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By Lisa Wozniak
Many business owners understand they need to narrow their niche, but many don’t know how. Today we’ll provide you with The Only Blueprint You Need to Narrow Your Niche. In my last article Want More Money? Narrow your Niche we discussed the importance of narrowing your niche and how it affects you as the business owner by focusing on what you are most passionate about and your business, in the form of less competition and stronger repeat business. Now that we know the importance of narrowing your niche, let’s take a closer look at exactly how to do this. For some, it may come across as though focusing only on the tasks that make them most happy, the rest will fall into line. And while much of this is true, there’s also a more systematic approach that will help you to drill down to a specific niche that people are actually looking for and a defined demographic that you can market. Once you know these things, life becomes much easier.
To begin to narrow your niche, it’s helpful to focus on the needs of your client/customer. Who is the person you most want to help? Is it someone who wants to lose weight? Is it the busy executive that needs a streamlined approach to his business? Or maybe it’s a divorced person who wants to get back into the dating game. Either way, discovering the WHO is the basis for your niche in the broadest sense of the term. Once you’ve discovered the WHO, you’ll want to think about what the need is that you can help them fulfill. In our weight loss example, the need would obviously be to lose weight. But let’s take that one step further. Let’s look at the results that your customers want to achieve. Are they looking for a quick loss plan? An alternative healthy lifestyle? A new exercise plan? Perhaps you have a plan for people who need to lose small amounts of weight in a short period of time with little to no exercise. (crazy, right?) You can now narrow your niche to include a weight loss plan that will help those individuals lose weight in 90 days with little to no exercise. You’ve just identified your industry, your client, their need and the results their looking for. Isn’t this a lot better than a niche that says you’re merely in the weight loss industry? This is certainly a more narrowed niche.
A Blueprint for a Narrow Niche
The narrower you can make your niche, the stronger your business model and marketing strategy becomes. Let’s look at some other ways to drill this down to the narrowest niche possible. For the purposes of this article, we’ll stay consistent with the weight loss category.
• Male/Female – Is your ideal customer going to be a man or a woman? It’s ok if this is both, but depending on your product/service, this may come in to play.
• Personal/Professional – Is your weight loss plan tailored for personal or professional use. Is this a plan anyone can follow at home? Is this a plan designed for busy working professionals who don’t have time to prepare special meals? Is your niche in the personal or professional realm?
• Age/Life Status – Is there a specific age demographic that your product or service is ideal for? For example, maybe your weight loss plan is for new moms trying to return to their ideal weight. Or perhaps it’s for seniors suffering from arthritis.
• Gain/Loss – Focus on what your ideal client wants to gain from the experience. Do they want to gain more muscle mass? Do they want to lose pounds? Do they want to lose inches? What’s their motivation?
• Place in the Process – Where are they at in the process? In our example, although the product/service is in the weight loss industry, yours is not a one stop shop, all things to all people approach. It’s for people who want to lose it quickly, right? So
where in the process are we meeting them? You’re meeting them in panic mode. They have a wedding coming up in 90 days and they want to lose 20 pounds to fit into an ugly bridesmaid dress. Is the focus on a meal plan? Is this the main avenue that you provide? It
doesn’t mean that you can’t provide some exercises for them to follow, but if you’re claim to fame is the meal plan that you can deliver that will help them to lose weight quickly, then this is your niche in the process. You’ve just drilled down your niche even further. Good
for you!
• Fear or Challenge – What challenge does your ideal customer have? A busy schedule? No time to work out? Do they fear being too restricted? Giving up their favorite foods? This is another means of driving down the specifics of your niche.
• Emotional Trigger – Many good niches are the result of an emotional trigger, so think about what may be a trigger for your customer. In our example, perhaps it is the busy mom who’s just stepped on the scale and realized that she’s 20 lbs. overweight and has a wedding come up in 90 days for
which she’ll have to fit into that dress. She has no time to be spending 2 hours in the gym every day or fixing elaborate meal plans. She needs help. Her emotional trigger was stepping on the scale.
Congratulations! You’ve just narrowed your niche down from being in the weight loss industry to a niche that includes a focus of busy moms who want to lose inches quickly by following a simple meal plan with moderate exercise. Had you not used the blueprint, you would be lost in the shuffle of a billion dollar weight loss industry with little means of standing out.
We’d love to hear about how The Only Blueprint You Need to Narrow your Niche has affected your business model. How have you taken the things you are passionate about and narrowed your niche?