Well, it’s not exactly a ‘new’ secret, but it's important to wave a reminder about now and then. Niche marketing is productivity 101. Concentrate on one thing at a time. Easy right?

Wrong.

When you’re an entrepreneur, and in the service based or e-course sector, chances are you have around three UH-MAZING business ideas every day. And when you stumble upon one that feels like the Golden Egg you’ve been hunting for this whole time we all do the same thing. Try to tack the new idea on to our existing business to see how it goes. Won’t cause any harm right?

Wrong.

By diluting your brand and message, you’re virtually destroying the authority you’ve grown in your chosen field. I’m not against diversification (I mean really, who is?) but there’s a difference between diversifying and throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.

It’s time to get back to basics and delve right into niche marketing.

Here’s why you need it.

1. You avoid spreading yourself too thin

If you’re focussing on a particular niche, it stops you from getting distracted and working on too many things. SQUIRREL! If for example, you’re a business coach, marketing yourself as a business coach is way too broad. Do you coach all business people? Online? Service-based businesses? Freelancers? Imagine if you saw a shop that had the sign ‘shoes’ out the front. Would you go inside? Probably not. If the sign said ‘Comfortable women’s shoes’ you might be tempted. If it said ‘cheap women’s shoes’ you’d probably be knocking down pedestrians trying to get yourself through the door. By saying that you can help anyone who needs a business coach you’re whitewashing yourself. If you say you’re a business coach for online female fitness instructors to increase their sales, you’ll miss out on a lot of non-related business, but you'll get pretty much ALL the business of online fitness gurus because why would they go with anyone else? You’re offering what they want, and you have razor sharp focus on that particular product. It’s win-win.

2. People are more comfortable recommending you

When you specialise in something very niche, people are way more likely to recommend you. If someone was looking to get their eyebrows waxed and you knew of a fantastic eyebrow waxer who did nothing but eyebrows would you recommend that person or a generic beautician? There’s so much power in a niche; it would be a shame not to take advantage of it.

3. There’s an increased chance of repeat business

Being an expert in your niche will naturally make you the first port of call for your potential customers. Say you’re a graphic designer that specialises in recipe books, if you do a fantastic job, your customers will keep coming back and back. Why would they change? You specialise in the exact thing they want, and your work is brilliant. Market. Cornered.

4. Brand loyalty practically happens on its own

Have you followed the path of every long-limbed, blonde, tanned girl on Instagram and fallen entirely in love with coyo? Coconut yogurt? I have. BUT the very first coconut yogurt I tried was the Coyo brand. Several other yogurt brands have released coconut yogurt products since then, but I’m staunchly a customer of Coyo because they only make coconut milk yogurts and ice cream. The other brands make smoothies, dairy yogurts and other products, so I have a hardcore brand loyalty to Coyo because of the exclusivity of their products. It makes me feel like they know what they're doing, even if they don’t and it’s just illusion. Such is the power of niche marketing.

5. There are better market insight and research data available

Let’s say you offer courses in your business, and those courses teach your students how to make their beauty products at home. That’s a great niche because you can look at the types of people who research this topic online and target them in your sales. You can also use insights to find like-minded audiences. For example, people who like to save money, people who want to use organic ingredients and people who love to reduce the waste they produce. If you offer courses in how to make your beauty products, how to cook make-ahead meals in a slow cooker, how to create a capsule wardrobe and how to pack for a six week trip around Europe, you’re going to have to target four different audiences and three times as many sub-audiences which is a massive spend of your time. It’s much easier let niche marketing do what it’s good at. You might think you’re doubling or tripling your potential income by casting a wider net but what you’re doing is diluting your offering and making it harder to utilise the market research and data available to you.

6. It’s easier to solve your customer’s problems

If you’re a personal trainer and you offer several fitness courses all with entirely different outcomes like weight loss, developing a ghetto booty and preparing for a bodybuilding competition it’s going to be difficult for you to focus on solving the problems of your customer. If you focus on one area, say getting a ghetto booty, you’ll be able to focus your attention on fixing the flat-butt issues of your customers. You can delve deep into the world of squat thrusts and deep lunges so when a pancake-assed young lass is frantically Googling how to get a Kim Kardashian butt, your targeted, focussed and niched course is the first things she sees. Boom. Niche marketing success.

7. It’s easier to keep tabs on what your competitors are doing

If you’ve got your fingers in way too many pies, you can’t be accurately tracking what your competitors are doing. I don’t recommend stalking your competitors by spying on them from the across the street with binoculars and a box of donuts. That would be very weird. However, you do need to be across what they’re getting up to. If you have too many courses or offerings in your sales arsenal, you’re going to be spending far too much time chasing all these different competitors across too many niches, when you should be honing in on your niche marketing to capture that one precious pile of perfect customers.