connect with customers on a deeper level.
Looking for more marketing strategies for which to leverage your psychographic data? Download our free eBook below:
