Marketing Turbo-Charge » Define Your Niche

New Niches Emerging

Carma Spence — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:24:49 +0000

According to Marketing Sherpa, which I regularly read, the classic demographics are no longer making the grade. New niches are emerging in the current economic climate. In one blog post, they discussed three of them:

The New Frugal: Although they are doing O.K., they are “caught up in the national mood of poverty” and therefore are watching how they spend their money.
The New Cash Rich: This demographic is divided into two segments, the older segment who are flush with liquid assets after pulling money out of the stock market, and the younger segment who are still living at home after graduating from college.
The New Entrepreneur: “Every time we have a recession, a new crop of entrepreneurs springs out of those who were laid off.”

I share this with you to help you define your niche. The best way for your business to thrive while all those around you participate in the fear of the current economic times is to focus on your target niche. And, with new niches emerging, you can strategically appeal to these influences within your target niche. To learn more about the demographics discussed above, check out the Marketing Sherpa blog post here.

New Niches Emerging is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

The Business Foundation Trinity

Carma Spence — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:37:31 +0000

With each successive call in the Turbo-Charge Your Marketing teleseminar series, I realize how much everything in the program builds on and depends on everything else.

Of course I planned it that way — but I’m still realizing that the layers are greater than I had planned.

Anyway, I was thinking about the first three calls this weekend, and reading Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid and came to the realization that the foundation of every truly amazing business is based on three interconnected concepts: Passion, Niche and Ideal Clients.

Take a look at the graphic here. Each one of these concepts are represented by a circle. Where these three circles intersect … that’s where your most optimized business resides.

Passion is what drives you. It is what motivates you to get up in the morning and keep plugging away at your business. Passion helps you discover your niche and identify your ideal clients.

Niche is what brings your prospects together … it how they self-group, making it easier for you to determine what kinds of products and services will serve their needs best.

Ideal clients are the kinds of people you like to hang around. They energize you and inspire you to do your best work.

Passion helps you find the right niche for you and it is your biggest clue when you are serving your ideal clients. You need to be passionate about your niche and your ideal clients. Your niche must be where you find your ideal clients and be of interest to you. Your ideal clients must energize you and be interested in your niche. You see? They all interconnect … loose one piece of the trinity and your business will start to falter.

Now, when I use the term passion in this context, it doesn’t necessarily have have to be your top passion … that might be for something that is not profitable. But, you do have to have at least a spark or two of interest.

Once you have found your business sweet spot — the business that can be found in the intersection of your interests, the interests of your target market and your ideal clientele — you can build your marketing much more easily.

You’ll have the information you need to choose your words wisely, make use the best media to convey your message, and know that you are doing your best work in the service of individuals you truly like and respect. That is where business nirvana lies.

The Business Foundation Trinity is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

Carma’s Kismet

Carma Spence — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:35:10 +0000

I just started reading Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid this weekend. Now, I purchased the book back in May and its been sitting on my bookshelf ever since. What struck me, however was something he wrote in the beginning of the book:

“To be booked solid requires that you have a solid foundation. That formula begins like this:

Choose your ideal clients so you work only with people who inspire and energize you.

Understand why people buy what you are selling.

Develop a personal brand so you’re memorable and unique.

Talk about what you do without sounding confusing or bland.

Does this sound familiar? It should. For the Turbo-Charge Your Marketing (TCYM) program follows this process in so many ways. Of course, TCYM starts a little earlier — discovering what drives you — because I think it would difficult to identify ideal clients if you don’t know who you are and what you want.

So, the first week of TCYM covered basically that first point. This coming week covers the second. The next two series in the Fall and Spring will cover the final two points.

O.K. What am I getting to here? Just that when an idea has reached it’s time to be birthed into the world, it will find a way to be birthed in as many ways as possible.

I think that concept of basing your business on what drives you and makes you happy, energized and inspired, has reached critical mass and you’re going to be seeing this idea talked about in many different ways from many different sources more and more often.

Take heed … for this is the way of business’ future. You need to pay attention to this trend and ride its wave. It’s Kismet, baby!

Carma’s Kismet is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

Business to Business Copy Should Be Conversational

Carma Spence — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:22:49 +0000

I once attended a networking meeting where the topic of the day was copywriting. One of the attendees raised her hand and said something to the effect that she understood why you would use conversational copy for consumers, but why business owners?

The speaker, in reply, asked her a series of questions. Do you brush your teeth in the morning? Eat breakfast? Put your pants on one leg at a time?

She answered yes to all.

So, the speaker said, does all this change once you get into the office?

She was stumped. It had not occurred to her that business people are people, too.

“In an age of social media and social networking, conversations are more valued than commanding corporate pronouncements,” an article in BtoB magazine once started out. It continued to say that “it’s vital to converse with communities rather than lecture to a target audience.”

And this is so true. If you’re reading this, you probably own a business or are looking at owning one. Is there any reason to believe that when you read something aimed at you the person and something else aimed at you the business owner that you are somehow a different person?

This is why, whether you are marketing to consumer or to businesses, you always keep in mind that you are marketing to people first. And people do business with people they know, like and trust. They buy benefits before they buy features. Even if they say they are buying features, they are still buying the benefits they believe those features will give them.

So, the next time you post something to Facebook … the next time you put together a marketing piece … keep in mind who you are communicating with … not what.

Business to Business Copy Should Be Conversational is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

Are You in a Lucrative Niche Market?

Milana Leshinsky — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:16:27 +0000

Out of hundreds of coaches, authors, and speakers I have consulted, interviewed and collaborated with, I have NOT met a single one who achieved a high level of success without specializing. That’s why I think this is the first and most important issue to address in your business.

In fact, if you can’t say that you can enter a room full of people, and at least 90% of them are interested in your message, then you don’t have a good niche. In other words, there must be groups and organizations your target audience belongs to; there must be merchants who sell to your target audience; there must be newsletters and magazines published specifically for your target audience. If you can’t name at least 10-15 such organizations, companies and publications, then it will be very difficult for you to build a six-figure business.

Why Specialize?
Because if you specialize, you will have a higher value as an expert and professional. If you specialize, you’ll be able to charge higher fees, b much more effective in any marketing activity, and able to develop repeatable solutions essential for building a “turnkey business.”

So what’s next?
1. Choose your niche market as soon as you start your business – don’t waste valuable time!

2. Determine what your expertise and specialty is, and what target audience would be willing to pay you to solve their problems.

3. Study your niche market to find out what some of the biggest challenges your target audience experience, what solutions are already being offered to them, and how you can reach them easily.

Reality Check
It IS possible to build a successful expertise-based business without a very specific niche. In my experience and in my observations over the years, it takes a lot longer AND you may end up working just way too hard because your coaching fees are too low, so even if you have 20 clients who are paying you $400 a month, the most you can ever make is $90,000 – before taxes and before your expenses.

Let’s say that your business costs are a third of that, which is not unusual, then the most you can take home is $60,000. You may be thinking, wow that’s a lot of money! I would love to bring home $60,000. But do you realize how hard you’d need to work if you had 20 clients? Do you realize that you wouldn’t have any time left for marketing, creating products, building leverage into your business? In other words, with 20 clients you have a practice, not a business that can grow and take off on its own. I am not saying that you shouldn’t work with coaching clients.

There are much more effective ways to be a successful entrepreneur, who impacts many many people in some really great ways, and you don’t have to break you back doing it.

Are You in a Lucrative Niche Market? is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge