Knowing who your ideal customer is isn’t enough these days to boost your marketing efforts – you need to dive in deeper. And that’s where psychographics come in handy …

If demographics describe who your target audience is, then psychographics explain why.

The “why” will tell you what consumers are expecting and looking for, giving you the opportunity to fulfil these needs based on their interests, opinions and activities.

What does it mean in plain English?

Demographics tell you that your customer is:

Male

Aged 30 – 45, married with children

Deals with back pain and weight gain

Household income – £100k +

Psychographics, on the other hand, tell you a lot more …

Concerned whether he’ll be able to provide for his family if the back pain deteriorates.

Knows that the back pain could be caused by his recent gain weight but hasn’t got the time to change his lifestyle

Spends a lot of time on LinkedIn networking

Enjoys quality family time which usually happens on the weekends

His guilty pleasure is buying luxury watches

And so on… Combining both, demographics and psychographics gives a really powerful insight into who your customers are.

And more importantly, how to write even more emotionally compelling adverts.

Psychographics research – AIO Variables

AIO variables are the three major areas of psychographic research – Activities, Interests and Opinions. Let’s take a closer look at them:

Activities

Every single person on the planet engages in some kind of activities – your job is to find out what they are.

Let’s say your audience is interested in running – whether for marathons or just for fun. They spend a lot of their time surfing the web for running related articles and products.

So, knowing this … You think this would have an impact on how you do advertising? Where you sell your product?

What images do you place on your ads?

What websites do you retarget on?

What Facebook ad settings you adjust?

Interests

The concept of interest refers to the ways that a person interacts with the world around him.

Let’s say your audience is predominantly parents. They’re probably interested in raising them, caring for them, and providing a good upbringing. They probably look for information that will make them a better parent.

They spend some of their time learning about being a parent, thinking about being a parent or interacting with their children.

Again, how could you use this to craft your message?

Opinions

They’re a specific thinking response to a person, a concept, a theory, a belief, a thing. The only way to find out what your audience thinks about something is to simply ask them.

Are you in the healthy food industry?

Ask your audience what’s their response to the gluten-free diet.