Have you had a vision when you started your business: you planned service or product that you want to sell, defined the person who you would like to work with, expected to have exponentially growing sales so your idea will turn into a successful business?
A few months later you realize that you don’t sell that much or people who buy your product are way different from the ideal client who you wish you worked with. That’s a common situation for small businesses.
That’s why big companies do a lot of researches and tests to find out more about the market so they could serve the right people with the suitable for them offers.
You no need to be big to do the research. Learn more about people with interactive and straightforward surveys that also include demographic questions.
Demographic information will help you better understand your current and potential clients and craft an irresistible offer for them.
Demographic questions help you to understand:
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What people use your product or service
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Whether you reach of not the target market that you planned to market to
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What other people are interested in your product and what else you can sell them
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How you can serve them better
Your survey can have only demographic questions, or you can mix them with their preferences and add some fun elements.
Putting together the answers for each question decide if there is only one answer or multiple choices. Based on that, pick the proper survey settings.
Collect the information you really need. People don’t like to take long difficult surveys unless it is essential to them, so think about the key elements that you would like to know.
Make your own demographics quiz now!
Here are 10 demographic questions that you can include in your survey.
What is your gender?
The gender question is one of the most common. What is important to men won’t necessarily be essential for women even if you offer the same product or service. Planning your campaign according to a gender helps you craft the message that will resonate with your audience.
While for years people often asked if you are a male or female, nowadays it can be a challenge for transgender and gender non-conforming people. You can simplify the question.
Or ask people to be more specific.
Do you identify as:
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Male
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Female
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Transgender
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Different Gender Identity
What is your age?
Age is another common question. Younger and older generation use distinctive media and platforms to receive the information, they have diverse lifestyles and you can even say that they live in different worlds.
For example, the younger generation uses social media a lot.
Group the ages by the ranges of 5 or 10 years. Make sure that they don’t overlap each other.
What is your age:
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Under 18
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18-24 years old
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25-34 years old
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35-44 years old
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45-54 years old
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55 or older
You can also let people pick the year range when they were born. It will tell you what generation they belong to.
Nowadays marketers often refer to generations when they talk about the target audience.
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Baby boomers were born between 1944 and 1964.
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Gen X was born between 1965 – 1979
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Gen Y (Millennials) were born between 1980 and 1994
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Gen Z was born between 1995 and 2015
There are many different statistics based on the generation that will tell you more about your audience. Chase had a business survey for the ages: Differences among Millennial, Gen X and Boomer small business owners.
When you know that most of your clients are Millennials, then it is clear that you need to use online marketing.
How old are your children?
If your product or service is for kids, for example, video games, then survey the parents. You can ask how many children they have and how old they are. The statistic will give you extensive information about them too.
You can use the age range like in the previous example with the checkbox option in case they have several kids of the different age range.
How old are your kids?
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Under 2
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3-6 years old
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7-10 years old
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11-14 years old
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15-18 years old
Separately you may ask:
How many total children (under 18) live in your household?
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One child
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Two children
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Three children
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Four children or more
What is your marital status?
The studies showed that married women pay more attention to advertising than do single women and there are more differences between single and married people behavior.
It will also define a lifestyle that married and single people have.
What is your marital status?
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Single, never married
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Married or domestic partnership
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Widowed
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Divorced
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Separated
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Other
How would you identify your ethnicity?
Be aware that ethnicity and race are two different things. Race is the classification by the groups based on physical traits, ancestry, genetics or social relations.
In your survey, you might be more interested in the ethnicity as it is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities such as common ancestry, language, history, society, culture or nation.
What would best describe you?
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African
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American
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Asian
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Hispanic or Latino
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Native American
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White
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Other
What is your professional or employment status?
This question is often used to understand if someone is employed, have a part-time job or unemployed. Use the checkbox options as the person can have a few different statuses. They can have a full-time and part-time job or a student who does part-time work.
What is your employment status?
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Employed Full-Time (40 or more hours/week)
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Employed Part-Time (less than 40 hours/week)
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Self-employed
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Unemployed and looking for work
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Unemployed but not currently looking for work
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A homemaker
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A student
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Military
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Retired
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Other
How many hours per week do you work?
Think about what’s more relevant to you, their employment status, how many hours per week they work, or maybe both.
Let’s say you help people to increase productivity, work on the time-management for entrepreneurs or help others to become a digital nomad. One of the desirable outcome people would like to get is to spend less time on work and enjoy life more.
Add this question to your survey.
Depending on the answers you can plan your next marketing campaign based on these results. The structure of your message can be [problem] -> [solution]
For example, you focus on entrepreneurs who work more than 40 hours per week, your message can be:
You started your business to get more freedom, but instead, you work even more than before. Here is what you need to do now [your product/service is their solution].
What is your education?
A person with Ph.D. often will have different lifestyle and preferences than the one who only finished high school. If this question is important for understanding your clients make sure to include the variety of qualification levels.
What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed?
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Less than high school degree
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High school degree or equivalent (e.g., GED)
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Some college credit, but no degree
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Bachelor’s degree
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Master’s degree
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Professional degree
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Doctorate degree
What is your annual income?
Money is always a sensitive topic. In some cultures, it’s impolite to ask how much people earn. Let people pick the range of income they make per month or year. Include the currency that you ask about whether it’s USD, Euro, etc.
Or if you want to know the monthly income then ask “What is your household’s estimated monthly income?”
You may mention if that’s an income before or after taxes, “What was your total household income before taxes during the past 12 months?”
Where are you located?
Knowing where your customers are located, you can adjust your ads, run individual campaigns just for that area and work more on expanding your brand in that area.
If your business is international, then you may ask only about the country.
Which country or countries are you a citizen of? Check all that apply.
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United States
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Canada
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Other
You can also ask only about the area where they are or the cities of your region.
Where are you located?
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Western Canada (BC, AB, SK)
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Central Canada (MB, ON, QC)
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Eastern Canada (NB, NS, NL, PEI)
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Northern Canada (YT, NWT, NU)
Conclusion
Demographic questions give you much useful information about your audience. However, don’t overload people with them. Short surveys are easier to complete. Pick the ones that are more important to you that will help you develop your marketing and sell better.
You can also create a few quizzes with the demographic question in each of them.
For example, your first quiz helps to segment people by a specific parameter. Then you create the second quiz designed to the particular target audience that you discovered in the first survey, e.g. singles and couples, millennials and baby boomers.
If you’ve used any other demographic questions particularly beneficial in understanding your audience and marketing, please share it with everyone in a comment below—and I’d love to hear about it too.
Make your own demographics quiz now!