Niche Marketing: 7 Ways to Expand Your Marketplace and Drive Growth

Is yours one of the many financial services businesses that try to be all things to all people? Or are you perhaps looking for a better way to invest your time, resources and marketing dollars?

Niche, or specialist, marketing offers a better approach for financial service businesses looking for proven ways to attract new clients and to drive growth.

Marketing is the lifeblood of any business. Many professionals, however, make a fundamental mistake. They focus on the technical side of the business, believing that effective skills, and a few satisfied clients, are all they really need to make their business thrive.

Not so. The playing field has changed. Being competent is no longer enough!

Niche marketing permits even small players to become dominant in their chosen markets – even against much larger competitors.

Research shows that professionals who have a niche or specialist focus are up to 30% more productive.

Here are 7 things you can do to penetrate and expand your niche market:

1. Identify the rights markets

Concentrate on an industry market niche. Choosing the right one is an evolutionary process. There is no magic formula for making the final decision, but it will involve a combination of your skills, personal interests, and passion. If you have any doubts, don’t make the selection until you are certain.

2. Create an ideal client profile

To help identify high potential clients in your target market, create a profile of your ideal top clients. Assign all your clients into three categories – A, B or C. Then identify the common traits of your category A clients and use them to create your ideal client persona.

3. Become an insider

The best way to own and dominate a market is to understand the business issues within the niche segment. Think about your prospective clients, and identify the hot button issues and the most pressing concerns they face.

4. Establish niche market objectives

Objectives are commitments to action. They give direction, provide measurement of your progress and, when fortified by action, lead to measurable results. The success of your niche marketing program will depend on the objectives that you establish and your ability to use leveraging to accomplish your chosen goals.

5. Prepare a niche marketing plan

Once you have a set of objectives, translate it into action. Prepare a marketing plan that will allow you to prioritise your existing work and clients. A good marketing plan is a framework to assist your decision-making.

6. Create a powerful value proposition

A value proposition is a clear statement of the results your clients can expect when using your services. Your offerings often appear as intangible ideas; your value proposition statement translates them into specific, tangible benefits, and packages what you do into a form that clients will recognise. The proposition answers the question: “How can this person help me?”

7. Execute your plan

A marketing plan converts your intentions into commitments, and your insights into action. Exercise discipline. Get into the habit of putting your ideas in writing; a good written plan will enable you to measure progress, and to experience the satisfaction of achievement.