How can psychographic characteristics influence your marketing? Do you try to sell your products daily through exciting offers and competitions? But don’t you generate more sales than before the use of social media? Is no one interested in your product, or maybe you ignore your customers? Then it is very likely that you deal little with psychographic factors.
We have given an example to give you a clear overview of psychographic features.
What are psychographic features?
Psychographic characteristics are an essential part of the target group. They include the motivation, values, and needs of a customer. It distinguishes customers from geographical and demographic characteristics such as place of residence and gender to determine more easily and unambiguously but provide less specific information for marketing.
Why thorough market segmentation is important
Market segmentation inevitably precedes successful marketing. Because in the course of your, define which target group you are addressing exactly. They filter out one or more definable subgroups from a heterogeneous mass. You can then address them in a targeted manner.
The best way to get an insight into your customers’ characteristics is to look at the buyers. Demographic information includes gender, age, income, and marital status — all pretty dry facts. Psychographic traits, on the other hand, are needs, hobbies, everyday expenses, and values.
You will only reach your right target group if you consider both factors. It’s more than vital to know who you want to target and what values customers have precisely.
Define audience: An example
To illustrate the differences between the different segmentation types.
Demographic information:
- Gender
- Age
- Married and children
- Problems
- Health status like weight, possibly diabetes, and hormonally unbalanced
- A household income
Psychographic information:
- Is concerned about your health and charisma
- Would like to make your lifestyle healthier but has little free time available
- Loves to surf the Internet in the evening and find out about the latest trends
- She tends to buy quality things rather than pay attention to the price.
- Family life and her career are significant to her, and she loves to combine the two.
- She spends her free time with close friends.
If we look at both lists, we find that they complement each other wonderfully and result in a buyer persona. Because using only demographic information does not help you sufficiently understand this person’s challenges in everyday life.
Now you have a natural person in mind to whom you can give a name. It is usually much easier to put yourself in a person’s shoes than in a data set.
What moves it, and why does it act accordingly? What burdens her, and why does she have trouble making up her mind? With the help of psychographic information, you can answer these questions much more quickly.
Collecting psychographic data: These possibilities exist.
Now you are probably wondering how to get this information. There are two methods to choose from:
- Interview with existing customers
- Perform an analysis of your web analytics
Pay attention to your customers.
Take some time and think about your customers in powerful memories. These are usually the ones who are also happy to contact you. The next time you reach this customer, you can easily say that you want to know more about them.
Start with questions that don’t directly deter the other person – such as:
- What film have you seen recently? (Maybe the other person prefers TV shows or online movies?)
- What does your current holiday planning look like? (What’s on your shopping list?)
- Have you also made good resolutions for the New Year? (What are the personal goals?)
Depending on your relationship with that customer, you can also explain why you’re asking so closely. You have to make this dependent on your feelings, but it usually makes more sense, to be honest. Select a handful of customers and try not to make it sound like an interrogation.
The customer should feel comfortable in this small talk. If you choose the right questions, you do not have to drill for answers that are usually not gladly given. For example, very few people like to answer straightforward questions about personal goals and challenges, as these are private topics.
Do you want a larger sample? Then there is still the possibility of conducting a survey. Among your customers, some are willing to share their opinion and give you a better understanding. But even if you choose only a few, you will be surprised by the result.
Take a look at your analytics data.
Do you want to stay in the background with your investigations? Then there’s the opportunity to examine your website analytics: What has worked in the past? Where did most people click? Where do you get the most visitors (referrals)? Which social media channel shows the most interaction? Did your discount offers work? Through which offer did you receive the most interested parties? There is plenty of information that you can also examine in the background to see how your buyer personas react.
The LIFO method for psychographic segmentation
To a large extent, people’s buying behavior is controlled by emotions and their subconscious. Once you have collected psychographic data about your target audience, you can use it to target them according to their preferences, needs, and values.
The LIFO model helps you to divide your customers into different suitable groups. Your customers are divided into four groups: red, yellow, green, and blue. People in the red group value productivity and status. They are very ambitious and disciplined and strive for the best possible result.
For people in the yellow group, flexibility is essential. They are characterized by experimentation and adaptability but also appreciate harmony. The green group focuses on security. She likes things to stay the way they are. Changes frighten her and put her under pressure. The people in the blue group are very socially oriented. They love to help others and take responsibility for themselves.
You should adjust your communication depending on which group you deal with most often. This starts with the information you provide and ends with the choice of words.
For example, you can reach the red group with “exclusive” or “world first.” The yellow group prefers to read about fun and adventure, the green one likes numbers and statistics, and the blue usually reacts positively to emotional texts.
Conclusion: What influence do psychographic characteristics have on your marketing?
As soon as you target your marketing more specifically to your buyer personas, you can also address them better. You now know what is essential for your persona and what you can offer them.
A discount, for example, will not necessarily encourage you to buy if she attaches great importance to quality. If your buyer persona spends most of their time on Pinterest, you can stop investing your money in Facebook. And if she likes to get involved with the latest nutrition trends, you could blog around this topic. Give tips on how to feed her children healthily or save time cooking.
Take advantage of opportunities to get closer to your target group. Before you even realize it, you have more valuable contacts than before.
