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Choosing Your Audience



Now that you have an understanding of what a niche audience is (if not, read this first), it's time to dive deeper. Learn how to recognize a bullseye niche, the best practices when researching a potential niche, and how you can start to build a relationship with the niche you've identified. Let's get started!



This quote holds true for creators, too. The best way to start considering which niche to pursue is to always begin with YOU!



You can devise the most nuanced marketing strategy, but if your designs don’t appear genuine, and your audience just can’t connect with them, then it’s all a waste of time. So take a minute to think of your own passions and interests, and how you can bring soul to your designs.

Some questions to get the wheels turning:

  • Are there any hobbies or interest groups you’re passionate about?
  • Are there any social or humanitarian movements that inspire you?
  • Is there a current issue in the world today that you want to bring to light?
  • Are there any trending topics you want to jump on while they’re hot?

There’s not one right answer. What we’re trying to accomplish here are potential niches to consider, and we're not ruling any out just yet. Once you’ve narrowed down the topics to only a select few, then you start considering if this is a sizeable community, and if it's worth investing in.



Remember, what we’re looking for in an audience is the ‘bullseye niche’ we covered in the previous lesson. You want to start trimming down those outer rings until all that remains is the center: that will be your niche.

Here are some Do's and Don'ts to help get you started:






  • DO LOOK FOR NICHE AUDIENCES WITHIN EXISTING GROUPS

    You DO want to hyper-target within groups to find a core group of enthusiasts that will allow you to hit the ground running. The buzz is already there, so there’s no need to build interest from the ground up. Examples of hyper-targeted groups:

    - Female firefighters that are moms
    - Corgi lovers in Minnesota
    - Pregnant moms who do yoga


  • DON'T TARGET VERY BROAD INTEREST GROUPS AND GENERAL FANS

    You DO want to target die-hard loyalists who love to show off their passions. Keep your focus narrow. Examples of groups that are too broad:
    - Firefighters
    - Dog lovers
    - People who do yoga

  • DO INVEST IN YOUR OWN INTERESTS

    DO choose a niche that you are incredibly passionate about. What is your ‘soap box’ topic? What are you willing to stand up and speak out about? Pick what you’re interested in and the rest will fall into place.

  • DON'T LISTEN TO NAYSAYERS

    DON’T listen to critics and faultfinders that will try and rain on your parade. As long as you’ve done your research and you’re confident in your work, then go for it!



How Big Is My Niche?

Once you’ve narrowed your focus down to a niche(s), you’ll want to get a sense of how sought-after your niche is by using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and Google Trends.

Although you’re narrowing your focus to a specific subset of interests, you want to make sure the market is large enough to warrant your time and effort in creating products targeted to them. Also, play around with a combination of relevant words and terms when using these tools, especially if your terms are getting low results. For example, ‘dog’ and ‘canine’ may mean the same thing, but when searching, the terms can act very differently.



Learn More about Your Niche?

Lastly, you want to find out where your audience hangs out or socializes. If you already know, since you yourself are a member of this niche, then awesome! You’re ahead of the game!

If not, then a great place to start is a simple Google search with your niche group as the root search term. Something along the lines of this:

niche + associations

niche + forums

niche + groups

niche + magazines

niche + fans

niche + blog

niche + community

Dive in and get to know your niche! Review anything online about them, learn their interests, and make connections. The better you understand them and the more you interact with them, the better your products will turn out.

Just remember to write down everything you’ve learned from them; you’ll need it for what’s next.



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What Kind of Creator Are You?

Choosing Your Audience

Building Your Buyer Personas



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