There is a huge temptation to say, “Our target market is everybody.” After all, the bigger our market, the more opportunity, and the more likely we can continue to grow and provide our products and services, right?
No. A large target market is difficult if not impossible to engage and serve. It’s tough to be useful and relevant to too many different groups of people. It’s hard to differentiate ourselves in a large market. It’s also really hard to be seen, trusted, and selected by so many different people.
Even if our ultimate goal is to be useful and the choice of all sorts of people, our best approach is to start with a single, very focused niche. Though it can appear to be limiting our prospects, selecting a niche helps us learn their language and address their particular needs, wants, and desires. And they come to trust us and refer others to us.
If you are having trouble getting traction, try shrinking your market: select a more sharply defined niche.
In your corner,
Mike
PS: Having succeeding in helping one niche, we can always expand to another and another. This is how many now-huge companies like Uber began.
PPS: Niches can include people with similar demographics (including location) and/or psychographics (such as life dreams or business goals).
PPPS: Select a niche that is not too small, dispersed, or hard to identify.
Today’s photo credit: Joseph Francis cc