Mass appeal is a myth. I know that goes against what we’d all like to believe, and your eternal optimist inside probably shouts, “Hey! My product is actually for everyone.” But honestly, it’s true; mass appeal is a myth. Don’t panic though… Being niche does not mean fewer paying customers. Focussing in on a niche is a good thing, scratch that, a great thing. The web today is consumer lead. It’s a buyer’s market. With so many service/product providers, people can afford to be choosey. Ask yourself… why should they choose you? What is it that sets you apart? When a customer is making a buying decision, there’s a tri-factor of boxes to check:

• Does your offering resonate with them?
• Does your offering mirror their values?
• Does your offering meet their needs?

Basically, are you providing them with an outstanding user experience? If there’s a market there and you’re able to tick all those boxes within a niche, you are onto a winner.

More Leads

When you know exactly who your customers are, who actually buys your product and more importantly why, you are on the path towards generating more leads. That knowledge is gold dust because it allows you to further refine your offering and improve UX to appeal to that target market even more.

Higher Conversion Rates

The deeper understanding of your customers that you get, when specialising in meeting one particular group of people’s needs really well, gives you the ability to work on improving your user’s experience in a way that you just can’t otherwise. Better UX means better conversion rates.

More Revenue

More leads and higher rates of conversion translate into more revenue for you—woop woop! The exclusivity that your product or service portrays when it only caters to one particular audience will also improve the number of leads and conversions and therefore revenue too… good stuff!

Better Customer Satisfaction

When you choose to focus your efforts on one particular customer type, you gain clarity. Clarity is invaluable and gives everyone within a business an understanding of who the ideal customer is and how to make them happy. It is infinitely easier to make your customers happy and provide a top notch user experience when you actually know them. I get that sounds obvious, but it’s something that is so often overlooked.

Better Retention

When you understand what makes your target market tick, what your prospective customers like and need, what their problems are how to solve them, not only will your customers be happier, but they’ll stick around and tell their mates.

Stronger Positioning & Messaging

It’ll seem like I’m stating the obvious again, but this needs to be said! When you have a deep knowledge of exactly who your target audience is, you can create super compelling and ultimately more effective messaging. Laser precision messaging strengthens your brand and provides a better user experience. Strong positioning will boost your conversion rates and instill trust.

Waste Less Time

Positioning yourself within a niche means you can stop chasing and trying to convert leads and potential customers that just aren’t right for your business.

Waste Less Money

Marketing and advertising are always pretty large priorities with a pretty hefty price tag for any business. Being a niche provider means you you can create a strategy that revolves solely around getting your offering seen by the right people enabling you to make quality spends, not quantity.

Focus Resources

Knowing your niche and your customers means you can avoid spending time and money creating unnecessary features that your customer base doesn’t want or need. This is such a common pitfall you wouldn’t believe it, but you can avoid it and focus your efforts by being a niche provider.

Reduced Stress

I saved this ‘til last because it is a biggie! You can reap all the rewards listed above, reduce waste all round and save yourself a bunch of stress in the process—surely that’s the holy grail right?!

Work Smart

Age old saying though it is, I cannot stress how important it is online to work smart, not just hard, these days. Concentrate on meeting the needs of a smaller and specific group of people really well, give them the best experience possible. Stop killing yourself over pleasing everyone all the time. It’s tough to recalibrate that mindset I know, but you’ve got to stop focussing on all the money that you could make but really (honestly!) won’t by targeting everyone because…

“Everyone” is not a target market

In trying to appeal to everyone you appeal to no one. Whether you sell a product or a service, being clear about exactly who you are targeting and who your audience is, is essential to providing your customers with a better user experience, to increasing your rates of conversion and to your site performing better. You can’t possibly know what your customers want, need or what might resonate well with them if you aren’t clear on who your target market actually is. Trying to provide a top notch experience and delight customers by solving their problems just can’t work if you lack the knowledge. Focusing in on a niche is the only way that you stand a chance of getting a deeper understanding of your customers. The moment you start to see your customers as individuals who have needs that you can meet, people who problems that you can solve with finesse and make happy, work gets much more fun and rewarding. :) The rewards are magnified when you realise that provision of your product or service makes people happy and meets their needs whilst also facilitating you achieving your business goals at the same time. Focus your efforts on meeting the needs of a niche market that you can really connect with and solve problems for. Stop chasing your tail trying to please all the people all the time. I guarantee your customers will thank you for it.