I got the following article in an e-newsletter and though it isn’t birth business specific, I think it has a lot of valuable food for thought in it for childbirth educators/birth professionals. I am going to answer the questions in it and post again with my thoughts!

You Can’t Serve Everyone: Clarifying Your Niche for Better Marketing Results

Before you even start implementing any marketing strategies, it’s important to be crystal clear about whom it is you are trying to reach. Some of the questions you should be able to answer around this include: What is your niche?  Who is your target market and what is it that they want?  What is your message to them?

Often, small business owners are afraid to narrow down their target market for fear that this will limit them. Countless times I have heard people say “my target market is small business owners” or “my niche is really anyone who needs what I offer.”

The truth is, you can’t be everything to everyone, and it is actually easier to market and attract prospects when you focus on a particular group of people.  It is also easier for others to refer people to you when they see you as someone who works with a specific group.  To further illustrate, here is a simple example: Instead of “I’m a financial planner,” you could clarify it to say “I’m a financial planner who specializes in families with special needs children.”

Or, instead of “I’m a marketing consultant,” a more descriptive way to say it would be “I’m an online marketing consultant who specializes in social media strategies for coaches.”

Online, a good way to create the type of presence that draws people to you is to clearly communicate who you are, what you are about, and why people should take notice. In order to figure this out, some of the questions you could ask yourself might be:

*How would you describe the essence of who you are in a single word?
*What are your top three passions related to your work or three unrelated to your work?
*What would be three adjectives used to describe your business?
*Who your best clients or the people who are most likely to benefit from your work?

Those are just some of the questions you can ask to really get clear on who you are professionally, as well as who you are personally.

Clarifying your niche is a point of “stuckness” for many business owners and it does take a bit work to discover if you aren’t clear on it yet.  But once you have that specific niche narrowed down, reaching them with your marketing becomes a whole lot easier.

Want to use this article on your website or your own e-zine? You can, as long as you include the following:

Christine Gallagher, The Online Marketing and Social Media Success Coach, is founder of Communicate Value, where she is dedicated to teaching small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. To get your F.R.E.E. 5-Part E-Course and receive her weekly marketing & success articles on leveraging technology, building relationships and boosting your profits, visit http://communicatevalue.com.