If you are in business or are looking to open your own place; then you are probably familiar with demographics. Accurate demographics are the savvy marketer’s secret weapon to planning successful campaigns and generating millions in revenue for their businesses. But, you do not have to be the Chief Marketing Officer for a Fortune 500 company to take advantage of demographics. In fact, if you are not using them, you need to start!

Demographics are basically measures of different aspects of consumer profiles. They describe where people live, how much money they make, what race they belong to, and if they own a home.

In fact, demographics can even describe where people work, how many are unemployed, and what kind of education they have. New business owners very often question the inherent utility of demographics. The answer is: demographics will paint a picture of your perfect customer. These measurable attributes can tell you who your customer is, what they like to do, where they live, and what their interests are. In essence, demographics will tell you with a high degree of accuracy, what your customer will buy, where, when and in what quantity. Demographics are a gold mine of useful data.

Even small business owners can get a competitive advantage by learning how to use these data sets. By segmenting a market, you can dial in where your most profitable customer is and then build your marketing program around them. This is key for targeting your product or service offerings. Instead of using a random, “buckshot” approach; you can reach your customers where they are and on their level. Furthermore, this data is surprisingly easy to obtain and it is usually free.

Suppose you are looking to lease retail space from a highly successful location in Baldwin Park. The landlord will probably post the area’s demographics on the shopping center’s website in order to help tenants be successful business owners. Statistics such as what the average income is within a one, three, or five mile radius of the shopping center will would be invaluable to your marketing efforts. When searching for a retail space, check out the areas demographics to see if it hits a Bull’s-eye with your target market!