Today, we're gonna talk about niching down. Now if you are still trying to be everything to everyone, I'm curious, how's that working for you? I know it sounds counterintuitive, but in order to get more results, you actually need to narrow your focus. I know it's tempting because you wanna get more sales, and it seems more logical that if you wanna get more sales, then you need to offer more services and you need to help more people, but that simply isn't the case. It's just not how it works. I know that you feel like it's going to limit you when you narrow down. You're gonna feel like there are fewer people out there who could actually hire you. And when you're struggling to get clients or you're feeling the pressure to bring on new clients, it's tempting to go broader. But when you do that, when you try to help everyone, you end up getting overlooked.

 

Niching down actually helps you stand out. So how do you niche down? There are 2 ways to narrow your focus, and we're gonna take a look at both to see which may make the most sense for you. Your 1st option is going to be to narrow your target audience. You'll get really, really specific about who exactly you wanna help and then you're going to tailor your marketing directly to them. The more you use the language that they use, the jargon for their industry, the more they're going to trust you and feel like you get it. So what's 1 specific industry, what's 1 specific audience that you could serve. Let's say that you're a social media manager. If you could specialize with 1 specific industry and create resources and content just for them, imagine the possibilities.

 

Instead of marketing your social media services to all businesses and nonprofits, what would happen if you specialized in social media specifically for dentists or realtors or hairstylists, you may think that that sounds a little funny or that it puts you in a box, it sounds limiting. But I've heard of people who have built incredible, crazy amounts of success, multimillion dollar businesses by narrowing down to 1 specific audience. You see, the time that you spend studying the specific audience makes you the wiser choice for them. It makes sense for them to hire someone who's taken the time to get to know their industry, their type of business, and you stand out among all of the others. Let's talk about the medical industry, and I'll give you just a very quick example here, when my children get sick or need to go to the doctor, I tend to take them to the pediatrician's office. Unless it's an emergency, that's where I'm gonna schedule an appointment. I wanna take them to the doctor who has studied children who know all about them and can serve them best. The 2nd option is to narrow your services.

 

So if you're having a really hard time narrowing down your audience, the good news is there's another choice. Instead, you can do less for a wider range of people. So maybe instead of narrowing the amount of people that you speak with, you focus on one thing that you're gonna become an expert in, one very specific service. So using the same example from before, if you're a social media manager instead of promoting services for handling all social media, maybe you become the go to Instagram expert. Then when someone wants to grow their Instagram followers, grow their engagement, learn how to convert their Instagram followers and to clients, who do you think that they would be more likely to hire, a general social media manager or the Instagram expert? Let me give you another example, again, from the medical industry because it's so straightforward for some reason when I ask a question like this. If you needed heart surgery, who would you rather perform it, a general surgeon or a heart surgeon? Someone who operates on hearts occasionally or every single day, you better bet that I would choose the heart surgeon, and I bet that you would too. That's a clear cut example, but it's just as true with other types of businesses. Now if you're really bold and courageous, you can actually narrow down both.

 

You'd only do this after doing some research because depending on the market and how great the demand, you need to make sure there is truly a market, that there are enough clients when you narrow down both target audience and the services you provide. But assuming that's true and that there is a market, this can be really, really powerful. I'll give you one more example from the medical industry. When my son broke his arm, we took him to an orthopedic surgeon, but not any orthopedic surgeon. We took him to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, someone who specialize in the audience they served and in the services that they offer, of course, there's a big enough market. I guess enough kids break their bones every year to make it worthwhile to specialize in this specific field. So do your research. Be cautious.

 

But if the market can sustain your business, then narrowing down both could have an incredible impact for you. At a minimum, you need to narrow down 1 or the other. So at least choose 1 option. That's where you should start. Pick 1, choose 1 direction, and narrow your focus. Remember, you have to niche down in order to stand out. I'll see you next week.