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How to segment your target market by demographics

[Editor's Addendum - This is the first of our series covering different ways to segment your target market]

The word census comes from the Latin word 'censere', which means 'to estimate'. The Ancient Romans were one of the first civilizations to implement and utilize a census. (It was used to help calculate taxes). Their census included citizens, property owned, and privileges they had. Many other ancient civilizations used a census to gather information about lifestyle, farm animals owned, and war fundraising. 

There has got to be a quicker way right? 

Today, the [US] census gathers enough information that it can make [most] social media platforms jealous. However, the most common information still relates to demographics. In marketing, we can use this information to shape our ads. Different demographics have different lifestyles and values - and thus, we can speak differently. Here are a few ways to think about demographic information; 

• Age – Age can give you a number of insights and a number of different advertising angles to take. When creating your advertisements, you can either speak to their current age or their past age (ex: Remember this Got Milk? ad). Keep in mind your design aspects as well – if you target youth, make your designs more futuristic compare to classic. Or if you target senior citizens, make sure your font large and easier to read. 
  
  
• Gender – Similar to age, gender can give you a number of different angles. Interactions with friends, relationship faux pas, how data is interpreted, and family dynamics often differ between men and women.
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• Location – Not only do varying regions use different word choices, they can hold different values dear. Make sure you know how to talk to your specific region. Or if you’re targeting locally, use this similar bond to build a connection in your advertising. 
  
  
• Income / Education Level – Your desired brand image may greatly affect the income or education level that you target. Note that this isn’t always exclusive – perhaps your good / service targets someone from a lower income or education level so they rise in status (ex: language tutoring, certain cars, or clothing accessories). If this is you, showcase how your product will affect their future. 
  
  
• Marital Status – Married and single people live vastly different lives. When it comes to marketing, remember they have different lifestyles, routines, and desires. 
  
  
• Occupation – Owners, office workers, service providers, etc. You can speak to each of them in unique ways and can solve different problems with the same product. As an example, each of these individuals will need hair cuts but they may mean different things to each of them (function, style, status, etc.) 

One final note: While it can be important and extremely useful to target by demographics, be sure to not go overboard. You don’t want to alienate any demographic outside your target. For example, if you’re targeting men you’ll do better if you don’t also alienate women. 

By the way, have you seen any of our 5 Ways To Use Cidewalk posts? Keep checking in to see if they apply to your business

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