Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
In this episode, we talk about how to niche down and find your target audience.
Let’s dive into this week’s question!
JOCELYN: Hey all you’re listening to the Q&A of S&J.
SHANE: Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast where life always comes before work. We’re your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams. Join us each week as we teach you how to flip your lifestyle upside down by selling stuff online. Are you ready for something different? Let’s get started.
Today’s question comes from Jeremy DePrato and he says:
“What do you do when your expertise is in a competitive space? How do you niche down and get your true audience’s attention? How can anyone possibly make an impact when there are so many competitors in the market place?”
JOCELYN: Great question. We actually get this question like once a week. People are really just overwhelmed by the amount of people doing the same kind of thing they are. The thing you have to remember about any niche is that there are a lot of people on this earth, approximately 7 billion of them and a vast majority are now connected to the internet and one thing you need to remember is that people don’t relate to the product that you’re offering, they relate to you so you have to be relatable and you have to tell stories and get people to understand who you are and why you are doing what you’re doing. People don’t buy what you sell, they buy why you’re selling it. So you have to keep that in mind anytime you’re starting anything, especially in online business.
SHANE: Take us for example. We are in a very competitive niche with our flipped lifestyle brand, we’re trying to help people get started online, there’s a lot of other people out there that are in this space and have a good foothold, guys like Pat Flan or Chris Tucker or Jeremy and Jason, there’s a lot of people that have big audiences but here’s the deal. Have you heard of all three of them? You might know two of them but not the third one and the same thing is going to be in your space.
Not everyone is going to know all of your competitors and if they find you first, it doesn’t matter how much competition is there and another thing is they may like you better, you, Jeremy, listen to our podcast, you go to our Facebook page, for some reason you have connected with Jocelyn and me and that’s why you asked your question. You can find about internet marketing in a lot of places but when you found someone you related to, you stuck around and opened a dialogue and decided to work with us. It’s the same thing in any niche.
You’ve got to create your personality into your product and you’ve got to put yourself out there and people will relate to you and if they relate to you then they would want to buy their information from you. Even in the real world, there’s a lot of insurance agents in every town. Insurance is a very competitive market in the physical world but you go to your insurance agent because your dad had the same agent or you’re friends with that guy or you go to church with them or whatever, people are going to relate to you even in a competitive niche and that’s what you really want to do and we always tell people that competition is a good thing. When you see competition you see money. If there’s a lot of people selling something and a lot of sellers that means there’s a large market for it so don’t be afraid of competition.
JOCELYN: The second part of your question was; “How do you niche down to get your true audience’s attention?” I think this is one of the things people truly miss out on online business and the way to do that is to be yourself and don’t try to reach everyone, that’s a mistake many people and we have a very specific brand and you need to find who your ideal customer is and for us it’s families who have children.
We certainly welcome anyone else who wants to listen to our podcast or consume our content but that is really our target who we’d like to come and consume our content so the thing to remember is people are looking for an experience with you, they don’t really care so much about what you sell, they’re there for that too but what they really want is an experience with you.
SHANE: An example of this is on the first site I tried to make for football, I tried to reach all coaches with my products and it wasn’t working or getting any traction so I finally just said “what do I offer” and “what makes me completely different” and I fell back on my unique experience and my coaching style and what I was doing on the football field. So instead of trying to reach to everybody, I focused on a subset of coaches who use a very specific defense with their football team and that’s how I gained traction in the marketplace.
The marketplace is huge for football coaching materials. If I had gone out and said here is the best defensive drill video for Alabama’s defence then well Nick Samons, the top coach in the country, already has a video about that so why would anybody buy mine but if I niche it down and say this is a specific set of drills designed for 16-year-old kids who are very slow and not very good at football and this will help them to be better, now we’ve got something that differentiates me from that bigger product from the higher competition because I’m targeting down to not the elite high school coach but a small school coach who doesn’t have the great athletes that Alabama or a big school has and I’ve created a new niche market within that market of football coaches.
So all you have to do is be you. Go out there and say what do I have to offer that’s different, focus on that and let your personality shine through your product. Don’t just worry about what you’re selling, worry about how you present it and how you relate to your customer and you’ll be able to carve your little part out of the big market.
JOCELYN: Thanks for your question Jeremy. Hope it helped you and other people out there who were wondering the same thing.
SHANE: Until next time we’ll see you on the flip side.
One more thing. If you would like immediate help from Jocelyn and myself all you have to do is go to FlippedLifestyle.com/TalkToUs and you can check out our consulting services. We do not do a lot of consulting but we do block out a few hours a week. We can get on the phone or Skype or Google hangout and talk to you about your online business where you can work personally with me and Jocelyn to help you go to the next level.
So if you need any help or one on one attention and you just cannot wait until we select you for a flipped podcast, all you have to do is go to FlippedLifestyle.com/TalkToUs and you can check out when our schedule is available for you to get on a consulting work.
You can connect with S&J on social media too!
Thanks again for listening to the show! If you liked it, make sure you share it with your friends and family! Our goal is to help as many families as possible change their lives through online business. Help us by sharing the show!
If you have comments or questions, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post. See y’all next week!
Leave a Reply