Simplify Self Promotion by Narrowing Your Target Market

November 19th, 2009 | Alex Mathers

Online self promotion will be a frustrating and overwhelming task if we haven’t already identified a specific target market to direct our focus towards. Many of us try hard to please various markets. The more the better, right, as there are more clients in larger groups? Actually, in doing this, you are likely to lose focus, get confused and get crushed in trying too hard. Make it easier for yourself by focusing on one, single market.

Your target market is the group of people who will come to enjoy and experience your work upon its completion. With a more focused, single group of end-users to think about, you are better able to develop your niche, produce more focused, higher quality work and be aware of who the kinds of people who will hire you are.

Knowing who might hire your services, based on your identified, focused target market will help you a great deal in going about promoting yourself online, because you will be looking for the right people to expose your work to. This might be in building rapport with individuals through social networking, writing online articles for particular audiences, contributing on forums, commenting on blog posts, and so on.

Be aware that the people that hire you (your clients) are not necessarily the same people in your target market. For example, an author (your client) might hire you to produce work aimed at children (your target market). This example demonstrates how having identified a market will point you in the direction of your clients.

Your target market can also be the clients themselves, such as wealthy individuals buying your paintings. In any case, an awareness of a specific group of people to whom you are ultimately directing your creative work towards, is a crucial part of any successful campaign of self promotion.

Here are some examples of target markets you can think about focusing on:

- Children;

- Non-profit organizations;

- Fashion design firms;

- Punk rock bands;

- Book publishers;

- Wealthy business owners;

- Trendy London teenagers;

- Government agencies etc.

Being clear on your target market is not something that you can do in 5 minutes, and will take some thinking about.

Here’s how to brainstorm your target market. Consider these questions in coming up with an answer:

1. Who are the various groups of people who might use your creative service?

2. Which of these groups do you feel would lead to exciting projects that work with your own interests and working style?

3. Which group(s) do you already know people or clients in?

4. Which group(s) do you have the most knowledge about or would like to learn more about?

5. What are you most passionate about as it relates to your work?

6. What are your strengths and talents?

7. What do you know a lot about within your field?

I’m crediting marketing guru Michael Port for these brainstorming ideas, and someone definitely worth looking into for information on attracting new clients.

I hope for those who haven’t yet considered their focused target market, that you are able to put together some ideas from this post.

Any feedback and comments, is as always very welcome.