Not Everyone Is Your Target Demographic

Not everyone is your target demographic 

This is by far the biggest disagreement that I have with new clients; they think that everyone is their target demographic, and when you’re targeting everyone, are you really targeting anyone? 

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New business owners seem to think that everyone will love their business therefore they should target everyone in their advertising. They’ll set up their targeted ads and they’ll do everyone within a 50 mile radius between the ages of 18-65+. Which don’t get me wrong, you may get people from every demographic coming through your door, but you’re wasting a whole lot of time and money by targeting those less likely.

You need to build a customer persona for your business, who is the ideal customer that’s actually coming in and giving you money. Not who could give you money, anyone could give you money, focus your efforts on the people who actually are giving you money. When I owned my arcade my best demographic was women aged 25-35, which when you think of an arcade women aged 25-35 aren’t really who comes to mind. But statistically women aged 25-35 were the ones spending the most money in my facility. They were the ones booking for their husbands or boyfriends to come out, and the biggest one, they were the ones booking their kids' birthday parties. When was the last time you saw an 8 year old book their own birthday party at an arcade? Never. So you target the actual decision maker in that situation, which stereotypically is the mom. 

Given the example above, the highest paying demographic for me is women aged 25-35. It wouldn't make any sense for me to spread my ad spend out evenly over a 50 mile radius with everyone between 18-65+ now would it? I should be focusing my marketing on those that are actually the ones coming into my business and giving me money. 

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Think beyond just this industry, an extreme example is Lamborghini. Lamborghini is quoted as saying “We don’t do commercials because our audience isn’t sitting around watching TV”, they’re only targeting their primary demographic the way that their primary demographic will want to be targeted. They’re not worried about advertising to everyone, because they know not everyone can afford a Lamborghini. 

As a local business you’re going to have everyone and their brother trying to sell you ad space, whether it’s the back of their kids football jerseys, on the wall of the Dairy Queen drive through, local community events, whatever it is. If you know what your target demographic is it makes it a lot easier to know if those decisions make sense. If you’re an Axe Throwing range that is only 18+ it doesn’t really make sense for you to target a kids football team, but if you’re an arcade that specializes in kids birthday parties, it makes a whole lot of sense.

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Your business is unique, make sure you make your marketing unique to it as well. Trying to fit the cookie cutter of targeting everyone is just going to waste a lot of time and money.

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