Like it or not, we live in a time when your (prospective) coaching clients demand specialization. They want to feel they are receiving the product or service they want and need from someone they perceive as an authority in their niche – someone who carved out a prominent visibility and credibility in that market.
This doesn’t mean you have to have an MBA or a doctoral degree in your topic. Instead, you MUST position yourself and your business as someone whose only purpose is to help your ideal client with their specific transformation needs; and you CAN’T do that while trying to be everything to everyone. And… even if you have a doctoral degree, MBA, or any advanced training, positioning is still key – your advanced training will not get you clients if your marketing materials (including your website) DON’T position you as an authority in your niche.
Most business owners today try to expand their product or service offerings, reasoning (incorrectly) that they’re casting a wider net that will catch more fish. In reality, they’re doing the exact opposite. Your prospects want to feel as though you are focused solely on the challenges/needs/strong desires that are most important to them. If you try to be everything to everyone, you lose credibility and end up attracting no one… OR extremely few, while expending much more effort, and more marketing $$$s.
* – the first 4 also act as a “niche-test” – if any one of those elements is missing (1 through 4), you’ll find yourself struggling and eventually failing(!)
1. Become clear who you’d like to work with – who is your ideal client (your target market)? Are they frustrated, overworked, and overwhelmed managers? Or dentists who want to improve their team’s customer service? Or employees over age 55 who want to start planning a balanced and purposeful retirement? The more clear you are on this, the easier it’ll be to find them, craft your marketing message to them, and sell to them (though, in my above examples, “employees age 55 and up,” they’d be harder to find, compared to the other two examples)
2. Know what your ideal clients really want. Find out what are their most burning pain areas, or burning desires of your target market – so burning that they are willing to pay for the solution. Let your website demonstrate that you understand their needs! Use language that shows you understand their frustrations or desires even better than they do, and provide hope for relief.
3. Make sure that your ideal client can afford your fees (!!! – you might have to re-do #1 above if your target market is broke). Become known as an authority in a niche that a) Has the money to pay for your service/s’ b) Is actively looking for your service, and c) Your research found that they are already spending on your type of solution (don’t try to reinvent the wheel!)
4. Go after a target market that you can find easily. You can have the greatest service or product; if you can’t easily reach those who need it most, you are setting yourself up for failure right from the start. Ask yourself,
5. Become (massively) visible in front of your target market. Position yourself as an authority/expert to your target market by providing them solutions to their burning problems or desires
6. Invest time to word your offers in a way that your ideal client can relate to it AND wants to engage with you. It is your words that will get you hired. All the visibility in the world can be worthless if your message does not resonate with your prospects. Talk directly to them, such as “Are you a professional who feels overwhelmed and unproductive? …” – all overwhelmed and unproductive professionals know that they’ve arrived at the right website (if they like what they read next… Every headline, subheadline, paragraph should “force”/invite the reader to continue reading and increase the desire to engage with you.
7. Offer paid solutions to your followers. After all, you are doing this to generate an income, right? Make sure to mention your paid solutions in some of your videos, webinars, etc; also, have links to your paid solutions at the end of your articles, blog posts, in your videos, and in some (about 25% of your eMail communication with your followers. We’ll talk more in-depth on how to do this effectively in upcoming instructional articles. Bottom line is, though, if people don’t know about what you offer; well… they don’t know what you offer and can’t buy anything from you.
If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that a mere 20% of your current clients are producing 80% of your total business revenue. Those are your ideal clients, and they love what you do and what you provide for them. When you select the area that attracted them to you as your niche market, you immediately begin to attract this type of client in droves.
Your revenue and profits will begin to skyrocket, and you will actually begin to work fewer hours. You will “play” at what you do instead of working on what drains you. If you fail to create a niche market for your business, the cost to you may be staggering…
The above might sound a little harsh, but let’s face it, if you are invisible to your ideal clients, your business is doomed to fail. And even if you are visible, you’ll find that specializing in your ideal client’s needs is what will get you most clients in the shortest time. Just think about it, if your website looks the same as 50,000 other business’s websites; if your message seems similar, then why would someone hire you vs. any of the other similar service providers?
When you differentiate yourself by being clear about WHO you serve and WHAT you serve to them, you’ll now stand out and start attracting the clients who feel that your message addresses their needs.
These are some of the strategies that you as a coaching – or any type of (premium-priced) service business owner ought to strongly consider and implement in order to effectively position your business as a trusted and “most wanted” service provider, and finally start earning the income you know your business CAN produce.
Let me know if you have any questions about any of the concepts described above. And if you already positioned yourself as the go-to-guy – or ‘gal’ – in your niche, share with us in the comments on how did you accomplish that…
To your success,
E.G. Sebastian, CPC, CSLPS – If you liked this article, make sure to share it with your friends, on your social media of choice…
PPS – Do you want instant access to tutorials that will help you implement strategies that will position you as an authority in your niche? As well as get access to weekly support calls? Click HERE to find out how to get the support you need, without breaking the bank!
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If you need more ideas, or if you want to read more details on how to implement some of the above, visit our blog at www.ClientsEnrollmentFunnels.com/blog where you’ll find more ways to grow your list and ways to market to your list members. And if you join ClientsEnrollmentFunnels as a member, you’ll get access to Checklists and Tutorial Videos, with step-by-step instructions, with topics ranging from Social Media Marketing (LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, FB, Youtube, etc.) to tech stuff tutorials (how to build a website; zapier integrations; how to use cPanel, etc.); and more importantly, you’ll get ongoing personal support.
It is not enough to study and just blindly implement these strategies. Often to get good results, it helps to be able to discuss it with someone who knows how to implement them correctly.
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