Do you know who your target audience is? If your answer is “everyone”, keep reading.

Before I embark on a design project, I ask my client who their target audience is. This gives me a general idea of the design style I will use when creating their marketing material.  It’s a relief when my client can actually give me a detailed description of who their customer is.

Most times when people begin their business, they want their “target audience” to be everyone.  When everyone is your target audience, there is no actual target.

If a photographer wants to cater to everyone, they must be able to photograph food, nature, pets, families, fashion models, music artists, products, etc.

If an event planners want to plan events for everyone, they must be able to plan baby showers, bachelor parties, anniversaries, engagement parties, birthdays for babies, birthdays for kids, birthdays for adults, etc.

[Tweet “You don’t need to offer everything to everyone to make money.”]

There’s an initial mindset that if you don’t offer everything, you won’t get every customer possible.  Offering everything doesn’t mean that everyone will do business with you. It’s important to remember that while you “could” offer a wide range of things, you shouldn’t.  Highlighting what you specialize in rather than trying to reel everyone in as a customer, works out better for your and potential customers in the end. Most clients wish to hire an specialist – someone who is highly skilled in a particular subject of their field.

Before getting into the meat of how and why we should find our niche and target market, we need to a.) acknowledge that they are two separate things and b.) define what each means.

A niche is the specialized product or service you offer to your ideal customer.
A target market (or target audience) is the ideal client or customer looking for what you have to offer.

In short, your niche is your very specific “what” while your target market is your very specific “who”. Once you identify one, you have a more clear understanding of the other.  For most people, they decide on their what and then decide how would like it.

Find a specific group of people that you like working with and that like working with you.  This eliminates wasting time and money by trying to market to a wide range of people who aren’t interested in your services (or who I’m not interested in servicing).

Narrow down what you do into what you do well.

Just because you may be a photographer doesn’t mean you photograph babies well.  If you offer services that you don’t excel in, you increase the chances of giving yourself and your business a bad reputation.  People don’t pay for mediocrity, so don’t offer it.

When you go from being a “Jack of all trades” to the King or Queen of your specialty, that’s when the real money begins to flow.

For a long time, I tried to convince myself that my niche was corporate marketing and design and my audience consisted of white males ages 45 and up.  That couldn’t have been further from the truth!  Looking back, I just laugh at the thought of it.  Trying to market to someone who wasn’t part of my target audience meant no one was willing to pay for my services.  When I finally became honest with myself, that’s when I began to notice a consistent flow of income.  So how did I find my niche and target market?  I looked at who my money was coming from and what they were purchasing.

Even at a glance, it’s quite obvious that my target market is NOT a white male. After I determined who (my target market), I pointed out the similarities in their personalities and acknowledged what they’re paying for.  And that’s when I realized what my niche was.  Each of these women wanted to help people through content such as speaking, workshops, books, etc.

My primary audience: African American women with college degrees ages 28 – 45 looking to monetize their personal brand through premium content.
My niche: Brand identity & website design for personal brands of African American Women. (Update 11/2/2015: Strategy coaching + informational products for content creators)

Note: Just because you attract a specific audience doesn’t mean you have to turn business from people you don’t normally attract. It’s up to you.

Ironically enough, my clients and I share similar audiences.  I point out that fact to say, just because you and another business may have the same target market, does not mean you have to do what they do.  I won’t be coaching women on how to save money or teaching them how to heal from their past.  Moreover, just because you and another business share a similar niche, does not mean your audience is the same.  This is where I made my mistake.  I got so caught up in researching what other branding coaches were doing that I fooled myself into thinking that my audience was someone they weren’t.

Note: If you and another business have a similar audience but different product offering, that’s a great opportunity for collaboration.

To be honest, I think I fooled myself for so long because I thought that’s where the money would come from, but in reality,  you make more money when you find who is willing to pay for your services.  That’s why finding your target market is important.

Here’s a play by play on how to find your niche and target audience:

1. Look over your client list.

2. Decide who you love working with. Decide who you dread working with. The ones you love generally have something in common.

3. Look over the products and services they receive from you.

4. Decide which of those services or products you enjoy selling to them.  Decide which one of those products or services you dislike.

Bam! There you have it.

The type of people you like working with (that willingly pay for your products or services) determines your target market.  The products or services you primarily sell is your niche. Don’t restrict yourself to doing what you think you should be doing.  I did that, and I was broke and unhappy.  Why work for yourself if you’re not going to do what you love and get paid for it?!

Grab this free workbook from my Content Creation Class!