How to Use Psychographic Information to Target New Customers for Your Business

Segmenting and defining audiences is a large part of marketing. While blanket marketing is sometimes effective, targeted marketing ensures that you’ll attract the right audiences at the right time. There are also several different ways that you can go about segmenting your audiences. In this guide, we’ll discuss the value of psychographic information. 

Audience segmentation is a critical part of the marketing process that should take place before you start any campaigns. You cannot create it as you are building campaigns or randomly choose an “audience” without researching to ensure that they’re the right fit. Two main elements make up those details for B2C companies: 

• Demographics
• Psychographics 

Demographics refer to things like age, race, gender, income status, education level, and so forth. They’re easily identifiable characteristics of your target customer that you can use to break down audiences and make sure that you’re marketing to the right people. In addition to that, though, you also need to consider the behaviors, values, and attitudes of your audience. 

That’s where psychographics comes into play. 

What’s a target audience?

A target audience is your specific segment of consumers or B2B clients that you are going to market your products and services to. Identifying this target audience, or several target audiences for each product or service will ensure that you’re better able to market to people. 

You can’t effectively develop products, services, or even the right marketing messages without knowing your target audience. Essentially, you’re trying to create a customer that fits the product or service so well that they can’t refute using your business. 

You may have several target audiences to define, depending on the type of business you have and what products and services you sell. As we mentioned, there are several different aspects of refining your target audience. Aside from demographics, you’ll also want to keep an eye on psychographics. Let’s talk more about those. 

What are psychographics?

Psychographics refers to the behaviors, attitudes, and values of people. Classifying your audience by these elements will ensure that you have the right mindset in your target audience or target customer. In market research, psychographics are defined as “the psychological and cognitive attributes of a customer that reveals their beliefs, values and goals.”

The idea is that you can (and should) use this information to understand and market to your consumers based on their purchasing habits and mindset. For example, let’s say you have a product that people are willing to spend money on, but they want to know that it works first. The skepticism is the first of your psychographic traits—you’ll want to mark that down and then make sure that your marketing addresses that concern. 

Perhaps you’ve got an audience who is willing to spend more for a better solution to their problems because they understand the value of investing in the right products and services. That can help you by playing to the knowledge and expertise that you have, showing people that you have the most reputable solutions available for them. 

Psychographic data includes things like:

• Buyer’s personal values and beliefs
• Their needs and wants
• Concerns around the product or service
• Etc. 

For some, it’s hard to designate between demographics and psychographics, but ultimately, it’s a matter of attitudes versus attributes. Demographics are attributes. Psychographics are attitudes. The former explains who the buyer is, while the latter explains why they buy. 

Why audience segmentation matters

When you segment your audience, you will ensure that your team knows all the details that are relevant to your target customer. They also ensure that the information is readily available to everyone so that companies can create more effective marketing campaigns. 

Segmentation using psychographics and other methods also ensures that you have a better understanding of your competition, your customer, and your overall industry. This can help you optimize your resources and produce much more effective marketing campaigns. That, in turn, means you spend less time, energy, and money on marketing and risk wasting less because you know exactly who you’re marketing to. 

Being able to segment your audience into different “how” and “why” categories gives you a chance to market to them more effectively, too. You will not only be able to market to the people that are of the right age or income level, but you’ll reach clients who have the same values or attitudes that you want to highlight in your own marketing efforts. 

When you create a psychographic profile, it looks more like a list of needs or characteristics than a list of facts and attributes:

• Customer is dealing with X problem
• They’re also concerned with the time involved in finding a solution
• They want to improve X, but are limited on resources and time
• The client is focused on family and friends
• They favor quality compared to cost
• They enjoy demonstrations and consultations to show them a product/service is worthwhile

All of these elements are designed to help you hone your marketing profiles and reach better target audiences. And when you use it well, your marketing will be effective. 

Partner with Smith.ai to manage all those new leads and more

At Smith.ai, our dedicated virtual receptionists know what it takes to deliver the solutions that you need in business, from marketing assistance to segmentation and more. We can assist with the outreach campaigns and outbound sales from the start, using the customer profiles you’ve created. We will also be there to field all the new leads coming in with 24/7 answering services, live website chat, appointment scheduling and lead intake, and more. 

And, as always, we’ll cap it off with a custom strategy to manage all of it, no matter what you need. Our team is dedicated to helping you make the most of your marketing and lead generation so that you can grow your business with ease. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation to discuss what the 24/7 virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can do to help you segment and target your audiences, and more. You’ll also find us at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.