Are You Cutting Your Audience in Half?
One of the things that I enjoy the most about the world of online business is reading blogs of others who are working to carve out their piece of the pie. One of the keys for anyone who is trying to build a business is to discover his/her niche. However, there are times when I wonder if people cater to their niche to such an extent that they leave a lot of people outside of their niche.
Some Examples in Reading
One of the things that surprised me in reading so many blogs is how many of them work so hard to appeal to one particular demographic at the expense of all of the others. One of the biggest examples of this involves gender in family roles. I clicked on some blog titles that I found interesting, and some of them seemed to emphasize efforts to reach out to women, and some reached out to fathers. As a man with no children, I know that I don’t fit these demographics, but I found out that there was valuable information for me.
Are You Too Specialized?
I am not saying that there is a problem with trying to focus on a niche. However, I think that there is a difference between saying that the target demographic is the only group that is welcome. I think that one of the key ways to tell if there is something that is too specialized is whether or not the information is specialized or generalized. If the information really is geared towards a specific audience, there is nothing wrong with having a very narrowly tailored marketing effort.
However, if the information really is general information, is it something that people outside of the demographic can find value? If it is, this means that you now have a question about the way you market to your niche. One of my very good friends in the world of blogging says that women are the target demographic, but I noticed that men were well represented in the top comment section of her blog. So, I think that this means that, while she may have a target demographic in mind, she has cross-over appeal to other demographics.
Another blog that I saw had a target demographic, and even though some of the posts tended to be more generalized, toward the end, the call to action almost always addressed only the people in the target demographic. Maybe this person is doing fine with the target demographic, but knowing that I didn’t fit the demographic, I couldn’t help but wonder how many other prospects were left on the table because of that idea.
Ways to Avoid Narrowing
In the world of politics, I learned that one of the worst words that someone can use is the word “too.” The reason for that is that it is a defensive word, as per the following examples: “Democrats care about national security, too.” “Republicans care about children, too.” Now, imagine how each of these phrases sound when the word “too” is eliminated. I think that it works the same way in marketing. I remember a few years ago when the men’s grooming trend was on the rise, and I saw a hair dye for men with the tagline, “because you’re worth it, too.” I have seen other commercials for hair dye that were geared to men that did not use the word “too” at all and branded itself “the leader in men’s hair coloring.” I don’t think you have to try very hard to guess which one sold more products. (Note: I am not endorsing hair dye, just giving an example of defensive thinking and marketing at work.)
So, with this in mind, whatever your niche is, always try to find the balance between targeting a group, and saying to others that they just don’t fit in.
Tags: Business, generalization, marketing, niche marketing, niches, specialization
This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 23rd, 2010 at 4:05 pm
My niche is golf… but more specifically women golfers, and even more specifically… beginning women golfers…. it’s a very tight niche, but the larger one, golf in general is too wide…so I have narrowed my view… don’t think it is too tight. What do you think?
.-= Pat´s last blog ..Hillside Golf Shot — Saved By A Bosu! =-.
August 23rd, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Steve, this was an excellent point that I hadn’t thought of myself.
Like the person you talked about in your post, I do find that a lot of my readers are men, and although when I started my blog I was focused more on mompreneurs my business has grown beyond that.
The struggle for me, is that I am a mom, and I can relate to the struggles that other moms face who are trying to build their business. We have similar challenges balancing our families, homes, and businesses and there are times I write specifically to the mompreneurs and wahm’s.
I wonder if my blog were strictly clever marketing tips, if I’d seem out of place talking about balancing an internet marketing business with a family?
It’s not the most frequent thing I write about, but it is something I write about on occasion as lessons in my family can relate to something in my business.
I think I’ll have to write a post about it and see what my readers think. I appreciate you giving me a clue to how it may look from another point of view. It’s very valuable information.
Heather
.-= Heather C Stephens´s last blog ..Personal Branding for Network Marketers- Yin-Yang of Affiliate Marketing =-.
August 23rd, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Thanks for the great blog post. I’m going to tweet you in a minute. I like how you outline your thoughts.
Joe
MLM Training
August 23rd, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Thank you for your reply, Pat! I think that it depends on what you are trying to do. I see no problem with having a specific niche, but I think that the big question between a too-narrow niche and a tailored niche is whether it seems to indicate that only those who fit the niche can find anything of value. I don’t think that cross-over appeal is something that is required in niche marketing. I don’t know a lot about golf, but I am sure that there are probably things that would apply to everyone no matter their gender or experience level, and some of those things that will help people once they are no longer beginners. In this sense, I would say that there is nothing wrong with seeking out a niche, but don’t be surprised if some of the more general things about golf attract people regardless of gender or experience level. I wish you all the best as you build your business and your niche!
August 23rd, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Thank you for your comment, Heather! To tell you the truth, you were the example of cross-over appeal that I was thinking of when I wrote this post. I think that some things may be specific to women, and while I don’t have children of my own, I know the challenges of balancing my personal and my professional life, and while the experiences might not be exactly the same, I think that is why so many men read your blog.
I know that I tend to have several sub-niches in my blog. To use one example, whenever I talk about faith, I try to do so with principles that are a lot more basic. (For example, I won’t be writing anything on the debate over baptism on this blog any time soon
) I think that if I only wrote about faith, or only about pop culture, or only about business, or only about books that I would eventually get tired of it, so I try to keep things fresh and do the best I can for the people who read my blog.
In response to your question, I don’t think that it would be out of place at all to write about family. Our families are one of the main motivators to succeed in business, so I think that it fits perfectly well with any discussions of business. I look forward to reading your take on this at your blog!
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Excellent post Steve! Great food for thought.
August 24th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Hi Steve,
I’ve written a reply on my blog and scheduled it to publish tomorrow. I’m curious as to what my readers (Men and Women Dads, and Moms, etc.) will think. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it as well.
I’m so glad you shared your perception with me in your post and I’m excited to see what the rest of my readers think.
Thanks so very much!
Heather
.-= Heather C Stephens´s last blog ..Personal Branding for Network Marketers- Marketing Funnel & Products =-.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Thank you for your comment, Joe! I liked reading your blog as well.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Thank you for your reply, Elaine! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:15 am
I’m looking forward to reading what you have to say, Heather. I am truly honored that I inspired you to post something on your blog. I have really enjoyed reading it, and I am so glad to be a part of it now.
August 25th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Focusing on Mompreneurs and WAHMs Cutting Audience In Half? | Clever Internet Network Marketing Tips by Heather C Stephens says:[...] are reading my blog and I just read a post by my friend Steve Nicholas who talks about how I may be cutting my audience in half by branding my blog around mompreneurs and [...]
August 25th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
This is one reason that I chose Personal Development as my niche.
I wanted something that would be something that could appeal to all types of people: entrepreneurs, parents, basically anyone who has any interest bettering themselves.
Also within the topic of personal development I can easily post on topics that relate to different demographics. I can post about entrepreneurship, relationships, etc.
Aside from that I do have a passion for personal development so it worked out to be a great niche for me!
.-= Stacy´s last blog ..Moving From Negative to Positive Thought Patterns =-.
August 25th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Anonymous says:Twitter Trackbacks…
…
August 25th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Thank you for yoru reply, Stacy! I think that everything is definitely a balancing act. I know that, because I am a student of religion and have a history of political activism, I had to weigh whether to include these things in my blog or not. Ultimately, I realized that I could talk about things of faith in a more general way. For example, I have one post that talks about the Prosperity Gospel because this may be something that is used by one faith, but people of many faiths have dealt with the struggle between spirituality and materialism. However, I realized that I could not narrow that thread while talking about politics, so I might talk about my past with politics, but I try not to get too specific. (I think that people can probably tell what my political beliefs are by my posts, and that’s ok, but I don’t want people to think that they have to agree with me to feel welcome and to learn.)
Personally, I don’t think that there is any one correct answer, but I think that one test for whether or not something is too narrow is whether action statements and things like that only target noe demographic when it is something that can clearly be done by anyone. Crossover is good, and trying to avoid appealing to demographics is good, but I do think that some people do unintentionally put up signs that say “People Not in the Target Demographic Need Not Apply.”
September 7th, 2010 at 2:11 am
Hi Steve! Great post! I definitely can see your point and how it can truly benefit you and so many others when you reach out to a wider audience.
A great way to do this is to create your brand and blog around more general niches but have a category for the area that you want to focus on. So for me, I am a MOMpreneur, a lot of my connections are through Mom sites.. how ever a lot are not. So I just simply placed a ‘MOMpreneur’ category to still be able to share, help and give back to Moms like myself but still contribute to all of my readers and followers through my other categories.
Thanks for the great points and I believe it definitely comes down to truly what your goals are, what you want to accomplish and what your brand is based upon.
.-= Jennifer May´s last blog ..2 Simple Strategies To Bringing In High Quality Prospects A Little Blunt And To The Point =-.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Thank you for your reply, Jennifer! I think that there are times when general is good, and there are also times when specific is even better. That is why I also try to show several different subcategories in my blog, because I know that there are different things that will interest different people, so I try to share several to avoid becoming a one-trick pony, but I also try to help people find what they are looking for.