Finding a Niche – My Story

There is a lot of talk in internet marketing about Finding A Niche.  This is not unique to internet marketing – many businesses have found success in finding a niche and focusing on the needs of the people within that niche.

I was reminded today of the power of niche marketing.  Here’s my story.

Finding a niche – know what your niche is!

I remember years ago reading in a marketing book about the importance of niche marketing.  This particular book was about helping financial planners get referrals from accountants and lawyers.  The book suggested that if you tell the accountant that there’s one demographic segment or niche you focus in, you’ve got more chance of being picked when they’ve got clients who fit that niche.

So, if you tell them you deal with small business owners who are baby-boomers, when they have a client who fits that category, who will they refer them to? One of the other financial advisers they deal with who hasn’t defined their niche, or you?

So, here’s lesson number 1 – know what your niche is, and tell everyone about it.

Finding a niche and the media

Over the past few years I’ve developed a working relationship with a local journalist who writes for the finance section of the local paper.  Every two or three months he calls me if he needs a quote for a story.

He has quite a large range of financial planners he can call for stories, and I know this.  I know a lot of the planners he knows, and they’re good people.  So when I first met with him, I made a point of telling him about the two niches I specialized in that could be of interest to him.  Niche number one is helping baby boomers build wealth for retirement (a popular niche), and niche number two is the area of behavioral finance – understanding the psychology and thought processes that are behind a lot of our decision making when it comes to money.  There aren’t a lot of people who know much about this niche.  In fact the journalist today mentioned he only has two people he talks to about these sorts of stories, and I’m one of them

So today, when he was needing a quote for a story, he called me, because he knew I’d be able to give him a short quote that would make his story more interesting.

Know What To Say To Your Niche

Behavioral finance is actually very interesting (I am biased).  Some of the stories that I get asked to provide quotes for are fascinating stories about how people view money.  The important thing is to know enough about the issues that people in your niche face, so you’re able to say something of value.

The story today was about a bank setting up a money tree and watching to see who would take the money from it.  It’s a great video and I’ve included it below for you to see.  If you’ve viewing this in the RSS feed, just click through to the full article and you’ll see the video.

I didn’t have to say much, but I did talk about how the factor of social proof influenced the decisions people made with the money tree.

So, do you have have a niche?  Who are the people your product or service is aimed at, what are their problems, and how do you provide solutions?

Let me know your thoughts on this article – please leave your comments below.

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About Allan Ward

Allan lives in Adelaide, South Australia with his wife and two boys. He is the founder of Blogger Business Plan and loves helping bloggers learn how to transform their blogs from hobbies into sustainable businesses.
When he's not blogging or working in his financial planning business, you'll find Allan playing guitar, reading or coaching his son's soccer team.