Selecting Your Niche Market and Picking Your Target Audience - Arts & Crafts 101

Before you start producing a lot of crafted product, it's a good idea to think about who you're going to be selling it to. Knowing your Niche Market and target audience can really help you along the way.

When you're making crafts to sell, you can usually do one of two things: either you can make items so generic that anyone would want them, or you can specialize and make products for a target audience. Many people find that producing items for a niche market works much better than doing broad appeal products.

So how do you know who your target audience will be? Try to think about the kinds of things you like to make. Do you like to make crafted items for kids? Maybe you prefer doing really nice evening wear, or maybe you want to make items geared toward a particular ethnic background or religion. By thinking about what you like to make and who it would appeal to, you can narrow in on your niche market.

For me, I like making Goth and dark humor oriented designs. It's something that appeals to me, and I'm good at it. Now, some people will make items for a target audience that they're not part of themselves, because they have the skill to do it. That's fine, but it's often easier to market your work if you're a part of the niche market you're aiming your products at. For instance, it's easier to sell jewelry designed for working moms if you're a working mom yourself. I'm Pagan and a bit on the dark side, so it's easier for me to market to those people.

If you're part of the niche market you're targeting, marketing can easily be done by talking about yourself and your work in real life and online groups relating to that market. If you make yourself known, people will become interested in your work. If you're not an active member of your niche market, you will need to learn about them and finds ways to let them know about your products.

Having a target audience is important for more reasons than just marketing. It's also important when you're out looking for materials. If you're making items for kids, you're not going to have a lot of use for Swarovski crystal. If your niche market is geek items, you're going to want to get your hands on computer wire and parts. When you know who you're making products for, you'll know what kind of materials you should and shouldn't buy. When you get only the right materials, you don't waste precious cash on things that are going to sit in your craft case for ages and never get used.

Another thing about target audiences is the fact that some of them aren't getting much product love. There are tons of people making crafted items for moms, teen girls, etc., but how many people are making items for Christian vampires, or fans of That 70's Show? Those are some extreme examples, but it can be worth it to look for niche groups that you may be able to make products for. Maybe there's a lot of stuff out there for working moms, but maybe you can make items for moms working in the legal field. Think about smaller sub-groups of your main target audience. Specialized products can be very popular.

Choosing a niche market is also going to help you to build name recognition and stand out from the crowd. If you're the only person out there making key chains featuring images of major historical events, the history buffs are going to love you, and will spread word of your work to other people with the same interests. Since my niche market is mostly fans of vampires and dark humor, people with those interests know my products and tell other people about them.

So before you start going hog wild producing a huge inventory of handcrafted items or art, think about who you're going to be selling them to. Try to focus in on an audience that you can make really great items for. You'll be happy making things that you love, and your customers will love you for it.