Everyone is Not Your Customer
Renowned marketing guru Seth Godin once famously said, “Everyone is not your customer.”
What he’s saying is that your expertise, services, and programs can not (and, perhaps more importantly, SHOULD not) appeal to absolutely everyone.
Not everyone wants, needs, or is in a position to buy what you sell.
Marketing to the wrong people leads to enrolling the wrong people, and (as we covered previously in this article) enrolling the wrong people is like a death sentence for your business.
So, let’s talk about the benefits of properly selecting your market, and how far down you should (or shouldn’t) niche.
What is Your TAM?
The search for your ideal clients starts with understanding your Total Addressable Market (or TAM).
Put simply, TAM describes the size of the potential revenue opportunity inside of a specific market for a specific product or service.
Think of it like this – you take a subset of a population based on common demographics and psychographics, and then ask this question:
“Within this subset, are there enough BUYERS for what I have to SELL?”
Before you start crafting a solution for a niche, and pricing that solution, you’d better be certain that there will be enough people inside of that niche willing to buy your solution.
Do Your Research
Defining your target market, and assessing their willingness/readiness to buy what you are offering, starts with research.
Data, data, data.
Here are some useful questions to ask:
- What is the market size (in persons)?
- What is the median income or revenue level?
- What are their pain points, needs, wants and desires?
- What/who do they fear (keeps them up at night)?
- What pisses them off or annoys them?
- How aware are they of their problems?
- How aware are they of the possible solutions to those problems?
- Where do they hang out (social platforms, networking sites, or other means)?
- Can you get in front of them? If so, how easily? (Having a great market for your offer isn’t any good if getting their attention is next to impossible)
- Is there any data available on projected GROWTH for this market, or a predicted increase in market value?
That last one can be fairly important in determining the long-term viability of a specific vertical.
For instance, here at the Wealthy Consultant, we help online coaches, consultants, and trainers grow their businesses through effective marketing, sales, and operational models.
We know from looking through available data, that the coaching and consulting space is currently a $3+ billion industry, with a projected CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 14% over the next 8-9 years. This would bring the value of the online coaching market to $11.7 billion by 2023.
Let’s put that into some context. How much of that $11.7 billion would you need in order to be truly wealthy?
- 10% of it would be $1.17 billion
- 1% of it would be $117 million
- .1% of it would be $11.7 million
- .01% of it would be $1.17 million
In case it’s not sinking in – the revenue potential is very, very high.
Couple that with a market that we know is both problem and solution aware, plus the psychographic data we’ve compiled from helping over 4,000 clients – and we’ve got the ingredients for a scalable offer.
Once you’ve done your research, you should have a pretty well rounded view of your TAM, and whether or not this stands to be a profitable niche or not.
From this you can begin crafting what we call ICPs, or Ideal Client Profiles. We have a full article on that here.
These profiles help you tune your marketing to attract clients you love to serve and can absolutely help, and repel the segments of the market who are not a good fit for what you do.
Some Final Thoughts on Differentiation
There is a secondary benefit to all of this target market research and consideration – and that is “differentiation.”
If you know who your ideal customer is… what they like, what they hate, what they fear, what they desire, how much they’re willing to pay to get it… you can now start building a moat around your business that separates you from your competitors.
How?
By zeroing in on where the market is under-served (based on your research) and crafting your offer around the features and benefits that you know will appeal most to them. Then delivering on the value you’ve promised.
Having a world-class understanding of your market is the key to unlocking better (and more impactful) marketing, easier conversion, and a stronger, more resonant brand.
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