Using Psychographics For Attracting Qualified Buyer Prospects Part 1

August 24, 2009

Part of being a neighborhood specialist can be understanding and then catering to the particular types of people living there.  That could include many things: their personal interests, ethnic background, and so on.  Better yet, find out the things you have in common with your people and devote part of your website to it.  It’ll be a labor of love!

Catering to particular ethnic groups can be a great way of cultivating a niche market.  Here are some ideas for doing this:

Catering To Ethnicity

We’ve all heard the phrase, “birds of a feather flock together”.  That’s particularly true of immigrants to Canada or the US.  Many (if not most) of them like to move to communities where other people from their country have settled in.  A few interesting stats about Canadian immigrants:

-    more than one million immigrants that came to Canada between 2001 and 2006

-   69% of them settled in the three largest metropolitan areas – Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver – and their surrounding municipalities.

-    a growing proportion (28%) of immigrants settled in smaller areas, most notably Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Kitchener.

-    less than 3% chose rural areas.

-    it’s projected that 75% of Canada’s population growth could be coming from immigration within 10 years and almost 100% by 2030.

Based on these stats, you could literally pick a single ethnicity, arrange your entire business to suit their wants and needs, and do very well.  In 2007 alone, Canada received 236,760 immigrants. The top six sending countries were China (28,896), India (28,520), Philippines (19,718), Pakistan (9,808), United States (8,750), and the United Kingdom (7,324).  So if you or your parents were born in China, India, the Philippines or Pakistan, you’d have a sizable enough niche market you can focus on in various ways.  You’d be especially appealing to these immigrants if you also speak their native tongue.

Try to think about the needs of people coming to Canada.  Many of them need English As A Second Language (ESL) immersion, so put up listings in bulletin boards in and around these schools.  You could have your website come up in Pay Per Click ads for various local searches for ESL schools (eg. “ESL <Farm Neighborhood>”).

These people will appreciate fine cuisine from their homeland, so if there are any ethnic restaurants in your farm neighborhoods, be sure to mention them (even review them) on your website.  If you yourself are a fan of their particular type of cuisine, put some of your favorite recipes on your website.  If you’re in New York City and you’re focusing on an ethnic neighborhood there, be sure to check out Curbed.  It’s an NYC focused blog which has several sub blog sites including Eater which covers the city’s restaurant and bar scene.  Curbed claims to be the most visited neighborhood and real estate blog on the web.  Another popular ‘foodie’ site is Martiniboys which covers restaurant, bar and nightclub openings in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, New York City and Miami.

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