Here’s an interesting take on niche Marketing from Cliff Spyker of MKS Learning Centre in Calgary. He spoke at the CAPS conference with me over the weekend.

He says that a niche should be no larger than 100 people! (In a further conversation, he said that a niche can be even better if it is just 10 people!)

Let’s take a step back before I go into detail.

Many people who talk about niche marketing use the clever phrase, “the riches are in the niches.” They mean that specialists make more money than

generalists. Why? Because they understand the market better. Therefore the market pays them more because their information is much better. Makes sense.

Some people are saying that niches are bad because if your niche dies, so do you!

So what’s Cliff’s point of view?

Let’s say you start a deck building company. Well there’s lots of competition there. So why no specialize in $50,000 decks complete with jacuzzis, big screen

TVs and bars. Who would compete with you? No one. Would everyone looking for a deck know about you? Yes Perfect branding, Cliff!

And if you got 10 clients (let alone 100), would you have a handsome business? Sure would.

I think Cliff is on to something here. We are so worried about old marketing terms, like market share that we sometimes lose the focus in thinking in a

targeted fashion.

After the talk Cliff let me in on another secret — those 10 clients aren’t necessarily the home owner. They’d more likely be contractors who would buy your

service and sell it to their clients, the home owners! So your marketing is targeted as well. It is easier to market to the contractors in your area than it

is to market to the homeowners!

Now relate this to your business. What is your real message? Who are your real clients? Who can sell your message for you to the ultimate buyer more

effectively than you can?

What do you think? You can post responses to my blog:
http://www.prleads.blogspot.com