In today’s episode, I’m exploring how to tell if your niche is narrow enough, and what signs and pieces of information to look out for that will help you tell whether your niche is actually narrow enough or if you need to do some refining.
Let’s dive in because this is a really practical one.
First and foremost… what is your niche?
Your niche is the specific group of people that you focus on when you are marketing in your business.
A lot of people get very confused about niching and they mistake their niche for their modality or specialist area.
But your modality and specialist area are not people so they’re not niches.
A niche is the specific group of people that you’re focusing on.
The other thing that I see people do is that they try and articulate their niche as all the people that could benefit from their services.
I understand that we do have very broad groups of people that could benefit from our services and the transformation that we facilitate. But that doesn’t help you when it comes to getting specific in your marketing.
We want to make sure that when we select a niche, we’re not just selecting who you could help, but in fact, who you are focusing on when you market your products and services.
Your niche actually is the foundation of your business that informs the other critical decisions that you need to make.
For example, your:
- Messaging
- Value proposition
- Offer – how you package up your products and services
- Marketing strategy
- Channels that you select
If your niche is narrow enough, it’s much easier for you to make those decisions and answer the questions:
- What does your message need to convey?
- What should your offer be?
- How do you talk about the value proposition of that offer and the problem that it solves?
- What channels should you be focusing on when it comes to marketing your products and services?
- What marketing strategy is going to be most effective for those people?
As you can see, by just making that one critical decision – that foundational decision of who you’re focusing on when you’re marketing – you can therefore inform all of the other really important decisions that you have to make as an entrepreneur.
That actually gives you a clue on how to tell if your niche is narrow enough.
I have three key areas where you’re really going to struggle if your niche isn’t narrow enough.
If you’re struggling with any of these areas, my number one piece of advice is to review and nail your niche.
1. Your messaging
Can you articulate your tangible and practical value proposition?
When I say tangible, I mean can you talk about the transformation that you facilitate, the intangible ways that impact on me (your client) today?
A great example of this is doing an energetic clearing.
Whilst it might be really lovely that you are able to do an energetic clearing, and it makes me feel better, if there isn’t a very real and measurable difference to my life today, then you’re going to struggle to have me convinced that I should be giving you money for that particular outcome.
You want to be able to really clearly define what it is that you stand for, what the core message of your business is, and the tangible and practical value proposition of working with you.
The value proposition is: What is the difference between before I work with you and after I work with you?
If that value proposition is clear, relevant to my current needs, and a bigger value proposition than the amount of money you’re asking for in return, then your messaging is going to really resonate. It’s going to have people saying that that’s what they need and you’ll be attracting in more clients.
If you are struggling with your messaging and articulating what you do in a way that’s tangible, real for people, relevant, and actually speaks to a challenge that they’re facing in that moment, then I would be reviewing your niche because it is not narrow enough.
In your messaging, I also like to look out for the word ‘or’, the word ‘maybe’ or any ‘slashes’. No slashies here.
If I say to you: What’s your value proposition? Who do you help? How do you help them?
And then you find yourself describing a massive range of different people in various potential circumstances using lots of ‘maybes’, ‘ors’ and ‘slashes’, then chances are that the actual problem is that you have not been specific enough with your niche.
2. Your offer
If you struggle to articulate your offer in a very specific way that solves a specific and tangible problem, then:
a. You’re going to struggle to sell it
b. You have not been specific enough with your niche
A great way to measure whether your offer is specific and tangible enough, is… does it sell?
When you have conversations with people about working with you, are you actually making sales?
When you post about your offers on social media, do you have people responding saying that’s exactly what they need?
Or do they just say that that sounds really lovely? Whilst that is a compliment and is nice to receive, it does not mean that you have nailed that specific intangible problem that you solve.
If you are struggling to really get specific with your offer, or if you’re struggling to decide on WHAT you should offer, then what I would say is: Go back and review your niche and make it more specific.
3. Your marketing
The questions you need to answer are: Is it 100% clear to you where and how you should be marketing? Have you got 100% clarity on exactly what your marketing strategy should be?
If not, chances are that you actually don’t have a specific enough niche.
If you are still tossing up between Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and all of the other channels that you could possibly be marketing on, then chances are you haven’t actually gotten really specific about your niche.
When you are specific about your niche, it’s really clear where you should be focusing your energy and attention on in the first place.
Particularly in HOW to market as well. It’s not just about WHERE in terms of channels because I know even if you have a very specific niche, portions of your ideal clients might be on different social media… but there is definitely a front runner.
It’s also the HOW to market.
People come to me and they ask if they should be doing a webinar or an Ebook as their freebie. If you can’t tell me what your ideal client would prefer, then it may be a clue that your niche is not narrow enough and you need to get more specific.
You can see how that one decision of your niche can really inform all of the other parts of your marketing, messaging, products and services.
It is such a critical foundation.
This is why when I work with people either as VIPs, in my Take Off program, or in any other space where I’m supporting people with their businesses, the first thing we work on is niching. The first part of the business value proposition that we work on is getting that niche clear. It informs all of the other decisions. It literally is the first foundational decision, yet so many people are more worried about their branding, marketing, what social media they should be on, and working on all of these things in an un-niched way.
Then they have to go back and change it because it doesn’t work and it doesn’t create that organic momentum of its own, due to the fact that they were not speaking to a specific niche with their marketing.
For anyone who is deep in niche resistance, give yourself the gift of 60 days.
For the next 60 days, focus down on a very specific niche and just see what it feels like and how much easier it makes your business and marketing decisions.
Then I’m convinced that after 60 days, you will be able to either clarify that it’s not quite right and you need to pivot your niche in a specific way, or that it’s totally working and you’re going to continue as is.
I have never, ever, ever in all of my time working with thousands of entrepreneurs, worked with someone on their niche and then had them say that they want their niche to be really broad again after the 60 days of getting really specific.
What happens is that when people really get that niche right, and when they see how much easier it makes life when they have niched, they are converts. They are screaming from the rooftops for all to listen to Auntie Tash because she knows what she’s talking about.
I was in niche resistance initially as well. But then I saw how much easier it makes it for me to create my marketing strategy, to get clear on my messaging and to craft offers that really do sell like hotcakes and resonate with the right people.
I hope that these few signs to tell whether your niche is narrow enough has been helpful for you.
I want to leave you with one last question…
Are you becoming known for the work that you do and who you do it with?
If you have been promoting your business for a few months or even a couple of years, and sometimes have other people asked what it is that you do and they CANNOT answer that question clearly, then that is also a big alarm bell to go back to the drawing board and get specific with your niche.
Review time on post-it note to check that niche is narrow enough for business start-up
The beautiful thing about this is that it’s always a great time to review.
I consistently review my niching decisions in my business.
Every quarter, I have it as part of my CEO date with myself to look at my niching and see where I may need to adjust a little, or where I may need to refine some more.
The beautiful thing is that even when I’ve made decisions to niche that have been the wrong niche, I have realised that and gotten clarity on what the right niche is so much faster than if I had just stayed un-niched.
The resistance to niching for a lot of people is this worry that maybe:
- They won’t have as many clients
- They’ll have to turn some people away
- It will mean that they get less inquiries because they’re focused on something that’s way more specific
The reality is that when you become really specific, you instantly get insight into whether that’s the right niche or not.
Rather than staying un-niched and continuing to run around in circles trying to work out how to grow your business, it is much more powerful to focus down on something narrow, and then adjust it as you go.
Keep making those minor nudges and little shifts because then you are actually moving forward instead of being stuck without a niche, going round and round in circles.
If you’re not becoming known for your work and who you work with, then that’s also a clue that potentially your foundations need some work.
If you’ve been reading along to this and thinking you’re ready to “fast track” your business, get it off the ground, and build a business model around your strengths, I have a great free resource for you!
Fast-Track Your Start-Up is my free training that helps you to understand how niche actually informs messaging, offer and your marketing decisions.
Want to go EVEN deeper into your niche?
Get free and instant access to my Nail your Niche workshop – here.
As always, come on over to the Heart-Centred Soul Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook community and share your aha moments and questions using the hashtag #podcastaha and episode number (216)
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
