How do you decide who your target market is or should be?

To give you an example, I'll share with you how I determined who needed and valued my branding services and some tips for how to better define your target audience.

What Do Your Best Clients Have in Common?

When I started offering branding  and branding photography, I knew every business could benefit from professional branding photography, but not everyone would be ready to hire WorkStory.

So how do you know if I'm the right branding agency for you?

As I was doing my business planning I kind of guessed at first about who our target market was. I was like, who needs branding and photography content for their business?

Well, pretty much any business really could use what I have to offer but as I quickly discovered, not every business needed specifically what I had to offer, and not every business was willing to pay for what I had to offer. So, I started just putting it out there and I paid attention to what people would say to me who hired me and what they had in common.

I started to look at who hired me, who was willing to pay for it, who valued it, and could really use it.

Surprisingly most of my clients are all from a different industry. I have very few clients who are all dentists, for example, or chiropractors. Most of my clients do something different. So, obviously my target market isn’t just dentists, which I could take that and run with it and just market to dentists (that would actually probably be easier) but I found that my target market, my ideal client, have some very specific things in common. 

Are you rebranding, remodeling or redoing your website?

Number one: I discovered that a lot of people hire me when they are rebranding, remodeling their office, or redoing their website. They have been in business for a while, their brand is a little rusty and old and so they’re stepping it up a notch. They are cleaning things up. They want to look more modern. They want to hire me to make their image online look as amazing as they are in person and to really communicate what product or service they offer.  

Have you been in business for awhile?

Number two: I noticed, most of my clients have been in business for a while. The start-up phase, I feel like they know they need an amazing brand image but they aren’t always ready to pay for a professional. So a lot of times they’ll DIY it or they will get a friend to do their photos, website and brand identity to start. Kind of “launching ugly”. Then, down the road when they have been in business for a few years and they have revenue coming in, then they are ready to outsource that to a professional who is really going to save them time and create something really amazing for them.  

Do you need a lot of visual content for your marketing?

Number three: People hire me who need a lot of content. So let’s say they’re doing content marketing, like blogging or on Instagram. They need lots of images and they want them created in advance so that don’t have to think about it and they can just batch create all of this content. Or they’re creating online courses and launching online products like that where they have a funnel and need a lot of visuals, branding and a website for that. 

Do you want to look good in your marketing?

Number four: My clients want to look good online. They want people who come to their website or their social media to get a really clear message and a good first impression. So a lot of times, if it’s a company where that is really important to them and they really value that, maybe they aren’t in the higher revenue bracket. Most of my clients are bringing in at least a million dollars or multi-million dollars of revenue into their business, but I will have some hire me who aren’t quite there yet but they know it’s really important to them to have an amazing image online. 

Those seem to be the commonalities that my clients have. I’m not necessarily looking for a certain industry, it’s more a type of client who has those needs and those are the needs that I can fill for them. So, that is one way that you could determine your target client. Just start offering what you are offering and then take a look at the people who are hiring you and see what they have in common. 

Look at Your Analytics

You could also look at your analytics. This is one reason I ask questions a lot before you hire me and then after. That was one way I was able to determine what a lot of these people have in common, outside of just talking to them. Asking them, what is your revenue? It could be a determining factor for your ideal client, as well as where they’re from and what they’re doing.

Ask a Lot of Questions

Asking questions and looking at analytics will give you an idea of ages, where they’re from and what they do.  If you really want to get into numbers you could go down to the Spokane library, they can help you look up some detailed information about your target market. If you’re not in Spokane,  those resources are probably available either through the small business administration and maybe your public library.

Why It's Important to Define Your Target Market

So I hope that helps you in determining who your target market is and why it’s important. In my meetings with clients and pre-planning, we will often talk about who your ideal client is what kind of things you want to communicate to them because that’s going to help me and you determine what kind of things we’re going to put in your photographs. Every single thing that’s in a photograph is communicating something. Knowing your target market is really important for helping us determine what to put in your images.