Feb
Is Marketing Your Problem? Here’s The Likely Reason Why…
What’s the first thing you do when you need more business?
If you’re like us, you go on a major marketing drive and/or look at why your existing marketing activities aren’t working. But for some businesses (who don’t have humongous marketing budgets to waste), that’s easier said than done. And here’s why…
Of every single person I have ever coached/mentored/consulted, there is one common reason why their marketing efforts fail and they constantly struggle to get business: they have a poorly defined target market.
If you have a clearly defined target market, it makes it simple to:
- Offer people something they really do want and really will buy
- Reach out and contact people who already want what you’re selling
- Communicate with the people who are interested in what you have to say & will listen
But often many people struggle to define their market fearing it will limit the business they attract (on the contrary, it will explode it if you can get laser-focused about who you target) and unsure of what niches are right for them.
If that sounds like you, then here are a few ideas I’ve had percolating in my head for a while now – they’re largely markets that I think are under-served, not yet dominated by a major player and could do with being filled, so feel free to do so :)
Niches for Life Coaches
- Major Life Change coach – or even more specific, focusing on helping a client thrive through one particular life change (e.g. Marriage, Divorce, Parenthood, Grievance).
- Corporate Escape coach – helping rat racers escape the cubicle, much like Pam Slim does but would be great to have a “go to” UK version.
- Location Independent/Digital Nomad coach – I get asked for this on a frequent basis, but I just don’t have the appetite to do it. However there is definitely a market for helping people make the leap into the world of running a business whilst travelling.
Niches for Personal Trainers/CHEK Practitioners
- Conception coach – utilising a full range of holistic health approaches (including the CHEK approach, Functional Medicine, Parasite elimination, hormone balancing etc.).
- Pregnancy coach – both health (MT-based diets) and fitness throughout pregnancy using all above holistic approaches.
- New Healthy Baby coach – covering all the decisions & choices new parents need to make about the health of their baby.
Niches for Blogging/Social Media Consultants
With this one, there are so many untapped niches out there it’s easy. Whilst I know that if you can do it for one industry, you can very likely do it for many others when it comes to social media marketing – from a branding and marketing perspective, rather than calling yourself a Blogging Consultant or Social Media Consultant, call yourself “The Restaurant Blogging Coach” or the “Social Media Consultant for the Catering Industry”. Focus on one specific industry and position yourself as the “go to” expert for that industry.
There are plenty more ideas where those came from – just ask if you want them!
Very nice article. Would love to help others become Location Independent AFTER I make the jump. We are in the planning stages of making the leap next year. Glad to know you think there is a market for it!
Look forward to reading more of your writings.
Kind regards,
Stacey
Glad you liked the article Stacey – had those ideas rolling round in my head for ages so as usual, the blog is a great way to get them out :)
Sorry this is probably going to sound stupid to you – but why do people go to coaches? I guess I don’t understand the basic need for a coaching industry. We upended our lives – we talked to each other to some family and friends (most don’t get it), made the decision, made it up as went along.
Kinda like life really! I understand getting coaching in how to do math or setup a WordPress blog – cause that’s just one-on-one tutoring – but for the big picture – what do I do with my life stuff -surely people really have to work that out for themselves? How can someone else do that for you?
Any coaches want to jump in here???
Lis – as someone who was previously *very* skeptical about the benefits of coaching (which I saw as fluffy, woo woo – and like you, completely didn’t “get” it), I have seen how positive it can be for many people. Having been brought up by a very strong & positive woman and taught to think for myself, I couldn’t understand how some people can’t figure things out for themselves. Unfortunately, many people just aren’t as lucky to have been brought up and nurtured in the same way – this is where coaching can come in.
It’s not so much about a coach working things out for their clients, but it’s about them asking the right questions, expanding minds/attitudes and sometimes from a purely practical point of view enabling someone to step back from the daily grind and make the time to think about the bigger questions in life etc. – to ultimately enable the person to find the answers themselves.
LOL – you sure we weren’t bought up in the same place! I guess as trained scientist I just look at the options, consider the pros/cons , identify the consequences and proceed. Luckily my partner operates the same way.
See that’s exactly what I do too…but we’re obv “process” people and there are many who aren’t – and who just wouldn’t approach anything in that way by nature ( I live with one!!!).
@Lis Sowerbutts Sounds like you’ve got some great self-coaching resources! Like you, I can’t see the point of paying someone else for advice about what to do with your life/ life decisions: how could they possibly know those sorts of answers? Since the coaching industry is relatively new and unregulated, there’s a wide variety of different ways that coaches work, and strangely, some coaches offer that type of advice. But think how useful your self coaching questions have been for you – those are some of the sorts of questions I see as the basics in a coaches toolkit. And then there are a whole lot more really useful questions that you can use to research and uncover the structure of your thinking that’s getting you stuck, so you can get yourself unstuck. We all have the resources to make our way through that process of getting unstuck – some more quickly than others. From my perspective, coaching is a very focused conversation that accelerates that process of discovering how you’re creating stuckness, and clarifying what’s important to you – so you can get unstuck and bring more of what’s important to you into your life. But nobody can decide what’s important to you: that’s your job!
Exactly! Sometimes the process is intimidating. So you do see people who need help with the process.
Coaching also helps with:
* Life Balance (time and balance),
* Life transitions (career changes,divorce, becoming location independent),
* and relating (leadership, shyness, relationships).
When you have a huge leap from something you know or feel comfortable with to moving to something different it can be a confidence shaker to some of the best of them. Fears of failure, whatifs, and strong natural resistance happens you or your spouse may need to overcome.
Hope that helps!
Not sure if its OK to post this but …. you say that “Location Independent/Digital Nomad coach – I get asked for this on a frequent basis, but I just don’t have the appetite to do it.” – this is something I am working really hard on. I have to be location independent as I live in Canada and spend time with an elderly mum in the UK. This made me realise the importance of an income stream that can happen wherever you are in the world. I have a website called Nomadic Entrepreneurs, a group on Facebook and on Ning. Everyone who needs support and guidance in their endeavours to become location independent are welcome.