Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business

ISBN-13: 9781935953289

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Authority Publishing

Publication Date: 02-01-2012

Pages: 252

Product Dimensions: 5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.53(d)

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Why Niches Rule

"We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed, but to those who have differed."

— Charles Caleb Colton

I see a lot of business owners throwing spaghetti at the walls to see what sticks. Their marketing tactics lack focus, and so they try a little of everything and get frustrated when they don't get the results they expect. This is one of the main reasons why so many entrepreneurs dread marketing.

Though marketing does involve testing to figure out what works for your business, there is an important first step that is often missed. You need to know who you are marketing to — and that audience should be narrowly defined. Once you do this, it can change everything about the results you get from your efforts.

Choosing a Niche

Everything about marketing comes down to the audience — your target audience. And the audience is different for every business. Once you identify your audience, every marketing decision you make becomes easier because you can gather data to help you find that audience and you can begin building your service offerings and your marketing campaigns around their needs. More importantly, the more narrow your focus, the better chance you have of standing out.

For example, general contractors are often skilled at doing many tasks. It can be tempting to remain a generalist in order to try to get what you perceive to be the most work possible. When a potential client calls and asks for a bathroom remodel, room addition, flooring installation, or garage make-over, the answer is always, "Yes, sure, we can do that!"

There are several potential downsides to saying yes to everything. First of all, you can't possibly be an expert in all areas (unless you employ a large team of specialists in each area). Second, your portfolio of work can appear unfocused. If you said yes to everything and then showed photos of your wide variety of jobs to potential clients, they might think, "Gee, he does a lot, but I only see one example of a bathroom remodel. I wish I could see more examples. I wonder if he really has the right experience to do this job."

On the flip side, if you met with a potential client who wanted her kitchen remodeled and you whipped out a portfolio of photos showing the many dazzling kitchens you created, a bright light would shine around you. You would be the obvious authority in your field — a field that is quite crowded with generalists.

Now, you may be thinking that what I'm suggesting sounds crazy because you would be giving up other opportunities and walking away from (gulp!) revenue from other types of jobs. But walking away from that other work frees you up to focus on your target audience: people who want kitchen remodels. And odds will be in your favor that once you narrow your focus and choose a powerful niche, your business will begin to flourish in some incredible ways.

I know a financial advisor who decided to specialize in working with divorced women. This move quickly made her the go-to person for women going through a divorce or already single, yet she still has plenty of non-divorced clients. The point is that her specialty has helped her stand out in a crowded field. And her choice of niche markets is rather large considering the rate of divorce in this country.

Benefits of Choosing a Niche

* Stand out against the competition, which are usually generalists

* Increase appeal with your niche audience because they will feel confident they are working with an authority who understands their needs

* Referral partners will be easier to find because you can work with those who also work within your niche plus those who focus on a complementary niche

* You can become the go-to choice for clients who need what you have to offer

* You may be able to raise your rates due to your specialty area of focus

How Your Business Can Thrive with a Niche Focus

When your business has a clearly defined niche, not only can you attract even more business from your ideal customers, you can often command higher fees. Sharon Broughton launched her business as a virtual assistant in 2002. She began working as an administrative professional from her home, and in the early years she said yes to most opportunities.

But as she developed her skills over time and realized many were advanced skills that her competitors didn't have, she increased her rates and narrowed her focus.

Today, Sharon's specialty is working as an online business manager with clients who use Infusionsoft software (a robust customer relationship tool that few people in her field specialize in). She works with clients who own large online businesses and helps them manage their online activities. In exchange, she commands much higher rates plus a percentage of sales generated. She has also grown her business beyond a party of one and has a team of professionals who work for her.

Recently, during a radio interview, the host asked me if I could go back in time to when I started my business, was there anything that I would do differently. Without hesitation I told him that I would have better defined my niche and my audience. My first business was a bookstore, and it was tempting to try to be all things to all people. At one point we even stocked textbooks, which now seems beyond ridiculous. We could not compete with the textbook stores or keep up with the changing versions of books. We also stocked cheap series romance novels, which quickly proved to be lousy sellers and were hauled off to make room for more profitable categories.

When I eventually sold that store, I took many lessons with me on my entrepreneurial journey. Today, I own Authority Publishing, a custom book publisher, and we have a lot of big-box-style competition.

Our corporate conglomerate competitors lead with low prices and publish anything in exchange for a check. I knew from day one that we had to differentiate or we would never make it, and so I chose to focus on publishing non-fiction books. Some people still don't understand this choice. Shouldn't we be willing to publish anything if clients are willing to fork over the fees? But my clients know that their books are in good company. We are selective about the books we produce so we are much more focused on quality versus quantity. This allows us to compete based on quality, service, and a niche focus, which also allows us to charge more than the big "author factories" because we deliver a different level of service.

How to Identify Your Niche Focus

If you're a selling to businesses (B2), choosing a niche will likely be a matter of targeting a specific industry or people within a specific industry. If you're selling to consumers (B2C), different factors may be involved, such as who can afford your services, how old they are, where they live, or what they do for work or fun.

Choosing the right path for your business is something that takes some careful thought and exploration. Take time to answer the following questions. Consider engaging your staff in this process since they might see things from a different perspective.

1. Are there any specific industries or demographics that we currently serve on a regular basis? If so, what are the future opportunities like there?

2. Do we have a primary service that has special appeal to a certain industry or demographic?

3. Are there specific industries or demographics that sound intriguing? If so, what additional research is required to determine if this track makes sense?

4. What does the competitive landscape look like for the niche we want to focus on? Is the market saturated or is the field wide open?

5. What are our opportunities to make an impact in the chosen niche? What can we do differently from everyone else?

6. Is this niche growing, flat, or on the decline?

Research Your Niche

Before you settle on a niche, it's important to investigate the demand within that niche, the opportunities and risks, plus the competitive landscape. Following are several ways you can research a potential niche.

Conduct Surveys and Interviews

One of the best ways to understand a market is to go right to the source. You can do this by conducting surveys, interviews, or focus groups with your intended audience. Ask important questions about what influences their buying decisions, how much they spend on related services annually, what they like and dislike about competitor solutions, what issues they need solved, and how you can meet their needs. A tool like http://surveymonkey.com makes it easy to collect information online. You may also want to purchase a mailing list or find other ways to reach your intended audience directly.

Look for Industry Data

Use Google to research your target industry or demographic through trade associations and related firms that conduct surveys on market demand. These organizations can help determine if your niche is growing and how much demand there is for related products and services. In addition, check your local library for a copy of the Encyclopedia of Associations.

If you have trouble finding what you need online, head on down to your local library and ask a librarian for help. There are all kinds of reference books and databases available free of charge.

Investigate Search Demand

Internet search data allows you to understand the demand for a keyword or phrase. You can interpret this information one of two ways. First, a search term that's extremely popular demonstrates that there is market demand. The downside of this information is that the competitive landscape will likely be greater online because other website owners are also using this data.

A search term with slightly less popularity can still show you there is market demand, but may also be easier to penetrate as the competition will likely be smaller.

Google's free keyword tool is a great place to start: https://adwords. google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Type in a search term to find out about its popularity on Google, along with similar key phrases that are related. For example, a search for "life coach" shows 368,000 global monthly searches. This proves that there is great demand for this term and thus, the life coaching industry. However, Google also indicates that this search phrase is "highly competitive," meaning that there are many others vying for traffic from this search phrase.

A search for "life coach health" shows 1,000 global monthly searches, which indicates only a medium level of competition. So if you're a life coach considering the healthy living niche, you can see that market demand exists and the competitive landscape may be easier to penetrate.

Another free tool by Google is http://trends.google.com. Here you can type in a keyword and get a graph of historical data showing how popular that term has been on Google search in recent years. You will also find demographic data showing the cities and countries that most search for the term.

Also check out Google's Insights for Search: http://google.com/ insights/search. Here you can discover search trends by location, category, product, or seasonality.

Evaluate the Competition

Understanding your competition is essential to determining whether your business can find a competitive edge in a new market. When I was in software sales in the Silicon Valley, we were urged to study competitors. This helped us position our strengths against their weaknesses, while also allowing us to prepare answers when asked about potential advantages the competitors had.

You can use the internet to find out all kinds of information. Start with your top five to ten competitors. Find out what products and services they offer, how much they charge, and what advantages they might have against you. You can also sign up for their mailing lists or call to inquire about additional details. Don't be shy about this kind of research. You can bet they will be watching you, too.

Additional Resources

http://trendwatching.com – Provides monthly reports on a wide variety of consumer trends.

http://wikipedia.org – The user-generated online encyclopedia may provide some details and stats for specific industries or keyword phrases. Beware, since this is user-generated and data isn't always completely accurate; however, sources are often listed and you may find links to additional research data.

http://pulse.ebay.com – A list of the most popular searches currently conducted on eBay.

http://forrester.com – Provides consumer and business data with technology, IT, and marketing categories.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html — Find consumer census data by region including state, county, or city.

http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/guide.html — List of census data, including by industry.

http://infoUSA.com – Sells mailing lists, though you can use its search functionality to get insight into the size of your target market.

http://www.marketresearch.com/ — Database of market research reports (fee-based).

http://www.marketingresearch.org/ — Provides market research data and a directory of certified research professionals so that you can find and hire help for conducting market research.

http://www.scip.org/ — Association of Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals, where you can find firms to hire for assistance.

Making the Decision to Shift Your Focus

As you make the transition to focus on a specific niche, know that you don't have to turn away other business completely. If you're worried that narrowing your focus could create a cash crunch, then gradually make the change. Begin to focus your marketing efforts on reaching your newly defined audience while you continue to accept other work.

Over time, your marketing should catch up and you will discover how much easier it is to generate business when your target audience is clearly defined and your services align with their needs.

In fact, you might even get to a point where you are too busy with your niche work to even accept other jobs. If this happens, you will need to hire some additional help. Growing pains like this can be a good problem to have, but don't let high demand have an adverse affect on your ability to deliver great service or accept new clients. I've seen too many service providers turn away business because they couldn't keep up with demand, which makes no sense at all to me! Do your best to stay one step ahead of the growth.

Eventually, you may want to develop strategic relationships with companies that provide the services you no longer offer. For example, if you're a consultant who specializes in working with technology companies and you receive an opportunity to work with a retail business, align with someone who works with retailers and who you can confidently recommend. Ideally you will form an alliance so that you can refer business to each other on an ongoing basis.

Develop Your Niche Identity

Once you have identified your niche focus, everything you do must convey that to your new audience. That means changing marketing materials, website content, advertising, and sales scripts. Some companies will need to change their entire brand identity as a result (for those who never really had one to begin with, this will be a powerful exercise in improving your focus).

Using the general contractor as an example, if the focus becomes kitchen remodels, then lettering on the company vehicles needs to be changed and/or added. Assemble a new portfolio for your website and sales calls, along with marketing collateral that explains the benefits of your services along with photos and testimonials.

Identifying Your Unique Difference

Within your niche there will no doubt be competitors in your field (if there aren't, then your niche might be too narrowly defined). In order to really stand out and Own Your Niche, you need to understand what sets you apart from the rest. You could consider yourself to be the best in your field, but you need to know how you will convey that to prospective customers.

Consider the success of Zappos, an online shoe retailer. There is no shortage of places to buy shoes, yet Zappos quickly grew into an empire because it was different. The company's inventory is unmatched. You can find shoes from $20 up to $2,000. Zappos also revolutionized service by offering free shipping both ways, removing the risk for buyers. If buyers discover they don't like the shoes, they can ship them back at no charge, no questions asked. This liberal return policy combined with an enormous inventory made Zappos a favorite for shoe lovers everywhere. Without those policies, it simply would have been another online shopping site.

Recently, I met a business attorney who said she specialized in what she called "the usual stuff." During our conversation, she mentioned how much she loves writing contracts. Bingo! She could differentiate her practice by promoting her expertise in contracts. Sure, other attorneys write contracts, but this woman loves them. Her passion and experience with contracts could differentiate her business.

Many of my notes and ideas for this book were kept in a Circa notebook by Levenger. While there are thousands of notebooks available in the world, the difference with the Circa is that the pages are heavier stock and most importantly, removable. I can easily pull out pages and move them to a different section. Because of its unique function (its differentiator), a Circa notebook is more expensive than most.

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Excerpted from "Own Your Niche"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Stephanie Chandler.
Excerpted by permission of Authority Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Removing the Hype from Internet Marketing, ix,
Chapter One: Why Niches Rule, 1,
Chapter Two: Establish Your Authority in Your Field, 21,
Chapter Three: Build Your Audience and Engage Community, 39,
Chapter Four: Turn Your Website into a Client Conversion Machine, 51,
Chapter Five: Increase Website Traffic, 63,
Chapter Six: Blogs Rule, 79,
Chapter Seven: Social Media Simplified, 93,
Chapter Eight: Content Marketing Tactics, 121,
Chapter Nine: Hype-Free Internet Marketing, 139,
Chapter Ten: E-Newsletters and Email Marketing, 155,
Chapter Eleven: DIY PR, 169,
Chapter Twelve: Internet Revenue Streams, 183,
Chapter Thirteen: Build Your Audience Offline, 201,
Directory of Resources, 225,
About Stephanie Chandler, 233,