This article is written and owned by Anton Pearce
Making Your Business Goals Clear
When you’re first getting started in your consulting
practice, there are some important details you’ve got to
iron out. You need to decide what your practice is going to
look like. For example, you need to think about what niche
you’ll operate in, how much you hope to make, how many
hours a week you’re willing and able to work, who your
target market will be, what kinds of marketing you’ll need
to do.
It’s best to start with the big picture first, and work
your way down to some of the details. That sort of planning
starts with thinking about your niche specialty.
Understanding Niche
In the most basic sense, your “niche” is the interest area
your practice operates in. A niche can be broad (such as
physiotherapy) or it can be more narrow (such as a
specialty in lower-back physiotherapy).
The first challenge is choosing a niche that isn’t too
broad. If you choose a broad niche (such as back pain)
you’ll face a huge amount of competition. There are plenty
of other sources online where people can go for back pain
help. The further you hone in on a niche, the less
competition you’ll have. For example, the lower-back
physiotherapy niche has much less competition than the back
pain niche.
Your niche can become too narrow, however. Using our
example, you might choose to focus on the “older men’s
lower-back physiotherapy” niche. Depending on the niche,
there could be very little competition. Depending on the
niche, there could be less consumers. This mean it will be
more difficult for your marketing message to get across to
others.
Local vs. Global Branding
If you’re operating your consulting business online, you
may be tempted to brand yourself in a global way. In some
niche areas, a global branding may work just fine. You can
coach someone in physiotherapy just as easy in the United
States as you can in Australia.
However, don’t underestimate the power of local branding,
either. For example, you might choose to brand yourself as
New York’s leading lower-back physiotherapist. In some
ways, this helps to narrow your niche. You are now
competing for a clientele that is specifically searching
for a local, as opposed to global, service provider.
By not widening your geographical range, you are setting
yourself up for problems down the road. You’re far better
off branding yourself as Mississippi’s leading lower-back
physiotherapist than you are branding yourself as Tupelo’s
leading lower-back physiotherapist. In your quest to go
local and reduce competition, don’t reduce your target
demographic to a nearly-useless number.
The Internet can work both for global and local branding
options. The question of global vs. Local branding is a
matter of simple marketing techniques. It’s a matter of the
content of those marketing techniques.
—————————————————-
If you’re struggling to implement a simple, effective
internet marketing strategy then Anton Pearce can help.
With over 10 years of experience helping professionals to
build their online business Anton can show you the changes
you need to make to get more leads, more clients and more
sales from your website. Visit http://antonpearce.com for
more free and paid resources to power-up your marketing.
You must log in to post a comment.