The blog is discussing the most important thing you need to know when becoming an illustrator, something more valuable than anything else, your target audience. Many people skip this step or see it as something that doesn't need much attention. Your target audience, however, should be the heart of your business. You should keep referring to this repeatedly, especially when you feel off track. Knowing your target audience is the base for creating suitable adverts, a robust website and stand out social media pages. Without this, you will waste hours targeting anyone and everyone without any results. It lets you put the needs and wants of your audience at the centre of your marketing strategy, ensuring they see your service and, in turn, are more likely to become a paying customer. You would be amazed at how many companies still don't target their audience, knowing your audience is a competitive edge against these businesses.

Fill in the questionnaire below on a piece of paper to help you find your target audience

Since we are all creatives here, you don't have to keep it boring! Why not sketch out in your style your target audience, give them a name, maybe a pet, then add arrows explaining details about them. Pop this proudly on your wall to refer to whenever you need it.

How old are they?
Where do they live?
What gender are they?
What is their main occupation?
What is their rough income?
What are their hobbies and interests?
Where do they like to spend their time?
Which social media platforms do they use?

This may not be appropriate to everyone; however, you can also use your competitors to your advantage and see who their audience is.

Write down five websites, brands, other illustrators like you and see who their target audience is. You can find this out by seeing who follows them on social media, who comments and shares their work. Maybe you can read their blogs. With everything being so transparent these days, use it to your advantage.

Brand/ Business 1.

Brand/ Business 2.

Brand/ Business 3.

Brand/ Business 4.

Brand/ Business 5.

Now you have your target audience; you need to ask yourself some more questions to understand your product perfectly. As we discuss illustration here, we need to determine whether your style has an audience that will turn into a profitable income. If not, don't worry; that's why we do this first before anything else. You can also come back to this later when you better understand your business.

How does my audience benefit from my service?
Are there enough people to buy my service?
Can they afford my service?
Will I be able to reach my audience with my service through marketing?

Now, it's time to dig a little deeper with the above information.

Does your audience benefit from your service?

Think about this one. If you are selling wall memorials to estate agents, you are unlikely to make a sale; sounds obvious, but this is crucial. Just because someone is in the right field with the proper income and on the right social media platforms doesn't mean they will benefit from your services. If you are struggling with this one, ask yourself why you would buy your service, what areas of your life would it change or improve, what problems would it solve? Take the wall memorial example above; you would want to target people who have wall space they can easily agree to be painted. Maybe it's a café owner of a local café, and you specialize in drawing food memorials; your target audience could be café & restaurant owners/deli and smaller food markets.

We need to know if your audience is perfect, so firstly, is your product or service niche enough?

Let me explain. Suppose you are an illustrator, and someone comes to your website looking for an illustrator for their picture book. In that case, however, your website also says you can do magazines, adult book covers, company logos, as well as architecture and garden design; your clients will be confused and head to find someone who specializes in the one thing they are after. However, suppose a client is looking for someone to draw their dog, and your website only says you do dog commissions. In that case, they will be more likely to stick around and book a consultation. It is okay to do more than one thing but keep it limited and keep them connected. Equally, if you find only 40 people that fit your criteria, maybe you should revaluate your target audience to make it bigger.

Can my audience afford my service?

Ensuring your audience can afford your service is essential and tricky in the freelance illustrator business. We will talk more about pricing later but for now, really dive into where your perfect audience sits. If you create children's toys covered in your illustrations, your dream audience isn't the children. It's the parents who buy them. If you are going to local events, are the parents in your area able to afford your prices? If not, you will need to think of new places to sell your items, therefore changing your target audience.

Finally, can you market them?

For pretty much every audience, the answer is unusually yes; however, in 2020, the world changed, and now we need to market a little differently. If you sell hand-painted bookmarks and your biggest client used to be book stores, then now is time to change your target audience. I am not saying forget book shops; however, park them now and focus on a new group of people to keep your sales fluid and maintain business growth. Who brought them from the book store? Who are the locals, and why did they like your bookmarks? You may find that the locals are around 40 and female who spend their time now on Facebook reading groups instead of the bookstore. You can now put your bookmarks in front of this exact audience, widening your reach and opening more sales.

For me my audience is very clear through marketing and selling my services for a few years, I have been able to see a pattern in clients. However, every now and then someone comes along and changes my preconceived ideas of my audience. Keep it in mind that your audience can always move and change, part of being a good business owner is to recognise this and adapt to it.

Understanding Your Market as a Children's Book Illustrator