Niching has got to be one the least sexy topics when starting your coaching business but, it is up there as one the most important things to do, for sure.
Why is niching so important?
Niching is key for when marketing yourself and is important because:
- It helps you get super clear on who you help and what you do
- It makes your content creation process much easier
- It guides where you show up to market yourself
- It makes it clear to your ideal client that you are the coach for them
So that sounds pretty good right? Easier, clearer, more attractive. Who doesn’t want that? You want that, right? The thing I see all the time (and I did myself) is people not going niching themselves and their business enough. Often they’ll pick really generic niches like, women, entrepreneurs, mums or similar and don’t worry, I get it. When I started my first coaching business I marketed myself as a coach for women in business. So generic, so broad and made it really hard to market myself clearly and draw in ideal clients.
Most new coaches are resisting niching and, often, it comes from a lack mindset. The biggest fear is actually that if I niche myself I’ll miss out on working with some people. The biggest thing I’ve learnt myself is that without a niche, you kind of end up talking to no one, the content creation process is tricker and you second guess yourself all the time. When you have a niche, you can create content that specifically talks to those people, they feel drawn in and connected with you because your content has been created specifically for them.
I heard Seth Godin talking about niches and what he said was absolute gold. I’m paraphrasing here as i heard it on a podcast but it was something to the effect of “you want to target the smallest viable market”. He then went on to explain the idea of focusing on all trade contractors versus niching down and focusing in specifically on plumbers. Understanding the specific needs of them, their business, the plumbing trade and then being able to talk to them and lead with, “I work specifically with plumbing contractors”. They know you are the person for them to work with because they know you know their challenges.
It’s exactly the same for you in your coaching business. Targeting mums, or women, or entrepreneurs isn’t enough. It’s too generic. Look at my business, I work with female, transformational coaches who are in the first few years of running an online coaching practice. It’s specific. It’s narrow and it makes my content writing so much easier. It also makes it really clear for female, transformational coaches who run an online business that I’m the person for them.
Have you niched in enough in your business? Are you speaking to the smallest viable audience?
Do you want help identifying your ideal clients, niche and messaging. Check out my Craft Content with Ease intensive to quickly streamline the process and allow you to get on with signing dream clients. You can read more here.