You Have Your Demographic Data…So Now What?

Now that you've had one of the main consumer data aggregators analyze your customer file, what do you actually do with this all this information?

What does all the data really tell you?

Acxiom's data portrait analysis will tell you what demographics elements are over or under represented. This is good to know but if the customers that are the most valuable and stay loyal are the ones who are underrepresented, you could make a catastrophic business decision simply based on what customers you tend to attract over another. Not that this isn't valuable information. It's extremely valuable but you have to dig deeper to find out what it really tells you.

Are sales and marketing efforts skewing your customer profile based on what they think are the best way to get customers?

If that is the case, do you make a drastic change in strategy and try acquiring the customers who are truly the most valuable?

What if your competition has cornered the market on those customers already? If you are in an industry with high switching costs, pursuing market segments that are already being serviced by your competitors can be a battle that you could lose big.

So far this post has been mostly questions with no answers but the lesson I've learned is that you can't just take demographic analysis at face value and base everything you do around it. You need to incorporate the information with customer performance, market intelligence on what your competitors are doing, and the cost to acquire the desired customers.

Once you've done all your homework doing these 5 things will help you stay competitive and adaptable as your industry changes.

1. Identify your target customer segments
   
2. Design sales and market strategies to acquire the customers you want
   
3. Get regular customer demographic data and track performance over time to make sure your marketing is being effective
   
4. Look for potential segments you are not hitting and be aggressive in finding niche markets
   
5. Get feedback from your customers on your marketing message and service and product offering to stay on point with what your customers need