We’ve reached a point in time in digital advertising where every interaction with the consumer is becoming a transaction. The consumer too, is far too digitally aware and connected to filter out the noise and will not engage with anything that gives a feeling of being sold to.
What can brands do about this now? While a transaction or a sale is the end goal, it cannot be the means of engaging with the consumer. Before buying anything, a consumer goes through various stages that lead to an intent to buy. Even with the intent, what can brands do for them to even be a part of the consumer’s consideration set?
They can start by having a conversation with consumers instead of starting to sell outright. The conversations can be ‘enablers’, that inform, educate, drive awareness, enabling the consumers to make an informed decision about what they are looking for.
When they do, they must also remember to not engage with consumers in conversations, treating them as one homogenous demographic, but personalize their conversations based on what appeals to each of these consumer’s individual personalities. When they do so, they must also engage these consumers in the environments relevant and preferred by them, rather than relying on just one format to engage them all.
Native advertising offers this ability to start meaningful conversations, that enable and influence decisions, that transform brands from advertisers to publishers of information that enriches the consumer’s life and helps them make an informed decision.
In the realm of native advertising, knowing your audience is the beginning of all success. This isn’t new information – demographic analyses of audiences have been conducted for decades. Most social media and online platforms measure audience analytics, gathering information about the people who visit these digital avenues.
The right audience information is crucial to creating ad campaigns that actually succeed. Knowing who you are advertising to is central to creating an ad that works.
Psychographics is the next level in gathering the right audience information. It fills an always present gap by offering the possibility of recognizing audience mindsets in a more nuanced way than ever possible before.
Think demographics, but deeper. Demographics tell you who your customer is – their gender, age, location, income, etc. On the other hand, psychographics tells you why they do what they do, in particular, why they buy what they buy.
This can be better explained with an example.
Below is a basic buyer persona with distinctions between demographic and psychographic data that defines them.
Demographic Information:
Male
Aged 35-45
Married with children
Dealing with weight gain, lethargy, arthritis due to a sedentary lifestyle
Household income Rs. 10,00,000+
Psychographic Information:
Priritizes health
Desires healthy lifestyle, but can’t resist unhealthy food
Often online, big fan of Twitter
Cares more about quality than cost
Is more career-driven
Happy to spend time with only close friends
Psychographic data reflects an individual’s lifestyle, habits, motivations and interests. It reveals what determines their action, especially in the marketplace. Instead of going by wide generalizations about age and gender, psychographic insights help narrow down audience preferences, thus allowing for the creation of native ads with a higher appeal.
How greater insights lead to a better native ad
Imagine that you are a health food company looking to promote your new healthy diet to individuals who wish to take a holistic lifestyle change. A well-placed native ad would be quite effective, but only if you know who you are addressing. Knowing this also helps you identify the right publishers for your native ad, thus ensuring that you are attracting the right eyeballs.
But how do you know who your audience is?
It’s important to remember that not every member of your audience thinks the same way. The individual detailed above wants to be healthy but is still indulging in unhealthy food. A message addressed to him would naturally differ from one addressed to someone who is already health-conscious and disciplined.
What if there was a tool that lets you recognize your audience with all their diverse personalities?
A tool such as ConsumeriQdoes exactly this by bringing a vast repository of psychographic data into the fray. Working based on your core brand message, this tool analyses the archetypes your audience fits into. Archetypes refer to fundamental personality types, and understanding them helps you figure out how certain people will engage with certain content.
For example, those belonging to the realist archetype will take a new diet seriously based on previous results. Any content targeted to them will have to include statistics, testimonials, and other data which proves the diet works. Those in the go-getter archetype, however, would select something that promises a better lifestyle and achievement of their physical and mental goals.
Consequently, native ads to promote the same product to the two archetypes would be quite different. Realists would probably respond to an interview with an expert who endorses the diet. Go-getters might be more open to an inspirational piece that encourages them to see better health as a goal they can reach.
This can be achieved with different headlines and images in different publications. The article/video can also be created in different formats so as to appeal to different audience types. ConsumeriQ will specifically recommend publications that fit your brand messages and associated audience types.
By understanding your potential customers on psychographic levels, you can shape your native ad to appeal to their fundamental desires and triggers. You can modulate your message to provide value to audiences with different mindsets, automatically gaining more engagement from diverse individuals.
Authored article by Hemali Dave, Head of Revenue growth at Zirca Digital Solutions.
