The Biggest Problem With All the Advice on How to Find Your Target Audience.

They all forgot one thing, and it does bug me.

Every article I have read online about Entrepreneurship and Freelancing talks a lot about finding your target audience. But all those articles don’t tell you how to do that.

I know that you are saying that they do. But what about those who are thinking about or are in the beginning stages of starting a business? That’s what all these gurus and authors forget.

This advice is more toward people who already have a brick-and-mortar store or have had a few customers/clients that they are already working with. It’s not to the person thinking of starting a business from scratch. No wonder most small businesses fail within the first year. There is a lack of information for those just starting to find out who their audience is before they begin. That’s why they think that their product or service is for everyone and forget to do the research. And where do you do that?

For my target market, I know I have to look at statistics for my niche, which is non-existent on the web. I mean in terms of gender, age, and marital status. Then, of course, I could look at my social media stats, but they are also empty. Well, except for my podcast, which is a different niche.

A few years ago, when my show was a few years old, I was signing up for another podcast website when there was a question on who is my target audience. I talked about this with a friend, and they asked me to check out Facebook Insights (My podcast also has a page on there). So, I found out that my target audience were women between the ages of 40 to 54. My secondary audience was men in that same age group. But I don’t know what their salaries are or marital status. The only other thing that I know is that they are interested in anything to do with paganism.

But when I was starting my podcast and posting each episode on Facebook, I did create an Ad asking for those over the age of 18 who are interested in paganism. And I only paid, I think it was five dollars for one or two days to do that.

But I don’t have the money to do it for my Freelance business. I found out that for me to get more people to view my Freelance Facebook page, I would have to spend eight dollars for a week. Which means that I would have to pay $64. However, I am broke and don’t have that kind of money. I am also using LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram for my business, but I don’t know how to find the analytics for those. Maybe I will research that.

I already wrote my idea for another entertainment publication in Thinking About Creating My Own Exciting Medium Publication. But who would be interested in reading it outside of Medium? I am not going to say, everyone. I know that there are people out there who are entertainment fans but hate celebrity gossip publications. And that it’s from the point of view of the fans and those who are not famous working in the industry.

One Possible Solution.

Okay, so here is one of my solutions to this problem. Why doesn’t anyone mention to look at their website and Social Media Analytics? I just found out that my target market on my website are from North America, U.K., and Europe. But that is it. At least that is a start for me. I still have yet to see what my Social Media Analytics are.

There are sites that mention where to find those. I know that Facebook Business Suite has Insights.

As for Instagram, unfortunately, you need to have a business account to find who your target audience is. I don’t have an Instagram account for my business, just a normal one for my writing and podcast. Maybe I should switch those.

As for Twitter, when I was doing an online class learning more about Social Media, I found out that Twitter deleted their demographics in their Analytics page. Otherwise, I do need to do my research to find that out.

I did chat with one entrepreneur who had another idea for a target market. Her business is fashion, and it is a specific type of clothes that she can’t find anywhere else for her to wear. When she decided to create her own clothing store, she considered herself to be the target market. That could be another idea there.

But…

This still doesn’t help those who are considering starting their own business or those who are beginning to do that.

I did check Google and all those other analytic sites and so far, the demographics there are empty.

There should be a website for the those considering as to where and how to find their target market, or what is the best place to look for one. That is what the issue is. Otherwise, don’t just talk about it, but also show them to where to find information on their target audience.

I know that there are stats on the web. But where do you find one about the average person who consumes media, for example. And does that site also include age, gender, marital status, income, etc. Sometimes those stats are hard to read. It’s like they are speaking another language other than English.

I know that you are thinking that new Entrepreneurs should create a survey. But how much does that cost? And speaking from experience, not everyone is willing to fill those out anyway.

Lack of Guidance.

Out of everything that I have read about or learned about when it comes to freelancing, every one just says, “Find your target audience,” but no one says where or shows you how to do that even if you haven’t even started your business yet. That’s what is frustrating about being a Freelancer. This is where I am also stuck. I think that it is time that we all should remember that not all entrepreneurs just all of a sudden create a business out of thin air and then automatically know who their target audience is. Some of us future entrepreneurs are cautious and don’t want to make the mistake of having our business fail within the first year. All because we can’t find the people who connect with us.

So if you are one of those Freelancers who just writes to find your target audience, please show new Content Creators and Entrepreneurs where to do that. And remember, some of them haven’t even put up a website or opened their brick-and-mortar store yet.