If you’ve been stuck in niche-limbo for far too long or you’ve been thinking about focusing specifically on a particular segment of your market but not quite sure how to go about it, I got you!
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
A strategy to try on a niche without changing your entire business
How you can still work with all types of clients while testing the waters with a niche
How you finally create focus when it comes to marketing your services, without complicating it.
If you’ve been stuck in niche-limbo for far too long or you’ve been thinking about focusing specifically on a particular segment of your market but not quite sure how to go about it, I got you!
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
A strategy to try on a niche without changing your entire business
How you can still work with all types of clients while testing the waters with a niche
How you finally create focus when it comes to marketing your services, without complicating it.
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
Shannon Stone:
H ey guys, welcome to the podcast, super excited to jump into this episode today.
Shannon Stone:
Today we are talking about a strategy that's going to help you try on a new niche Now. I've had a lot of conversations with clients recently around this idea of having a back-end niching strategy, so I'm going to share that with you. But just so we're kind of clear on my take on niching and maybe even your take as well, because I know there's so much confusion when it comes to picking a niche and who you work with and who you target. It's a really complicated world out there for businesses. But my take is and you know, there's no one way or this way is better than that way, but I much rather focus on the problem that you solve, not the person that you want to help. So you know, I don't have to target female business owners who look like this kind of way, living in this certain location. While some of those factors can be helpful, I rather focus on the problem that you solve, not specifically the person that you want to help, as your primary focus. Now we can talk about niching for days, but I think what's going to be most helpful is to talk about this strategy that can help you to try on a niche to give you some focus in your business, and what this will end up doing is either your business stays the same, but you also will have this targeted niche strategy that allows you to really focus on acquiring a certain type of clientele. So there is that side of it. The other side is that maybe, from trying this on, you do decide that actually I really do want to work with this niche and I want to fully commit my business to this and I want to update my marketing, my copy, my everything. So I really just focus on this particular niche.
Shannon Stone:
Now sometimes we're told it's like you have to just go all in, and if you don't go all in, nothing's going to work. So this strategy is kind of like the solution to that, and I don't believe in going all in. I think if you always went all in and you're always trying new things and when you went all in on that, it can look really messy as a business of. Who are they actually focusing on? I thought the other day they were focusing on this type of client. Now they're focusing on that type of client, and so this strategy is going to help you to create some resolution around all of that.
Shannon Stone:
So if there is a market or a particular segment of your market that you've had some nudges or inclinations that you know what I really do want to focus on them, but you're not entirely sure how to go about it and you don't want to entirely commit your whole business to that particular segment just yet. This is exactly for you. So I'm going to share an example for us here, but I want you to almost consider yourself in these shoes, but we're going to use this as a frame of reference. So imagine you are a business broker. So a business broker they help people to buy and sell businesses and you can help people buy and sell any kind of business. Someone could be selling a hair salon or wanting to buy a cafe or a franchise business. All sorts of businesses exist. But say, you are that business broker who essentially the problem that you do solve is helping people to buy and sell businesses, but you want to just focus on a particular segment.
Shannon Stone:
Now, the segment I've selected for this business broker is a construction business or the construction sector. So, imagine yourself in this you help people to solve a particular problem, but there is a more defined market that you would like to focus on. So once you get clarity on that, then we can do something with it, and this is what I call a backend strategy. So, however your business and your marketing looks right now is perfectly fine, but you can also have a campaign or a strategy or just a series of actions that you do in your business that focus on, in this case, starting to attract people for the business broker who want to buy and sell businesses in the construction space. So you can have a strategy and we'll talk about what this could look like for you where it's just happening in the background.
Shannon Stone:
It's not something you have to post about on your social media. It doesn't have to take over your content. You don't need to create lead magnets and all these things. You could, but you don't need to. This is the idea of trying on this niche and deploying a bit of a backend strategy. So, once you clear on the type of niche that you would like to target, what I would suggest that you do is start to either come up with a strategy or have a series of actions that start to get you amongst those construction businesses. And again, this is not something that you have to completely publicize. You can if you want to, but I do believe positioning is really important for businesses.
Shannon Stone:
So if you are this business broker and you've realized that you do want to focus on these construction or people who are attracted to buying and selling construction businesses, how can you start to get amongst them? How can you start to have conversations with those people? Do you need to start going to events where construction type clientele hang out? Do you need to go to maybe deliver some presentations for a construction sector or a construction audience? Can you get into more speaking? Can you connect with certain people within this space, within this industry or within this sector? Could you join programs or communities or associations that this sector of the market is a part of.
Shannon Stone:
Now you can do all of this in any kind of way that works for you. I always say we can do things in a big way, we can do things in a small way. You can do it in a very organic way where maybe you just want to start growing your connections on LinkedIn with more construction people in the construction space, or maybe it is that you do partner with associations and you make investments or you sponsor certain things. So it's how big or small that you want to make it. It's however far you want to go with testing the waters, getting a month. This segment is entirely up to you, and I think that's the beauty of it.
Shannon Stone:
Now, think of this as well. We're kind of doing this in tandem to the rest of your business, so business goes on as usual. So I would imagine that you do get leads, you do get people reaching out and interested in your services, but now we're taking the reins a little bit more by having this secondary approach where you've decided okay, I really do want to take on an influx of this particular type of clientele, in this case construction. Now how can I really get amongst them. What is a strategy or a series of actions I can create that will help me to get amongst these people a little bit more? Now, how long do you do this for? You could be doing this for a month. You could be doing this for three months, six months, you could do this forever. It's really entirely up to you, and what you will find is that your efforts start to be more focused. They start to be more targeted, and this is a great way to try on a focused niche.
Shannon Stone:
Like I said at the start, this doesn't have to take over your entire business. This doesn't have to take over your entire marketing. You don't have to rebrand or get lifestyle photos that suit the target market. You don't have to do any of that. This is just about connecting with a particular type of clientele in a niche that you've selected for the purpose of one. You will get clients for sure, because you're just starting to get amongst these people, and I guess this would lend to what your strategy looks like as well. But I imagine you've got a functioning business. People come to work with you already. So if you just start showing up with the problem that you solve around the people that you can help, you're probably going to find that you will start to get more leads because you start to show up in this kind of way as well.
Shannon Stone:
So what this will end up doing, however long you try this on for this is what is probably going to happen, one of three things, or the conclusion that you come to. You can keep your existing targeting in your business so you can work with the same people that you work with. You can solve that problem that you already solved the exact same people so you can have that already in place. Plus, you can have this new focus niche. So for our business broker, franthea, they could have their existing targeting helping people to buy and sell businesses as they do but in tandem to that, they also have a strategy or a series of actions that helps them to focus on this particular niche in the construction space. So that is number one. That's one way that this could go.
Shannon Stone:
The second way that this can go is that you realize from trying this on that you really like this approach, you like having a targeted niche, and you can do this one of two ways. The first way is that you go and deploy this construction space strategy, and then you also select another type of niche that you would also like to focus on. So maybe it's the hospitality space for this business broker and you do the exact same thing. So once we've nailed the construction space as a strategy, then how can you focus on doing the exact same thing for the hospitality? You join the same events, you attend the same places, you have the same type of conversations just with people in this space. But what you're finding is that you like to have these focus niches and you do it strategy by strategy, one at a time. So you're doing it really, really well.
Shannon Stone:
The other way that this can go is that you realize you just want to entirely shift your focus to this particular niche. So you go through this and I would give it time, definitely so that you can start to see the results and make decisions based on the results and then the decision you may come to is that you entirely focus on this niche. Once you've invested your time, your effort, your resources into this and if that is the case, that's a conclusion that you come to You've made probably a really informed decision about it, because you've attracted great clients, you've started working with them, you find that your marketing is really hitting the mark where it needs to hit the mark, and then you can make a decision around do you rebrand, do you update your copy, do you update your lead magnets and all these type of things, so you only focus on this particular niche. So it can go one of three ways. Number one is that you keep your existing targeting and that you also have this second well, this focus niche. So in tandem, you're doing both. The second is that you have multiple focus niches. And then the third is that you entirely shift your focus to only work with this particular niche. Okay, so that is the strategy.
Shannon Stone:
Here are the action steps. I'd love to know how you found this, if anyone's kind of shared this way of doing things with you. And I think one of the big amazing things about this is that you don't have to Go all in, you don't have to jump, and I feel like a lot of these terms can lend a little bit of chaos to our businesses. You know, it's like we have to take these sayings with a little bit of a grain of salt, especially when it comes to business. So, when it comes to me, she and you can definitely try on A segment of the market, and this can take you out of being in that niche limbo and see how you like it, see how you find it, and even if the Feedback of the data that you get from this entire exercise is that you know what I don't want to work with this segment. I don't want to work with construction businesses or whoever it might be, then that is actually an amazing thing, because, instead of diving in head first from the beginning, you tried it on with a specific strategy, specific series of actions. Alright, so to the action steps.
Shannon Stone:
So if you have been thinking that you've got this knowledge to try on a more defined segment of the market and you're Also not wanting to commit your entire business to this group just yet, there's two things I want you to do. Number one you need to choose who this segment is. It's worth trying. If it's been on your kind of shoulder and you've been thinking I'll be really great if we just work with that kind of client, or that you often get clients in a particular space and you'd love to see what would happen if I really focused on those. That's what I want you to do. I want you to choose what segment that is. So you've probably got some evidence already happening in your business that is going to give you some insight into who that is. So that's number one.
Shannon Stone:
Number two is to then create a strategy to reach this segment either a strategy or a series of simple actions they don't have to be complicated that help you to start to connect with this segment. So, whatever a strategy may look like for you again, it can be bigger, it could be small, or a series of actions could just be You're going to attend a monthly event that, say, construction clientele go to. You're also going to connect with people on LinkedIn every single week who are in that construction space, and also you're going to do a presentation or some kind of guest speaking every second month. So it can be as simple as that In order for you to try it on. So that is what I have for you as far as helping you to try on a new niche.
Shannon Stone:
I hope you give this strategy ago. Hopefully it puts a little bit of focus around some things that you were thinking about when it comes to niching and ultimately, it takes you out of that niching limbo as well. So hopefully you found this useful. I hope you have an amazing day and can't wait to hear what you do with this episode.