Do You Know Who You are Talking to??? Know Your Audience!

Momma always said, “don’t talk to strangers!” Well, don’t be a stranger to your audience, get to know them! To reach your audience, you must be able to speak their language. This requires research. Audiences can be broken down by demographics, geographics, psychographics and behaviors segmentations.

Demographics:

These include, family size, gender, marital status, income, and occupation but the most common demographic is age. Communicating to different generation cohorts will require tailored messages and various media outlets to get your audience’s attention. For example; The Gen X community is more likely to read the newspaper than Millennials and you would be less likely to promote anything is “lit.”

Geographics:  

Yes, location plays a significant role in the language used to reach your audience. For example; Soft Drinks, you’re going to say Pop in Ohio, and Soda in Florida. Making that adjust makes all the difference if your soft drink is going to be excepted in that location.

Psychographics:

Psychographics are more personal to the audience. These include segmenting people based on social class, personal characteristics, lifestyles, and values. In a case for promoting environmental health, you will find that marketing toward values will be more efficient than using an age demographic approach. 

Behavior:

Behavior segmenting divides people based on attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors about your promotion. An example of this is promoting a brand based on the belief of its benefit, basically what they want from using the product. If you are promoting dandruff shampoo, create your message based on their belief that having a flaky, itchy scalp can be soothed and remedied by your product.

These are just a few tips on breaking down your audience into segments and creating the message that you give to them. Remember, this includes the slang terms and hashtags you use; if it does not resonate with them, then it will not work. When you learn what motivates your audience, you can successfully reach them and increase your team's efficiency!

Written by Marisha Daniels from Rebecca Adele PR & Events