FIND YOUR NICHE
Niche: a specialized segment of a market which contains customers who display particular, identifiable requirements.
What is a niche? A niche is a specialism that caters to a certain market or group of people.
Having a niche is important because if you try to cater to everyone your overall marketing and message won’t speak to anyone. Your messaging can be much clearer and crisper if you focus on a particular segment to target.
Here are two specific reasons why it’s important to have a niche in your business.
1. Stand out – Having a niche makes you memorable and distinct from others. Without a niche you are just one of the crowd who sell XYZ. When I decided to work with women entrepreneurs instead of everyone, it helped me find and attract the women who needed my help. When you are clear about your niche you attract your ideal clients and customers.
2. Ideal client – Having an ideal client is a key part of having a niche. By having a niche, you can speak directly to your ideal client. This communication is important in helping you attract people into your business. Without a niche, not only do you not stand out, you are not speaking to an ideal client or customer.
The copy and messaging you have needs to tie in with your niche. The more research and understanding you have about your niche and how it can best be placed in the market right now the more you can attract your ideal client.
The other advantage of this is not everyone is an ideal client. Having an easy way to filter out those who are not part of your niche vital for efficiency. Many people think having a niche is a disadvantage but it’s not. The clearer your niche market, the better this will be for your business.
A niche is a unique way to make an impact on the people you really want to help. Standing out and specializing in your zone of genius makes a lot of difference to the customers and clients who want to sign up with you. Your ideal client is important for your business because without one you won’t have a business.
“Having a niche is a passport to your success”
So, let’s work on finding your ideal niche.
Step 1: Who Buys/Needs Your Product/Service? Brainstorm as many characteristics/categories as you can
Step 2: Of all the categories you brainstormed, who have you previously sold to/serviced?
Step 3: Review your initial list. Which segments do you have a particular interest in, affinity with, connection to?
Step 4: STOP. Look at the categories/characteristics you have already listed and a) cross out any that you would prefer NOT to focus your marketing on going forward; and b) circle or put a star beside any that you would be proud and excited to work with everyday. (Hint: look hard at the categories where you have an interest in or affinity with)
Step 5: Take a hard, critical look at your circled/starred market segments. Confirm your interest in those segments by writing them out in a list
Step 6: DEEP DIVE TIME! Break down your chosen categories even more. For instance, maybe your category was “women.” Sub-niches of “women” could be single women, single women with kids (then break it down even further to women with kids under age 5, women with teenagers, women with more than 3 kids, etc.), married women, divorced women, women in their thirties, women with professional jobs, women who work from home, women without college degrees, etc. No sub-niche is too small to think about right now. WRITE DOWN AS MANY AS YOU CAN.
WOW! That’s a lot of potential niches! Good job.
Step 7: Now, pick your top ten
These are potentially great niches. As you start to develop messaging for each of these groups, you will find that you naturally are drawn to a couple of them – they will be the easiest for you to find, the easiest for you to talk to. These are the niches you should market to.
Attached below is a Worksheet with the above questions you can download and work on.