How to REALLY Find Your Target Market

The topic we’re talking about today is one that people make waaaaay too complicated, so I’m going to break it down for you.

I can’t tell you how many times I receive emails from amazing creatives that go a little something like this:

“I read blog post after blog post that tell me that I need to find my target market, but I can’t find it! Help!”

You’ve heard this advice before, right? You know that you need to ‘find’ your target market and get to know them better than your competition, right? Well, often that’s where the advice stops.

No one pulls back the elusive velvet curtains to explain how to find your target market, so you’re left feeling like the only kid on the playground that doesn’t know the secret.

It’s actually quite simple.

Your target market is the group of people who will buy your products. It’s the group that you direct your marketing at, because those are the people who will hand over their credit cards to get your goodies. It’s basically your customer pool.

Let me give you some examples:

1. You sell handmade, vintage-inspired wedding veils. You’d target brides-to-be who are planning vintage-inspired weddings and appreciate handmade. They want everything about their wedding to be unique and special. They handpick each item carefully.

2. You sell handmade Christmas ornaments. You’d target women who cherish Christmas and appreciate handmade craftsmanship. They decorate every room in their houses and want their decorations to mean more to them than the mass-produced stuff you find at Target. They shop on Etsy regularly and give handmade presents they buy online and at craft fairs to their friends and family for Christmas.

3. You sell personalized, at-home yoga lessons. One of your target markets would be moms of young children who can’t leave their homes to go to the gym because they don’t want to leave their kids. They want to lose their baby weight, but they aren’t interested in hiring a trainer that’s going to yell at them and make them do five hundred squats every session. They want something that’s going to relax them, because they already have hectic lives.

You see how this works? You don’t blindly pick your target market. You want to think about who your product or service makes the most sense for.

And, that’s just the beginning. You need to narrow your focus once you get the general idea of who you’re selling to. For instance, all the examples that I gave above need to be more focused—that’s just the start. This is another stage where entrepreneurs get stuck.

They know generally who they want to sell to, but they don’t know how to narrow their focus without just coming up with random details. This happens for a number of reasons including buying into one of the big target market myths.

Myth #1: You can only have one target market.

Noooooooooo! This isn’t true. Most businesses have more than one target market. I do. My target markets are different for my book, Marketing for Creatives, and the individual consulting sessions that I offer. If you sell different types of products {like modern and vintage jewelry}, then you’re going to have more than one target market. If you sell at completely different price points {like $20 prints and original art that starts at $200}, then you’re going to multiple target markets.

Myth #2: People who aren’t in your target market won’t ever buy your products.

If you’re freaked out about narrowing down who you’re selling to because you don’t want to exclude people, stop freaking out right this minute. First, if you sell to everyone, you sell to no one. I’ve learned this one from experience. Second, just because you decide that you’re selling to a 20 to 25 year-old woman who lives alone with her dog doesn’t mean that a 28 year-old woman who’s married isn’t going to buy your products if they appeal to her. But, you should market to the group who’s most likely to buy your products, because it’s the best marketing strategy. Period.

Myth #3: Once you know your target market, you’re done.

Sorry, but you’re not. The best way to get more specific is to write out an ideal customer profile {and usually you’ll have more than one}. Take your more general target market information and turn it into ONE person. Your ideal customer profile should be an in-depth bio of a potential customer. Then, when you write your next product description, sales page, blog post or email newsletter, write it as if you’re writing it to her. This will completely change the way that you write and it’ll resonate with your target market so much more. Try it and see how magical this is for your business.

Still stuck? I’ve got some more ideas for you:

1. Talk to your customers to get to know them. Yes, you read that correctly. I want you to actually talk to your customers. I bet it’ll be enlightening.

2. Internet stalk your customers. Okay, stalking isn’t good, but this is the harmless kind. Google your customers’ names. Check out their blogs and their social media pages. You can learn so much about the people who buy from you by doing this. Then, take that information and use it in your ideal customer profiles.

If you need even more help ‘finding’ your target market and writing out your ideal customer profiles, check out Marketing for Creatives. I’ve included worksheets, exercises and more that’ll make doing these activities easier.