At first glance, it may seem like offering a product or service that appeals to a wide range of people will generate more sales than one geared toward a smaller group. But the fact is this concept rarely pans out.
Trying to satisfy everyone leads to all sorts of problems:
Uncertainty over business strategy makes decisions difficult.
Inability to stand out makes it harder to attract customers.
Lack of a clear reputation gives people no reason to be loyal.
Marketing campaigns are inconsistent – so less effective.
Yet most businesses seem to follow the approach of trying to satisfy everyone.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that only a handful of businesses last more than five years.
But the world is changing fast. The Internet is affecting the way people think and buy – even if your business isn’t online.
People increasingly realize they can find someone who meets their needs exactly in virtually any field.
Choose the right niche where you are the first choice for your ideal clients.
The truth is: you stand a better chance of becoming an acknowledged leader in a more targeted niche than in a larger, broad field.
The good news is that, whatever market you are in, there is something special about your business, which means there is a niche just for you.
No matter how ordinary you think your business may be, there is enormous potential under the surface that a strong positioning will unleash.
The key to becoming the authority is unlocking that potential by deciding the right niche.
Deciding the right niche
The simplest way to define a niche is that it is a group of people (buyers and potential buyers) who have something in common – such as where they live, hobbies, political views or health.
The secret of finding a successful marketing niche is that it should be small enough to dominate and large enough to support a successful business.
Think Head & Shoulders shampoo. It focused on people with dandruff instead of competing with all other shampoos and came to dominate that market. If it had sought to cater to everyone, it would probably not have been so successful.
Having a clear niche means being able to identify exactly who your customers are and what they have in common.
But having the right niche isn’t just about finding a group of people with something in common.
7 keys to deciding the right niche
Here are 7 keys to deciding the right niche:
Reachable market: If you want to sell them something, you need to be able to identify them and contact them.
Recognizable want: People will generally spend more money on things they want rather than things they need.
Identifiable gap: You need to identify a part of the niche that is not currently being served well and where you can offer something better.
Good fit with your strengths: It will be easier to dominate a niche if it suits your personal or business strengths.
Proven market: The best markets usually have some existing competition so that there are proven buyers.
Adequate size: There should be enough profit potential, opportunities for repeat sales and prospects to build long-term relationships.
Able and willing to spend money: Customers should have already shown they will buy your type of product or service.
It might be hard to accept but the truth is that your ideal clients don’t love your business as much as you do.
If you don’t have a unique positioning, they don’t care how great you think your company is or how long you’ve been in business.
You won’t be seen as an authority in your market.
Your ideal clients want to know what sets you apart from your competition.
They’re not interested in cute slogans that offer no obvious benefits. They’re interested in what’s in it for them.
That’s why, to establish your authority, your business needs a unique positioning that clearly and concisely gives prospective customers a reason why they should choose you.
Your positioning needs to cut through the clutter they already have in their mind and all the new information that is coming at them every second.
“Sharpen your message to cut into the mind. … You have to select the material that has the best chance of getting through.”
Al Reis and Jack Trout
So try to put yourself in your prospective customer’s mind and ask yourself: Why should they buy from you?
Ultimately, this is about finding a unique quality in your business and conveying it clearly. The last thing you want is to try to promote your business and attract customers just by saying, “Buy from me” or, “We’re better”.
Defining Your Unique Positioning
You don’t want to be one of those business owners who don’t have a clear, articulate answer when asked about their business.
One of the pioneers of positioning was advertising legend Rosser Reeves.
“Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit.”
“The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique – either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising.”
“The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions; i.e., pull over new customers to your product.”
Rosser Reeves, Reality in Advertising
In other words, it should sell – because it is something your prospects really want.
In short, his message was to find one thing that lifts your product or service head and shoulders above the competition, distill it into a memorable concept or slogan, and then repeat it constantly.
To have a clear positioning, you need to identify something special about your business, for example in terms of one of the following:
Promise e.g. guaranteed outcome
Benefit e.g. better results
Product or service e.g. unique features
Market e.g. only for teachers
Price e.g. lowest or highest
Endorsement e.g. from trade association
Guarantee e.g. money-back promise
Location e.g. geographic area
Whatever you identify has to be important enough to get consumers clamoring to buy.
A unique positioning will set you apart from your competition
As Reeves would say, it has to sell!
You need to find your most marketable point and then create an irresistible positioning around it.
A profit-pulling positioning will:
Identify with a clear want from the marketplace
Set you apart from your competition
Give people a reason to buy from you rather than a competitor
Provide the basis for a successful and growing business
Reflect your own strengths and passion
Be difficult for your competitors to copy
When people think of what you sell, you want them to think of you.
You want to create awareness for your business so that when an individual needs what you offer, they choose you immediately.
You don’t want to just exist in the marketplace; you want to be the company of choice!
A strong and unique positioning will allow you to attract more of your ideal clients and build strong relationships with them.
If you want to position yourself as an authority to attract more ideal clients, you need to know who will give you money for what you do and have a good reason why they should give it to you.
Your “positioning” is a crucial step in the process of attracting ideal clients. Yet, many people don’t take the time to define this.
They often just have a feeling that people will buy what they offer. So perhaps it’s not surprising that so many businesses fail in the first few years.
To be successful, you need to do more than attract clients, patients, or customers.
You need to attract people who are going to invest with you, get results and hopefully be fun to work with.
When you have clearly identified your ideal clients, patients, or customers, you’ll find it’s easier to:
5 Key Questions to Position Yourself as an Authority
There are five questions you need to answer to successfully position yourself as an authority.
Who are your ideal clients?
What big problem do they have that you can solve?
How can you best help them?
Why should they buy from you?
Where can you find them?
So let’s follow these steps one by one.
# 1: Who are your ideal clients?
One of the big mistakes most people make in business is they try to be something for everyone.
When you want to be as successful as possible, it can easily seem that trying to appeal to a wide audience will generate more sales.
But the fact is this rarely pans out.
The truth is: it will be easier to position yourself as an authority if you focus on a specific market.
So you need to define your target market as specifically as possible, taking into account:
Demographics: This covers identifiable and quantifiable categories like age group, gender, education level, income group, geographic area etc.
Psychographics: This reflects how they think and make decisions. It can be harder to define but ultimately more useful than demographics. It includes things like what’s important to them or their interests and lifestyles.
So ultimately, when you define your ideal customer groups, you’ll find it’s a mix of demographics and psychographic. For example:
New business owners in San Francisco
Mothers of young children who want a career change
Men over 45 who like golf
# 2: What big problem do they have that you can solve?
There are generally two reasons people will voluntarily spend money on something:
They want to solve a problem
They want to make their life better in some way (including their family’s life or their business results)
This applies whether you are selling to individuals, business owners, or larger organizations. To make the sale easier, your task is to find out what your target market wants and then give it to them.
You need to get inside their heads and find out what’s on their mind.
What’s the big problem that keeps them awake at night?
What’s the big dream they really want to achieve?
Some people buy because they want to solve the problem and others buy to achieve the dream. So you need to think about your offer from both perspectives.
For example, one person may see their situation negatively: “My business is struggling to attract enough clients”. Another may be more positive: “I want to double my profits next year”.
Based on this information, you can define your service using a sentence that begins with “I help people who…”
“I help people who don’t have enough clients” OR
“I help people who want to double their profits next year”
It is not enough to know that they have a problem (or that they want to achieve something). You need to know that they want to change the situation and that they are willing to spend enough money to do so.
One of the things you want to do is find out what people are searching for on Google and what they are discussing on social media related to the topic. Build a list of the top keywords people use on Google and of the questions they raise in social media and popular sites such as Amazon.com.
# 3: How can you best help them and provide a transformation?
Once you’ve defined exactly what people want, you can work out the best way to give it to them. You need to be able to show how you can transform their life or their business.
You need to be able to show how you can transform their life or their business
In doing this, you have to take into account your own strengths and capabilities so that you can match those to what people want.
If you are still seeking to define your area of expertise, it usually comes down to one of three things:
Advice: What do people most often ask you for help with?
Skills: What are you particularly good at?
Knowledge: What have you learned through books or experience?
When you have clarified the area of your expertise, there are two parts to defining how you can help people.
The first is specifying what you do. For example:
“I create marketing plans…”
“I offer an online training course…”
That’s where most business owners stop. They focus on what they do. But the reality is that people don’t care what you do. They’re only interested in what it means for them.
So the second part has to focus on the outcome for them. It’s often useful to start with the term “…which helps them to…”
“…which helps them to generate a large list of prospects”
“…which helps them to overcome their fear of speaking”
It’s useful to be as specific as possible about the outcome or transformation. Often you need to go beyond the obvious and talk about what it means to them on a deeper level.
# 4: Why should they buy from you?
Your prospects and clients could almost always go somewhere else to get the help they need. So you need a good reason why they should choose you.
Do you know why you are the right person to help your ideal client?
If you can’t think why people should choose you, you need to find ways to change what you offer so that you stand out. Here are some factors that could make your offer right for them:
Your specific expertise and knowledge
A guaranteed outcome
Serving a specific geographic location or market segment
Personal service or coaching
Getting this right can help you break through the clutter in the most saturated market and become the obvious authority.
When you’ve completed these four steps, you should be able to combine them and write a short statement defining your positioning such as:
“I help new business owners in San Francisco who are struggling to attract enough clients. I create marketing plans to give them a huge list of prospects. They choose me because I give a guaranteed outcome.”
# 5: Where can you find them?
A key reason for defining your target market is that you need to know how you are going to reach them
A key reason for defining your target market is that you need to know how you are going to reach them with your message.
That means you need to know where they hang out, what publications they read, and who already has access to them.
Without knowing this, you cannot create marketing campaigns to get your message across to them.
If there are not already people advertising in this market or places where people come together, there may not be a market here anyway.
ACTION PLAN TO POSITION YOURSELF AS AN AUTHORITY
Answering these five questions should help you clarify the right positioning to attract your ideal clients.
Who is your ideal client?
What are the big transformations they want – problems solved or achievements desired – where you can help?
How can you help them achieve these transformations?
Why should they choose YOU rather than someone else?
Where can you reach your ideal clients through your marketing?
The 5 Keys to Being Seen as an Authority
This is one of the five keys to building your authority as shown below.
Positioning: Identify your ideal clients and how you can best help them so you can attract them easily
Packaging: Offer your advice, skills, and knowledge in a way that makes it easy to attract a large number of high-paying clients
Publishing: Demonstrate your expertise in a wide range of ways so that people can see how you can help them
Promotion (Lead Generation): Take steps to attract more of your ideal clients to you instead of having to chase them
Persuasion (Conversion): Turn more of your ideal prospects into profitable long-term clients
Click on the links above for more information on each of the elements.
