by Jonah Cockshaw, Founder of FITMEDIA
What we’ll cover in this blog:
👉🏼 What is a target audience, ideal client or niche?
👉🏼 Common excuses for not having a niche (and why it’s killing your business)
👉🏼 The key benefits to having a clearly defined niche
👉🏼 Where to start in finding your niche
👉🏼 Knowing if your Niche is right for you
👉🏼 Narrowing your niche further
What is a Target Audience / Ideal Client / Niche?
Put simply, your ‘niche’ is the specific group of people (very small % of the population) that you’re best positioned to deliver remarkable services to. Your target audience must need, want and be able to afford these services, and you must also find a sense of fulfillment in working with these people.
Common Excuses for not Having a Clearly Defined Niche
The most common reasons (excuses) fitness professionals give for not having a clearly defined niche is either:
👉🏼 FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)
👉🏼 Simply not knowing how to find, target and / or serve a very specific group of people
Thankfully, neither of these will be a problem for you by the end of the 6 sessions we’ll be going through together.
Quick Q: As of right now, which of these reasons / excuses do you most resonate with?
The key benefits to having a clearly defined niche
The benefits to having a clearly defined niche are basically endless… however, we’ll run through a few of the big ones now:
👉🏼 You can build better offers that solve specific problems for the same kind of person again and again (better outcomes and results for your clients)
👉🏼 You can build a stronger community of clients since they all have common goals and challenges
👉🏼 Your marketing can become 100x more effective since it’s speaking directly to a specific person, rather than yelling into the wind
👉🏼 Your sales will be better, even without you being better at sales, because your offer and marketing will do so much more of the selling for you
Basically, we want to avoid fading into the crowd like this…
Imagine this being all the personal trainers in the world… how would you stand out if you look the same as everyone else?
Ps. you’d struggle!
Where to start in identifying your Niche
There’s a couple of methods you can use to identify your niche, and we’re going to start with the simplest and easiest.
The Mirror Method
The ‘Mirror Method’ is the easiest place to start in identifying your target market. Here’s how to use it:
👉🏼 Consider your own personal characteristics, traits, challenges, previously achieved goals and so on…
👉🏼 Done! 🥳
The whole idea with the Mirror Method is to target other people who are most similar to yourself.
Doing this will make it easier for you to resonate with your audience and leads, because you’ve tackled the same challenges, hurdles and goals as they’re facing right now. You are your own best success story.
Quick Note: Do I NEED to mirror myself?
Answer: NO!
Plenty of trainers and coaches will specialize in working with the opposite sex, for example. Most of what you know and do will be very transferable, but you’ll need to be willing and able to fill the knowledge gaps that most directly apply to your chosen niche.
All you need to make sure of is:
- You’re able to deliver remarkable solutions for prominent problems
- You’re able to resonate with your audience and ‘poke’ their pain points through your content, whilst delivering real value and insight
- You’re able to prove that it works, through social proof (testimonials, case studies, transformations etc)
Cool? Good.
Now how do we know if your niche is likely to ‘work’?
The P.V.P Index
The P.V.P Index is used to determine how ‘good’ your niche is, based on three key factors.
These factors are:
👉🏼 Personal Fulfillment (enjoyable for you?)
👉🏼 Value (do they need and want your help?)
👉🏼 Profitability (do they have the financial resources to pay you a profitable fee for your help?)
The idea here is to complete the exercise for 2-5 potential niches, purely using your own judgement, and using the answers to determine which niche is likely to be a best fit for you.
It’s not an exact science, and there are no right or wrong answers. It’s just a helpful tool to quantify how ‘good’ a niche is likely to be for you and your business.
Narrowing your Niche further
The more narrow your niche is, the more likely you are to stand out from the crowd and achieve real resonance.
Quick Q: Which level are you in right now?
Next Steps
In the next session, we’ll be going through the whole process of developing your offer so that you can properly serve your target audience with products and services that actually meet their needs in a remarkable way.
f you want to make that path quicker and easier to travel, check out all the client management tools that we offer here at My PT Hub. Or, better yet, try them out for yourself with a free 30-day trial starting today!
