Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2019 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
The significance of audience targeting through design
Finding your design niche
Let’s start with definitions:
The target audience for graphic designers is:
Those individuals or organisations within the larger target market who have been identified as the intended recipients of your design’s message.
The term “target audience” refers to the specific set of people who are expected to buy a company’s product or use your services.
Determining who you’re trying to reach is essential in both business and graphic design.
In a previous article, we explored some strategies for graphic designers to assess their customers using a target audience assessment. Understanding your target impacts your design; it helps you create designs that speak the client’s language and answers the client’s and users’ needs.
We will explore specific tactics for graphic designers working independently. Defining your target audience is one of the most significant responsibilities because it serves as the basis for assembling your focus group.
The majority of graphic designers begin their careers as freelancers since it allows them to showcase their abilities while gaining experience. and construct a reputation. Later on, they pursue specialisation and strive to become art directors, creative leads, or user experience designers at agencies.
Who needs a graphic designer?
There’s a common misconception that graphic designers are only needed by big businesses with huge advertising budgets. But the truth is, that graphic designers can be useful for companies of all sizes. In fact, even if they don’t have a big advertising budget, a graphic designer can still help them in a number of ways.
First, a graphic designer can help a business create a unique and recognizable brand identity. They can help a business develop a logo, choose colours and fonts, and create other visual elements that will make the brand stand out.
Second, a graphic designer can help a business create marketing materials that get results. They can design eye-catching flyers, brochures, and even website graphics that will help the business promote its products or services and attract new customers.
Third, a graphic designer can help a company save money in the long run. By investing in a professional designer, they will be investing in a problem solver and communicator to take complex information and turn it into easy-to-understand visuals.
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The graphic designer audience
Graphic designers cannot simply target “everyone” or “anyone who needs graphic design” as their audience. Freelance designers need to specify their target group in order to identify, understand, and reach them through marketing. The more specific the target group is, the more designers need to focus in order to satisfy their specific needs.
Keep in mind that targeting a specific group does not mean you are restricted to that niche – they are your main focal point, but other people can still interact with you.
The more precisely graphic designers can target their customers, the higher their conversion rates will be.
Why should freelance graphic designers choose a niche?
When you work on your own, it’s important to be able to concisely describe what you do and who you do it for. This helps you to be clear about your work, communicate with your clients, attract more customers, and focus on the things you excel at.
As you test your strength and hone your skills, you figure out what you’re good at and specialise in that area. Consider the detail of a niche as paramount. It’s important to have a specialty and focus on that specialty. Giving primary focus to a niche now will prevent the need for a rebrand later. It will also make it easier for clients to refer your job to other people, online or by word-of-mouth.
When searching for a designer to create a brochure for your corporation, which type would you choose? One that is an amateur with a smattering tech knowledge or one that focuses on designing books and magazines. A freelance graphic designer should construct a portfolio intending to gain trust and authority.
Use your niche to stand out from the competition
Designers are commonly chosen based on trust, authority, quality, and reputability. Knowing your clientele will help you focus on some key qualities to make yourself more appealing to them. By focusing on your niche and becoming an expert in it, you will differentiate yourself and be more attractive to potential clients.
PEOPLE LOOKING FOR DESIGNERS NORMALLY RELY ON TRUST, AUTHORITY, QUALITY AND REPUTABILITY.
Is it possible to niche too much?
The chosen niche is not set in stone. The designer should be willing to adapt, change and evolve over time. This is natural for businesses as they grow and change to meet the needs of the market.
Many times, transitioning from one niche to another involves reworking the brand, specifying the reasons, what you are offering and how you will do it. As a precaution, you should change the social media, blog and website focus immediately to centre on the new niche.
How to select the niche
There are a few things to consider when selecting a graphic designer niche as the best graphic design niche for you will depend on your individual skills and interests. However, consider what kinds of design you enjoy creating the most. Do you like working with photos, illustrations, or typography?
Next, think about what types of designs are in demand. If you choose a niche that is in high demand, you’ll be able to find work and make good income. Finally, consider your skill level and career stage.
The following steps ensure ways to select niches and attract relevant clients:
Define the USP – Unique Selling Point
If you want to succeed in online business, you can’t just hope that customers will take the time to figure out what makes you special. You need to make it immediately clear what your selling point is, and why they should trust you.
Your selling point is the most important aspect of your website. In just a few seconds, you need to give them a reason to stay on your site and learn more about what you have to offer.
Crossover skills are valuable in the niche
Specialised abilities, previous work experiences, decision-making, oral and written communication knowledge, problem-solving, organisation, technology abilities, and others are distinct advantages over the competition and should be emphasised.
Draw a unique story
You probably didn’t think you’d need to know how to sell yourself as a designer. Simply being a talented designer isn’t enough in today’s market. All over the web and other media, millions upon millions of talented designers are flooding our feeds.
Many people have stories that set them apart from others. Our experience matters. These stories form a personal world understanding and inspire others.
Who, then, stands out among the many talented designers who aren’t recognised? Yes, but how exactly?
Highlight passion projects
As you work on building your personal brand, be sure to prominently feature your favourite passion projects in your marketing material and your website. This will be a great example of what you have to offer, and it will help highlight the thinks you enjoy and make them personal. You will be able to appeal to a wide range of people and build a strong relationship with your audience.
Make your niche profitable
Getting paid to perform what we enjoy is the ideal job. If the market segment is promising, you should focus on it. If the speciality isn’t profitable, though, you should go elsewhere. And locate a market segment prepared to pay a premium for your offerings. You could use your expertise in that area of interest that doesn’t pay the bills to undertake community service, but you should focus on an area of expertise that does pay the bills instead.
7 effective strategies to get new graphic design clients
For those working in the field of freelance graphic design, this is the most intriguing query. Where can they locate potential customers who would be interested in their offerings?
The more precisely the graphic designer identifies their audiences, the greater chance they will have of successfully communicating with them. An effective audience research, using your means and the many tools technology offers, will provide an efficient way to pursue those individuals who are most interested in your offerings.
1. Compile data on current clients
Identify those who are already utilising your services and enter their attributes and data into a database with averages and trends. Developing buyer personas is an enhancement to this process. They make it easy to identify who is interacting with you.
2. Check the website and social media analytics
Using analytics tips from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Snapchat, for instance, you may determine who interacts with you, even if they are not customers.
3. Check the competition
Is your competition targeting the same market sectors as you? Or other segments you did not anticipate? What are their positioning strategies? There are a variety of SEO research tools that can assist you discover the keywords used by your competition and identify developing or niche markets. These tools include SpyFu.com, Alexa.com, SimilarWeb.com, and Trends.google.com, among others.
4. Clarify your product's worth to your clients.
Customers appreciate knowing about the benefits and features of your items. Will it make their lives simpler? Better? More interesting? Assessing and comprehending the significance of your design is the first step towards having profitable enjoyment.
5. Create a target market statement
Create a brand positioning statement to define your target market to guide your marketing efforts. Make a target market statement for each product (or product category) you offer.
6. Include your target market into social ads
Create social and/or organic advertisements tailored to the stated target audience. Are the advertisements localised? Does the image make sense to the intended audience?
7. Add lessons to target audience research
The results from including the target market into ads should produce additional results to the first ones you This is normal. People change. Target market changes. Revisit this audience research regularly to ensure you are still covering the most valuable potential customers.
😕 Obstacle
There are instances when we devote time and resources to a field that ultimately does not benefit us. Exactly what shall we do? Is there a lot of room for error? I would look into whether or not other people in that field are successfully operating a low-priced enterprise, and then study those competitors to see what you can learn from them (not mimic them, of course). Learn from their experiences and their mistakes, but don’t let them define you.
Working with clients
"If you don’t plan on creating your business, then you plan on being broke.”
Consistency is crucial. Once you’ve chosen your speciality, be clear about your goals and how you will communicate your service. Establish the characteristics of your service and the advantages it will provide to your customers. Be explicit about that. Remember that the market is competitive. Determine what motivates your audience to respond and design your service accordingly.
Once you’re confident that you understand your audience and your objective, you can begin the design process. Utilize all the underlying theories of excellent design to make your design clear and effective.
Maintain the visual hierarchy that you, as a designer, possess and communicate with order and cleanliness to the target market, engaging with the customer through language and tone. Always keep in mind that your objective is to “move the people” (Kendra Gaines).
How to define your target audience: a summary
It implies that you must connect with people utilising psychographics (traits, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyle) concepts. Utilize the visual design as a call-to-action to encourage the consumer to respond to your message.
To operate as graphic designers, we must comprehend marketing strategies and tailor our visual work accordingly. It is laborious and time-consuming. Be careful to work intelligently and diligently. Your business and your clients depend on your ability to create compelling graphics.
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