What is the best way to predict your customers’ behavior?

As a marketer, you need to understand our customers. A well-known exercise is ‘persona’ creation. A common mistake, however, is to use demographics to segment your target audience. The problem is that demographics don’t say anything about the behavior of people. Which type of data should you go for instead?

If we look at the example below, both King Charles and Ozzy Osbourne have the same demographics. Needless to explain, they are two completely different people with different behaviors.

Your customers aren’t defined by their demographics. They are who they are today because of their education, their profession, the people they’re in contact with… ‘I am, therefore, I do’ is a quote that represents this thought.

Think outside the box
As a good marketer, you don’t put your customers into boxes, but instead you try to understand their real needs. You can do this by applying several techniques, such as quantitative studies or qualitative studies. You could also use in-market testing like growth marketing, neuro-marketing research or a combination of different approaches.

Taking the time to understand your customers and define the right personas based on their needs is crucial to run a successful campaign. Next time you do this exercise, put your judgments aside: no, not all millennials are the same.

This article is part of a series of 9 short articles, inspired by DigiMarCon Ireland 2022. Want to discover more digital marketing insights?