Demographic Research Made Easy: Fun Free Tool

The more you know about who your ideal customer is, the easier it will be to reach out and find them. We know that just about everything a person does online will be tracked in one way or another. It is almost scary how much you can find out about a person's likes, dislikes, political leanings, or even income range based on which websites they visit, what they read, the people and brands they follow on social media or the products they purchase on a regular basis.

All this and more will be tracked, collected and cataloged in a vast virtual database somewhere or another. Google analytics can provide some helpful information on audience insights but this only covers your audience and it may not be as useful for newer or smaller sites that haven't had the opportunity to reach a great deal of people.

If you have the budget available you could hire a professional marketing consultant. I don't have that luxury so I first rely on the free tools available to me and then make an informed decision on where I might be lacking before I head for more advanced paid tools. The following tool has come in handy for me so I am passing it along to all of you. It can be fun to play around with too!

Zipwho?

With this tool you can search any zip code in the United States to get demographic information on the people who live within it. It includes median income, household size average, race, marital status and even how many have a college degree. This can be valuable information, especially for a business targeting local clients.

You can even use the advanced search to search whole cities or even whole states for a wider view of the population.

The information can be super helpful in finding your ideal customer. For instance, if you are targeting higher ticket items you may be looking for an audience within a higher income bracket. This tool can help you best target which areas you might want a paid advertisement to go out to.

Go ahead and play around with it ... I know you want to! Here is a direct link: http://zipwho.com/

Have any of you used this tool in the past? What was your experiences with it? Did it help you find your ideal audience base or was there just not enough information available as you had hoped in the areas you wanted to target?

I would love to hear any feedback, good or bad.

Have fun!

Best, Shannon