Imagine that you knew exactly who your prospective clients are, where to go to find them and exactly what it is they want. Imagine having a highly responsive list of prospective clients who were hungry, ready and able to pay your services.
It’s every business owners dream. A constant stream of new customers on tap. Does it really exist? Well, welcome to the world of niche marketing.
Niche Marketing is about narrowing down your prospective client base and finding the customer group that fits the demographics (the characteristics of a population segment), occupation, Geographic’s (location) or psychographics (ideas, thought, values etc) of your target market.
In other words it’s about searching people you would consider your ideal clients.
Business owners are often afraid they will “miss out” on getting prospective clients when they niche market. It’s a valid concern that’s often driven by the fear rather than fact. The truth is niche marketing opens up a whole new world of possibilities for your business.
Without a niche everyone is a potential client and this can pose some major problems. Here are some of them:
1. How exactly do you reach everyone?
The only way to reach everyone is through mass marketing. Mass marketing is very expensive for a small business. It’s a process which I call Spray and Pray advertising in which you spray your marketing message all over the place, newspapers, saver coupons, mail outs and more. All in an effort to reach as many people as you possibly can and then you pray that someone will notice it and take action. It’s a hit and miss approach that can be very costly.
2. How exactly do you reach everyone?
Marketing message must capture audience attention, and the way you do that is putting a message in front of a person that is directly relevant to them. You can’t possibly know who will see your marketing message when you mass market and therefore you don’t know which message is going to relevant to them. So you keep on trying and please everyone by using generic messages. The result is a generalized, diluted marketing message that has lost its potential and power to get people to respond.
3. Lack of Direction
Mass marketing draw a broad range of people to your business, all with very different needs and wants. Trying to be all things to all people puts a huge strain on you and your business. It takes your focus away from what you love doing and instead you spend your time simply trying to keep up with it all and trying to keep everyone happy.
A world of possibilities…
Focusing on a niche opens a world of possibilities for you. Here are just 5 of the many ways in which choosing a niche will transform your business.
4. You become more desirable
Generating new leads and selling your services can be hard work. Being clear on whom it is you want to target gives you the opportunity to develop marketing, services, and information directly relevant to your niche. You become more desirable to your niche simply because you are more relevant to them, and by including information products you’ll as an expert in your niche.
5. Your business will demand attention
Specializing in niche helps to give you and your business more focus. You know exactly who you want to target and what you have to offer them. By targeting a detailed niche you’re able to create a very powerful marketing message that demands their attention. You can speak directly to your prospect in terms of their values.
People with back pain will be much more likely to respond to:
“Suffer from Back Pain? Eliminate back pain for good with our ‘7 steps to a pain free back’ program”
Rather than to a generic message such as:
“Want to get fit?”
6. Easier to generate leads
Knowing who you are marketing will make it much easier to reach them. You can identify places they would visit, magazines they would read or they would use products and strategically place your marketing message in front of them at these points. An example of this would be to target people suffering from back pain by creating referral programs with chiropractors.
7. Lower cost of lead generating
Generating new leads can be a costly exercise. Knowing exactly where and how to reach your target market will dramatically lower your cost of lead generating and increase your conversion rate. You don’t need to rely on costly mass marketing campaigns and because you are targeting a specific target group with a message that is highly relevant to them you will also increase your conversion rate which means the cost per client decreases.
8. Your business becomes easier to manage
Niche is a group of people that share things in common which means they have common needs and wants. This makes it much easier for you to begin to systemize your business. You can develop standard procedures in many areas of your business, freeing you up to do more of the things you love.
Niche marketing is about narrowing down your target base and approaching them with an effective marketing message that is relevant to them. You can’t be all things to all people.
If you’re current marketing is not working for you or even if it is but you want to increase your client base and decrease your marketing costs, start a niche marketing program in together with your marketing campaigns.
