Getting to Know Your Audience (Demographics)
 A common mistake most artists make is to claim that they are not business people.
Although I can contend that making a living from your art or music or film or book is not the first thing that enters your mind during your creative process, once the work is done, I will bet that it's at least the second! Can you imagine what it would be like to work on your art as a full time job; to make enough money from your art, music, film or book to pay your rent and bills? To do that, you must take on a seperate persona that is business minded; a persona that is willing to speak of your art in business terms.
By the new definition as created by these changing times, mostly in part due to the wide spread use of the Internet, an artist or band is now, today, to be considered a sole-proprietor
business owner, sales and marketing agent all rolled into one. Getting
over this mental hurdle is the first step towards getting in touch with potentially milllions of Internet users who are waiting to fall in love with your art or music. All
consumers, whether shopping for a new pair of shoes, a box of cereal or
your CD, book, DVD, original painting or print all have one thing in common: they are looking for the best deal.
Do not cringe at the idea of thinking of your art
or music as a product because it is crucial that you understand that this is how your audience will think about it, whether consciously or subconsciously.
The term used by marketing firms and ad agents everywhere for knowing and understanding your audience is demographics. Demographics refers to the characteristics of the people that will respond the best to (and thusly buy) your "product". In other words, if you are selling men's athletic shoes, your demographic might be young, males between the age of 15 and  24, with an income between $18,000 and $34,000 a year, who have a keen interest in team sports. As a better example, the demographic for an emerging heavy metal band from Boston that's just released their first CD might be young, rebellous youth between the ages of 13 and 25, that make (or have parents that make) an income between $12,000 and $40,000 a year, and that have a keen interest in frequenting live shows by other local, east coast metal bands. Your demographics can also include a list of likes that your audience has that are similar to your work, such as popular bands that have a similar sound or style as you.
The second part to understanding
your audience is understainding why people shop online at all. What is
it that makes people willing to spend money online, where they cannot
hold or touch the product before they buy it? To answer this question, think about this: We live in an information-rich society. It has even been said that we live in the Information Age, probably
for a good reason. The biggest advantage the Internet has over regular "real world" shopping is the ability for the consumer to become entirely informed about a product before making a purchase. As I'm sure you can see, in order to appeal to your audience you must provide on your profile page as many details about your art, music, fashion, book or film including sound, images and video. Most importantly, you must provide enough written text, rich with demographically targeted keywords, describing you and your work, to convince your audience that they have been informed enough about your work to go ahead and make a purchase.
Be as objective as possible when describing yourself and your work. People
looking for art or music online will be looking for "facts",
and can feel put-off by too many biased descriptions (e.g. using words
such as "best of", "cool", etc.). Instead, state when
and where it was made, what creative processes were used and who was involved.
The more information you provide along these lines, the more professional
your audience will consider you. Please don't confuse this with emotinally
descriptive phrases you may inherently use when describing your work.
Just try to be objective and state as many facts as possible, rather than
try to explain why you think your art or music is good.
For more information on marketing and understanding your audience, please
visit the following links to helpful sites I have found on the web. These
links open in a new window.
Continue to the next section: Protecting the Value of Your Work.
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