Top Reasons Why Understanding Your Demographic Is Key to Business Growth

CINDY MANNES, Executive Director, PPMA

Demographics are a key part of a business marketing strategy and, as such, it’s crucial to understand the characteristics of the people who use—or will use—your services. Thanks to the digital era, it’s easier than ever for marketers to target the right groups.

Metaphorically speaking, demographics are a magnifying glass to give business owners an up-close look into the audiences their brand or services appeal most to. A deep understanding of demographics can allow you to finetune your marketing campaigns, identify what services and products different audiences need, and track the ever-changing consumer behaviors to ensure your strategy evolves with them.

Understanding your demographics can be the missing piece in your marketing strategy, placing your business on the right path toward generating more revenue and securing long-term customers.

Striving for Authenticity

It’s very likely that social media is a key part of your marketing strategy as a means of reaching your audience, but how can you be sure that your messaging isn’t falling on deaf ears? In the long run, quality is better than quantity when it comes to your marketing efforts. Rather than churning out loads of content to check the task off of your to-do list, focus on delivering more personable content that will resonate with your target audiences and, as a result, lead to meaningful business-customer connections. Remember: consumers are real people. Although we may not always see customers face-to-face, it’s important to remember that people value authenticity and trustworthiness.

Pursuing Long-Term Connections

While casting a wide net may help you reach more people, there are little to no benefits associated with marketing to those who are not interested. With a deep understanding of demographics, you can spend more time catering to worthwhile audiences, which can boost your business success, all while saving time and resources

There’s no question that social media marketing has limitless potential for driving business growth, but there is a lot more to social media than simply posting content. Sprout Social found that 61% of consumers say brands that are best-in-class on social know how to engage their audiences. Knowing that social media is often the first steppingstone in a consumer’s journey to evaluate products and services, marketers should consider adopting new, authentic ways to interact with consumers.

Your messaging and delivery are key players in ensuring your content resonates with your ideal audience, and utilizing social data is one of the many ways in which you can engage with consumers on a deeper level. To support that goal, Mainframe provides subscribers with access to an expansive library of unique, ready-made social media content, which was designed to catch and keep consumers’ attention.

Improving Business Performacne

Beyond building a meaningful connection with your audience, leveraging demographic insights can yield incredible results in streamlining your business’s performance. Once you’ve successfully mastered customer data and how it applies to your strategy, these insights can drive smarter business decisions to increase customer acquisition and reduce costs.

Leveraging Tools for Success

Now that you know the importance of understanding your demographic, let’s discuss tools you can use to gather this useful insight. According to Sprout Social, 56% of marketers use social data to understand their target audience. Businesses can utilize the plethora of existing social listening and industry standards reports to gain a deeper understanding of who their customers are, how they use social media as well as the types of content that piques their interest. They can also use this data to develop customer personas, which can prove useful in attracting target buyers who you will be more likely to retain over an extended period of time.

Now, popular social platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Facebook offer insights tools for businesses to access key demographic data about the audiences that see and engage with their content, which saves them the costly trouble of typical marketing research. Even better, the available data is remarkably accurate, making the task of targeting people who require your services much easier and more cost-effective.

As I mentioned before, consumer needs are ever-changing. To stay on top of the latest trends, it’s best to hear straight from the horse’s mouth. With easy-to-use tools like SurveyMonkey, businesses can capture the feedback and opinions of the people who matter most to the growth of their company—existing and potential customers. Sending a customer satisfaction survey after a service is complete is a great tool to capture candid feedback for the company to consider and grow from. Additionally, surveys can inquire about basic demographic information to further fuel their understanding of the individuals they serve. Over time, this data should be filed away and monitored every so often to observe any shifts and adjust your strategy as needed.

When it comes to identifying your demographic, the more detailed you can be, the better. Each generation’s buying habits differs from the next, so it’s important to understand these groups of people so you can easily find them, know what matters most to them, and offer a product or service that meets their needs. Sure, the everyday tasks of running a business can be overwhelming and often time-consuming, causing things like understanding your demographic to fall to the wayside. However, I encourage you to shift your mindset and view this as a vital cog in the well-oiled machine that is your business. The benefits, which include driving your business forward while developing important customer connections, will be priceless in the long run.