A Demographic Category is a Profile Info field limited to a set of values. A few examples would be gender, state, and country. For gender, you might have the choices be Male, Female, or Prefer Not To Say. You create these Demographics as the values within the Demographic Category.
If you place a Demographic Category on a Data Input Form it displays as a drop-down menu, making it easy for contacts to select something for their profile.
NOTE: Demographics for a Demographic Category can be brought into your account via the Upload Contacts feature. If you do this, ensure that the incoming data values are exact matches to corresponding values in your Demographic Category.
Create a Demographic Category field
- Access the Admin interface.
- Navigate to Contacts > Profile Fields.
- Click the plus sign to the right of the page title.
- Select Demographics from the menu.
- Complete the form to configure your field.
Options
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Field Name | Give your field a name. This will be displayed on a subscription form. |
| Demographic Type |
Select one of the following category types:
|
| Default Value | While adding a default value is optional, doing so will ensure that if you use personalization in your message and your contact did not fill out anything, a value will be applied. |
| Selection Type | Define whether contacts can select a single demographic only or multiple. |
| Display Type | Define whether to show the demographics in a drop-down menu or via radio buttons. |
- Click Save to create your Demographic Category field.
NOTE: If your Type is set to Standard, you need to manually add your desired demographic options. If your Type is set to State or Country, these associated demographics are pre-populated for you (you can, of course, delete and add new ones, if needed).
Demographic Categories
The best thing about creating Demographic Categories is that when they're created as Profile Info fields, they automatically become target groups, too. So, for example, if you wanted to send a message out to all of your female contacts, you can easily do this.
Keep in mind that once the Demographic Category is created, you must give careful consideration before deleting it. If it's used in a Data Format or Compound, you'll want to be aware of this. The system will display an error message if you try to delete a Demographic Category that's in use somewhere else.