Are you Niche Curious?

Are you Niche curious?

Is it valuable or necessary to have a Niche?

By definition, “niche” is a distinct segment of a market. But I really see a true niche being defined by three criteria:

The first is clarity and simplicity of message.

So when I say “I lead and inspire women entrepreneurs to find their unique voice by being powerfully clear on their niche and marketing.” Hopefully it’s clear who I work with. You can identify ‘that’s me’ or ‘no, that’s not me’ or ‘I know what that is, I understand it, and although it is not me, I may know some other people who are in that niche.

So, people really ‘get it’ when you say in one sentence what you do (not paragraphs). Think of it this way, have you ever been at a cocktail party where you’re talking to someone about what they do, and you are sitting there saying “I have no clue what you’re talking about”? They either aren’t truly clear themselves or they haven’t really found the layman’s terms to explain what they’re doing. And this happens a lot.
When you share what you do, you want people to say “Wow, how do you do that?” NOT “What does that mean”? Essentially, how can I explain what I do so that my Ideal Client ‘leans in’ and really gets it. Even if they aren’t your Ideal Client, they may be able to identify someone they know who is because of how clear you communicate.

The second criteria is a clear network that you can tap into.

That means there are associations your Ideal Client belongs to, there are publications that they read; there are places that they gather; there are other professionals that work with that niche. I’ll use entrepreneurs as examples. There are Chamber of Commerce events; there are Meet-Up groups specifically for entrepreneurs; there are various networking groups for small business owner such as the Small Business Association. And there’s lots of other professionals, that work with entrepreneurs such as accountants, web and graphic designers, bookkeepers, and the list goes on. So really the second criteria is this – Is there a definable network that I can tap into? I may not know anyone in that network now, but I know it’s out there and I can join into it.

The third criteria is that they have shared common problem area and pains.

They have challenges that you can help them solve, or pain that you can help heal. So the question you would ask is “can I help solve their challenges, or can I create a team or network that I can connect my clients to, that make me more valuable because of that?” And ultimately with this criteria, you create a consistent process and toolkit that your niche can get even better results through using. Think exercises, handouts, workbooks, visualizations that are specific to your niche to help aid their transformation.

Hopefully you can see through these criteria, how it could be beneficial to have a niche. You can create messaging that is really specific (and we are all drawn to messaging that feels like it was crafted just for us), you have a network that you can focus in on and tap into, and you can create tools and a process that will help you get deeper with those specific clients, thus aiding in their transformation.

For those of you that are feeling constricted by the thought of creating a niche, remember that we narrow only to the degree that it serves. It serves your client and it serves you.

Often times people will pick a slightly broader niche at first and will narrow down the niche over time as the begin to see the greater value in doing so, as well as start to really understand who they most love working with. As long as your niche follows these three criteria, you will get more business leverage than if you choose not to focus on a niche. By narrowing, you can go deeper because you are expending less energy to do so, and your clients will start to get even better results because of this depth.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments and feedback!

xo

Darlene