Personal Branding: Who Do You Help? Your Niche.
Sep 20, 2021
“When you try to resonate with everyone, you’ll resonate with no one”- John Lee Dumas
It is super important that you gain clarity around WHO your ideal audience is. I have seen many professionals flounder and become exhausted and overwhelmed, because they fail to do this. Many struggle with the notion that if you niche down too much they will be limiting themselves.
Niching down actually can do the opposite, it can help you validate your service or product ideas quicker and allows you to create content that is more likely to attract the audience you are looking for. If you are being told, “you will niche yourself out of business” it’s simply not true. I want you to also keep in mind that inevitably you will attract people outside of your ideal niche market who may still resonate with what you are saying and doing.
Quick Story:
An example of my journey with niching (and not niching). Years ago, I decided that I was a “multi-passionate entrepreneur”. I owned a local house cleaning business, an online freelance and coaching business and started a real estate career. I was so sure that marketing to EVERYONE was the way to go. I was going to be a coach that could help anyone and a real estate agent that could work with buyers, sellers and help refer agents around the country. I could not have been more frustrated when people told me to niche down. It made no sense to me, because if I did that, I would be missing out on a bigger piece of the pie right?
Well let me tell you this. Fast forward a year and I was constantly confused, my messaging was all over the place and I was stretching myself incredibly thin. The only business that was succeeding was my local house cleaning business. Why was this? It was the only business, I had intentionally done the work to niche down. I targeted down to a local area, I focused on marketing to dual income households and mainly focused my marketing towards women. Refusing to do this in my real estate business, caused me to spin tires until eventually my passion for real estate fizzled out. Now don’t get me wrong, I was able to help a few people buy and sell new homes, however looking back, I could have been so much more effective, confident and successful if I had just been clear on who I wanted to specialize in serving.
This same notion goes, if you are a business professional. You can help many different people, but I want you to think about your best clients. The ones you enjoy working with most. The ones that you relate to and have that expertise in helping. If you could gather all your favorite clients in a room what are the commonalities?
As you are getting started you may be unsure of the audience you are most wanting to attract, so I have put together some exercises to help you with this.
Identify your niche.
What is a niche? Niche markets can be defined based on: price (ie: luxury, moderate, discount), Demographics (age, gender, income level, education level), level of quality (premium, handmade, economical), psychographics (values, interests, attitudes), geographic (residents of a certain country or neighborhood). According to shopify.com, an example of a niche within a market for women’s shoes could be: Shoes for vegan women (could be a niche market), as would shoes for plus-sized women or shoes for nurses.
To search for ideas around your niche, you can visit nichehacks.com, they have a list of thousands of different niche markets. Some questions to start thinking about for your niche are:
Price- What are the prices of the services/products you provide? (Luxury, moderate, discount, affordable)
Demographics- What are the demographics of the people you would like to serve? (Age/range, gender, income level, education level, occupation, family status)
Level of Quality- What is the level of quality you offer? (Premium, personalized, economical, done with you, done for you, etc)
Psychographics- What are the psychographics? (values, interests and attitudes, social status, lifestyle, food habits)
Geographic- Where is your ideal audience located? (Local, regional, national, certain country or neighborhood)?
Additionally, here are some examples of how you can niche:
Example: Realtor
Niche Ideas:
• new home buyers in your local town
• military families looking to buy homes
• selling luxury homes
• Work specifically with Buyers in a certain price range
• Work with sellers within a certain price range
Example: Marketer
Niche Ideas:
• Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses
• Social Media Marketing for Personal Brands
• Marketing for Artists
Example: Mindset Coach
Niche Ideas:
• Mindset Coach for Female Entrepreneurs
• Mindset Coach for Retired Athletes
• Mindset Coach for Accountants
• Mindset Coach for High-Level Executives
Example: Financial Advisor
Niche Ideas:
• Financial Advisor specializing in working with female business owners
• Financial Advisor specializing in working with Retail professionals
• Financial Advisor for Small Business Owners
• Financial Advisor for Military Families
• Financial Advisor for Retirees
Now that you have a general idea of what niching is, here is an exercise you can do. Set a timer for 30 minutes and complete the following statement:
*Keeping in mind:
price (ie: luxury, moderate, discount)
Demographics (age, gender, income level, education level)
level of quality (premium, handmade, economical)
psychographics (values, interests, attitudes)
geographic (residents of a certain country or neighborhood)
I want to sell _______ (price) _________(quality) ____________(product/service). They appeal to __________(geo/demographics) who value __________ (psychographics).
I want to sell affordable (price) economical (quality) social media (product/service) services. They appeal to business professionals (psychographics) who value ease and simplicity when it comes to business growth (psychographics).
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