Customer profiling is a way to create a portrait of your customers to help you make design decisions concerning your service. It gives you a deeper understanding of who you want to reach and sell to.

No matter how good, great and noble your products and services are, some people will never be interested in what you have. When you don’t know those you want to target, you may never reach them.

Customer profiling helps you to create a model of who you want to reach, market and advertise to.

Every potential and an established customer can be profiled into demographics (age, gender, location, income level, education level, marital status, cultural background, occupation), interests (fashion, sports, politics, entertainment, fitness, health), behaviours (device usage, lifestyle).

 

Demographics

• Age – Age segment like 18-24, 25-34 or 35-50 doesn’t have different tastes and preferences. If you’re targeting those within the age of 45-55, they manner your content would be presented should be different from when you’re targeting those within the age bracket of 18-24.
• Gender – Does your product appeal more to men than women or vice-versa. If you’re a fashion stylist for women, your images and videos should be tailored should appeal to women and. Also using the insights gotten about age, the women you are targeting should have an age bracket. The contents for working-class ladies between the age of 25-34 might be different with the contents targeting women between the age of 50-65+
• Location – A potential customer living with the same age and gender living in Lagos Nigeria, might be different from another potential customer living in Abuja Nigeria. Your strategy should consider how your local audience behaves. Study how the people in an area you want to reach behaves, it is very important in effective targeting.
• Income Level – two customers with the same age, gender and location might be differentiated with the income level. Income level has a great effect on buying patterns. When creating customer profiles, put into consideration the income levels of the customer personas you want to target.
• Education Level – Do you want to target university graduates, undergraduates,  high school graduates. Maybe you want to target all. If are targeting semi-literate audience, avoid being elitist.
• Marital Status – single, in a relationship, engaged, married or newly married. These are different segments for marital status. For instance, an event planner that targets about-to-wed couples can come up with tips on how to have a cost-effective wedding ceremony. An interior decor that targets pregnant mothers can come up with suggestions on how to decorate their babies room. Different contents for different personas.
• Cultural Background – An African has a different worldview from a European, also a Nigerian has a different perception about some issues from a Nigerian born in America. When creating customer profiles, put into consideration the cultural background of the people you want to target. Also, research about words that will make them feel good and use them,  avoid negative words that will trigger animosity
• Occupation – The job role of your target audience plays a huge role in creating their profiles. Are your services for teachers, those in the tech industry, entertainment industry? 

 

Interests

Your customers have what interests them, research about it. Customers might be interested in the latest fashion trends, entertainment gists and political dramas, while others might be interested in self-development.

 

Behaviours

Which device does my audience use more in browsing the interest? Smartphone, tablets, laptops. Which operating system? Android, iOS, Windows. Lifestyles, location history.