Podcast 10: How to Pick a Niche for Your Holistic Business
Apr 23, 2020
If you want to be happy in your business, it’s important you enjoy working with your clients and helping them with their problems. Many practitioners want to work as generalists because they think they’ll get bored only helping one group of people, and they’re scared of missing out on potential clients.
What’s a generalist?
A generalist offers their services to anyone who can benefit from them. In the UK we have doctors who are general practitioners (GPs). They work with the general public who present with any issue, rather than being a consultant and specialising in an area or condition. There are certain advantages to be a generalist as a practitioner:
- You’ll have a broad skillset covering a range of different issues
- It’ll help you understand other problems your clients may have
- You’ll be able to see the bigger picture
- There’s more scope to learn about different things
However, from a marketing perspective, there are disadvantages to being a generalist. Whilst having the potential to work with anyone may feel like an obvious choice, the reality is very different.
Offering to help everyone will make your marketing invisible and you’ll be lost amongst the noise. It’ll be difficult to articulate the benefits of working with you instead of a specialist to prospective clients. Unless your discipline is well known and understood, you may struggle to survive.
If you’re a generalist trying to market yourself as all things to all people and have an empty diary, it’s time for a change.
There’s a space between being a generalist and specialising where the magic happens. It’s where you’re an expert in a niche, but you also help your clients with other things as the opportunities arise. Doesn’t this idea sound more appealing than an empty diary?
What’s a niche?
A niche is a well-defined group of people to who you offer your products and services. They’ll have things in common such as their challenges and issues, and will share similar lifestyles, interests, backgrounds. Importantly, they’re the kind of clients you want to work with, can help, and get the best results for.
They’re also the people you create your marketing for. Having a niche doesn’t stop you from working with anyone, it just focuses your marketing activities. It helps you to become known for helping people in specific ways.
Having a niche is particularly important for online marketing activities and if you want to create income online. When someone is searching for help with their problems online, they’re very specific with what they type into google. You have to be specific with what you offer, and to who.
What a niche isn’t
Just because you pick a niche it doesn’t stop you from working with other clients and it doesn’t have to be your whole business. It’s not a forever decision, you can change it at a later date if it’s not a good fit, or not working out the way you want.
Why niche?
A niche simply focuses your marketing efforts. It makes it very clear who you’re communicating to, and you can tailor your messages effectively. Having a well-defined niche makes it simple for people to understand exactly who you work with, even if it’s not them personally they can relay your message to a friend or family member who needs your help.
Picking a niche will bring you faster results from your marketing as people are actively sourcing help for their specific problems. People are naturally sceptical and especially so when it comes to their health and well-being. They want to know they’re consulting an expert who is experienced in helping people just like them.
When you’re viewed as an expert within a certain field, you’re more likely to be presented with other opportunities such as being asked for your opinion by the press, invited to speak on the topic or write a book.
Choosing your niche
Here are the questions to ask yourself to help you identify the best niche for you:
- Who are your current clients?
- Who are you excited about working with?
- What specific problems do you solve?
- Who will pay for your solutions?
- Which group of people do you have the most contacts for and access to?
- What issues are you experienced in working with?
- Which group of clients feels the most natural for you to work with?
- Is this group large enough to provide you with regular clients?
If you’re a new practitioner, think about the people you have in your personal network and those you practised with during your training for ideas.
Now make a decision on your niche:
- Which is the easiest group for you to work with now?
- Who do you feel confident helping achieve great results?
- Where are you most likely to find clients who will pay you?
Six-month marketing commitment
Marketing’s a marathon and not a sprint and it will take time to establish your niche. Once you’ve chosen one, commit to marketing consistently to this group for the next six months. This will give it the chance to build momentum and help you to understand if it is viable. At the end of the six months, you can review where you are with your niche and decide if you want to continue to grow it, keep it, and expand into another area with a second niche, or if it is not working change to a different one.
Ultimately, it’s your business and your decision who you work with. If you’re struggling to thrive as a generalist, it’s time to reconsider your choice.
If you struggle to identify your niche, book a discovery call and find out how I can help you.
Podcast 10 show notes:
- What’s a generalist? (1:12)
- The space between generalist and niche (3:25)
- What’s a niche? (4:06)
- What a niche isn’t (5:45)
- Why niche (6:06)
- Choosing your niche (7:30)
- Make a decision on who you’re going to help (9:52)
- 6-month marketing commitment (10:35)
