March 16, 2021-Oh boy! Today’s question has me VERY excited because this area of marketing is one of my MOST favourite! Let’s dive right in:
Q: “I’ve recently heard the term psychographic segmentation used by a member of my author’s group. I didn’t want to sound daft, so I didn’t ask what it meant. The internet doesn’t go into great detail about how it works for book marketing. Can you explain?”
A: YES! I would LOVE to get into this subject and I could talk about it all day! Ok, without getting too heavy handed, I’ll explain this as simply as possible. There are four types of market segmentation: Demographics, Geographics, Behavioural, and Psychographics. In marketing and publishing, we segment the markets to gain valuable information about who is reading our books, where they’re from, why they buy, and what their reasons for buying are; that’s where Psychographics comes into play. Psychographics from a marketing definition is focusing on the consumer’s emotions and values so that we can market to them more effectively. For example, in publishing, we look at the area of psychographics to include personality, attitudes, values, interests, and lifestyle. But, what does this mean and why does it matter for your book?
Well, the more you know about your reader the better! As an author/self-publisher, you need to know your audience so that you can help them pick the best possible book choice that you offer to suit their needs. Let’s do a simple case study:
Your reader is a college educated, 35 year old, single father of two six year old twins. He believes in teaching his children about the importance of imagination, saving the planet, and having fun at the same time. The kids go to private school and enjoy activities that include swimming, dance, and rock climbing.
What types of books and products could we recommend to the father based on the information above? Books about twins, books about single parent homes, books about adventure, books about the environment, books about swimming/ competitive sports, books that help with reading and vocabulary, books about imagination and teamwork, and the list goes on. Perhaps we could recommend adventure writing courses for the twins, or other classes that are well within their age group and capabilities, we could offer the father a literacy workshop and how to ignite the love of reading in his children, and whatever else we offer that would be appropriate based on his values, interests, and lifestyle.
So, as you can see, segmenting markets is invaluable to your success in helping your reader find books and courses that they love. Keep the questions coming! Send us yours at pandapublishing8@gmail.com and check out some of our classes and workshops here: Best-Seller Bootcamp – Pandamonium Publishing House, Children’s Book Writing Master Class – Pandamonium Publishing House, Transitioning from Writer to Author (An Introductory Course) – Pandamonium Publishing House