College student are a lot more than just a blank slate relentlessly focused on consumption. College students are complex, and their motivations, needs, and actions are ever-changing and stem from an intricate set of mind frames. iMediaConnection recently reviewed the 6 sides of a customer, there are four that specifically relevant when defining a college student
Demographics and Lifestyle
Traditionally, digital media has used a lot of inference when identifying demographics and lifestyle. Many audience definition models use browsing as a proxy for known facts about a person. A combination of verified demographics and rich digital behavior provide an excellent, essential foundation to better deliver relevant messages to their potential customers. This is key when reaching such a specific demographic of 18-21 year old college students.
Passions and Interests
Digitally leveraging browsing and interaction data is a great way to reveal insights about a person’s passions and interests. The activities that college students choose to engage in online help marketers identify the right students for targeting. Knowledge of interests allows for the segmentation and personalization of messaging to individual students, while passions help companies determine more compelling messaging for these given targeted segments.
Device Usage
Today, the majority of total digital time is spent on devices other than a PC. Real-time cross-device browsing, interaction, shopping, and purchase data enables companies to view of how their target audience is spending their time at any given moment. The combined behavioral and device usage data from PCs, smartphones, and tablets is becoming essential to driving maximum results for marketing investments. After all, if only PC-based data is taken into account, then less than half of what college students are doing online is actually understood.
Social Media Interactions
College students spend a huge amount of time in social environments, and it doesn’t end when they leave the crowd to pick up their mobile devices or sit down at their computers. College students tend to follow, read, respond, and listen to people with whom they can relate. They use social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest to show off their recent purchases and ask their peers for reviews and recommendations about various products and services. Brands can use social influencers to help drive traffic, conversation, and sales.
In this increasingly competitive world of marketing, leveraging all types of data in the most effective way possible is crucial. The more an advertiser understands the college audience the more successful a campaign.
