Niche Marketing for Home Based Business Owners

1. A niche builds confidence.

Niches are often based on your area of expertise. If your area of expertise is also the work you love to do, you've probably spent a lot of time and money in educating yourself and in perfecting your skills. Building a business around a subject you've mastered gives you more confidence when taking your message to the marketplace. "Sideline" businesses don't have the same impact, because they are not where your strengths lie.

2. A niche makes you credible to prospects.

People are more likely to trust the work of a small business specialist than a small business generalist. Prospects looking to purchase a product or service don't want "okay." They want the best they can afford. Achieving mastery in a specific area gives depth and focus to your business. If you're a one-person operation, breadth just isn't believable.

3. A niche helps you become known more quickly.

If you direct your marketing efforts repeatedly to the same group of people, you will become known more quickly. If you communicate a clear business focus to this same group, they are more likely to remember you when they have a need for your product or service.

4. A niche reduces your marketing costs.

When you "target" your marketing to a specific group, you no longer have to worry about marketing to the "universe" through generalized ads. Tailoring your marketing to people who already have a need for your product or service means you won't waste money on marginal prospects. Your cost per lead is reduced.

5. A niche can increase your income.

People are happy to pay specialists more than they pay generalists. If you are known as an expert in your field, you can command higher fees. You will be worth these higher fees if you can solve a client's problem more efficiently, quickly or conveniently than someone with less mastery.

6. A niche turns competitors into referral sources.

Once you decide to specialize in a specific area, you eliminate a number of competitors. If your competitors don't provide the same service you do, they are more likely to refer clients who can best be served by your area of expertise. You can return the favor for those needing services outside your niche.

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If you have taken marketing courses or read marketing books, you'll know that USP normally stands for "Unique Selling Proposition."

Your USP is what Jay Abraham calls "the philosophical foundation of your business." It's a statement that illustrates your distinguishing advantage over others in your field providing similar services or products. It is that which makes you unique.

And in an uncertain economy, your unique ability to help clients with specific, necessary services and products could be a deciding factor in whether (or how long) you are able to stay in business.

As a niche marketing coach and writer working with spiritual entrepreneurs, it seemed to me that the idea of "selling proposition" might be better worded as a "serving proposition." Our purpose, after all, is to help people have their needs met, whether they are the "basic" needs of shelter and clothing or the "higher" needs of self-fulfillment and spiritual growth.

There's nothing wrong with "selling." It's something we have to do in order for people to buy from us. But for crafting a one sentence USP, I think it will put us in a better frame of mind if we call it our Unique Serving Proposition.

So - how do you propose to serve your prospects and clients with something that's both unique to you and absolutely needed by your targeted market? What are people interested in RIGHT NOW?

If you're an investment counselor, your clients are probably most interested in containing the shrinking of their retirement portfolios. Your USP could assert: "I help you keep your nest egg secure with qualified advice about safe retirement investing." Security is Maslow's Number 2 need. With this USP, your target clientele are people who are "of an age" and who have funds available for retirement planning. Your business niche could be "retirement planning for baby boomers."

If you're an herbalist, you could specialize in weight management for the 65 percent of us who are overweight. A psychic could focus on career readings to help people through economically uncertain times. A Feng Shui practitioner could consider a niche helping trade show and expo exhibitors improve the traffic flow into their booths.

The respective USP's might read:

1) I'm a holistic weight loss consultant. I help you free yourself of excess pounds with non-toxic, non-addictive herbal remedies.

2) I'm the job psychic. Come see me, and I'll "see" where your career is headed.

3) I do Feng Shui consultations for trade shows. I help trade show exhibitors create an energy flow that attracts booth visitors by the hundreds.

In each of these examples, you're addressing a specific need and then providing a solution for a targeted audience that requires your services.

What's your Unique Serving Proposition?