This is my inaugural blog. I never had any intention to blog – I never thought I’d have time for it. CTA gave me the opportunity, though, so here I am, blogging.
Today, I want to talk about niches. I’m Canadian, so I pronounce niche -“neesh”. Americans say “nitch”. So, in my world, my title rhymes. I tell my CCP classes that “neesh” is Canadian for “nitch”.
Is Your Business thriving or struggling?
I’ve recently been contacted by several of my past students (largely because it was so great to re-connect with so many of them at the Nov. 2012 CTA Symposium). I love hearing from CTA grads! Most are doing very well, and others are struggling to attract clients.
The commonality among the strugglers is that their niche/target market is too general. Remember, the HUB statement is a marketing message – designed to get you in front of potential clients quickly, easily, and efficiently, in the role of an expert. You can and will coach anybody about anything, and you will market to a specific group of people.
Choosing Your Quiche/Niche
When you want to eat a quiche, you go into a shop or restaurant that makes quiches. When you order, you don’t say “I’d like a quiche please” – because there are dozens of kinds of quiches from which to pick! How do you choose? Well, would you order, for example, a moose quiche? Likely not, even if you’re Canadian, because very few Canadians have ever tasted moose, and probably would not want to. The point is, you know there are some kinds you would never even want to try.
You choose the kind of quiche you are familiar with and know you will enjoy. You understand the taste and texture of the ingredients, and look forward to digging in and savouring every morsel. There might be several kinds of quiches you’d like to eat, and, if you’re going to have quiche for lunch, you just have to bite the bullet and pick one. It might be hard to make a choice, and yet, if you’re hungry enough, you will choose a kind that you know you will enjoy.
Once you have your quiche in front of you, you can enjoy the experience in a fully sensory way. It looks delicious, and smells heavenly. The pastry is light and fluffy, and falls apart when you touch it. It melts in your mouth and you can hear the “mmmmms” coming from your own voice as you sigh with delight. You are so glad you made this choice. You might try a different variety another time, for now, though, you are enjoying yourself, happy that you chose well.
Your niche is a quiche. Even though there might be dozens of kinds of people you could coach, pick ONE kind, right now. Pick the one that you are most familiar with, the one that you know inside and out. Pick the place where you know you can find the kind of people you know and understand, and enjoy, and go there. Watch and listen and use your knowledge, experience and skills to help others make the kind of choices of which they can be proud and happy.
Marketing Your Quiche/Niche –
Once you choose your quiche, you can write informative blogs or ezines about it, and educate others about it;
You can create group events that will bring commonalities together, through: presentations; workshops/ seminars; teleclasses; teleseries; webinars, etc.;
You can leverage series events into post-series, group coaching/support events;
You can develop products from the content of your group events: e-books; published books; special reports; recordings; etc.
Suddenly, you realize that your business is not struggling anymore. And all because you picked a quiche you liked.