After goals and identifying your ideal client, narrowing your niche is the third step in crafting an effective marketing strategy.
So, what does narrowing your niche really mean, and why is it so important? Here’s a great analogy that helps explain my perspective:
If you’re a football fan, you probably recall the 2011-2012 NFL season:
The Tom Brady-lead New England Patriots won all their regular season games and plowed through the playoffs en route to the Superbowl XLVI (or 46 if you had to look up the Roman Numeral Translation like me) showdown against the New York Giants.
The event was notable partly because a Patriot’s win would match the 1972 Miami Dolphins’ “perfect season.” That team never lost a single game their entire ’72 season. And such a feat has never been repeated since.
Sadly for Brady and his Patriots, Eli Manner (younger brother of future Hall of Fame Quarterback Paton Manning) and the Giants prevailed. Ultimately winning 21-17 in a close, tightly played game.
Brady performed well overall. But his passing completion stats for the game ranked below his average.
When questioned (or some might say heckled) by paparazzi after the game, Brady’s supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, responded: “You need to catch the ball when you’re supposed to catch the ball! My husband can’t throw the f*cking ball and catch it at the same time!?”
Fair point you’ll no doubt agree (even if you’re upset with Giselle over divorcing Tom).
So, what does this have to do with marketing and, more specifically, narrowing your niche?
The effort to be “all things to all people” is fruitless. And in the context of your business, being the guy (or gal) who “does everything” makes you look like the guy (or gal) who does nothing.
Of course, you don’t “do nothing.” You actually “do everything,” right? But to position and market yourself as capable of “doing everything,” your messaging necessarily becomes broader, less descript, and ultimately diluted.
Narrowing Your Niche: A Case Study
So, let’s say you’re a lawyer, and the majority of your business is Wills + Trusts, which is also where your legal expertise happens to be the strongest.
Meanwhile, I’m looking for an attorney that specializes in Wills + Trusts. But when I land on your site, I find that in addition to Wills + Trusts, you’re hyping Real Estate Contracts, Business Development, and Personal Injury legal services.
Faced with such a presentation, I’m likely to wonder if you’re REALLY the attorney for me, given that you seem to be busy with half a dozen other legal specialties.
And this reaction is all the more likely if your competitors position themselves as the “Wills + Trusts specialists.”
A Quarterback is Only As Good As His Receivers
It’s like Tom Brady in his Superbowl 46 loss. He’s a great quarterback. And his record 7 Superbowl wins prove it. But if he’s not throwing to the right receivers (in his case, those capable of catching his passes), he’s not going to succeed.
And in your case, if you’re pitching a slate of services to prospects with one particular need, you’re not going to succeed, either.
Hence the value of narrowing your niche.
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Get in touch here: 310.466.7893 | ryan@ryananys.com