Five Ways to Find your Target Audience

 

When finding a way to promote your crafts, it is important to find a target audience and niche that will be interested in your materials.  This will eliminate time and energy when trying to find the right places to go. 

 

The first thing to look at when deciding who will be interested in your crafts is which audience to focus on and how to keep the new customers that are coming to your site.  This is one of the most important factors which will help with the success of your crafting business.  By finding a specific topic and market that will be drawn to your particular type of craft, you will be successful both in the online market as well as through craft shows.  Following are the top five ways in which you can find your target audience.

 

1.        Market research.  This means figuring out which customers would be most drawn to your crafts.  It also means finding which other crafts are similar to yours, either on the web or in craft shows.  These will be the competitors which you will have to differ from in order to succeed.  Market research also means finding the different attributes of the group of people who would become your target audience.  It is important to understand what their needs will be and how your craft will fit into this.  Another part to this market research is making sure that your target audience is big enough to sustain the income you will make through your crafts, but not too large, as you will not be able to keep up with the supply and demand of the craft. 

2.        Advertising.  Many times, money and time can be wasted on trying to find the right place to advertise, either on the web or in person.  Search engines and providing links to certain websites can help to direct your niche market to your website.  Providing keywords and phrases will catch the attention of your niche market and allow them to move into your website for more information.  Once you have defined who will be attracted to your crafts, you can cater to their needs through using the web.  If you are advertising in person, you can use the same techniques of providing your unique style with your crafts or putting parts of the defined target market into the different advertising techniques. 

3.        Offer something different.  Most consumers and potential target market customers can find basic goods and crafts from larger businesses for cheaper, or from other websites.  When doing your market research and when advertising to your potential customers, make sure that you provide something that is unique and not offered anywhere else on the web or in your community.  This will not only build your potential market, but will allow you room to not have to be competitive with a larger market.  Through providing unique crafts and offers, you will be able to not only attract different people, but will also be able to offer the prices that you want to sell your crafts at, instead of what others are selling theirs at.  This is often times as simple as adding one different product or using a different material in your craft to make it unique. 

4.        Define The Target Market by Demographics.  There are several things to look at when finding those who would be interested in your craft.  The first is the age that would be attracted to buying what you have to offer.  The second is the gender which will be attracted to your product.  Education, income, marital status, ethnicity, and family definitions should all be taken into consideration.  You should also look into their lifestyle, social class, and activities and interests.  By defining all of these different areas, you will be able to determine what part of your craft will work best with it’s uniqueness and where these types of people are most likely to look if on the internet or in your community.  By defining your ideal customer, you will be able to build your craft business easily.

5.        Costs and Providing Information.  The information that you provide after knowing all of the different factors of your niche market and potential customers is what will cause your craft business to either fail or succeed.  The more you let people know about your craft product, the better of a chance you will have at selling things.  The cost is also important information to keep in mind.  This will partly have to do with your target market, but it will also depend on finding the right balance for not advertising your craft as a cheap product, while keeping it cheap enough to not turn customers away.  One way in which defining your product cost can help is by also giving information about the product so that you can sell it for the proper value. 

 

No matter what type of craft you are selling, it is always important to research and know the different factors that should be included when selling your craft.  This will ensure success from your online business or through your local craft selling areas.