So, you’ve sat down, researched, brainstormed, and implemented a marketing strategy that you thought would be effective.
However, things don’t seem to work according to plan – people are not engaging with your social media posts, and you’re ultimately failing to engage customers.
What do you do know? Perhaps it’s time to delve into the world of psychographics?
What is that, you ask? It has a lot to do with psychology, and can really help you get out of a sticky situation.
Let’s find out more.
What Are Psychographics in Marketing?
Psychographics in marketing are used to determine the personality, interests, attitude, opinion, way of life, etc. of a person.
It’s a psychological study, which can be extremely useful in gaining insights about the preferences of your target market.
You might be wondering whether it’s the same thing as demographics, but it’s quite different, actually. Demographics focuses on data regarding age, sex, location, ethnicity, and the likes, while psychographics is about the lifestyle, personality, preferences, and so on of the person.
Some examples might help illustrate better psychographics.
Examples of Psychographics in Marketing
There are four main types of marketing psychographic segmentation: values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors.
1. Values
The values of a person represent what they deem as important in life. For example, most people value freedom, family, health, and so on.
For instance, on one hand, if someone strongly values ecology and a clean environment, your company could appeal more to them, if it supports digital sustainability.
On the other hand, if your business pollutes and is harmful to the environment, that person is very unlikely to purchase from you.
2. Beliefs
There are some things that you believe in and others that you don’t. Some people believe that quality cinema and art, in general, died at the beginning of the 2000s, others may have strong religious beliefs that greatly affect their shopping habits.
Targeting a deeply religious person with trendy, provocative outfits will not have a positive effect, while offering old school films might work wonders with others.
Your target audience’s beliefs can greatly impact your marketing strategy and who you sell to.
3. Attitudes
An attitude is the way an individual expresses themselves – it’s what they like or don’t, what they approve of or don’t, etc.
Attitudes are connected to values and beliefs – you’ll hardly see someone that’s religious and eco-friendly, displaying a critical attitude towards businesses with the same values.
4. Behaviors
The behavior of an individual is a combination of factors: values, beliefs, attitudes, and more. Your behavior, or the way you react to certain situations, is almost always driven by these factors.
So, a person that’s values privacy and prefers being alone, believes that modern art is thrash, and has an introverted personality, is highly unlikely to be found at a big party, dancing.
Now, let’s create a fictional psychographic analysis, in order to gain more insight into how it can be helpful.
First, it’s important to note that demographics always play a major role in creating the user profile. That’s why, on one side, we’ll place the demographic factors, and on the other – psychographics.
Judging by the basic information above, what would you do to target Karen as your customer?
Let’s say your business is an eCommerce store that sells clothes, shoes, and accessories. So, the first products that would come to mind, that are ideal for her, are: hiking shoes, yoga mats, eco-friendly party dresses.
That’s what you would call creating a psychographic profile. Of course, you wouldn’t segment it by individual users, you would more likely group similar profiles, and then target those groups.
For instance, group A consists of active and outgoing people, group B is with customers that prefer staying at home, and enjoy more peace and relaxation, and so on.
Again, using the eCommerce store example, if you sell clothes and shoes, this information allows you to perfectly personalize your offers towards those customers.
Alright, now onto outlining the benefits of segmentation of psychographics in marketing.
What Are the Benefits of Psychographics?
- Improved understanding of buying decisions.
- Better targeting.
- Personalized experience.
- Finding the right channels.
1. Improved Understanding of Buying Decisions
Why does someone show interest in purchasing bamboo clothes, but not in organic cotton? Psychographics can help you understand the user better, and what drives their buying decisions.
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2. Better Targeting
It’s pointless to target a product that doesn’t match the values, interests, and attitudes of a person. Promoting the bible to an atheist will most likely annoy them, while offering a delicious potato soup to a vegetarian will be much more likely to result in success.
What’s more, improved targeting from psychographic data will allow you to understand the problems of certain customers, and present a better solution.
3. Personalized Experience
Nowadays, personalization is a big deal. But how do you know what your customers prefer? Psychographic data can help. Once you know that certain customers like comedies and sci-fi film franchises like Star Wars, for example, you can provide personalized offers for funny Yoda shirts, for instance.
Customers appreciate such offers as they not only save them time, but they also introduce them to products that they probably didn’t know existed. It’s like they didn’t know they wanted something until you showed them.
Ultimately, if executed properly, both parties benefit.
4. Finding the Right Channels
Social media can bring huge traffic to your website, but the question is which social media to focus on?
There are so many channels today – Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, etc., and it’s impossible, and even pointless, to put equal effort into every one of them.
Instead, you can use the psychographic data and focus all your attention on the platforms where most of your customers are.
Where to Obtain Psychographic Data?
All this is great, but by now you’re probably also wondering where you can get this data from. Here’s a comprehensive list of platforms and methods you can use.
- Website analytics
- Client surveys
- Market research
- Questionnaires
- Focus groups
- Social media
- Third-party analytics
- Browsing data
Most of the time, people don’t realize that they’re giving out their personal information and online habits when consenting to accept opt-in forms, or by just posting on social media.
Of course, there’s always the opportunity to create questionnaires, quizzes, and surveys to further help you obtain information about the preferences of your customers.
You can use all this data to your advantage, and it will ultimately benefit your users, as well, as they will receive better offers for products and services they genuinely have interest in.
Readers Also Enjoy: How to Use Content Mapping and Psychographic Targeting to Drive Up Sales – DevriX
In Conclusion
Psychographics in marketing can really make a difference. It allows you to provide a much more personalized shopping experience, target your client with relevant products/services, and have a better understanding of their buying decisions.
In fact, psychographics are good for everyone, and there’s no reason to wait until your business is falling behind. Start using them today, and feel the benefits tomorrow.