Marketing has been much on my mind in 2024. At last I think I have a way forward. The key is to find a niche…
Over the last few months I’ve written two long and somewhat meandering posts about marketing, how I hate it and what I’m doing to do about it. (Links to those two posts are at the bottom of this post, along with an AI-generated summary of the main points).
Since then I’ve done a lot more meandering – planning, thinking, procrastinating, feeling doubtful.
But, finally, I think I have a handle on what needs to happen. This post will not be too long and meandering, but I hope it will be helpful.
Meandering step one
I did a free course that somehow put everything into perspective. The course is part of something called the StartUp Tribe, which I found through the 50Plus Skills newsletter.
It’s called Find clients & grow your business – which seemed meant for me, since I had identified that as my biggest business gap. I know what I can do, I have clients who love me, but there aren’t any new people knocking on my door.
The course is hosted by York Zucchi and is excellent. It’s showing its age a little but only in a technical sense. Zucchi frequently tells students to do a download but there aren’t any downloads. Instead you need to copy and paste the text beneath the video into a text document of your choice.
That aside, I recommend you do the course if your problem is a lack of clients. The insight that landed hard with me came from thinking about the answer to this question: what do you solve? In other words, don’t tell people what you do, tell them what problem of theirs you can solve. I knew this in theory. But one simple example made this real (I quote just a little since the course is free). Zucchi tells you to imagine you are a website developer. But that’s not what you tell people: instead you say: “I help small shops generate more sales online.”
In other words, pick a niche.
Zucchi asks students to come up with a short line (the length of a Twitter / X post) that encapsulates what they solve. This is what I came up with:
Safe Hands helps organisations produce compelling, authoritative and original thought-leadership content that attracts customers, establishes credibility and builds loyalty.
I thought that was pretty good, if a little boring. It is boring – and it isn’t good enough, I soon learned.
Meandering step two
An obvious step at this point was to check out the competition. I asked Claude for some help in doing a competitor analysis on LinkedIn.
Using the results (contact me if you’d like a copy of the prompt and the document), I set about doing some searching, noting that Claude had placed me squarely in the B2B space. I discovered a host of people offering pretty much the same as me, meaning my selling point was not unique in the slightest.
That was discouraging! But in the process of searching, I stumbled on the LinkedIn profile of Sarah Greesonbach, who offers B2B-related coaching. It looked like it was made for me. I knew now that my first attempt at establishing a niche was rubbish, and I knew I needed help. I also knew I could not afford her three-month coaching programme (priced in dollars).
I wrote to her and asked if she offered one-off coaching, thinking that an hour of an expert’s time would get me closer to my goal. She wrote back and said yes, she did. I still couldn’t afford that (see above: no new clients = cash strapped). I told her that, and she offered to answer a few questions “as a friend”. I am forever grateful for her generosity.
Armed with some pointers, I sat down and thought about the things I am interested in (the foundation of Sarah’s method for finding a niche). There were some obvious contenders. The result is this sentence (which I am still refining):
Writer & copy editor | Thought leadership content in the areas of human-centred Gen AI and leadership
(I am also considering another idea: Safe Hands partners with African start-ups and non-profits to grow their footprint through cost-effective content strategies.)
I’ve done some competitor analysis based on these ideas and have found people who do similar things, but not these exact things. Your comments welcome: this is the first time I’m putting this out there in public.
Meandering step three
Using that sentence as a prism, I’ve started on the process of reworking all my marketing material, using Zucchi’s process. First step is rewriting my CV, and then redesigning my email signature, along with starting to dig deeply into what potential clients might need and what kinds of service packages would work for them.
Finally, I don’t hate marketing any more
I’ve always resisted picking a niche because I thought I had to focus on only one of the skills I offer. I’ve always felt it is precisely a combination of skills that is my selling point.
But I have finally understood something: picking a niche doesn’t mean picking one thing that I can do. It means picking one thing that I offer that helps a particular kind of client.
Because of that shift in thinking, all the marketing materials I’m working on now, and the plans I am hatching to refine my blogging/newsletter/social media strategy, feel like they are on good foundations. Those foundations are a clear idea of what I offer and a clear understanding of who my clients might be and what they might need.
All that makes things easy because it fits in with the aspirations my spring planning process set for the next ten years of my business:
- For the work to be empowering and enabling to others.
- For the work to be sustaining and meaningful to me.
- For the work to bring my family long-term prosperity.
My top tip
Think about the things that truly interest you and then think about how those might be of service to other people: that’s where your niche is.
THE PREVIOUS MARKETING POSTS
How not to hate marketing (part one) | Safe Hands
How not to hate marketing (part two) | Safe Hands
A summary of those posts by Notebook LM, edited by me:
1. I realised that I dislike marketing because I am afraid of being rejected. I suspect that many other people feel the same way about putting themselves out there.
2. This fear of rejection can be overcome if you understand your target market and what they need. This means that you should target your marketing efforts to people who actually need your skills and who will appreciate what you have to offer. I need to stop trying to be everything to everyone.
3. To understand my target market, I need to do some research. I can start by analysing the clients that I already have and talking to them about what they like about my work. I can also think about the people who I want to work with and try to figure out what their needs are.
4. Once I understand my target market, I can start to market myself in a way that is authentic and helpful. I can write blog posts, create social media content, and network with people who are likely to be interested in what I have to offer. The idea is to position myself as a trusted advisor who can help people solve their problems, not just as someone who is trying to make a sale.
5. I need to have confidence in the value of my work. This means that I need to be able to articulate what I do well and why it is important. I also need to be able to charge a fair price for my services. If I am not confident in myself, it will be difficult to convince others to work with me.
Main picture: Nick Karvounis, Unsplash
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