Hey everyone,
I just finished a weekend workshop in Calgary.
And it taught me a lot of niches and targeting.
On the Friday night, I had everyone write out their niche in a single sentence (like we described last week). After they left, I reviewed them and wrote my commentary all over them. The next morning, from the front of the room, I reviewed them - giving people targeted coaching on their niche.
Then I invited them to take another crack at in on the Saturday night if they still wanted help. And Sunday morning, I gave more notes from the front of the room.
It was a really valuable exercise and I saw people's niche's become clearer and clearer over the weekend because of it.
But it also taught me a lot about what makes a good target and what doesn't.
It prompted me to write out the following distinctions.
Important Distinctions:
• ideal client: your ideal client is sort of a subset of your target market or chosen community. While most folks in the community your choosing to serve would likely make fine clients - would they all be your ideal clients? Probably not. Your ideal clients are the ones you wish every client was like.
• explicit vs. implied niche: your product might only be used for a very specific purpose (e.g. menstrual pads).Your product might come with a predefined niche. This is an implied niche - you don’t even need to say who you’re targeting - it’s implied in the type of product. Even so, you can often afford to narrow the niche down even further or at least come up with other ways to differentiate your product or service (e.g. organic cotton, chemical free menstrual pads). And differentiating your product may actually change the niche. Sometimes it can be very powerful to pick your niche indirectly like this. There’s a chain of boutique hotels that each have their own very distinct flavour (each on modeled after a different popular magazine). The vibe and aesthetic each hotel has is so strong that the niche is implied - instead of overtly selecting their niche - their niche sort of selects them. But most products could be used by a variety of people in a variety of contexts. For example: who is massage good for? Who needs a realtor? Who could use a car? A blender? Lots of people - there’s no one implied niche. In these cases, it’s recommended to select one or two that you will focus on.
• geography vs. affinity: there are two central dynamics in picking a niche these days. In the old days you had to work in your community of geography. You did business where you lived. We lived in communities defined by geography. But, now, with the internet, ubiquitous travel and postal service we are living increasingly in ‘communities of affinity.” In fact, as the internet becomes more well defined, we are seeing the rise of what is known as the Micro-Niche - this is a group of people who are obsessed with the most bizarre and minor of things (e.g. a certain movie or even a certain scene of a movie). The point is this - the narrower your geography - the wider you will have to cast your net in terms of affinity. The wider a geography you work in - the more narrowly you can likely afford to focus. In other words - when working locally you need to be more of a jack of all trades. When working globally you can afford to be an ubernerd.
• targeting individuals vs. groups: one of the core premises here is that it’s much easier to find clients if you can find the places they already hang out together than to try to find them and sell them one on one. So, when we refer to a ‘target’ - we’re referring to a group of people not an individual. A target is a group. What kind of group? You know it’s a good target when people in the group all share similar situations and experiences. You know it’s a group when membership to that group means something to them.
• the target vs. the problem: identifying your niche is really a two part equation. You must first identify your target - your target will be some subset of ‘everybody’. See the end of this workshop for an extensive (but by no means exhaustive) list of potential targets. Secondly, you must identify a problem that they are currently experiencing that you can help them with. Target + problem = niche.
• a bad target vs. a good target: how do you know if you have a good target? You should be able to describe an average day for them with relative accuracy. You should be able to tell me about their life and the struggles they have. With a good target, this is easy to do. A good target will share common needs, values, experiences and situations. They would be able to relate and empathize with each other if they met. You’d hear them saying things like, “Me too! I totally know what you mean. I’m dealing with the same thing.” This shared experience is the bottom line of a target - without it, you have no target.
• a good target vs. a great target: a great target will not only share a common set of needs that you can help them with - but they will also share two other critical characteristics. First, they have already established communication hubs - meaning: you can find them. They have common places they spend their time, money and attention. Second, there are enough of them.
• a great target vs. a perfect target: a perfect target will meet all the criteria of a great target - plus about 4-5 others (see: Niche Criteria from "Your Niche - Part 4 of 7").
**BUT!**
None of that is what I wanted to write you about.
Many people have a hard time picking a target. That's pretty normal. Most people can't even think of what a target would look like. So, below you'll find a menu of options to get you started.
**Menu of Possible Target Markets:**
This list is not meant to be exhaustive or complete. It’s just meant to get you thinking.
A few key points here:
1. many of these target markets can be combined.
2. these are only half of the equation. To be a really complete niche, you also need to add a ‘problem’ or ‘need’ to whatever combination of these you come up with (i.e. not just single mothers but ‘single mothers who struggle to stay in shape.’)
WOMEN:
single women
new mothers
single mothers
expecting mothers
bride to be
MEN:
single men
single fathers
new fathers
expecting fathers
groom to be
SEXUAL ORIENTATION:
(LGBTQ) Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Transgender/ & Questioning
BDSM
STAGE OF LIFE:
infants
small children
teenagers
high school students
college students
newly weds
homeowners
renters
condo owners
recently divorced
widowed
retiring
grandparents
ETHNIC:
blacks
hispanics
asians
indians
TASTES:
tea lovers
wine lovers
LIFESTYLE
travelers
outdoorsy folks/back packers
exercise nuts/health conscious
acreage owners
PETS:
dog lovers
cat lovers
DIET:
vegetarians
vegans
raw fooders
macrobiotics
SPIRITUALITY:
Yoga
tai chi
buddhist
christian
moslem
hindu
shamanism
new age
pagan
VALUES:
environmental
traditional “american”
COMMUNITIES:
immigrant
indigenous
LGBTQ
club scene
rave scene
electronic music scene
INDUSTRY & POSITION:
financial advisors
lawyers
accountants
holistic practitioners
secretarial
doctors
dentists
nurses
doulas
midwives
naturopaths
aromatherapists
salespeople
esthetician
teachers
entrepreneurs
CEO’s, CFO’s etc.
publishers
writers
HANDICAPS & SITUATIONS:
chemically sensitive
non-english speakers in english speaking areas
physically handicapped
blind or seeing impaired
deaf or hearing impaired
autism
highly sensitive people
caregivers to the ill or elderly
* * *
So, that’s it for this week.
And next week . . .
THE "NICHE CHALLENGE": I'm going to invite you to email me your attempt. If you do I will give you free email coaching to help you tweak and refine it and send those out in the next edition of Your Niche. I'll also put your website or email with it so that if anyone reading this wants to reach you they can. Fre*e advertising.
After we’re done with the niche we’re going to move into working with Hubs.
We’re going to look at “how do you attract your niche to you?”
I think you’re going to love it.
I hope you're well.
Warmest,
Tad
p.s. EDMONTON EVENT - I have an event coming up in Edmonton March 31 – April 1 – and it’s starting to fill – only 10 spots left. www.tadhargrave.com/RBI
p.p.s. For back issues of my newsletters - and more - just go to - www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com
* * *
radical business: marketing consulting for hippies
a blog for green business, eco-business, ethical business, conscious business, sustainable business, and community-minded entrepreneurs who are struggling with their cashflow, not attracting enough clients and have mixed feelings about marketing - www.tadhargrave.com
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