Niche Marketing For Rapid Growth: Everything You Need To Know
Have you ever spent money on advertising, PR, or SEO that didn’t work?
Have you ever wondered why some people seem to launch their business and obtain rapid growth, while you seem to struggle to get the phone to ring at all? You know it can’t be that they’re better at what they do—after all, you’ve learned your craft for years and have made sure to offer the best product or service in the market; isn’t that why you get all those referrals? I bet you’re also tired of customers focusing solely on price and being forced to constantly discount it just to win clients. Aren’t you sick of people not understanding the true value of what you do? So what is it? Why can’t you seem to get a break? The answer will surprise you. its all about Niche Marketing!
“Your job isn’t to make money. It’s to find a problem that needs solving.” – Robert Kiyosaki
The truth is that running a successful business has less to do with offering a quality product or service and more to do with your ability to speak to a certain type of customer or group. Obviously, it is important to offer a quality product or service, too, or your customers may never come back. But ask yourself how many great product or service companies you know of that have gone broke while focusing purely on the delivery of quality—thinking the customers will come—rather than the marketing of what they do. What they were actually doing was focusing on what they knew—what came easy—while avoiding what they considered difficult. In their book Zero-to-One, Peter Thiel and Blake Master stated,“No matter how strong your product — even if it easily fits into already established habits and anybody who tries it likes it immediately — you must still support it with a strong distribution plan.” You are probably great at what you do and have spent years mastering it; maybe that’s why you went into business for yourself. Surely, you should get rich off your amazing skills instead of a boss, right? Unfortunately, however, this strength is actually also your greatest weakness as a business owner. If you’re great at what you do, you think that if you focus on that, the customers will come. This is exactly why in Michael E. Gerber’s book, E-Myth, he suggests that you should open a business doing something where you’re not the technician; it forces you to actively work on your business, instead of in it. Now, I’m not suggesting you do this; however, keep in mind that this is especially true when it comes to marketing. What this means, unfortunately, is that the highly skilled companies tend to spend all their time fighting in a crowded market to get noticed and constantly discounting prices to win clients; whereas, the companies that obtain rapid growth focus on marketing to small markets (niche markets) that they can have all to themselves.
So what can you learn from this?
Stop trying to be an expert “just like everyone else” and learn to specialize, find a niche, and succeed.
Want to know more? Take a second to listen to the Rapid Growth Guy, Matthew Pollard, explain in more detail during his interview on the CoachZing Show.
Show TranscriptWhat is niche marketing?
One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is trying to be seen as everything to everyone, rather than essential to a select group or niche. This level of blanket branding leaves nothing but price to discuss. For instance, if you build houses “just like everyone else,” price is your only bargaining chip. In short, you will be constantly discounting your prices just to win clients over your competition.
Conversely, if you specialize in environmental housing or historic home restoration, you are now one step removed from price being the only determinant on securing your next client. Instead of offering everything to everyone, you have decided to focus on delivering on the unique needs of a smaller group of high-profit customers, a subset of a larger market. In a nutshell, this is niche marketing.
You must put a lot of effort into picking which subset of the market to place your focus, and don’t worry, we will get into that. For now, it is important that you understand the power of niche marketing comes from picking a group of people to market to, within the larger market, instead of the market as a whole and focusing your products on servicing that market.
For many businesses, niche marketing strategy is often completely overlooked, yet, if you find a niche market untapped by competition or deliver extra value to a niche that is currently underserviced, you have the makings of a rapidly growing success story.
Matthew’s niche marketing definition
Let’s start with definitions. Wikipedia defines niche marketing as “the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality, and the demographics that is intended to impact. It is also a small market segment.”
Matthew defines niche marketing as the process of breaking a market into smaller parts, based on specific characteristics, then determining which select group(s) or niche(s), if entered, and their needs met would provide the business the best reward for its investment.
Matthew Pollard, well-known as the Rapid Growth Guy, has made a career out of finding niche markets in industries as vastly different as telecommunications, construction, and nationally accredited education. With five multimillion-dollar business success stories to his name, Matthew suggests the secret to niche marketing and his success is looking at an industry, analyzing all the market segments and asking the question, “what is/are the unmet need(s)?”, then simply picking the right segment(s) and unmet need(s) to service—or, in other words, which is the most lucrative niche to enter.
Matthew’s niche marketing strategy sessions
Never be a “me-too” business again!
Finding a niche market, in many ways, is like solving a problem – when it is someone else’s, you know exactly what advice to offer, but when it’s yours, you can’t see the forest from the trees.
Why is this?
The answer is simple; you’re emotionally invested in the outcome, or, more specifically, you’re “in the problem.” Looking from the “outside in” allows you to solve it impartially; whilst “inside the problem,” there is so much emotion attached, your vision/perspective becomes pre-framed.
Niche marketing is exactly the same, especially if you’re a technician in your own business. This is also exactly why you need an outside perspective.
So how can Matthew help?
When it comes to an outside perspective, there is none better.
“No one knows and understands the sales and marketing side of business like Matthew. His experience and drive are second-to-none. Anyone who wants to move away from linear growth and align it to exponential growth should work with Matthew.” – Juan Gonzalez, The Growth Institute
Talk to the man who has actually done it, who has been responsible for 5 multimillion dollar success stories and earned himself the name “The Rapid Growth Guy.”
Get Matthew on your team today.
Want more than just niche marketing?
Integrate the power of differentiation, unified messaging, niche marketing, and a working sales system into your business today.
Click her to check out Matthew’s Rapid Growth® Intensive.
Niche marketing examples and case studies
How to find a niche market
Yes, Matthew makes it sound simple, and that’s exactly why he is sought out all across the world to assist companies—large and small—crack the puzzle that leads them to rapid growth and eager-to-buy customers.
A niche market of willing-to-buy customers, customers who go out and share your unique marketing with the world, really is the Holy Grail of business success, yet, for many, it goes undiscovered.
You see the value, but perhaps you’re wondering how to find a niche market:
Note – if you would prefer to work with Matthew directly, click on the link below to discuss how:
“Matthew has unlimited energy and it is all focused. His ability to understand business opportunities and make them happen is more than just impressive, it is amazing!” – Don Moore, Education Institute
Finding a niche market for yourself can be done by following the three steps below:
- Market Segmentation – What is your ideal client profile? (Avatar)
Market Segmentation can be achieved in a number of ways; however, the key criteria for the process is listed below:
- Demographics – age, gender, marital status, religion, nationality, educational level, level of income, etc.
- Psychographics – beliefs, attitudes, and guiding principles that prevail when determining how they will think and behave.
- Geographic – physical location, country, state, city, county, postcode, sub-division
- Behavioral – why people do what they do, and what are the patterns
After market segmentation, you should see a multitude of attractive and possibly viable segments available to you, but you’re still far from an answer. Now, you need to know what you can offer these segments that others can’t. In step two, you will learn to discover the unmet need of each possible segment.
- Finding the unmet need – The key to rapid growth:
Once you have established the market segments, you need to then ask yourself the question, “What is the segment’s unmet need?”
As a business owner, you need to be careful not to let your own view delude your answers. To achieve this, it is better to communicate with customers, prospective customers, and non-customers within each segment to discover the answer.
Asking the questions below can help you understand what their unmet need(s) might be:
- Why they buy, are thinking of buying, or don’t buy your product or service?
- What they feel before ordering this product or service?
- The challenges they face getting this product or service? Of these challenges, which one provides them the greatest inconvenience?
- What might make their lives easier when ordering or using this product or service?
- If they had a magic wand and as a result didn’t have to x, what would x be?
While people may not be able to give you extensive details, they often have a general sense of what it is they want that they’re not yet getting. These questions will help you gain a much better understanding of what their unmet need could be—it will help them understand it, too. There are many possible solutions to fill these unmet needs; your job is to decipher which unmet needs, if met, would give you superior market advantage, and which would simply be nice to have. We discuss this in step three.
- Making the right choice.
Whatever the size of your business, you probably have a clear idea of what resources you have. This gives you a good idea of how viable it is for your business to address any unmet needs you may see in the market. However, matching the resources you bring to the table to each niche you’ve identified isn’t enough: you must also take into consideration three important factors before you commit to one.
First: Is the segment economically viable?
Economic viability has a lot in common with the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” If you remember, Goldilocks tries to eat porridge that is too hot and too cold—before finding one that is “just right,” (much like the segment you want to choose). You want to make sure your segment is big enough—otherwise, even if you dominate it, you won’t make enough to survive—in other words, it’s “too cold.” Additionally, you don’t want to choose a segment that is too competitive (or “too hot”); otherwise, you’ll find yourself and your business getting lost in the noise. The segment that is “just right” is one that is big enough for one or two players to make a good deal of money and, preferably, doesn’t have anyone else working in it yet.
Second: Can you effectively communicate with your market?
This one may seem obvious, but it’s worth stating. If your market is made up of 1,200 people who live in disparate areas and lack a common method of consuming information, it may be so difficult to reach them that you cannot succeed.
Third: Do people with similar needs populate the niche?
The people in your niche don’t need to have precisely the same need, but the need does have to be similar enough that you can cater to it. For example, manufacturing formal wear for larger and/or taller individuals allows you to target those with similar needs; due to their specialized requirements, your prospective customers are likely looking for the garment to fit well, rather than for it to conform to this season’s style trends.
For a more detailed explanation of this process, check out Matthew’s recent article in Top Sales Magazine:
Hitting the Bull’s Eye: Three Questions You Must Ask to Find the Perfect Niche for Your Business
Just head down to Page 10
This process will help you crack the code to selling in a market of willing-to-buy customers who love your brand and the product or services you provide. Though this process is a little in-depth and can seem confusing at first, the rewards will repay you a thousand times over.
Need a little help?
Why not take advantage of talking to the Rapid Growth Guy himself with a FREE thirty-minute call. There is no obligation and no commitment, so what have you got to lose?
