5 Mistakes You’re Making with Your Niche
One of the most common topics health practitioners ask me about is niche.
Do I have to have one?
How specific does it have to be?
Aren't I missing out on clients because of it?
What if I want more than one niche?
But although it seems that most practitioners are aware of the idea of a niche, I still see them making the same mistakes over and over again.
That's why I want to share with you the 5 most common mistakes health practitioners make around niching, as well as simple solutions.
5 Niche Mistakes That Health Practitioners Make
Mistake #1 - You don’t have a niche in the first place
You may have heard me rant about this a few times before. But I still have practitioners asking me every single week: do I have to have a niche?
Yes, it's time to pick one and stick with it.
Very few practitioners find success as a 'general practitioner' and helping every single health concern and interest within their modality.
Not picking one makes your marketing harder to tailor.
It makes it harder to build the know-like-trust factor because your content will be general and all over the place.
It makes it harder to make your services feel like the solution to someone's problem.
So do yourself a favour and pick a target audience. Get clear on your ideal client. And if the thought of that makes you hyperventilate, make sure you read down to mistake #5.
Mistake #2 - You have one, but you’re not owning it
So you do have a group of people that you love working with. You've nailed step 1!
But are you actually saying that out loud, or on your social media, or your website, or wherever it is you show up? Or are you expecting that clients are psychic and should *know* who you're working with?
This is an easy mistake to make, but it's even easier to fix. Get really clear on how you describe your niche, and then share that everywhere:
✔️ Put it on your website
✔️ Put it in your Instagram bio
✔️ Share it on your Facebook every 3 months or so as a reminder
✔️ Tell people whenever they ask what you do, instead of just telling them what your title is
If you're 100% confident that your ideal client will stay the same for the foreseeable future, step it up a notch and:
Include it in any bio you have for guest blogs, podcasts and even media interviews or comments
Put it on a sandwich board out the front of your clinic (even if you see people online!)
Hell, put it on your business card - I did!
Remember: people don't know you have a specific interest or niche until you tell them that you do!
Mistake #3 - You’re not wherever that niche is hanging out
It's awesome to know your people.
It's awesome to tell the world who your people are.
But what if you're not where they are at?
Just yesterday I saw that a practitioner was not seeing the results she wanted from marketing on Instagram, despite being consistent.
It turns out that her niche is aged 50+ - very few people that age are on Instagram at all, let alone consistently!
Find out where your ideal people are hanging out, and focus your efforts on turning up there. If you work with people in their teens and 20s, you might want to be on-trend with the latest social media platforms.
If you work with CEOs or businesses, you might opt for LinkedIn as a place to show up.
But if your crowd is older, your main social media focus is probably Facebook.
Don't know where your people hang out (online or in-person)? You need to do some market research.
Find a friend who you would consider within your area of expertise. Ask them where they find their information, where they seek help from, and where they spend their spare time.
Mistake #4 - You’re not creating marketing and content with your niche at the top of your mind
One of the biggest benefits of niching is that it allows you to create content and marketing that really speaks to your ideal client.
So why are you still posting generic tips and random pictures of your food?
If you have a niche, you have the opportunity to build the know-like-trust factor. This is because you can demonstrate through your content and marketing that you understand where they are at right now. The more that people trust you, the more likely it is that they will seek your professional advice.
Niching also means that it's a lot easier to come up with relevant content! If you're finding yourself feeling overwhelmed about what you should share, market and create, come back to your ideal client:
What problems do they think they need to have solved?
What type of content and offers are they more likely to respond to?
With these things in mind, what would serve them best?
Every single piece of content, every single marketing strategy and every single offer you put out there should be put through this filter. That way, every single thing that you put out there is building your community's trust in you and puts you in the best position to serve.
Mistake #5 - You think it’s forever
Repeat after me:
A niche is not a life sentence.
If you pick one and find out your skin crawls when you're working in that space, you can change it.
Or if you find that along the way, you uncover a new area of passion, you can pivot your business.
This goes for those of you who have two or three areas of interest - you can focus on one of those for a few months, and see how it feels!
Don't be afraid of niching because it makes you feel confined or locked in.
You can always say yes to a client who doesn't fit the description.
You can always say no to someone who does if they don't feel like a fit for you.
At the end of the day, picking a niche is a strategy to help you focus down.
It is there so that you can focus your marketing, focus your services and focus your efforts to get max results in return! And who doesn't want to maximise their business success?