7 Tips to Finding your Niche Market

Identifying your ideal client and your niche market is the basic foundation upon which every successful business is built. Below you will find 7 tips that are guaranteed to improve your business if you apply them.

Tip 1: Understand What Your Ideal Client Really WANTS

One of the biggest delusions that most small business owners make is the belief that everyone is my client. Not true! In fact when you try to market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one.

An additional belief that many small business owners have is that knowing the specific demographic information, such as age, sex, marital status, zip code, etc. is adequate knowledge in knowing who my ideal client or niche market is. This is also not true.

This type of demographic information only tells us the type of client that has a need for your product or service. You don’t want to be selling to a client that needs your product in as much as you want a client who has a want for your product or service. The distinction between needs and wants is huge and one that warrants some additional discussion.

While the demographic information consists of characteristics that identify the ability, need and interest of a client to purchase your product or service, the psychographic characteristics defines a client who wants what you sell. For example, we all NEED a haircut, but some of us want the $15.00 haircut and some of us WANT the experience that goes with the $150 haircut. We want the experience or the feeling that comes with the additional services in a high-end salon. From this distinction it becomes easy to understand that trying to market to each would dilute a core message you are trying to deliver to one of these two groups. Yet, it is the single biggest mistake small business owners make. Here is what I’ll share. We buy from our wants whether you know it or not. Your ideal client makes their buying decision from the way your product or service makes them feel and how well it meets their wants. Your job is to understand the WANTS of their ideal client. When you understand this, your ideal clients become easier to find and easier to market and sell to.

Tip 2: Are You Your Ideal Client?

I’ve seen so many small business owners struggle with identifying their niche market only to find that it’s staring them right in the face. Consider that you might be the best representation of your niche market. Let’s face it, you probably fit into the niche market of many of the product or service providers that you buy from. So, why not be representative of your own niche market? No one understands your wants and needs like you do. No one better understands the decision making criteria you use when evaluating a product or service. Catering to a market that you have a deep personal interest in is a huge contributor to how well you understand and serve that market.

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