How To Identify Your Target Market

ANNI HAMER

Web and Graphic Designer and Owner of Flying Fox Creative

One of the questions I always ask in my initial consultation with businesses that have hired me to do any kind of creative work (be-it Branding, Graphic Design, Web Design or any services we offer here at Flying Fox Creative) is, “What is your target market?” “Who is your ideal client”. More often than not, the answer will be, “anyone who can use my service” Yes, that is an excellent place to start, but so many choices rely so heavily on those two questions, that casting such a broad net will probably do more harm to your business than good. Even the best of designers and creatives can’t please absolutely everyone. Even something as simple as font choice of your logo boils down who you are “dressing to impress”. I would say knowing who you are marketing your business to is the number one key to the success of any business. But, working out who and where those ideal clients are can be a bit tricky. You can use the following tips to work out, for yourself, who you should be marketing to.

““If you want to create messages that resonate with your audience, you need to know what they care about.””

Nate Elliott, Marketing Technology Advisor

Know  the “WHY” of your business…

Why do you do what you do? I don’t mean for the big house, fancy car and the 3 vacations a year. I mean why are you passionate about what you do? Going into business for yourself is a scary prospect for anyone, so there must be something about what you do that made you take that leap-of-faith. For example, my why is because when it comes down to it, I love to help people. I have always been a little on the cooky and creative side, and I knew from an early age that things that I saw things differently from most people. Creativity and Design come completely natural to me. Yes, I worked hard on developing my skills over a number of years, but I was helping with ad campaigns by the time I was 10 years old. It was fun and exciting for me (and still is) using my creativity to connect businesses to people. I also love to problem solve. Maybe not so much for the problem-solving process, but the rush I get from working something out is something I just can’t live my life without, so why not use it to make a living?

So sit down and work out on paper why you do what you do, and that will lead you to the next stage of identifying your target market. 

Personas

When I first started in business I was given the advice by a good friend who was already established with her business to know the ends and outs of the one single customer that fits your business like a hand in a glove. Know everything about that person and anything that you do to brand and market yourself should be for her/him. This is known as a persona. Where do they shop, what are their needs and grievances, are they male or female. An example of this is a lady that sells floral subscriptions. Her persona shops at Jager, so she has a range of Jager tops that she uses when she is being photographed or videoed in a business capacity. Would she wear them outside of that? Probably not, but the ideal client would think, “hey I have that top, this person is like me, they understand me…I am going to go with them…”

There are programs that you can use to create your persona, like the one you can find xtensio.com. Xtensio is completely free, and you can really have fun creating your ideal client. Just be sure that there is a reason behind why you are choosing to include in your persona. For example, if your personal is over 40 she has likely to have something in her wardrobe from Marks and Spencer.

“Use personas to identify traits of your Target Market. ”

These two tips are everything when you are trying to determine the market you would like to target. They are quite simple to do, but will help A LOT! With a clearly defined target persona, it is so much easier to determine what your branding should look like abd where and how to market your company. 

Anni Hamer

Anni Hamer

Head Vixen

Take a 5'3ft bundle of creative enthusiasm, and stir it up with a passion for affordable design with a pinch of glitter; you stumble upon her, an art-directing, designing, blogging, coding, WordPressing fairy.

She has over 20 years of experience in Web Design and creating using the Adobe Suite. Recently, she graduated from UCLAN School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences where she obtained a degree in Computing Science. Graduating with Merit, she studied such subjects such as: Advanced Web Development, Databases, Rapid Application Development, c++ and UX Design.

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