What is it you’re really selling?

It’s been said that in business, sales are King, but marketing is Queen, and she runs the show. Marketing is the engine behind your business, but also its weakest link. Before defining your niche, it’s helpful to create and implement a high level marketing plan containing the following:

• The purpose of the plan (what you want out of it — more sales, more website visitors, more email leads, etc.)
• Your main benefit to clients (more on this later)
• Your target audience(s) — describe the ideal client very specifically
• Your marketing budget, expressed as a percentage of gross sales, so it grows in step with your business’ growth

How to Define Your Niche
Your main benefit, or why a client does business with you, is critical to your success, so invest the time needed to carefully think about and answer these questions:

• How do I solve a client’s problem, achieve their goals or satisfy wants?
• What can I do to create desire for my service? Could be based around convenience, speed or a promotion.
• Could I make my service solve multiple problems or achieve multiple goals for my clients?
• What can I do to make it easier for clients to do business with me? For example, convenient hours, value pricing, excellent staff members, variety of services, speed of delivery, etc.

With your niche and plan in place, you’ll give clients a reason to hire you – and be foolish if they went with a competitor!