As a brand designer, it’s imperative that I understand who my clients are targeting. Why? Because knowing your target audience is one of the most important steps to reaching your goals in business. Your target audience is the group of people who want to hear from you, they are interested in what you’re offering, and will be your tribe to rave about how wonderful you are after you’ve worked together. And, as a brand designer, it’s my job to create a visual presence that appeals to your target audience.

Your target audience is gold and it’s important that you make time – whether you’re just starting out in business, or are a seasoned business owner – to understand who your target audience is so you can reach those dream goals you have in your business. I’ll be sharing 5 ways to identify your target audience AND your ideal client, so read on if this is something you struggle with or want some guidance with.

“Understanding your target audience in business is like using flour to bake a cake. It’s kinda important.”

— RUTHANN

Ok so how does one go about finding out who their target audience is. 

First off, let me explain. All these terms: target audience, ideal client, dream client, they are all interchangeable except one refers to a group and the other refers to an individual. Knowing both is important and for today we’ll be discussing both, starting out from a group of people and moving in to an individual. So let’s dive in!

Ways to discover your target audience:

1. Do some market research 

I have a list of questions I like to ask my branding clients as we identify their target audience such as:

Who are you uniquely positioned to help with your service? How is your approach different than other coaches or service-providers? What is your USP (unique selling proposition) that makes you stand out from other service-providers?

Asking these basic questions as you get started is important so you know where you stand with your offer in the marketplace. One of the main things you want to do is see where you’re different and how you help a specific group of people and capitalize on that.

THEN GO INTO QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE SUCH AS:

• Do they run companies?

• Are they a solopreneurs? 

• What industry are they in? 

• Are they women?

• What is their income?

• What do they do in their free time?

• What do they really want in their life?
  
  
  

It’s fine to start broad with your questions but as you go, one of the best things you can do is get more specific. This way you can start to niche down on your target audience. 

Google defines niching down as denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population. The reason this can be so valuable is because when you narrow in on a small selection of the population you have a better chance of standing out from the crowd and become the industry expert of that specialization. Once some good market research is complete, go on to number 2.

2. Who are 3 dream clients you would love to work with?

When I was starting R Artspace, I had several people in mind who I really wanted to work with, and having those people in mind really gave me something to strive for and a reason to reach out to them. 

I’m sure there are some people who you would love to work with. Who are they? The nice thing about this part of the exercise, is this gives you a chance to dream about the people you would love to work with and no one is off limits. Once you have your people, write down some characteristics about them, what’s their personality like? Why are you wanting to work with them? How is the interaction with working with them? Do they align with the answers you came up with in question no. 1?

Having real people who you want to work with is a great source of inspiration and drive as you grow your business. You never know what could happen if you reach out and see if they would like to work together.

3. Does your offer align with the needs of your target market?

At this point, a good rule of thumb is to review your offer and who you’ve identified as your target market. Do they align? Does it make sense with who you’re targeting and what you’re offering? For example, if you’re a health coach targeting stay-at-home moms who want to eat healthily and your offer is in-person food coaching, that might not be the easiest for them. Perhaps offering online coaching and phone support would work best with your target audience.

Make sure your audience/client and your offer go hand-in-hand. You want your offer to be the obvious and immediate solution to your client’s problem.

4. Who are 3 of your favorite past clients?

This is an exercise I did over a year ago and it was really helpful. Identifying 3 people who you’ve already worked with is SO helpful cause you can identify personality traits, reasons they made the process wonderful, and more. 

What do they have in common?

How are they similar, what personality style do they have? How do they approach your offer? What do they love about working with you? Understanding these things can help you reach more wonderful clients just like them!

5. Give your ideal client a name (if they are not a real person)

Once you have your dream clients, past clients, and target audience, now it’s time to narrow in and identify 1 person who you want to work with and give them a name.

This one person can be real or fictitious but the idea is, when you have your person in mind, THEN you write marketing materials just for them. This includes your website copy, Instagram captions, Facebook posts, etc. 

Narrowing down and writing for say, Jennifer, makes writing a whole lot easier and you can get specific about what she needs as a consumer. 

At this point you may be thinking “what if I drive other people away in the process cause I’m being so specific?” Honestly, that’s what you’re going for. You want to attract and repel. Attract those wonderful, made-for-you clients and repel those clients who won’t be a good fit. 

I hope this post was helpful to you! 

Have you identified your target audience or target client?

What roadblocks come up for you as you narrow in on your target audience?