What if there was a way that you could dramatically boost your visibility so you could stand out in a sea of thousands of other health coaches, help more people, and earn more money?

There IS a way to set yourself apart from your competition.

This, my friend, is the beauty of niche marketing – and today I have an amazing line up of experts that are going to share some of their best tips with you so you can get clear on exactly who you want to serve, so you can start filling your practice.

I know this is a confusing and frustrating process for many health coaches, so we are going to break it down for you right here, right now.

I reached out to a few of my all-time favorite people that have a ton of experience with online marketing in the health and fitness space. I know you are going to find this incredibly helpful for figuring out how to attract your ideal clients, and earn more revenue.

Get ready for an awesome mini training that’s going to rock your world (and your business)!

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment at the end of the post!

Can you build a business without figuring out a niche market? Perhaps, but it will take you much longer. You also won’t be able to help as many people and likely won’t earn as much money.

We know it’s not all about money. You want to do what you’re passionate about. But for it to be a truly rewarding and viable career, you need and deserve to make a living from it. There are MILLIONS of people that need help, but maybe just a few hundred or even a few thousand of them are perfect for YOU.

What if you could reach that group of people, get their attention, and bring them into your world? People are eager to learn about your solution to their problem – they just have to be able to find you.

If your niche isn’t clear and specific, it is as though you are shouting from the mountain tops but no one can hear or see you.

You’ll be like that little fish in a huge pond – trying to compete with everyone else. Instead, think big fish in a small pond. A lot less competition, much more visibility.

When you begin as a brand new wellness professional, you probably won’t know exactly who it is that you want to serve. The most important thing you can do is start working with clients, get some practice, then figure out your niche as soon as you can. Don’t stress over it. You may discover your perfect niche once you start coaching, and it may end up being something very different than you first imagined.  Be excited, and be open to the possibilities!

Now, let’s hear from our experts so that you can bring some of these ideas to life and start getting a dramatically better response from your marketing efforts, and reach the people you want to serve.

Amanda Cook

Get Clarity

First, let’s get clear about the purpose of a target market.

A target market defines who you market to, not who you work with!

If you meet a potential customer who is outside your target market, but you want to work with her – go right ahead!  The role of marketing isn’t to limit who can buy your products and services.

Also, your target market isn’t forever.  It’s simply a starting point to get traction and revenue in your business.

You want to start with one target market and commit to it for at least 6 months so you can build up some momentum.  Then, once you’re established in that market, you can decide to expand to helping with other problems in that market, or you can add a new market as well.  But if you try to be everything to everyone from the beginning, you’ll most likely dilute your efforts and not earn the kind of revenue you need to grow your practice.

So I recommend first getting really clear about the type of client you like to work with.  Just do a brainstorm and think about types or groups of people.  Who are you excited about helping?  What have you had personal experience with?  Where do you know people already?  Then step away from the list for at least 30 min and come back with fresh eyes, to revisit the groups and see if one jumps out at you – the one you’re most motivated to work with.  A good niche is one where the people know they have a specific problem, they have money to pay for a solution and you have access to them.  Once you have an idea of the type of person you’d like to work with, you want to start talking to them to really uncover their problems, struggles and dreams.  That combination of knowing the specific type of person and the specific problems she’s having that you can help with is a key to a great niche!

Amanda Cook

Amanda Cook

Founder, Wellpreneur Ltd.

Amy Lippman

Choose a Niche that Resonates with You

Often it can be difficult to settle on a niche, because it feels like there’s a lot riding on the decision. You may feel that this decision will make or break your success.

It is an important decision, but it doesn’t have to be difficult to figure out.

One of the pitfalls that’s easy to make is choosing a niche that’s popular, but doesn’t really resonate with you. Choosing a niche that doesn’t resonate with you can make it more difficult to stay motivated in your business and feel comfortable promoting yourself.

To avoid this, start by answering these 5 key questions…

  1. Who do you love working with? These are the people who you find easy and fun to work with AND get great results.
  1. Why do your most successful clients come to you? If you’re currently working with clients or have worked with clients in the past, look back at Health History forms, intake forms, and/or your notes from initial consultations.  (If you haven’t yet started working with clients, no worries… you can skip this question.)Notice any themes you see repeated over and over. (Try not to go on memory and be sure to look at your notes and forms.)  Focus on looking at the files for clients who were “ideal” clients to work with who experienced great results.What was/is their biggest pain – their main motivation for coming to see you and work with you?I recall from my health coaching days that often people had many areas they wanted support with, but there was usually one main reason they decided to work with me.  This main reason is something that was causing them enough frustration that they were willing to invest in working with me.)
  2. What do people continually ask you about? Think about your friends, co-workers, and people you meet networking and in the community and the questions that often come up. Pro Tip: Only take into account the questions that come up from people who are similar to people you want to work with.
  1. What message or information do you want to get out in the world?  Think about areas YOU feel passionately about.
  1. What is your story? Often our niche is related to something we struggled with and overcame.


Putting it all Together

The answers to these questions are like puzzle pieces, that you can fit together to determine your niche.  After you write out your answers to these questions, highlight where there’s overlap.

By combining these different elements, you’ll be able to determine an area of focus that…

  • Is fun and comes naturally to you, so work is a pleasure
  • Taps into what people want, so you can easily enroll clients, and
  • Draws upon your passion and/or compelling story, which is what will keep you motivated and driven as you build your business

What If You’re Still Stuck?

After going through the process above, you might still feel stuck.  There are two main reasons this may be happening…

  1. What clients come to you for, or what people ask you about, is completely different than what YOU are passionate about.
  2. You’re a new coach and you really don’t know what you want to help people with. You may have a few different things you’re passionate about.

If this is the case, I want to share a different way to think about niching, which is to start by choosing a niche for one program. This could be a short cleanse or detox… or it could be for a longer group or private coaching program.

To give you an example, one of my clients was interested in working with women who are having difficulty conceiving.  So, she offered a program called  “Jump Start Your Fertility – A 21 day Cleanse to Promote Conception.”

Choosing a niche for a single program allows you to test it out.  You can determine whether you like working with the niche and gauge the level of interest from your audience and community.

Amy Lipmann

Amy Lipmann

Marketing Strategist & Founder, Marketing for Health Coaches

Alicia Streger

Become a Specialist

Don’t find customers for your products; find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin

Let me ask you a quick question…

How well do you know your ideal client?  I mean really know them.

Not just what their goals are, but what drives them.  What is their life like every day?   What is the story they keep telling themselves?  What do they struggle with on a deep level?  What fires them up inside and what is their underlying motivation?

Knowing (not guessing) the answers to these questions will help you to get inside the mind of your ideal clients and prospects.

When you specialize in KNOWING how to solve the problems for certain types of people, you create the opportunity to have an INCREDIBLE impact on someone’s life.

Not a “brushing the surface” kind of impact….but the kind of impact that can shift someone’s life forever.

If you look around at the majority of all fitness pros, nearly every single one helps people “lose weight, gain energy, and feel better”…. so what makes YOU different?

When you commit to specialize in helping people with a very specific kind of problem, you separate yourself from everyone else out there.  You go from being a generalist to a specialist.

And when you’re a specialist, you have your own niche within the market.  You begin to differentiate yourself as the go-to expert in your market, and you begin to be able to CREATE clients.  (insert sun shining through the clouds here)

Having a niche will allow you to:

  • Get exponentially BETTER RESULTS for your clients
  • Work with clients that you LOVE to work with
  • Make a LOT more money
  • Become the GO-TO EXPERT in your field

When you create your products and services, you know EXACTLY what problem needs to be solved- down to the very last detail.

The more time you spend on understanding who your ideal clients are, the more effectively you’ll be able to create programs and services that solve their specific problems.

You’ll become the GO-TO expert for your niche.

Take a look at some of the greats in our industry.  If you want to learn how to be a better baseball player, you’re going to Eric Cressey.  If you want better glutes, you’re going to Brett Contreras.  If you want to become a natural body builder, you’re heading to Nicole Wilkins.

You get the point.  Each of these specialists know EXACTLY who they serve, and they UNDERSTAND what their clients need at a deep level.

HOWEVER- before you select the niche market that you’re going to specialize in, you want to pay attention to 3 things:

  1. Do you LOVE working with these people?
  2. Is your niche market able to afford your services at the prices you want to charge?
  3. Is your niche “big enough?” (are there enough people with this problem for you to be able to help to reach your goals.)

If you answer no to the first one, you need to pick a different niche.  If you answer no to #2 or #3, spend some time thinking about if that uphill road is worth taking.

Now it’s your turn… what do YOU specialize in?  Who do you serve?  What is YOUR NICHE?

Alicia Streger

Alicia Streger

Owner, Fit Pro Essentials

Karen Pattock

Find a Niche That’s Marketable

Narrowing your niche to a single ideal client can feel incredibly intimidating.

When you niche’ down it feels like you are eliminating so many potential new clients when, in fact, the opposite is true.

Let’s just say, for the sake of getting more clients, you bite the bullet, declare a niche’ and move forward in marketing your business.

Then the worst possible thing happens.

You don’t get any clients.

Now you’re asking yourself…

… did I pick the wrong niche’?

… is my niche’ too specific?

… is my niche’ not specific enough?

The truth is the problem may not be a reflection of your niche’ being too specific or not specific enough.

It’s more than likely a result of your niche’ not being marketable.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you’re a health coach that has chosen a niche’ of helping female career women/moms reduce stress and find time to put themselves first for a healthier, happier lifestyle.

That feels like a pretty good niche, don’t you think?

Your cause is noble, definitely needed and could help women navigate the extraordinarily busy life of motherhood and a career.

And yet, this incredibly perfect niche’ doesn’t seem to be attracting new clients.

What gives?

The reason is because it isn’t a ‘marketable niche’.

A marketable niche’ means you can target that audience with advertising, get your marketing materials in front of them on a consistent basis and can reach your target audience anytime you want.

So for the sake of our example how would you…

… target career moms in your advertising?

… target women that feel stress in your advertising?

… target women/moms that want to put themselves first in your advertising?

The fact is… you can’t.

Why?

Because there isn’t a place online, (my preference is Facebook), where these career moms are hanging out telling the world that they are stressed and want to put themselves first.

See why this niche is unreachable in terms of marketing?

Ideal clients that are chosen based on non-targetable attributes are always a source of frustration and disappointment when it comes to making sales.

So, how do you fix it?

Get more specific!!!

Declare a niche that offers you the opportunity to market your programs and services.

Let’s go back to our original niche’.

  • ORIGINAL (Non-Marketable) NICHE’: Female career women/moms who want to reduce stress and find time to put themselves first for a healthier, happier lifestyle.
  • Updated (Marketable) NICHE’: Women who want to conquer emotional eating and lose 25 pounds in 90 days.
  • SUPER TARGETED (Marketable) NICHE’: Women attorneys that emotionally eat due to stress and want to lost 25 pounds in 90 days.

This niche’ can be marketed to in multiple ways.

  • Target: Women attorneys
  • Target: Emotional eating
  • Target: Weight Loss

Facebook is THE BEST place to test your niche’ for marketing options.

Use the Facebook Audience Insights tool to test target options to learn if there are dedicated pages and groups where you are able to use paid advertising to directly market to your ideal client.

The bottom line: Verify that your niche’ is marketable and specific first.

Karen Pattock

Karen Pattock

International Business Coach and Educator

Ryan Lee

Go Pro

There are plenty of suggestions about niching down by gender, hobby and even sport.

Here’s another idea…

Niche down by profession or industry.

I know. I know. Healthy eating for an accountant, attorney or CEO will all be the same, but that’s not the point. We’re talking about the marketing and speaking directly to a specific niche.

The biggest benefit of niching down by profession is they are EASY TO REACH. And the ability to reach your niche is the most difficult part of marketing.

But each industry has trade associations. Events. Industry-specific websites. Facebook groups. Newsletters. Magazines. Certification. Equipment companies.

You can reach out to the influencers and quickly become the go-to person for all things health-related in that industry!

Ryan Lee

Ryan Lee

Publisher, Author, Entrepreneur

Lori Kennedy

Solving a Specific Problem

When it comes to narrowing down your niche and choosing an ideal client to focus on, the first thing I always suggest is to think about one single topic you are obsessed with.

If you were stranded on a desert island and had to learn about only one thing for the next 5 years straight what would it be?

Keep in mind you’ll be saved, and that one topic might morph into different things over time but start off by putting yourself on that island with a whole bunch of blogs and books on one single topic. What would it be?

You’ve got to love what is it that you’re doing and if you’re not totally obsessed with it, if it’s not fun for you to learn about, you’ll get bored and annoyed. When that happens, you won’t want to work on your business anymore. So pick something you’re obsessed with.

The next tip I have to narrow down your niche to become more visible and profitable is to focus on solving a very specific problem. This is so much more than just picking a niche. Let’s say your niche is digestion. That’s fine but what’s the actual problem you’re solving?

It’s highly unlikely that clients even know they have a digestive system problem; they have acid reflux. So they will be searching out articles and programs to get rid of acid reflux, not fix their digestion. Decide what narrow and specific problem you are solving and then create loads of free content and a paid program to solve that specific problem.

When you solve the acid reflux problem, instead of trying to promote a digestion program, you’ll become the expert in acid reflux, and you’ll attract the exact type of clients you want… clients who have digestive system problems.

Lori Kennedy

Lori Kennedy

CEO, Lori Kennedy Inc.

thewellnessbusinesshub.com

 

We hope this post gave you some inspiration and great ideas for figuring out a profitable niche you love.

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