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Did You Know? “Just 42% of marketers know the basic demographic information of their target audience, like their name, gender, and location.” (Source)

At its simplest, the purpose of marketing is to connect and build relationships with your target audience with goal of driving sales.

That makes knowing your target audience vital to successful marketing efforts.

But as the stat in the opening shows, fewer than half of marketers even know their target audience’s basic demographic data, like their name, gender, and location.

That data point comes from a HubSpot study conducted in March 2024 in which they asked 1,200 marketers what information they have on their target audience. The results weren’t pretty.

HubSpot asked marketers if they had data on their target audience across 9 different categories (the percentage who said “Yes” precedes each category):

• 45% - Interest and hobbies

• 42% - Basic demographic data (name, gender, location, etc.)

• 42% - Products they’re interested in purchasing

• 41% - Purchase history

• 41% - Shopping habits

• 41% - Where they consume media (Instagram, TV, podcasts, etc.)

• 31% - Online communities they’re a part of

• 29% - Pain points or challenges they’re facing

• 24% - Social causes they care about

Those are some problematic percentages. Data from McKinsey shows that having a comprehensive understanding of your target audience can boost revenues by up to 15% and efficiency of marketing spend by up to 30%.

If you’re in the “getting started” stage and trying develop either your brand or product, well, it’s pretty tough to do that if you don’t know who you’re selling to.

Why don’t more marketers have a grasp of their target audience?

It’s hard.

• Free data is hard to come by and often lacks both structure and detail.

• Paid data can be comprehensive but expensive.

• Often you need to combine and track data points across multiple sources.

• Often those sources don’t map neatly, using slightly different groups for segmentation or slightly different calculations for metrics.

• Even if your data is complete, making sense of it can be challenging.

It’s enough to frustrate even the most talented marketing analysts.

That leads us to the subject of today’s edition of Data-Driven Marketing…

How to use ChatGPT for audience analysis

If you’re truly stuck somewhere between “I have a general idea of who my audience is 🤔” and “I have no freaking clue and don’t know where to start! 🤮,“ then ChatGPT and similar tools are a handy place to start.

That said, ChatGPT and other AI tools aren’t going to replace paid tools for market and customer research.

However, if you’re in the 58% of marketers who don’t even have basic demographic data for their audience, AI tools can be of major use with minimal time/money investment.

What you’ll need

You only need two things to get started:

1. An idea of the target niche or any details about the target audience

2. An AI tool like ChatGPT

There are multiple AI tools similar to ChatGPT, and I recommend you test this out in each to get a feel for their capabilities and styles.

However, note that the free versions of these tools, like ChatGPT 3.5 and Google Gemini, do not have the ability to browse the Internet. ChatGPT 3.5 operates off a static version of the Internet from January 2022, while Google Gemini receives updates, but Google doesn’t disclose exactly how recent the data is.

If you’re trying to work AI into your daily workflow, which I definitely have, I highly recommend upgrading your version of ChatGPT to 4.0 at $20 per month. I wouldn’t upgrade solely for this task (your call), but I use AI enough (daily) to make it worth it. I’ll share more ways to use AI in future editions of this newsletter.

I’m going to use the paid version of ChatGPT (4.0) for the rest of this tutorial, because I absolutely love the results I get, but you can do the same in Google Gemini and still get a lot of great info that’s very similar.

Our first prompt

The example used for the rest of this email will be “a b2c brand that sells leashes, equipment, clothing, and other accessories for dogs (not cats), excluding dog food, to consumers in the united states.”

Given that context, here’s my prompt:

And here’s ChatGPT’s response in easy-reading dark mode:

Note that the first sentence of the response above includes the words “a refined, more detailed report” because I asked ChatGPT to “remake the report to provide a more comprehensive analysis with specific examples and data points,” which resulted in the response above.

That’s a good start. For the first section, Target Audience Demographics and Interests, we learned a few things:

• “Millennials represent the largest segment of pet owners, followed by Baby Boomers and Gen X“ and that Gen Z is showing increased interest as well.

• “Pet owners are typically interested in outdoor activities, health and wellness, and social events involving pets“ with “a strong preference for products that promote the physical and mental health of pets, underscoring the importance of quality and functionality in pet accessories.“

If you didn’t know anything about your target audience, that’s a solid start, but I’d like more detail. Let’s ask ChatGPT to dig a little deeper.

Asking for more demographic detail

I want more detail about the target audience’s demographics and interests, so let’s ask ChatGPT to keep digging:

Here’s ChatGPT’s response:

Now we’ve got some demographic data:

• Age: “Millennials (born 1981 to 1996) emerge as the largest group of pet owners, accounting for 32% of the demographic. They are followed by Baby Boomers (27%), Gen X (24%), and Gen Z (14%), with the Silent Generation (born 1928 – 1945) holding the smallest percentage at 3%.”

• Ethnicity: “White households have the highest rate of pet ownership at 64.7%, followed by Hispanic households at 61.4%, and Black-African American households with 36.9%.“

• Geographic Location: “States with the highest rates of dog ownership include Idaho (58.3%), Montana (51.9%), and West Virginia (51.6%). Conversely, areas like the District of Columbia (38.2%), Rhode Island (45.4%), and South Dakota (46.4%) have lower rates of pet ownership​.“

We also have some more detail about our audience’s interests:

• Outdoor activities

• Community and social events

• Tech and innovation

• Sustainability and ethics

ChatGPT even included some statistics on spending and consumer preferences:

• “Caring for a dog can range from $1,000 to $9,000 annually, including expenses for food, treats, grooming, vet checkups, and more.”

• “The French Bulldog has recently overtaken the Labrador Retriever as the most popular dog breed, followed by the Golden Retriever, German Shepherd, and Poodle.“

We could create follow-up prompts or ask for more information about any of these points.

Asking for more detail about online communities and media

In the original response, ChatGPT said the following about where our target audience interacts online and the types of media they consume:

• Online communities: “Forums such as Reddit and Facebook groups dedicated to pet ownership offer spaces for advice, support, and sharing experiences. Engagement in these communities can reveal key insights into consumer needs and preferences.“

• Media: “Dog owners engage with a variety of media, including Instagram, where pet influencers can sway product choices, and YouTube, for training and health advice. Specialized podcasts and blogs also serve as important sources of information and community for pet owners.“

A prompt:

And ChatGPT’s response:

That’s quite the detailed list of forums, Facebook groups, and subreddits!

A few final tips

For the sake of brevity, I won’t keep digging into this example. You get the idea. ChatGPT and other AI tools can be a great way to get your bearings as you explore your target audience. We even got some examples of social causes our audience cares about, which just 13% of marketers said they knew!

Here are a few tips for using ChatGPT to assist in your audience analysis (or in other queries):

• If ChatGPT returns a generic response similar to its original response, just ask again for more detail, data, and statistics. ChatGPT and other models often have a difficult time calling back to previous parts of a conversion. You can also try to copy/paste responses ChatGPT already has returned and ask for more information.

• If you still aren’t seeing enough detail or not getting the format you want, you can copy/paste previous responses you did like and tell ChatGPT to provide responses in the same style and format.

• If you find that the responses you’re getting are veering further and further away from what you’re looking for, you can always reset ChatGPT by giving it the prompt “ignore all previous context” and starting from the beginning.

Got any related tips for how to use AI for market or target audience analysis? Reply to this email and let me know.

Everyone say, “Hi!” to Sophia M 👋

Question: If you could make any rule for one day and everyone had to follow it, what would it be?

Sophia M’s Answer: “People have to stay on their side of the sidewalk when passing each other.”

I feel you, Sophia.

ChatGPT-Generated Joke of the Day 🤣

Why don't skeletons fight each other?

They don't have the guts.

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