Marketing Psychographics: Get Into the Minds of Your Clients

Brilliantly using psychographics in your marketing is like getting everything inside your customer’s brain downloaded and sent to you. Digging into this kind of information might not be something you have thought of doing, intentionally, but perhaps you’ve experienced it from the consumer point-of-view. I once got invited to a “Girls Night Out Wine Party” at a high-end boutique…brilliant. Get a bunch of girlfriends together with wine and then let them start trying on clothes and spending money! You see getting together with friends and drinking wine are the interests that draws women into a boutique that is targeting them to become customers. A coupon for 10% wouldn’t have the same draw.

In marketing, the more we know our ideal customers, the better we can connect with them. Sure, you know your ideal customer lives in Colorado, is between 40-60 years old and makes over $400,000 annually, but do you know what they are interested in? Do you know what type of activities they enjoy?

Psychographics are like demographics but include how your ideal buyers think or behave. It includes their interests (handy when advertising on social media sites since this is a choice to make in your ad set up), hobbies, habits. Even knowing what television shows they watch, what types of vacations they might take and what is pinned to their Pinterest boards will help you connect better.

A simple way to look at psychographics would be to say DEMOGRAPHICS tells you WHO the consumer is and PSYCHOGRAPHICS tells you WHY your consumer might buy.

Of course, this list is almost endless, but here are a few examples of psychographics:

Psychographics could include:

Appearance: Those who are into fitness, makeup, spas, fat reduction. They watch YouTube makeup tutorials, join health clubs, visit spas and might read magazines like Cosmopolitan, People, and watch the Kardashians. Activities might include clothes shopping.

Health and Nutrition : Those who focus on clean eating, watch nutritional facts closely, take supplements. They might purchase holistic medicines and essential oils. They shop at Whole Foods or other natural food markets. Activities might include hiking and gardening.

Homebodies: Loyal to friends and family. Those who like activities that include spending time with friends and family, home cooking, crafts, reading, home parties. Activities might include spending time on Pinterest or going to craft fairs.

Foodies: Those who love eating out, gourmet cooking, watching Food Network shows. Shopping at William Sonoma. Activities might include herb gardening, cooking classes or wine tastings.

Sports Enthusiasts: Might play in pickup leagues, play video games or just watch sports on TV. May enjoy beer, pizza, and wearing their favorite sport’s team clothing items. Activities include going to professional sporting events, having friends over during big games, and watching sporting events on television.

Compassion: Those interested in charitable fundraising, supporting animal rights and environmental issues (which could be broken out as a separate psychographic). They might make buying decisions based on green ratings, and recycled materials. Activities might include charitable walks, neighborhood cleanup days, missions work.

Positive Attitude: People who encourage others with upbeat and positive quotes. Those who attend self-help conferences.

Luxury Living: People who like the finer things, drive luxury cars, boats, belong to golf or country clubs. They shop at high-end stores and probably have interests in luxury travel.

Bargain Shopper: Interested in coupons, discount or bulk shopping, group buying sites.

Psychographics are important to know but harder than demographics to find out. It takes time to find this information and a bit of work. You can survey current customers, do polls in small groups, focus groups or spend time on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a fabulous tool for discovering a person’s interests.

If you have a few current clients who you would classify as “ideal,” login and see if they are on Pinterest. You can stalk a person’s boards to discover just about everything she loves.

This information is very powerful if you have the patience to pursue it. Once you know what’s important to your ideal customer, you will know where he hangs out, what will motivate him to buy, and how to build loyalty.

How have you been able to find this information? Have you had success using it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.