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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

It looks like I might be teaching a version of Turbo-Charge Your Marketing this February at a local community college as part of their continuing education program. I’m working on the class handout now and found these resources I thought I would share with you, as well.

Identify Your Ideal Client Profile by Nancy Michaels

Profile Your Ideal Client First by John Bowen

How to Identify Your Ideal Client Profile to Generate More Revenue by John Assaraf

Resources on the Web: Ideal Clients is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

Probably one of the toughest things you’ll learn in business is discerning the difference between benefits and features. And this knowledge can make or break your business … because people buy benefits, not features. So if you’re pushing the features of your products and services, you’re not going to sell much.

Thing is, features are easy to list and talk about. It is translating those features into benefits that gets a lot of people stuck — especially coaches, speakers and info-service professionals. That’s why I dedicated an entire call (call #6 with Annie Jennings and Stacy Amara Kauffman) to the topic! I’m even dedicating an entire chapter of Plan Your Business Vision, to the topic!

The rule of thumb for telling the difference is this:

A feature is a fact about your product or service:

• The pen is red.
• You record your coaching call and provide your clients with the recording so they can refer back to the session in the future.
• You incorporate audience interaction into your presentations.

A benefit is the edge that feature provides your client:

• Red helps you find the pen in your purse more easily.
• Your client can concentrate on the coaching conversation and not on taking notes.
• Your audience is engaged and learns the material more effectively.

Do you see the difference?

Here are some articles I found on the web that might help you translate your product and service features into benefits:

BookCoaching.com Business Tip of the Month – December 2003
“Benefits vs. Features: Know the Difference!”

Entrepreneur.com
Marketing Features Vs. Benefits: Learn the difference, and then see the difference in your bottom line.

Marketing Expert & Author, George Torok
Benefits vs. Features

Benefits vs. Features is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

As I mentioned on the call with Adam Urbanski (call #4), when I did the research for this project, I found it very difficult to find information on how to market to pleasure vs. how to market to pain. These are key concepts in your marketing tool box. So why is it so difficult to find information on the topic?

I’ve asked around and nobody seems to have an answer. It seems that marketing to pleasure and pain has become instinctual to most marketers so they don’t think about it much. They just know to do it. I guess that’s why I decided to devote two calls to different aspects of the topic.

But even after two calls, there are still a lot of questions. So, I did some more thorough research and found a few articles on the web I’d like to share with you. It was still hard, though. I took me a good 30 minutes just to find these:

The Pleasure Principle and How it Applies to Marketing and Advertising
By Lahle Wolfe, About.com

Pain vs. Pleasure-the Key to Unlock Your Motivation
By Javelin Marketing

Seeking Pleasure? Or Avoiding Pain?
Based on the Research of Jennifer L. Aaker And Angela Y. Lee

NeuroMarketing – Top 7 Insights To Unlocking Your Customer’s Brain For Instant Sales
By Denise Corcoran

Why So Little Info on Marketing to Pleasure and Pain? is a post from Marketing Turbo-Charge

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