The internet has created an educated consumer with a staggering number of choices of where to invest time and attention, energy and money.
How will YOU connect with the folks you're here to serve if you haven't honed in on who they are?
If you haven't spelled out who you serve and what you help them with, it will be very difficult, nearly impossible, to attract your ideal clients. This is the dilemma for coaches, creatives and conscious entrepreneurs looking to share their message in today's marketplace. Stand out, or lose out!
Don’t try to change someone’s worldview is the strategy smart marketers follow. Don’t try to use facts to prove your case and to insist that people change their biases. You don’t have enough time and you don’t have enough money. Instead, identify a population with a certain worldview, frame your story in terms of that worldview and you win. Seth Godin
In today's competitive online marketplace, you have to ensure you're swimming in the ‘right pond!' Finding your niche, WHO you serve, is a foundational element for any business. If you can narrowly define the kind of person you serve and the problems you solve, it will be easier to create programs, products and services that your niche is hungry for.
What Is a Niche and Why Bother
A niche is a target-able focused, portion of a market sector. You can think of a niche market as a narrowly defined group of customers. You can also think of them as a Tribe, as popularized by Seth Godin: a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.
A niche is simply a way of describing a group of potential customers who look at the world and tell the same story about that world. The more specific you are in choosing your niche the easier it gets to target your message and find new clients. Think… videographer vs videographer for coaching conferences, business coach vs niche marketing coach for authors, author vs paranormal romance author.
Finding your niche is crucial for creating your branding, domain name, meta keywords, titles, descriptions, and especially, your Giveaway Gift. It's the bedrock of your magnetic message that will pull your clients to you and help you identify what specialized solutions you bring to your client’s urgent problems.
The advantages of ‘owning a niche market' are powerful: you move from being a small fish in a big pond to being a big fish in a small pond. It's the fastest path to expert status, because you are working ‘inch wide, mile deep,' within a very targeted focus.
How to Solve the Niche Puzzle
Finding your niche is a synergistic process. Some folks figure it out in one hour, for other it takes months, even years. Here are 3 elements of your niche that you'll want to engage, explore and embody:
1. WHAT. Identify your passions and strengths. Start by looking within yourself. Inventory your passions and strengths. Leverage the skills you've acquired, from career experiences or through life mastery. Apply your masterful skill set in a new market. Serve the same market, in a focused fashion. Start with YOU: what fuels you – the causes, movements or possibilities – that power your being. Your passion will provide the fuel for your business adventure and your strengths will provide the perfect environment for you to shine.
2. WHO. Define who needs and can pay for your specialized solution. This is your Tribe, those folks you know inside out and can serve brilliantly because you've been where they are and can lead them to where they want to be. They're also the folks that most benefit from your specialized solution.
3. WHY. Know you're inner why and why they should work with you. You need to be able to articulate the BIG why. Why do you do what you do? Why does it matter? This being in business is one of the greatest spiritual paths, because in order to be successful you have to navigate your ‘dark nights' when things aren't going so well. Your Tribe needs to know this deeper why, because they probably share it with you!
You also need to be able to articulate why folks should work with YOU. What's different, unique or ground breaking about your specialized solution. One of the ways you can explore this is to look at the problems you have solved in your life, what challenges have you overcome? Create a specialized solution, your process, and teach it to your Tribe.
Finding your magnetic niche is the answer to creating HUGE success in a small market. Narrowly define a target market and serve a focused Tribe. You'll then be able to nurture relationships with a Tribe that you know, and love to serve. Your business, and marketing, then become easier, more manageable and sustainable.
Interested in solving your Niche Puzzle? Check out Cindy's upcoming program, Your Clear Path to Ideal Clients …
Listen to the full interview with Cindy Schulson…
Cindy Schulson, Founder of AttractYourNiche.com, helps coaches, consultants and other solo professionals master their niche and attract their ideal clients. In order to market yourself with ease, you have to know WHO you want to attract, WHAT solution you provide and WHY people should work with you. Cindy helps her clients put together these three pieces of the “Niche Puzzle”so they can attract their ideal clients, earn more and market less.
Cindy brings both coaching experience and over 20 years of business experience. She has an MBA and has worked in Strategic Communications for such companies as Coca-Cola and Visa International.
Cindy’s Niche Success Kit has helped guide thousands of solo professionals on the road to finding their own niche. Grab a free copy at www.attractyourniche.com
