Results Revolution » Success in this Economy

How to Identify Your Niche Customers

Marianna Chapman — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:26:48 +0000

As we explained in a previous article , the key to locally owned businesses surviving and thriving in a competitive, online marketplace and tight economy is to find and dominate a niche of their own.

Small businesses can’t compete with the advertising dollars and inventory numbers of huge national chains; they can establish themselves by finding a specialty and being the best in it.

You Can’t Please All the People

The toughest part of becoming a successful niche business is realizing that you simply won’t be able to make everybody happy. If you choose to specialize your small business in science fiction, for example, then you won’t gain a following of classic literature lovers. But you will gain science fiction fans. If you choose to specialize your locally owned restaurant in a specific type of cuisine, perhaps Italian, then you’ll lose the people who don’t like pasta. But you’ll have fervent and loyal customers in the pasta lovers.

The Trade Off

For a business to succeed in a specialty or niche, it has to make a trade-off. You trade the complacent, so-so, average customers for the fervent, dedicated, enthusiastic ones. Sounds like a good trade, right? It is, because a few enthusiastic customers will give you more in lifetime value and passionate referrals to their peers than many average customers.

Finding Your Enthusiastic Fans

The first step to identifying those customers you want to find and keep for the life of your business is to clearly define your specialty. What are you offering that’s different, better, or more unique than your competitors? Once you’ve identified your own niche – your special offering – you’re in the right position to find the people who will be interested in what you have to offer.

The second step is just a bit of simple brainstorming: who is going to be the most interested and the most enthusiastic about your specialty, your niche? Don’t focus on the people who might be interested. Focus on the people who will love what you offer. If you’re selling science fiction books, you need to be at the sci-fi gatherings, clubs, and conferences, and partnering up with the local theater when the next sci-fi movie opens. Market yourself to the most passionate people in the particular niche; they, in turn, will market you to the people they know. When you find and convert enthusiastic customers, they do the advertising for you.

Places to Look for your Niche Customers

Specialized online communities and groups
Local clubs and meetings
Conferences
Meet-up groups
Fan clubs
Organizations and associations
Trade shows

Note: If your “niche” is too big to define and go find in groups like these… then your “niche” isn’t a niche at all – and you need to work harder to find your small business’ niche – a truly narrow scope or specialty that will create a winning formula for your business in a difficult economic time.

Where would your ideal customers hang out? Where do they gather? That’s where you need to be.

Image by Rachel Voorhees.

Plan for the New Economy with the Niche Model

Marianna Chapman — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:58:39 +0000

Note: I got an e-mail a while back that challenged me on my inclusion of an Amazon link in one of my e-mail campaigns. This and the following post (and probably a few more beyond that into the future) will be my long-considered answer to the seeming “crisis” presenting itself to local brick-and-mortars… the invasion of big boxes and big-box style on-line competition. Here’s my first stab at how small businesses can beat Goliath.

Small businesses face a double challenge in the new economy; not only are we in the midst of recession like times, with everybody tightening belts and spending less, we’re also transitioning from store-front shopping on Main Street to isolated shopping via the Internet. Location is not the factor it used to be in shopping choices; anyone with Internet access (which seems to be practically everyone) can shop at any store online. The options have opened up, and for the most part, consumers seem to love the choices.

Locally owned small businesses can thrive in the new economy – and love it – but it requires a different approach. When your competition expands from being the other small retail shop two streets over to being the biggest national box stores plus the on-line retailers… it’s time to think of a new angle.

Independent bookstores are a good example, because the ones that have survived and thrive despite competition from Amazon.com have learned to work the new economic angle successfully.

The angle is this: you must create your own niche position and dominate it in order to compete with huge brands and online options.

It’s not enough to be an average bookstore, or an average retail shop, or an average restaurant. When customers have limitless options, average is not going to bring them back.

But you can bring them back.

Niche Examples from Independent Bookstores

An article in the New York Times highlighted how the niche angle has helped independent bookstores to survive. “Being a specialty store gave us something that would distinguish us,” said Alan Beatts, owner of Borderlands, which focuses on science fiction. “We are serving a special demographic, and we receive customer loyalty in return” For a locally owned bookstore, a niche could include

Selling signed first edition books (and holding regular author events)
Selling, trading, and assisting customers in rare books
Covering niche topics (stocking and special-ordering specialized books, magazines, newspapers, and trade journals)
Establishing expert status in book-related topics or specialized topics
Engaging an active online community and having stellar e-commerce options

So, if you’re a bookstore, a retail store, a service-oriented business, or a restaurant, how can you find your niche, establish yourself in it, and thrive in this new economy?

“It’s entirely possible that you will choose a niche that’s too small. It’s much more likely you’ll shoot for something too big and become overwhelmed. When in doubt, overwhelm a small niche.” -Seth Godin, business & marketing expert.

Want more ideas from the local book store angle? Here’s a post from USA Today on a similar subject showcasing ways that small local brick and mortar bookstores are competing with the Kindle, Nook and similar book technology…

Image by ReneS.

Creating a Local Business Marketing Plan for 2011.

Marianna Chapman — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to do a series on local business marketing planning for local or small enterprises. This is the sort of planning that you should be thinking about right now as the year winds down and another gets ready to launch:

1. What will you do differently in 2011?
2. What are your goals for 2011?
3. What is your unique strategy to connect with customers in 2011?
4. What media will you use to communicate with customers, vendors, prospects, employees, etc. in 2011?
5. What products/services, etc. will you offer in 2011? What will be different or the same from 2010?

And many more questions just like these? How do you answer those questions strategically – and literally – for your business, so that you get your new year off to a blazing start? It all boils down to your local business marketing plan for 2011. That’s what we’ll be unpacking in the next few weeks.

Why is this important?

A local business marketing plan is important because many of you would otherwise march into 2011 without a single strategic weapon in place. Things happen just like you plan them – and if you don’t plan or you plan to fail – you’ll get just that. Local business must PLAN for success – create a road map that will win – not unlike a military going into battle. Yes, sometimes things don’t work out precisely as planned – but at least you have the order of the plan that you can change and aren’t just marching blindly into battle. Your chances of success are increased exponentially with the careful attention to planning that you give – and the success will be sweet at the end when you win – and win big for your local business!

Here’s how this will work:

Some of the content will be available here on the blog. A LOT of it will be in written “lesson” format via our e-mail newsletter. Let’s just say that 2/3 of the content will arrive in your inbox. Once I’ve finished the series, I’ll compile it all into an e-book and teach a webinar on the topic of local business marketing plans around the first week of the year.

The first e-mail lesson will go out next Tuesday, so go ahead and sign-up for the e-mail newsletter now, so you don’t miss a thing. (Motivating hint: the first lesson is something you can accomplish in ten minutes even in the midst of the holiday bustle to position yourself for a successful planning session later when things slow down a bit.)

Photo Credit: West Point Public Affairs

How to Make Money in Retail

Marianna Chapman — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:26:55 +0000

Want to know how to make money in the retail business? Doesn’t matter what retail sector you’re in: fashion, spa, shoes, or home decor – even the restaurant business… There’s one simple way to make money.

Here’s the magic formula:

Sell more stuff at better margins.

Are you doing that? Why not? Maybe it’s because a bunch of complications sneaked into your life and your business that are keeping you away from the primary job at hand.

New & Improved Marketing Tools – or New Distractions?

I spent two hours this morning researching new marketing “bells and whistles” that clients had e-mailed me about this morning – mostly so I could explain why they were a bad idea.

They were a bad idea because they are a distraction. They will distract the customer, and they will distract the retail business owner. A few years ago, retailers were easily distracted by the local radio, television and newspaper guy that came knocking and selling the must-have advertising slot in their media.

Today, it’s the folks from Groupon and Living Social, Facebook ads and apps, text message marketing and e-mail gimmicks that don’t even drive traffic to your own web site. There are search engine optimization gurus and Google and YouTube ads and virtual tour creators. And the old fashioned Real Yellow Pages with their new amazing web-based tricks, the newspaper now has added their own set of online offerings and all the old faithful media still call, too…

It’s easy to become distracted by all of the options – and to say yes to the one that sounds the best. The problem with more options is that we get further and further from the purpose of owning a retail business: to sell more stuff at better margins.

Retail marketing should drive SALES – good, solid sales numbers.

Around here, our private clients are posting double digit sales increases across the board. No exceptions. And they’re following a simple system that builds long-term valuable customer relationships (and retail sales) and teaches customers how to most effectively share their experience with their friends. Sure, we’re using “new technology tools” – but we’re using them in a simple and effective way that produces sales and long-term customer relationships. We’re using simple systems that keep us on track – on the sales track.

Let your competitors follow the gimmicks.

Be okay with that. Then laugh all the way to the bank while you keep it simple. It’s cliche – but “keep is simple stupid” is still a sound business strategy for your retail business. Sell more stuff at better margins. Go do it.

Results Revolution » Success in this Economy

How to Identify Your Niche Customers

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