As the catchy title suggests, people and data are two of my favorite things. I love people- getting to know them, studying them, figuring out what makes people, well, people. And what better way to compile all this information than in sheets and sheets of beautiful data, meticulously organized and summarized in Excel? We’re talking demographics here- the information that keeps my brain up late at night thinking about how to use data to reach people in creative ways (and yes, that really happens).
But that’s enough about my love affair with demography! I’m here to help you develop your own healthy relationship with it. So, let’s talk. What, exactly, are demographics and how can you use them in your organization to reach specific goals?
To use demographics to the benefit of your organization, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the concept of market segmentation (those words have such a sweet ring to them… they really roll off the tongue). Basically, you need to know:
Who you are trying to reach
How to reach them
What content is most appealing to them
There are countless ways to get and use this information, but possibly the easiest, most user-friendly and cost-effective option is Social Media. As a proud millennial and an excited supporter of the technological revolution, I can tell you that Social Media is one of the best ways to find and reach your target demographic, no matter what your organization’s goals are.
Facebook (A.K.A. the Godfather of social media, for all intents and purposes) is constantly rolling out new tools to help you get the most bang for your buck. One of the best tools is Audience Insights for Facebook Business.
Say I’m a purveyor of dog t-shirts who is just starting out. I have a small advertising budget now, so my goal is to outfit as many dogs as possible within Kern County before expanding beyond my local area. First, I need to figure out who my target audience is for my product. Just to make this more realistic, here is a photo of my adorable dog, Daniel, wearing a dog t-shirt:
To sell my VIP (Very Important Product) I’m looking for people who:
Are Interested in Pets and Shopping
Select interests:
Pets, Animals, Shopping
Have a Bit of Disposable Income
Select financials:
Everything over $50,000
Are Over the Age of 18 (By Default)
Select Age:
“Any” for the maximum value, because everyone loves a good dog t-shirt.
Live in Kern County
Select Cities in Kern County:
Bakersfield, Arvin, California City, Delano, Lamont, Maricopa, Taft, Shafter, Tehachapi, Wasco, McFarland, Ridgrecrest, etc.
Once I’m happy with my audience, I’ll save it to use and change later, if needed. I now have a custom audience of 150K-200K potential customers who are active on Facebook each month that I can reach with my ads:
For any organization, it is important to know the area you are serving. And for those of us in Kern County, we can get quite a bit of valuable information from Facebook’s data pool. If you go back into your dog t-shirt audience and delete all selections but the location, you can see invaluable information from 450K-500K monthly users:
All this data can be used to target an audience for any cause, and it is a huge help in developing an advertising strategy. We can see that 46% of Kern’s population is married, 58% is college educated, 66% is using Facebook from only mobile devices, 73% own homes and so much more. You can further target groups by political affiliation, number of children, ethnicity, etc., to make the perfect audience for your campaign. The sooner you learn to harness the power of this incredible tool, the more efficient your organization can be with its marketing efforts.
The amount of information available can be overwhelming at times, but think of all the good you can do with it! Grassroots campaigns have never been easier! Supporting a nonprofit or furthering a cause you are passionate about is right at your fingertips! And don’t get me started on the amount of dog t-shirts you could sell! Facebook has perfectly merged data and people to make life better than ever for smart marketers. Embrace the beauty of demographics and put this amazing technology to work for your organization (or let us here at Providence do it for you)!
Now, you just need some quality content for your advertisements. Give us a call, we can help.
