Finding a market
Finding a market, deeply understanding their problems, and tailoring your pitch to provide a solution is one of the keys to success in any business.
This is something that many freelancers overlook early on, resulting in extremely generic pitches.
Consider your target market to be your ideal client. It's the type of person for whom you built your company — the ones who will pay for your services.
Unfortunately, too many freelancers offer services without first considering who will buy them, and it's not as simple as looking at who is buying from other freelancers because you have your own set of skills and expertise.
You also can't market to "everyone." According to Brent Jones:
When your branding speaks to everyone, it speaks to no one.
Knowing who your target market is will help you:
Determine how and where to promote your services
Refine your message to attract the right type of client
Maximize sales and command higher rates
Going through this process essentially saves you time and money on marketing because you'll have a better understanding of how to connect with those who will buy from you. You can also charge more for your knowledge of a particular industry.
For example, I know a guy who designs landing pages for local gyms. He’s not a general design guy. He's more than just a local design expert. Instead, he went way more specific, and when his potential clients learn about that specific offer, they are more likely to choose him over a generalist designer who "designs landing pages".
While you may not immediately choose your exact niche and offer, you should consider becoming more specific and appealing to a smaller audience. One of my early mistakes as a designer was simply advertising myself as a designer. This broad "appeal to everyone" philosophy only hampered me.
Later, I constrained myself to mobile app design only, which was preferable because my clients were much more satisfied with my specific expertise. Finally, I narrowed my focus even further and designated myself as a "mobile app designer for digital health products," which digital health companies, predictably, appreciated.
Once you've identified a market, it's time to conduct extensive research. Participate in forums, join Facebook groups, snoop on freelancers/agencies in your niche, and make phone calls to business owners solely to gather information rather than to sell anything.
You want to figure out what is causing your target client pain. Is it sacrificing profits? Is it a lack of technological knowledge on their part? Is there anything you can do to make them more profitable or less insecure/frustrated?
These are the questions you should ask yourself and respond to. Once you've done so, you'll be able to craft a killer pitch that converts well. Cold emails, LinkedIn connection requests, Upwork applications, social media profile bios, sales calls, and other activities may be included.
The main point here is to not think about yourself or what you have to offer. Instead, consider what your client desires, what bothers them, and what they would pay someone very good money to have taken off their plate. When you have that answer, you can sell and deliver the best solution possible.
Here's how you can define your market
Start with the following tips to help draw a clear picture of your target market.
Define the problems you solve
As a freelancer, you don’t just offer a service; you solve a problem.
People don’t just hire freelance designers because they want a pretty website. They hire them to optimize their design for user-friendliness and higher conversion rates.
It’s not just about the service. It’s about the benefit.
Once you’ve defined your benefits, you can better understand who would hire you to solve their problems.
For example, I don’t just design apps for businesses. I help businesses grow their revenue by making people engage with apps, converting visitors into paid users, and keeping retention rates high.
Start by listing out the types of problems you solve, and then beside each one, list who struggles with that problem.
Big businesses?
Small businesses?
Individuals on a budget?
In what industry?
In what country?
Don’t be afraid to dig deep.
Consider who other freelancers are targeting
Is there a freelancer you look up to? Then you could draw inspiration from them. You can use this technique to define both where you want to go and where you don’t want to go with your business.
Let’s say you’re a freelance designer. You might connect with other designers and see that one of your connections specializes in design for financial mobile apps.
You realize you love designing financial mobile apps and would be thrilled to work with people in this niche. You now have a better idea of who you might target your services to.
On the other hand, let’s say you connect with a designer who creates data management products for big businesses of 1,000 employees or more.
Perhaps you don’t feel you have the skills or interest to work with big businesses. Now you can cross that target market off your list of possibilities.
As you go through this process, keep an eye out for niches other freelancers may have overlooked. You may be able to tap into a target market that few people are servicing. The idea here isn’t to copy what other freelancers are doing but to use them as inspiration.
Look internally at your skills and services
Because no two freelancers are the same, you may not be a good fit for certain markets even if others like you work in them.
Look internally at your own skills and services.
Do you have experience working with a specific market?
Do you have special skills that would appeal to a certain type of person?
Do you have unique knowledge or training in a specific area?
Are there any skills you don’t have that would rule out a specific market?
For example, if you’re a designer with the skills to build custom Squarespace themes, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can build a full e-commerce platform for the next Fortune 500 company.
When I started the freelance design, I chose digital healthcare niches because I have a deep love for the healthcare industry. As my business grew, and so did my knowledge, I transitioned to targeting other clients from the same niche because I had developed the unique knowledge to service them.
Even if you don’t have formal education in a specific area, you should be able to narrow the special skills or interests you have that will appeal to a specific market.
Narrow your target audience’s demographics and psychographics
Once you've determined who will buy your product and who you want to work with, it's time to narrow down your target demographics and psychographics. This will give you a better idea of who you're marketing to.
Demographics include:
Age
Gender
Geographical location
Education level
Income level
Occupation
Psychographics include:
Interests/hobbies
Personality
Values and beliefs
Lifestyle
Knowing these characteristics will help you understand where your target audience hangs out (so you can find and market to them), what aspects of your service will appeal to them, and what influences their decisions.
Drawing a "buyer persona" of your target audience is a good practice. This is essentially a description of a semi-fictitious person in your target market.
A buyer persona is a fictional character with a fictitious age, name, job title, and so on, but this character's persona is based on real research about your target market and existing clients.
Evaluate the market you’ve defined
Before you can give your buyer persona the final stamp of approval, you have to evaluate whether the target market you’ve defined is a viable one.
Ask yourself questions like:
Are there enough people in this market to keep my business afloat? If you’re a web designer targeting lawyers in your city of residence, you may have to expand your geographical target area to find enough clients.
Does my target audience see a need for my service? If you’re a freelance blogger targeting mom-and-pop restaurants, they may not see the value in blogging and may be hard to convince.
Can my target audience afford my services? If you’re a social media marketer targeting other freelancers, you may have difficulty finding those with budgets large enough to hire you for ongoing work.
Are they easy to reach? If you can’t contact your target audience, they’ll never know your services exist. Be sure your ideal audience is accessible, ideally through an online platform if you’ll be working remotely.
Would I enjoy working with this market? One of the great things about freelancing is that you have control over who you work with.
So just because you have a background as a paralegal, for instance, doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy working for legal clients. Consider what will make you happy in your career.
Wrapping It Up
Identifying your target market isn’t just about picking what type of person you want to work with. It’s also about determining who is most likely to buy from you.
But if your target audience doesn’t seem to “fit” with your offer, you’re either targeting the wrong market, or you’re making the wrong offer.
Remember: You can have multiple target markets, and you can change who you market to as your business and skills evolve.
If you’re struggling to identify your target market as a new freelancer, I want you to put the above tips to practice.
Organize your questions and ideas in a document, spreadsheet, or other areas to really dig into the suggestions laid out here.
Look deep into your target market to effectively figure out your path as a freelancer.