If you’ve been struggling to find a way of connecting with your ideal client, then it may be time for you to identify and narrow down your niche. Let’s talk about the reasons why this is important…there are many, and we’ll get into that, however, most importantly, it all comes down to saving you time!
Narrowing down helps us save time by focusing more efficiently on one group of people rather than spreading ourselves too thin trying to market to everyone.
In this live video replay from my free Facebook Community (Results First Academy for Coaches, Consultants, NMers+Ladypreneurs), I shared how I went from lacking clarity and focus in my business and throwing my message and product out to anyone and everyone hoping it would stick, growing a huge team of customers and builders, but not really finding my tribe, to becoming crystal clear, focused, and knowing exactly who to market to and where to find them. The secret? I narrowed down my niche…
As solopreneurs, we wear many hats and one of them is “Lead Marketer.” It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in…coaching, direct sales, course creation, consulting…if you are in business for yourself and you don’t have employees, you are THE marketer for your company.
And as the lead marketer for your company, in order to effectively market your product or service, you need to hone in on the very specific, very unique struggles, needs, wants, and goals of your ideal client so that you can grow a tribe of people who you actually like, feel passionate about showing up to serve (and who you actually want to work with) without the endless grind of posting on social media!
What’s a Niche anyway?
A niche is an exclusive club of like-minded people – a small but specific group of people that can be identified by having the same problems, wants, and needs.
Now, you might be thinking…”But…I have a product that can solve problems and make life better for ALL of humanity. I don’t want to lose my chance at a customer just because they don’t fit into a certain niche.”
Listen, I get it. I’m with a direct sales company that provides life changing wellness products, and we can help pretty much every man, woman, and child (+ their pets) under the sun in ALL ages and ALL demographics. I’ve helped people across the world, from infants to 98 year olds, moms, dads, horses…you name it…so when I tell you that I understand where you’re coming from, it’s the honest truth.
I spent years trying to market to EVERYONE.
There’s a saying that goes…”when you market to everyone, you end up serving noone.” Have you heard that saying? I sure did…over and over again. I never took it to heart because I thought that it didn’t apply to me and the products I was marketing since, well, sky’s the limit with who I can market to.
In reality, I spent years spreading myself too thin, trying to market to everyone, slowly building my network (which is now thousands of people), and wasting tons of valuable time. The network that I did grow over all those years? Not my tribe.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve found success in my business and I make a full time steady income working from home (often with my babies on my lap) working only about 15 hours a week. That’s a life that many people dream of and I am damn proud of what I’ve accomplished.
Yet, I did not attract to me (until recently, when I narrowed down my niche), a tribe of people who I enjoy working with or showing up to serve. Of course out of the thousands there are people who I resonate with, who are easy to work with, who value my time and energy and who’s on my same wavelength….
…but what I wouldn’t give to step into a time machine and go back 10 years to teach myself about niche marketing and start marketing to a narrowed down niche. I would be light-years ahead in my business and I would have a customer base and team filled mostly with people who resonate with me and me with them.
Let’s talk about Niche Marketing…
It’s a waste of time for big companies, like Target for example, to focus on niche marketing. Why? Because they have thousands of huge stores that carry a huge inventory of things that people from all demographics could need. The strategy with big companies is to market to everybody. They can do this because they’ve gotten to that level. They have a huge budget for marketing and a huge team of people behind them who have a background in marketing and are out there doing the marketing for them. They attract a huge customer base as a result.
However, companies like Target didn’t start out as what they are today. In fact, Target got its start in 1902 as a small corner store in Minneapolis called the Dayton Dry Goods Company. You betcha they started out catering to a very small niche in order to grow their customer base, which allowed them to widen their product line, eventually expand into a department store, and then become the Target that we all know today.
Now, they’re big enough to be able to market to everybody (or at least try to). They try to be all things to all people because they have something for everyone. And they do have a great customer base, but guess what? There’s still a flaw.
As a solopreneur, here’s why you should care about niche marketing...
For us entrepreneurs – the small business owners, direct sellers, coaches, course creators, etc – niche marketing means marketing in front of the right people so that we can grow our following and our customer base.
And yes, this applies to YOU even if your product or service can help every man, woman, child and their pets!
Narrowing down your niche is the secret to success. Read that again.
As a solopreneur you cannot afford to market to everybody. Read that again.
Here’s why..
You are likely doing this all by yourself. There is no way that you can effectively market to everyone. If you tried you would spend all of your time on it and feel like you’re getting nowhere.
When you try to market to everyone, you end up serving no one. You end up spending tons of time and money creating marketing content, sticking it up on all the social media platforms and then driving around to a million different places trying to figure out where people are hanging out who might want the solutions you have to offer them.
You throw your content and yourself out there hoping that it might hook somebody. You’ll get bites from time to time and even reel in a good customer, client, or builder for your team from time to time. But wouldn’t you rather invest less time, energy, and resources and be able to hook more people, faster, who are fun to work with and who you resonate with? After all, most of us come into entrepreneurship because we are freedom seekers. Among other things, we want time freedom. Amiright?
What if I told you that you actually have an advantage over the big companies?
Guess what? We don’t have to be all things to all people like those big companies! How does that make you feel?
As someone who has been building a business for upwards of 10 years, the thought of not having to be all things to all people in my customer and business builder acquisition…well, it takes a huge weight off of my shoulders and frees up hours to my schedule each week. And that’s what I want for you too!
So Here’s what happens with the big box stores. Their huge teams of people who are doing the marketing to, you know, try to be all things for all people – what ends up happening is there are groups of people who get left out, not intentionally, but their needs and wants are not being fully met. So there’s a gap, and that’s where YOU come in!
As a small business owner, that’s the advantage that you have.
When I used to try to market to everyone and go around trying to meet anyone and everyone while out and about, I felt like a small fish in a huge ocean. It was scary. There are sharks and bigger fish out there that want to eat you alive, lady!
What if you could be a big fish in a small pond instead? How does that make you feel?
You totally can! And the way to do that is to fill the gap that is left and narrow your niche down.
You are much more likely to be successful that way.
Here’s why…you would feel confident knowing exactly how to approach the other fish in the pond because you know exactly what they’re struggling with, how to talk with them about those struggles, and which of your offers will resonate with them.
When you’re marketing to a small, targeted group of people, you can get laser focused on where to find your people in person and online, know exactly the kind of content to create and where to post it. And guess what else?
You get to find your people, grow YOUR tribe! You get to actually pick who you want to work with as a customer, or as a builder and you won’t feel like you’re slogging uphill any longer.
People purchase what they think can solve their problems, help save them time, or what they think will make them happy. So, even though your product or service may cater to a much wider group of people, the smaller you can get your niche, the more likely you are to be successful because you will be able to zero in on their specific pain points and you will sell more (if you’re putting your offers out there).
Let me illustrate this…
Let’s say you sell a line of nutritional supplements...
You have the option to market to the busy millennial without kids who works in the corporate world, OR the exhausted stay-at-home mom with 4 kids under the age of seven. The wants and needs of these two women are going to be vastly different. At the same time, they could have similar wants and needs. One may primarily want help with better moods while the other wants help with sleep. They could both need help with energy and focus, right?
You could try to market to both, however you’re going to come up against frustration and burnout. Something might stick and you might get a few new customers here and there. But it is not the most efficient use of your time and your energy to try to market to everybody.
What to do instead...
Instead, you’re going to choose one group of people, find out where they’re hanging out online and in person, find out what they are struggling with, and address those pain points in your social media content and when you meet them in person.
Now you may still be worrying that if you narrow down your niche you might miss out on customers because you think they won’t relate to what you’re putting out there. Here’s why that’s simply not the case…
Let’s say your product helps people have better moods, better sleep, more energy, less discomfort in their joints and muscles, and feel under the weather less often…
And your niche is made up of entrepreneurial minded moms aged 30-45 who work from home (or wish they could) and have kids under the age of 5…
It’s safe to say that a larger group who may not fit exactly into your niche – say the larger group of “parents” – are going to see your posts and resonate with many of the pain points. Most parents struggle with sleep and energy, getting their kids to sleep, and keeping everyone happy and healthy through the winter months. Right?
When it comes to niche marketing, it’s not narrow enough to just focus on Parents. Niche down a little bit, get a little bit more specific. A smaller group would be parents of teenagers. You could get even more specific and niche down even more.
So you could say, parents of teenagers who are moms; or get even more specific – parents of teens who are moms who work outside of the home; or moms of teenagers who work from home and homeschool. See what I mean?
The life experiences, problems, and struggles of each of those three examples are going to be very different. And if you are currently going through the same thing, you will know exactly what their struggles are and how to speak to them, right? Because you can totally relate! But at the same time, some of their struggles are the same as the bigger group of just “parents,” right?
As you’re putting that specific niche marketing out there, you’re still going to hit on the pain points of the other larger groups. So don’t worry about pigeonholing yourself, okay? That’s not going to happen. Other groups of people are going to see what you’re putting out there, and they’re going to want it too because they have similar pain points.
If you narrow down your focus, you are still going to bring in customers or clients who are not in your specific niche. Everyone will pay more attention to what you’re putting out there because you will be able to be more consistent with your messaging. People will not be confused about what you’re offering. Instead, many will follow you because they resonate with you, even if you are catering to a different niche.
The point of narrowing down your niche is to give you focus and save you time...
Narrowing down your niche saves your time because you’ll know exactly what to put out there and where to go to find the people, so that you don’t feel like you’re pulling your hair out every single day trying to market to everybody and looking for people anywhere.
That’s the frustration that we run into as small business owners. Again, you’re likely a solo entrepreneur, You’re likely doing this all or mostly by yourself. It would be a virtually impossible task to try to market to everybody and to do it effectively.
Do some soul searching & self reflection to narrow down your niche....
Get out some paper and start writing out a few things. Ask yourself some questions
Snag your free copy of my 8 Steps to Narrowing Down Your Niche Worksheet
Who are you passionate about helping? Let’s be real, you’re going to be way more passionate about helping someone who is closer to what you’ve been through in life (or what you are currently going through), because you’ve been there. You’ve been through it and you can relate to them, and they can relate to you.
Think about what types of people you care about and the types of people you like to spend time with because if they end up being your customer, or a builder on your team, or a coaching client, you’re gonna end up spending a lot of time with them and you are going to want to like spending time with them or showing up for your job is going to suck. Okay?
Ask yourself, who you feel passionate about helping. What have you been through that you’ve been able to solve or get over with the help of your product or signature service?
Lastly, and this is very important, take that group of people you outlined and get even more specific, Take that group of people and niche down even more. Then niche down even more, Do that a minimum of three times,
You have to care about the work that you're doing and the people that you're serving...
If you don’t care about the work that you’re doing and the people that you’re serving, it’s going to be very hard for you to show up on a daily basis when life gets hard and when business gets hard. In business, we have our ups and downs, we have our ebbs and flows. And it does get hard. It’s hard sometimes to show up, even if we love what we do. So think about what’s going to get you out of bed every morning, even when life gets hard to sit down and serve the people that you have the intention of serving.
So for me, I’m a married woman who has a mom, who has two kids under the age of five, who works from home. And years ago, I dreamed of being able to work from home. Right? You bet your bottom that I am passionate about showing up to serve moms, who have kids under the age of five, who are either getting to currently work from home or dream of working from home. I am passionate about serving that group of people way more passionate than I am, if I were serving, you know, a thousand different groups of people and we don’t all resonate, and, you know, it would just get harder to show up every day, right?
The reason why I’m more passionate about serving this group of people that I mentioned, and whatever your group of people is that you’re going to come up with, is because I understand where they’re coming from, I’ve been there or I’m currently going through it. And I am finding solutions, right? And I have solutions I can offer. I am much more passionate about showing up for that reason. It makes it so much easier to sit down and actually show up for your job if you have something that you’re passionate about that you’re showing up for, or if you have a group of people that you’re passionate about that you’re showing up for. So my recommendation to you is to figure out who that group of people is…get very, very, very specific. It’s not just parents, it’s working parents. It’s working parents of kids between the ages of 10 and 15. It’s working parents, working MOMS of kids who are between the ages of 10 and 15. etc. Right.
Get as specific as you absolutely can. Because when life throws a wrench in your plans like it did for me, you have to have the passion and the drive to continue to show up for that segment of people, and you have to want to do it. And the way to want to do it is to find that niche. The types of people that you care about, that you relate to what they’re going through, and that you’re passionate about helping them.. That’s your niche, okay? That’s why you show up when your business gets hard, right? So go out there, find your niche,
Narrow down your niche, Get uber specific, and when you do, everything’s going to be so much easier, I promise. You’re going to have clarity and focus, You’ll be able to think about where they are hanging out so you can go and find them in person and online. You’ll have a better idea of what their problems and struggles are that you can solve with your product or your service, So that’s why you need your niche – it’s going to help you show up for your business, be more successful in your business and get to know your ideal client even better, so that you can show up to serve them in a much more intentional way from a place of authenticity.
If you found this helpful, you can find this and other tips and trainings in our free Facebook community for Mom Bosses – Results First Academy. Get in there and bring your fellow Mom Bosses with you so they can learn too! I go live every Thursday at 3pm Eastern!
P.S. I’m working on a little mini course that can help you gain clarity on what your niche is and who your ideal client is. This way you can actually have a list of what their pain points are and their struggles are and it will make things so much easier for you when it comes to creating content for social media. I’ll announce this soon over in the free Facebook group!
SNAG YOUR FREE 8 STEPS TO NARROWING DOWN YOUR NICHE WORKSHEET BY CLICKING THE IMAGE BELOW
