How to Use Demographics to Drive Business Leads

Define your primary and secondary target market.

Gathering business leads is an important part of marketing. A lead is any individual or business that can potentially become a customer. Leads are generated by word of mouth from prior customers, responses to advertisements, mailing lists, business cards, membership directories and available government data. According to Better Management, an online business reference guide, 60 percent to 80 percent of leads fall by the wayside. Targeting your lead generation efforts, based on demographic segmentation, can yield higher qualified prospects who become customers.

Things You'll Need

• Business leads
• Ad campaign
• Demographic data

Instructions

1. Define your primary and secondary target market. Your primary target market consists of the customers who will spend the most with your company. For instance if you were a farmer who grew oranges, a corporation that owns a chain of grocery stores in five states would be your primary market. Individual consumers who would purchase your oranges at a roadside stand would be your secondary market.

2. Make a list of all the features and benefits of your product or service. For example if you were a hairdresser and hair braiding was a feature of your business, then the benefits of hair braiding would be a hairstyle that lasts for weeks.

3. Analyze the demographics of customers who need the benefits that you offer. Demographics are a way of separating customers based upon age, race, religion, gender, income level, family size, occupation, education level and marital status. Using our example of the hairdresser, she would most likely identify the demographics of her customers as African-American women, with a middle class income and/or a family that leaves the customer little time for hairstyling.

4. Create an ad campaign that generates leads. Use information from mailing lists, census data and current customers to direct postcards, television ads, and other avenues of advertisement to targeted customers. Invite these leads to share a prospect with you. This can be achieved through "Buy one, get one free" coupons, or 25 percent off if you bring in a friend.

Tips & Warnings

• Use demographic data to narrow down a 20-mile radius of where to mail your ads.

References

• E Small Office: How to Identify a Target Market and Prepare a Customer Profile
• Better Management: The Best Way to Qualify Leads: Have Them Do It Themselves
• "USA Today": Gen Y: A tough crowd to sell

Resources

• U.S. Census Bureau: Statistical Abstract of the United States