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The Problem With Niches
By Karyn Greenstreet |
copyright © 2008, by Karyn Greenstreet. All
rights reserved.
Mary called me and cried, "I need to find my niche!"
She had been told over and over again that she needed to
find a narrow niche for her Life Coaching business so
that she could be more noticeable among the pack of Life
Coaches marketing to business professionals and
managers.
But she had also been told that using words like "meaning" and
"purpose" to describe what clients were looking for was
over-used; all life coaches were using those terms and they had
lost their power when it came to writing marketing text.
Here is my reply to Mary in regards to identifying her niche and
writing her marketing text towards that niche:
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Finding The Right Words
Remember, WITHIN the coaching industry, words like "soul,"
"meaning," and "fulfillment" are used constantly and we're used
to them and don't think they're special.
But, OUTSIDE the coaching industry, people are just awakening to
these words. They love these words. And people ARE looking for
meaning and fulfillment in their lives. (Just because you are
used to seeing those words everyday doesn't automatically make
them powerless or boring.)
So you may be tired
of hearing catch-words in YOUR industry, but that doesn't mean
that customers aren't still searching for those very same ideas.
If you want to know if people are interested in these words, go
to the
Google Keyword Tool or the
WordTracker Keyword tool and
type them in. You'll see for yourself how popular they really
are.
As a life coach, saying you don't want to market yourself using
the words "fulfillment" and "meaning," is like saying you’re a
dentist, but you don't want to have the niche of "filling
cavities" because every dentist does that.
Sometimes your niche isn't just what topics you talk about with
clients; sometimes your niche is the combination of what topics
you talk about AND the people/groups you talk to.
Finding The Right Niche
The whole purpose of choosing a niche is so you can find a
central place that potential clients congregate -- so that
you can get in front of them to introduce your business via your
marketing techniques. You can find "professionals" or "mid-level
managers" or "upper level executives" in specific industry
associations, magazines, websites, newspapers, peer groups, etc.
But say you want your niche to be "Hyper Ambitious Stress
Coaching." There is no industry association for Hyper Ambitious
people…how will you locate them?
Do you really want to be known as the "Hyper Ambitious Stress
Coach?" (Do people really type in "hyper ambitious stress coach"
into Google when they're looking for help?) It implies that you
work with only people who are hyper-ambitious, and only stressed
ones at that. There are plenty of "non-hyper-ambitious"
professionals who are want to achieve great things and be
successful (and are stressed), they just don't go overboard into
"hyper" behaviors that create unbalance.
One caveat: labeling yourself the "Hyper Ambitious Stress Coach"
is great for PR. The news media loves a specialist. But clients
may not be looking for a Hyper Ambitious Stress Coach; they're
just looking for help with stress, over-scheduling, high
demands, etc. So unless you're going to get all your prospective
clients via news media interviews, you might want to re-think
that narrow niche.
Choosing a niche is not an exercise in finding a place where you
have no competition. It's okay if you have competition in your
niche: it shows there's a thriving market there.
Differentiation vs. Niche
If you're simply looking to differentiate yourself from your
competition, then that's not done by choosing a niche market.
Differentiation and Niche are two separate marketing steps. You
can differentiate yourself based on
Differentiation asks, "Why would they buy from ME versus my
competition?"
Niche asks, "Where will I find THEM so I can introduce
myself?"
This entry in Wikipedia may help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niche_market
I'm not saying, "Don't go in that niche direction." What I am saying
is this: if you define your niche too narrowly, you'll have a hard
time getting in front of them with your marketing techniques. And
along the way, you might not be following your own soul purpose.
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Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She
shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to boost
clarity and focus, create sustainable motivation, and increase sales and
profits.
Visit her website at
www.PassionForBusiness.com
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