Businesses use demographics to better understand their customer base, allowing them to make more informed marketing decisions, and to paint a picture of their target market.

What are demographics, exactly?
Demographics can be defined as statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it. In other words, demographics are simply descriptions of specific sets of people, oftentimes broken down by category.

The term “demographics” doesn’t belong exclusively to marketing. Heck - it doesn’t even belong exclusively to humans - but for the sake of this article, we’ll be referring to demographics in terms of people, and how it pertains to your marketing efforts.

So, what types of demographics are used in marketing?
In short, a ton. In long, it really depends on your industry. That being said, there are plenty of standard demographic metrics that are used consistently across industries.

Non exclusively, this list includes:

- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Marital Status
- Education
- Location
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Occupation
- Family Structure
- Accessing Device

How to use demographics for marketing

Demographics are used in a handful of marketing practices, and play a critical role in many marketing decisions.

• Persona creation
  Oftentimes, a marketer may choose to build a marketing “persona”. This is a fictional character that holds all of the demographic traits that make up your target audiences. This practice can be helpful in a sense that it puts a personality to a data set.
  
  Having a defined marketing persona helps in writing effective ad copy, determining your ad targeting, and crafting your overall message. Some of your products may have just one marketing persona, or multiple.
  
• Social Media Voice
  Knowing who your customer base is at a highly granular level can significantly help you develop a relevant social media strategy. Your social media is a direct representation of your brand, and can be the most effective communication tool if implemented correctly. An irrelevant social media voice will fail to connect with your intended audience.
  
• Business Plan
  Better understanding of your customer demographics can help you build out different components of your business plan. From manufacturing to employee benefits, your customer demographic can play a much more significant role than just marketing.