marketing for artists

By: | Published: February 5, 2012 · 1 Comment

sm 4 fish. copy 251x300 marketing for artistsMost artists are broke.

And if you’re a broke and struggling artist  (or know one) I’ve found something wonderful for you.

But, before I get to that, let me back up . . .

Over the years, I have come to fall deeper and deeper in love with art. And beauty. When I first began in marketing I dismissed aesthetics and beauty as being irrelevant. What you needed was a good offer. But I’ve warmed to beauty.

I love the idea that we can not only offer something to the world but that we can make it beautifully and wrap it beautifully. That the care we take in our craftsmanship and presentation is a part of our offers not just something we do to make more people buy. It’s a part of the way we feed the soul of the world. Commerce doesn’t just want to be transactional but also transformational.  Marketing doesn’t have to be flashing neon lights, it can be candlelight. It doesn’t have to be demanding, it can be gracious.

I’ve learned this again and again from many people in my life. First and foremost from my colleague and dear one Carrie Klassen of Pink Elephant Academy (author of ‘How to Write a Lovable Homepage‘).

So bringing more art into our marketing is wonderful. It helps us more truly expresses ourselves and see if what we’re offering is truly resonant and a fit with people. Our artistic and expressive aesthetic – our style – is just another way of saying our point of view. And a single image or a few well crafted words can do so much to express that.

It’s a considerable tragedy, given how much art can enhance the clarity of our marketing that artists classically struggle financially. Most artists are terrible marketers. Performers in show business are classical great at the show but terrible at the business.

jordanna 300x244 marketing for artistsSo, imagine my delight when I came across Aletta de Wal – a marketing coach focusing on the niche of artists.

So, I decided I’d do an interview with her for you (and perhaps your friends).

And to make it extra special, I decided that I’d add some art from one of my favourite artists in the world. Jordanna Rachinky (pictured left). All of the paintings you see below are hers. You can check out more and buy things from her at http://jordannarachinsky.com

The interview with Aletta (pictured below right) is below . . .

aleta1 300x225 marketing for artists*

What is the name of your project?

Artist Career Training: How visual artists can make a better living from making art, and still have a life

sm ships 224x300 marketing for artistsWhat’s the response been so far?

Artist Career Training has served over 4000 artists in groups and 400 individually. I do my best to inspire my clients to do the work they need to do to be successful, provide the detail to take specific action and support them through the ups and downs of life and art. They seem to like it.

What’s the story of how this came about? What was the need you saw in the community that it emerged from?

A Santa Fe gallery dealer who saw that artists needed help with the business side of art founded Artist Career Training (A.C.T.) in 1996. Since then, A.C.T. has grown from a local coaching practice into a virtual university delivering training to part-time and full-time artists at all career stages (emerging, mid-career and established). A.C.T. programs, services and learning products continue to attract a core community of American artists, qualified virtual faculty across North America and a loyal readership all over the world.

sm two moon tree 300x294 marketing for artistsCan you share a few examples of how your project works?

Artists in the A.C.T. community learn to be focused, organized and confident in art business matters. Art world insider information is given in lively group telephone classes, on-site workshops and seminars. Personal consultations allow in-depth work on specific projects. Independent study is available through recordings and workbooks at The Art Business Library. 
 
An example of a client story: I met Connie Bransilver & Nicholas Petrucci through a presentation I did with a former client at The North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA). We began work together by telephone to map out clear goals and actions to achieve them. Over the next 24 months, we continued to work by telephone and e-mail to create a new web site and promotional materials.
 
When we met again at another NANPA conference, we worked in person on a legacy project “Guardians of the Everglades” that is now gaining national attention. My web wizard Robin Sagara provides hands-on technical support for their web sites and communications.
 
Interviews with more info here:
 

sm umbra 245x300 marketing for artistsWho do you find it’s working best for?

Professional development works best for artists who are willing to look at everything they are doing and honestly assess what is working and what needs work. While they don’t have to love the business side, artists who want to make a living from their art have to become artist-entrepreneurs and do the work that entails.

What are the top three blunders you see artists making in their marketing?

#1. Ready-Fire-Aim: A random approach wastes a lot of your time, energy and money. Just because it is the latest craze, close to home or cheap doesn’t mean it’s right for you. The fix: Use an overall vision of what you want from your career as the unifying factor for your marketing and promotional activities. Select venues, social networks or online galleries that will take you closer to that vision.

#2. “I postcard, therefore I market”: Postcards are a good promotional activity but they will produce limited results if that’s all you do. I define marketing as a series of conversations designed to build a bridge between the artist, the art and the audience. A post card is one part of one conversation. The fix: Be clear about who you are and what your art is about. Then choose the best combination of print and online communications. Link a variety of promotional materials and events to an umbrella theme.

sm rooster 251x300 marketing for artists#3. “Been there, done that already, didn’t work”: The first time you send out a message or have a conversation is like putting the key in the ignition. To move, you have to turn the key, get into gear, put your foot on the gas pedal and steer to your destination. The fix: Have 7 – 20 conversations in various media at different times and places. See which messages have results and adapt your messages and frequency. Check the oil often.

What are the top three core marketing strategies you’re most excited about for artists these days?

I get excited about the results that artists can achieve through small, ordinary acts of genuine interest in others.

#1. Be genuine and personal about your brand as an artist. What you create, why you are an artist and who you are in person should come through equally in events, on your web site, in print and social media. There’s a lot of deceit and disappointment in the world of commerce. Your authenticity, honesty and art can be a restorative antidote. 

#2. Have high quality conversations with the right people. Take the time to get to know people who truly resonate with your art. With all the hype about SEO, there seems to be confusion that having a lot of people is the goal. Artists with the most followers don’t always win their hearts and minds. Artists who treat every member of their audience with respect, warmth and integrity win the right to play another day.

#3. Give to get. We’ve all been on the receiving end of generosity so pay it forward. The paradox and delight of giving of yourself to others is that you often get back more than you expected. Get involved in a community project that will help someone who is in need of your head, heart and/ or hands. You never know who will notice and goodwill is one of the most viral ways of getting known.

sm elyptile s 196x300 marketing for artistsHow does an artist go about building a relationship of trust with their clientele?

Start by trusting yourself, setting your own standards and meeting your commitments to yourself. When you can do so consistently, your confidence increases as well as your competence and results. That makes you trustworthy.

In all of your interactions with others, trust that their intentions are good, meet or exceed their standards and keep your commitments to them.

You probably noticed that trusting yourself and trusting others are mirror images of each other. That’s because mutual trust is the foundation of good relationships.

Build trust with viewers and they may become buyers or tell others about you. Build trust with galleries and they will tell their clientele about you. Build trust with other artists and they will share supplies, information and opportunities with you.

One of my mentors, Dan Sullivan, taught me that the way to be referable is to do what you say, finish what you start, be on time and say please and thank you.

sm diamonds 235x300 marketing for artistsHow does an artist get exposure? What good exposure and what’s worthless?

All fine artists perform for the public when it comes to marketing. And that goes double for all of you performance artists. Everything you do to market your art is the performance. You do not need a personality transplant as soon as you leave your studio. You do need to draw on different parts of your personality to get the word out.

Good publicity ignites the interests of everyone from browsers, buyers and collectors, to arts professionals and the media. If you are to spark further interest in your work, your art must be good, and the artistry of your promotion must be better. Sweeten your marketing efforts by thinking of them as opportunities for organized creative activity.

Marketing starts by “meeting and greeting” and goes on from there. To make a good living making art, all artists need to master the art of relationship building, which is the bedrock of sales.

If you want enough exposure for your art for a long and happy life, triple-pronged self-promotion is now the minimum standard. You need a consistent presence in person, on the Internet and in print to build your reputation, your audience and your bank account. When I ask artists what steps they have taken so far, most respond that they have had open studios, entered local shows, and put up a web site. 

What these artists have in common is that they have not given much thought to the people they are trying to attract so they can end up looking for love in all the wrong places. Selecting venues where you are most comfortable, and where you can easily transport yourself and your work is a good place to start.  But it is only the beginning.

It’s not always easy to know right away whether exposure is good or bad. An event you do today may not pay off until you do a lot of follow up. A person you meet at that event may not buy for a year or more. A better way to look at the value of exposure is to start from what you know about your audience and create a path from there to your goals. After each step along the path, take stock of what you have achieved; be grateful for what works and thank those who contributed; take a hard look at what did not work and decide how to tweak it so it works better. Rinse and repeat…
sm fish blue 251x300 marketing for artists
How did you promote this in the beginning? What were the top three most successful approaches at the start of it?
 
In the beginning A.C.T. services were offered by word-of-mouth and postings on Internet discussion boards. A web site was launched and the newsletter ArtMatters! was first published in June of 2000 to offer free advice and link to live workshops and TeleClasses.

What are the top three most effective ways you’ve found to market this?

Word-of-mouth still works well as artist clients tell others about us. Word-of-keyboard through social media has increased traffic to our web site and has led to invitations to do live events, which then draw artists to our online and telephone programs.

What are the three biggest lessons you’ve learned along the way?

1. The quantum change has been the impact of technology. It’s a double-edged sword. On the plus side, you can reach more people without leaving your studio. On the other hand, there is more competition and more complexity. Artists need to be able to navigate cyberspace as easily as the bricks and mortar world.
 
2. The more things change, the more they remain the same.” The human element is still the core of making, appreciating and marketing fine art. Even art mediated by technology starts with an idea in the artist’s mind.
  • Artists still need a solid body of signature work as the core of their business;
  • Artists are still in charge of their brand and the audience is still in charge of sales;
  • Exposure is still fundamental to success so the work is seen by the right audience;
  • Consistent marketing is still the key to a sustainable art business;
  • Relationships and trust are still the bedrock of sales.
sm pink boats 224x300 marketing for artists3. Even though the fundamental principles of marketing art have not changed, the way we communicate about it has to be packaged for the new communications channels and a much shorter attention span.

 

At its heart, what is this project/business really about for you? (beyond money, status and such).

I built a career in banking that culminated in being in charge of training for 30,00 employees worldwide. Then, just before I turned 40, I had two strokes. Instead of climbing the corporate ladder, my daily job was learning to walk and talk again. Art became part of my healing. As my creative talents returned, I resolved to make art the core of my life, instead of a sideline.
 
During the day, I coached executives to be more creative. Nights and weekends, I made art, taught art workshops and sold my own art and the work of other artists. I have no doubt that I am now doing what I was meant to do -helping artists turn their talents into a business that is sustainable and earns them a long term, healthy income.
 

What’s the next level for your project? What are you most excited about that’s coming up?

sm birch 283x300 marketing for artistsI am in the final ( I hope) stages of editing a book that is the “prequel” to art marketing, based on the work I have done for the past ten years with emerging artists or mid-career artists who took a break and are now back in a new context for getting the word out about their art.
 
I have also completed an 18-month certification program to provide visual coaching to visual artists in a new coaching program “The Dynamic Balance of Art, Marketing and Life” to be launched this year.

 

If people want to find out more about your project, support it or get involved – what should they do?

Request a f*r*e*e* 15 minute conversation about how Artist Career Training can help artist who want to have a better year making a living from making art.
 
Subscribe to the e-zine and weekly art marketing tips and receive a free art marketing guide: “Eleven Tips for Success for Fine Artists” Digital Recording and 15-page PDF Presentation by Artist Advisor Aletta de Wal

sm leaf s 300x124 marketing for artistsAnything else you’d like to add?

It’s a mistake for artists to think that the economy is the reason for any downturn in their sales. Yes, it is a fact that there is less disposable income to go around in the global economy, but that simply means that people are more selective about where they spend their money and how far they are willing to travel to see art. I recommend that artist build a personal economy in which their relationships with people who like their art and like and trust the artist become the driving force for sales.

| Categories: Arts Marketing, Case Studies of Inspiring Business, Niche Marketing - Tags:

three foundations of a thriving business

By: | Published: January 16, 2012 · 10 Comments

three fingers 225x300 three foundations of a thriving businessAt some point last year, it became clear to me that there are three main things most entrepreneurs need to have handled in order to thrive. They overlap each other like circles in a Venn Diagram.

And I realize now that I’d never written about them explicitly. So, here we are.

First, there’s a seven minute video of me sharing the overview and then I’ve written a recap and bit more about my thoughts on this.

First of all, I want you to imagine that a successful business is like a stylish bucket full of water. And then we need to ask ourselves, ‘why don’t most people have a full bucket of water?’

 

 

three foundations2 300x228 three foundations of a thriving business

 

FOUNDATION #1: Your Platform

Your platform is what you’re known for.

It’s your brand, your identity, your reputation.

It’s also the basis of every, single marketing decision you’ll ever make. It’s the core of what makes a business either authentic or not, original or a copy cat.

I want to submit that there are six things you can be known for. And that most entrepreneurs only focus on ONE of those things (which is also the one that makes them seem the most generic, boring and ‘just like everyone else.’ You can be known for what you do, but also why you do it, your point of view on it, you can be known for you and your style, you can be known for the particular journey you take people on and you can be known for the unimagined possibility you introduce into people’s lives.

Most businesses try to get known for what they do or make (e.g. I’m a massage therapist, I make widgets, I sell groceries). The challenge is that, unless you’re the only one in your area or community doing that then how are they supposed to make a decision about who to work with? How should they know if you’re a perfect fit for them?

When people don’t have a platform their marketing will always come across as generic and lack lustre.

 

4578c74f56bec1c127a28483e5f6a747 300x290 three foundations of a thriving businessFoundation #2: The Container

There’s no point in pouring more and more water into a leaky bucket. The first step is to stop the leak.

It seems obvious. But most entrepreneurs don’t so much have a leaky bucket as a sieve or strainer. It holds onto almost nothing.

And some entrepreneurs have a bucket that’s so ugly (to them) that they don’t even bring it with them to the river side. They’re afraid people might see them with it and laugh at what an old bucket they have.

It’s important not just that our bucket ‘works’ but that we’re so proud of it and so charmed with it that we want to take it everywhere. That we’d be so happy for people to see us with it.

I’ve known so many people who’ve gotten covered in the media for their work and have gotten no clients from it. Or they’re super well known and loved, but don’t have a lot of clients. So much water that pours in and then almost immediately out.

Your container is the embodiment of your platform. It’s what people see or experience about your business that immediately gives them a sense of whether or not what you’re offering is a fit for them. The clearer your platform, the stronger your container.

If you were hosting a party, the platform would be the theme of the party and the container would be all the decorations, the cleaning, the hot cup of cider offered to guests as they arrived. Your website is a container. Your landing page. The story of your business. The free workshop you do is a container. The blog is a container. The community that you cultivate and create is a held in the container of your online forums, live events, your email list etc. Your container is comprised of all the structures you create that warmly hold your community.

Your container are all the things they can see, hear and explore that give them a sense of you.

Your container are all the processes and systems you create that make it safe for people to check you out at a safe distance and slowly get closer to you and opt in to being in touch with you.

Imagine Oprah Winfrey tells everyone to check you out. Vaguely mentions what you do but not enough to give anyone a real sense of it. So, what do they do? They check you out online. But, what if you don’t have a website? Or what if your website doesn’t really clarify what you’re about? So many people would see your site, maaaaybe bookmark it . . . and then be gone forever.

But what if they found your website and the homepage immediately helped them figure out if what you were doing was a fit or not, the ‘about me’ page gave them a really good sense of who you were and what you were about. And then there was a way they could sign up for things to be in touch with you (e.g. ‘join my email list and get this free gift’ or ‘follow me on twitter or facebook’ or ‘come to my monthly free workshop’ etc). Imagine the following you’d build over time.

For a container to be effective, it needs to be clear (which means the platform should be clear). It’s good if it’s safe and welcoming, but atthe bottom line it needs to be resonant.

If they’re on Island A and trying to get to Island B, your container is, basically, your boat. And of course, a boat might have many rooms in it or different types of tours you could take people on (the different offers you could make).

Your container is the home made ready for the party. When they show up that they want to stay. They get to the door and they’re nervous, but then they smell the food, they see how beautifully decorated it is, they see the wonderful people inside, they’re greeted with a cup of hot apple cider and they hear the beautiful music etc.

One of my colleagues Bill Baren recently shared a thought about this. He had a client who was promoting a teleseminar and there was a webpage people would go to to register for the teleseminar. They were obsessed with reaching more people. But Bill asked them to pause and check out what percentage of people who were actually going to the landing page were signing up. It turned out that 10% of people who hit the page actually entered in their name and email to register for the free teleseminar. That means 90% hit the page and just left.

“Doesn’t it make more sense,” he offered. “To see if we can tweak the page to boost the percent of people that say yes? Isn’t that a better use of energy? Instead of investing so much time and effort in getting more people, let’s see if we first can’t get more results from the people who are already coming. Right now we’ve got a tub with a huge leak. Instead of pouring in more and more water, let’s plug the leak first.”

When there’s no container it can be so confusing, ‘I’m doing everything right and I’m not getting any clients!’

Think of online dating. You create a profile. And then, you get a message from someone. But do you open the message right away? Often not. Most often, people will check out, ‘who is it that sent this message?’. So you go to their profile and, within seconds, you’ve determined whether or not it’s a fit. Your profile is a container. The message is just a path that gets them to it. Make sure the container is good.

Having a strong and clear container is the basis for creating ongoing , long term relationships with your clients.

And that’s vital.

Most entrepreneurs are obsessed with getting new clients. But it’s often much, much, easier to get an existing client to come back than to find someone entirely new. A massage therapist might make $100 on their first hour long massage (to keep number simple). But if that client comes back even three times a year for three years – that’s $900. The front end ($100) always pales in comparison to the back end ($900). And with some work (less than you’d fear, but more than you’d hope) you can increase the backend. What if they came in 4 times a year for three years? Suddenly, it’s $1200. With no new clients. And what if each of those clients referred even one new client? What if you offered workshops, products or other packages to them? Without a single new client you could be making much more money. And having your clients feel so much more supported.

Your container is your sales funnel. It’s the levels of offerings you have. It goes from the free samples to the bronze, silver and then gold levels.

I was in a Gaelic short film in the summer of 2011. You’d think that I would be spreading the word to everyone I know about it. But I haven’t. Why? There’s no website. No DVD’s are available. There’s no email list people can sign up for. Where would I send them?

One of my dearest colleagues has yet to create a website that’s really worthy of his work yet. I adore him. I want to spread the word for him. But he has no email sign up form yet. His homepage feels a bit vague. And I’m only going to have one chance to launch him to my list. I want that to count. I want it to matter. If I send people now, they’ll go and leave and he’ll get very little from it. I don’t want to waste my time.

A good container creates instant and ever deepening clarity.

A bad container creates confusion.

And I hate confusion. If you ask me to spread the word about you and you’ve got a bad container, it puts the burden on me to explain it all and make it clear to the people I’m spreading the word to. It makes it hard. Don’t make my life hard. If you have a bad container you’re not ready to approach hubs yet.

I want to be able to take one look at your boat and say ‘I get it’. Just from the kinds of boat, types of sails, the paint job, clothing of the staff on board . . . I want to know what the platform is. I want to know: aha! this is an adventure boat or a luxury boat or a fun times boat or a new agey boat.

If you offer some kind of therapy, I want to know, ‘is it in person or over the phone? Am I sitting or lying down? Am I hooked up to some fancy machine? Are you touching me? Am I naked? Are all these things happening at once? (awesome).’

Remember: the confused mind says ‘no’.

Before someone even thinks about stepping onto your boat they need to know what kind of trip they’re in for. And people hate it when their expectations are broken. They got on what seemed like the ‘classy’ boat but it turns out it was the ‘raunchy’ boat. Then people are pissed.

Amway has a bad reputation for this. You meet someone. They seem nice. They invite you for ‘coffee’. You end up getting a 45 minute presentation. It’s sneaky. The beauty of a good container is that it’s immensely upfront.

Real life example: you go out an tell someone about what i do (path). they say cool and check out my website (container) and like it because of all the unique content that expresses what i’m about (platform). I run a free teleseminar (container). It’s hosted by a colleague who tells all of their friends via their email list (path). While they’re on the teleseminar I tell them about a next thing i have (path). So a container can also be a path. Once they’re in relationship with us there’s just an ongoing deepening. I tend to think of the path as ‘how do they find out about things?’

In my Six Week course I’m running right now, one of my clients shared this, “don’t forget the path to your website, it doesn’t matter how awesome your website looks, if there is no path to it, it’s as though it doesn’t exist. the main paths that a paying client would take to your website are search engine searches. so you have to know what your clients would be searching for (keywords) and you have to tell them something on your website that would show them that you have the answers.”

The platform is the gift you want to give. The container is the making of it. The platform is what you want to offer to the world. But not offering it in a foisting it upon others and being pushy kind of way. I think of the container as more like a space you create that you carefully invite people to. And you design the space so clearly that it would inherently attract people who are a perfect fit for you.

There’s a chain of hotels I heard about the models it’s boutique hotels after magazines. So, one hotel is a Rolling Stone magazine style hotel. Another is a Chatelaine style hotel. That kind of thing. You can imagine what the Rolling Stone style hotel would look like and how, even in the colours, construction, design of the rooms, food served might be different. They are not generic hotels. They’re particular. The hotel (container) perfectly expresses the platform (the magazine).

When we first start out, our container is like an old one room house. There’s really not much to it. We offer one thing. Maybe that’s individual sessions, workshops, a particular product etc. And it’s a lot to even get that together. But, as we grow our business, we have a chance to add rooms to our house. With each room, extension, addition and beautification we can hold more people and make our home more resonant with the right folks. Of course, each addition to the house is a project. And these projects often take longer than we’d think and go over budget and we’re left thinking, ‘is this worth it?’. Because while we’re working on that we’re not making money. But eventually, it’s all done and we step back and get chills. Our house is a little more beautiful and exciting to us. And we want to show everyone. And, eventually, our home is perfect. Not too big and not too small. It’s got just the right number of rooms all painted just the right colours. There are minor fixes to be made but, basically, we’re there.

And, at that point, our attentions moves mostly to creating more paths to our place. So, much of this process is about our time and attention. At first, most of it goes to the platform. Then it moves into creating the container. And then the paths.

Here’s an odd way of looking at your container. Have you ever dated someone and realized it wasn’t going anywhere? It had gone as far as it was going to go? So what did you do? Likely you left them. There was no more potential. Nothing else to get or give. Clients are like that too. If the show up and check out your website and there’s lots of free stuff but there’s no products to buy, no workshops to attend, no next steps . . . they will just drift away and find someone else who can better help them on their journey. A container is not simply a static thing. It’s a series of invitations into something more deep and wonderful.

The container has a lot to do with being ready. Preparing our home to receive guests. Making sure we’re ready for when they show up. Being craftsmen of our arts. Attention to details. Small things matter. Wrapping our gifts as beautifully as we can. This gives us a sense of pride. We’re excited (not embarrassed) to send people to our website. We can’t wait to show off our cafe. We know that the details are handled so we don’t fuss about them. We can relax. The container, we find, not only holds the potential client – it holds us too.

 

water pump 300x212 three foundations of a thriving businessFoundation #3: The Path

If the platform is the bucket design, and the container is the bucket, then the path is a faucet that water comes out of (and I suppose your clients and income would be the water). Not much point in having a beautiful bucket if it’s going to sit there empty all the time.

Another analogy: So many people set up their businesses in the middle of a forest with no paths leading to it. They are hoping that somehow, lost in the woods, the right people will stumble upon them and want to buy what they’re offering.

The more paths you have leading to your doorstep the more easily you can be found. This is the heart of marketing, making it easy for the right people who are a perfect fit to find you and say ‘yes’ to working with you.

But there are so very many ways to market what we do.

And that can feel overwhelming. Where do we start? Especially when everyone has an opinion about what the ‘best’ form of marketing is. There’s public speaking, writing, hosting events, social media, PR, advertising, online events, free samples of our work . . . So much.

Weight watchers has an interesting and very down to earth take on this. When doing their workshops, they’ll ask their audiences, ‘what do you think is the best form of exercise for weight loss?’ and people will throw out their opinions: running, walking, swimming etc. And then they’ll say, ‘Here’s the truth. There is one form of exercise that is the best. It’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be the most effective form of exercise for weight loss. Do you want to know what it is? The best exercise is . . . the one you’ll do.’

And there it is.

The one you’ll do.

I think the analogy of paths is good for another reason: they’re already looking for us. People are already struggling with certain problems and symptoms and looking for relief. Let’s make it as easy as possible for them to find us by making as many clear paths through the woods as we can. The easier you are the find, the more easily you will be found.

Many people think that marketing is about searching people in the forest. But we need to remember, the people we think we need to search for are already searching for us. And they’re highly motivated. So, let’s put our energy not into chasing anyone but into getting very clear about who the perfect someone’s are that we want to work with, creating wonderful and inspiring containers to receive them into and then making it almost impossible for them not to find out about us and check us out in low risk ways.

We can’t always afford to lay down a highway to our doorstep. Start with trails of breadcrumbs. Start where you can with the types of paths that resonate most with you.

When there are no paths it’s like you’ve got this amazing thing that nobody knows about.

My suggestion to you: pick three paths. Pick three marketing tactics and strategies that feel really good for you and invest deeply into them. Do you like writing? Speaking? Hosting? Think about the ways of expressing yourself that you are naturally drawn to and delve deep into those.

When a business has all three of these, a clear platform, a strong container and easy paths they tend to have all the business they can handle.

What do you think?

| Categories: holistic practitioners, marketing strategy, platform, Start with Why - Tags: , , , , ,

my new niche ebook needs your help

By: | Published: January 3, 2012 · 26 Comments

Vector Arrow Bullseye Target Prev1 by DragonArt my new niche ebook needs your helpI’m working on my new treatise on niche marketing. And I would love to get your help.

I have three questions for you:

1) What are the best, real world examples of businesses or projects with a strong target market? (if you can include the website or a link to an article that would be great).

2) What is your biggest question or frustration around niching? If you’ve been trying to niche for a while and still struggle – why is that do you think?

3) Is there anything smart you’d like to share that you have learned about niching and target marketing that you’d like to share?

Answer any or all of these questions – Many thanks in advance. Just leave your comments below icon smile my new niche ebook needs your help

| Categories: Niche Marketing - Tags:

your platform: six things you can be known for (and one other)

By: | Published: November 15, 2011 · 30 Comments

number 6 md your platform: six things you can be known for (and one other)If you want to succeed in your business – you need to become ‘known’ for something.

How do businesses ultimately succeed?

By word of mouth. People telling people because they want it to thrive. Because they love it. Because they know it will be useful to a friend.

In short, the business is known for being good at something.

And that ‘something’ should be clear from the first moment people meet you. That something is your brand.

It should be something that’s so clear that people can express it to their friends.

It doesn’t need to be something you can sum up in a slogan (but bonus points if you can) but it should be something people can feel and ‘get’.

And, of course, this can all feel a bit daunting.

So, let’s break it down.

I would submit that there are six things your business can be known for.

That your platform isn’t just one thing. It’s not some pithy sound bite or elevator speech or a single Unique Selling Proposition. It’s a weaving together of six things. At least.

And, I’d submit that most businesses settle for being known for only one of these things (almost always the same one – which also happens to be the least inspiring and the one most likely to have you relegated to commodity status where people compare you only on price).

Before I give you the six (plus the one other). I need to tell you a story – to give you an image in your mind.

Imagine a young man on an island (which we’ll call Island A). It’s not that great a place to be. But, it’s all he knows, so he goes about his days. Then he starts hearing that his is not the only island in the world. That there are other islands. At first he doesn’t believe it, but the more he visits the docks and meets these visitors the clearer it becomes. It’s true. And then, one day, he hears about a particular island (which we’ll call Island B). And his heart leaps. He wants to go there.

Of course, he needs to get a boat to go there.

But there are so many boats to hire! Which one to choose?

Your business is a boat. It helps people like this young man get from Island A where they’re struggling with some problem (i.e. set of symptoms they don’t like) to Island B where they have the result they want (i.e. something they’re craving).

So, in this image we have six elements I want to lift up for your consideration. Each of them is something you can become known for.

  1. The Captain: you.
  2. Boat: what you do. Your irresistible offering.
  3. The Journey: the problem you solve and result you offer for a particular group
  4. The Sea: your particular point of view and map on that journey.
  5. The Sky: the overarching reason and cause that all of your work is an expression of.
  6. The Unimagined Possibility: beyond the place they can imagine going, there might be something even more wonderful.
  7. The Deepest Fear: if they do nothing – what are they secretly afraid might happen? (this is the ‘other one’ because it’s not something you can really be known for but it plays a role).

If you’ve been following my work for any time at all, you know that a core theme of mine is about identifying the ‘journey’ that people are on.

Metaphorically, it’s like people are on Island A where they’re struggling with some problem (i.e. set of symptoms they don’t like) and they want to be on Island B where they have the result they want (i.e. something they’re craving).

And your business is like a boat that takes them on the journey from Island A to B.

The truth is that some people will just want to buy from you because they like you, the captain, so much. Some people have such a great vibe that people spend money with them because they just want to support them and be around their vibe. This is the heart of any kind of holistic work because the implied message in holistic healing is, ‘do what I say and you’ll end up like me’.

And when practitioners have a bad vibe – all the marketing tactics in the world won’t help them.

But, the best vibe in the world isn’t something you can build a business on. You can have such an amazing vibe and still be broke unless people are clear about the other four pieces.

And, in your marketing, you want to make sure that you’re speaking to their journey, not just talking about your boat and how great it is. The homepage on your website should be about the journey, not about the boat. The first words in any presentation you do should be about the journey – not about the boat.

But most marketing is just people talking about the features and benefits of their boat. But when people see you as a boat, sometimes it can be hard to tell you apart from all the other boats. And so you’re a commodity. They have lots of options and ‘let’s see who’s cheapest’ becomes the mantra.

So, getting clear about the nature of the journey is vital.

On the outside edges of that journey are two other islands. Behind to the left of Island A you can imagine Island Z. That’s where they’re secretly scared they’re going to end up if they do nothing. These are fears like, ‘if i don’t handle my dating life I’m going to end up old and alone’, or ‘if I don’t keep my mind sharp I’m going to end up with alzheimers like my great grandparents.’ These fears are rarely talked about, but they’re deeply real for people. These fears aren’t things you can be ‘known’ for but understanding them gives you an incredible empathy and sensitivity which will allow you to engage the other three more deeply and safely.

The key here is that Island Z is not real. It’s a mirage. A nightmare fantasy. The worst case scenario. That’s why it’s not part of your platform. It’s a part of their internal world.

To the right of Island B, we have Island C. If Island A is the pain they’re in now and Island B is where they want to get to, then Island C is what we know is possible for them that’s even beyond Island B. As I wrote a few days ago,

Island A: I’m lonely. Island B: I want to date someone. Island C: we fall in love and say, ‘I never knew I could feel this way.’

Island A: I’m sick. Island B: I want to be healthy. Island C: we cleanse, do yoga, start juicing and say, ‘I never knew I could feel this way.’

Island A: I’m broke. Island B: I want to to be able to pay my bills on time and have money left over. Island C: we do the work needed to handle our money and say, ‘I never imagined I could feel so at peace and proud in my relationship to money.’

Island A: I’m full of angst and depression. Island B: I want to feel good again. Island C: we get deep into our personal healing work and one day wake up saying, ‘I feel so beautiful and light. I feel so at peace.’

Island C is what might be possible in the life of ONE person that they hadn’t previously considered. This i different than the bigger cause we imagine which is what we envision for our whole community or the world (though they are likely connected).

There’s the pain they feel. There’s the thing they’re craving, but the thing they’re craving only goes to the limits of their imagination. Our cravings take us to the end of what we know but no farther.

And then you have a certain map or route that you’d recommend for how folks can get from Island A to Island B. You have a certain Point of View about the journey. You can think of that as everything that’s under the water connecting these two islands. It’s your diagnosis about the underlying, root causes of why it’s so difficult for folks to make this journey. I’ve written a lot about that lately.

But there’s something more that’s been becoming clear to me recently.

It’s not enough to be clear about WHAT the journey and the boat are or HOW you take them on the journey – they need to know WHY you’re so passionate about that journey and what the bigger picture is for you. They need to know what this is about beyond the money. Why does your work matter to you and to the world?

Your why is the bigger cause you stand for.

It’s the journey you see that the world or your community is on (e.g. Martin Luther King Jr.’s articulation of the journey from a deeply racist USA to ‘the beloved community’).

Simon Sinek talks about this in depth in his brilliant book, Start With Why:

“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

WHAT: Every single company and organization on the planet knows WHAT they do. This is true no matter how big or small, no matter what industry. Everyone is easily able to describe the producs or services a company sells or the job function they have within that system. WHATs are easy to identify.

HOW: Some companies and people know HOW they do WHAT they do. Whether you call them a “differentiating value proposition”, “proprietary process” or “unique selling proposition”, HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better. Not as obvious as WHATs, many think these are the differentiating or motivating factors in a decision. It would be false to assume that’s all that is required.

There is one missing detail . . .

WHY: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do what they do. When I say WHY, I don’t mean to make money – that is a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

When most organizations or people think, act or communicate they do so from the outside in, from WHAT to WHY. And for good reason – they go from clearest thing to fuzziest thing. We say WHAT we do, we sometimes say HOW we do it, but we rarely say WHY we do WHAT we do.

But not the inspired companies. Not the inspired leaders. Every single one of them, regardless of their size or their industry, thinks acts and communicates from the inside out.”

A strong ‘why’ or cause doesn’t marginalize anyone – it’s different that a position. Your point of view is a position. Your point of view says, ‘I’m for this and I’m against this.’ People will often disagree with your point of view. But a reason why you do something is less likely to get disagreement. Usually they’re the kinds of things that anyone can relate to and empathize with – even if they might choose a different approach. Your cause is a stand for something bigger and deeper. Your cause says, ‘as a world we need to get to island B’ your point of view says, ‘and here’s my belief about the best way to get there’.

Your why is what you want, not what you don’t want. It’s the core of what you’re for – not a list of things you’re fighting. It’s often inarguable. Once you land on it, it’s like, ‘who could be against this?’

You might picture the ‘why’ as the golden sun shining above the islands and the boat – holding them all. The umbrella of the sky.

What’s interesting about all of this is that when the journey, point of view and larger ‘why’ are clarified – the boat often changes.

You will, in the end, be known for your boat – but make sure that your boat is an expression of you not just a cookie cutter, copy cat boat. Make everything about your boat an expression of the cause. If your business is about fun and celebration then make it a fun boat with wonderful colours and amusements around every corner. If you’re in love with elegance and beauty – then make your boat the most elegant boat the world has ever seen with lanterns and candles and beautiful dinners. If you’re passionate about adventure – then let your boat be rough and the rooms people sleep in be spartan.

And, of course, the boat must be a boat that you want to be on. It must fit the kind of lifestyle you want to have. As you figure out your ideal lifestyle, that will do more to help you design your boat than just about anything I know. And, if you need help with that, there’s only one person I can commend speaking with on that.

Every plank of your boat should ‘fit’. It should make sense. It should all communicate a clear message. They should be able to look at the boat and quickly get a feel for it what kind of journey it can take them on, what your point of view is and what you’re about at the core.  And then, when they get on the boat their initial impressions should be deepened and confirmed.

 

If you’d like get cool posts like this in your inbox every few days CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog and you’ll also get a free copy of my fancy new ebook “Marketing for Hippies” when it’s done.

| Categories: becoming a hub, Branding, marketing strategy, Niche Marketing, platform, Start with Why, word of mouth - Tags: , , , ,

case study: total niche clarity virtual symposium

By: | Published: August 18, 2011 · Leave a Comment

 

tnc speaker pjvh case study: total niche clarity virtual symposiumI met PJ Van Hulle last summer in California and liked her right away.

And then I got word that she was creating a new telesummit on a favourite topic of mine: niche.

She’s even interviewing  me for it next week (Wednesday, August 24 · 3:00pm – 4:30pm MST). You can listen to the interview with myself and the other speakers for free if you go here.

Here’s my blog interview with her below . . .

*

tnc banner 300x63 case study: total niche clarity virtual symposium

What is the name of your project?

Total Niche Clarity Virtual Symposium

What’s the story of how this came about? What was the need you saw in the community that it emerged from?

Over the last 10 years of working with entrepreneurs and business owners, I’ve discovered that choosing a specific niche is the cornerstone to effective marketing. However, it’s also an incredibly “gremlin-ey” subject for most entrepreneurs that I’ve worked with and they get stuck for months or even years, spinning their wheels, either trying to be all things to all people or thinking and re-thinking their niche.

You say that figuring out the niche thing can be a “gremlin-ey subject for most entrepreneurs”. What’s your take on this? Why do you think so many entrepreneurs get stuck here?

I think it’s one or a combination of the following things:

1.  They’re afraid that by focusing on a particular niche, they’ll lose business / clients that aren’t in that niche.
2.  They feel they do “SO MUCH MORE” than just their niche statement so it feels too limiting
3.  They’re afraid they’ll choose “wrong,” have to switch later, re-do all their marketing materials, and look bad.
4.  They offer several VERY DIFFERENT services (possibly totally different businesses) and don’t know how to fit them together.

What do you think is being done wrong to help people figure it all out? After all, most marketing courses I’ve seen talk about this – and some even promise clarity – but most people leave feeling unclear still – but maybe even GUILTY because they think they SHOULD have it. What’s going on here?

That’s the main reason why I wanted to put together the Total Niche Clarity Virtual Symposium.

I think where these marketing courses fail is the same place that most courses in general drop the ball… there’s no ongoing support.

Discovering you niche is a process… or maybe 2 processes that fit together.  It’s a process of SELF discovery and also a process of interviewing and understanding your potential clients.

That process can take a while so it’s hard to “get” in a short bootcamp seminar.

Also, sometimes people just need to hear the niche conversation from a certain teacher in a certain way for it to “click.”

My intention with the TNC event is that we’ll be exploring it ongoing for long enough, learning from enough different teachers, and approaching it in enough different ways that by the end, it will become clear for people.

Some people say that you should have ONE target market, others suggest a top three approach . . . what’s your take on this?

Personally, I think your marketing will be more effective and powerful when you choose ONE target marketing and go deep with that target market.

That said, if your potential clients identify with several different words or if you just can’t force yourself to pick one, you could do a top 3 as long as they’re somewhat related.

For example, I work with coaches, consultants, and speakers.  Most of my clients are all 3 of these things.

It would be weird to say, “I work with heart surgeons, new moms, and african grey parrot owners.”

I imagine since you’re hosting a summit on this you’ve been learning a lot about target marketing – what have been your top three ‘aha’ moments in the process?

We just finished up the first week of interviews, and here are my top 3 “aha” moments:

* If there are 50,000 ore more potential clients in your niche, it’s not too small
* Use the Tribal Niche Checklist (that Bill Baren shared in his interview) – 7 Questions to determine if you’ve discovered the right niche for you.
*  Tip for connecting with Power Players in your niche: comment on their Facebook and blog posts in a way that compliments what they’ve said & adds value to it (without undermining their authority)

How does your project work?

26 speakers are sharing their insights, experience, advice and tools through the Total Niche Clarity Virtual Symposium, a series of conference calls that we are providing to the community for free. My thinking is that as the participants learn multiple approaches from multiple speakers, eventually their niche will “click,” and they can stop struggling.

Who do you find it’s working best for?

This works best for people that are willing to sit in the “hot seat” with a coach that understands niche marketing.

What are the top three most effective ways you’ve found to market this?

1. TNC speakers sending solo e-mails to their lists
2. Affiliates sending solo e-mails to their lists
3. Facebook Event pages

What are the three biggest lessons you’ve learned along the way?

1. It’s important to follow up with the speakers and affiliates to remind them when to promote.
2. It’s important to make it as EASY as possible for speakers and affiliates to promote (for example, sending swipe copy in the body of an e-mail with their affiliate link already embedded so they don’t have to search around for it).
3. Video is only cool if the darn thing loads quickly. Otherwise, it’s a distraction.

What’s the next level for your project? What are you most excited about that’s coming up?

This series of interviews will become an info product that I (and the other speakers if they want) can sell independently or stack with other programs. I don’t have time to coach every single person that comes to my workshops around their niche. This way, I can give them this product so that they don’t have to stay stuck on this topic. Also, I don’t have to repeat myself so much.

If people want to find out more about your project, support it or get involved – what should they do?

They can become an affiliate and receive lifetime commissions at: http://www.realprosperityinc.com/affiliates/

They can recommend my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/realprosperityPJ

Anything else you’d like to add?

You’re my hero, Tad! I love what you’re doing with your blog! : D

 

If you’d like get cool posts like this in your inbox every few days CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog and you’ll also get a free copy of my fancy new ebook “Marketing for Hippies” when it’s done.

| Categories: Case Studies of Inspiring Business, Niche Marketing - Tags:

case study: release your dragon spirit

By: | Published: August 8, 2011 · 2 Comments

LotusBanner550 case study: release your dragon spiritA few months ago, I attended the Spiritual Marketing Quest. It’s one of the best marketing workshops I’ve ever been to – as this story will attest to.

At a certain point, a woman named Holly Tse (pictured below) stood up and shared an idea that gave everyone goosebumps. It was a project idea that tied both into her most personal wounds but also the cultural wounds she’d inherited and allowed her to transform those wounds into her gift for the world. Such a perfect example of authentic niching and becoming a hub.

I asked her if she’d be okay talking about where it’s at right now – even though she’s just starting and she was kind enough to say yes.

 

holly tse case study: release your dragon spiritWhat is the name of your project?

The Lotus Blossoming Telesummit

What’s the story of how this came about? What was the need you saw in the community that it emerged from?

In May 2011, I attended a conference called the Spiritual Marketing Quest. It was about finding your core audience and developing your message. Basically I wanted to know who am I here to help? I knew I had a burning desire to make an impact and to help uplift others, but I just didn’t know exactly how or who.

I went on the Quest to gain insights for my reflexology practice and instead left with an epiphany that I was meant to lead a movement to empower Asian women. Growing up Asian, I always felt like I had to squelch my own voice in order to fit in and do the right thing. I realized that this experience was shared by many Asians, especially women and I felt a burning passion to help others find their inner voice, or as I call it, to release their inner Dragon Spirit.

At the Quest, my inner voice urged me to create an online telesummit that would feature Asian women who own their power as speakers. That was on May 15th. In less than 6 weeks, I organized the entire event from scratch–everything from recruiting speakers to building the website.

As a full-time mom to a toddler, I had just two hours each evening to work on the event (and do laundry, wash dishes, prep meals, spend time with her husband and friends, and find some “me time” too). As my son would say, “Wow!”

I felt like I was being guided by a force greater than myself to create the Lotus Blossoming Telesummit. I followed my heart and it allowed me to make this event happen in such a short time with ease and grace.

what does the term ‘dragon spirit’ mean to you and where does it come from culturally?

Dragon Spirit is the inner voice inside that loves adventure, exploration and learning. It also happens to be the part of you that is all knowing and uber-wise icon smile case study: release your dragon spirit .

There is not a cultural reference for it.  I went to the Quest and as we were filling out the worksheets, I had a block on one of the questions, which was, “What is the name of your product or service?”  That evening, I meditated and channelled my Higher Self and was surprised when I felt compelled to speak out loud. In an ethereal other-world voice, I answered myself and said, “Release your Dragon Spirit”.  As soon as I said it, I knew I had found my voice.

what was it about growing up asian that had you feeling like your voice was squelched? in your community what was ‘the right thing’ to do? and what had you realized it might be a cultural wound vs. just a personal one?

When I was six years old, my teacher asked the class to write about what we wanted to be when we grew up. While all the other kids wrote things like “fireman” and “princess”, I wrote that I wanted to be a “l-o-y-e-r”. When the teacher handed me back my paper and corrected the spelling, I totally thought she had it wrong. There was no way that loyer could be spelled, “lawyer”.

And so it was, that while my mom was nowhere near the Tiger Mom of recent lore, she did believe in guiding her children to professions that she thought would lead them to happiness and success in life. Personal interests and passions were to be set aside in order to “put food on the table”.

There’s a Japanese saying that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. And while I’m a second generation Chinese-Canadian (currently living in California), I often felt that this proverb applied to me while growing up, especially when it came to expressing my emotions and desires.  It’s very important to save face, not show the world your problems and to fit in with the community rather than stand out as an individual.

Ironically, I grew up in a predominantly WASP neighbourhood so there was no way that I could possibly fit in since we stuck out as the only Chinese family around.

What’s the response been to this so far?

I’ll be flat out honest.  There are just over 50 people registered right now from around the world.  I need help getting the word out.  Because I chose to manifest this so quickly, I did not give my speakers enough time to promote the event.  The “power-hitters” are speaking towards the end of the telesummit and are mailing in the next week or two.

When I share the event with people, the response is magical.  They light up and want to be a part of it.  It has led me to new friendships that I know will last a lifetime.  And it also created a new business model for me where I learned that I am here to guide women to find the next steps for their businesses.  I create a space where they can connect with their own Dragon Spirits to learn, know feel and experience what it is they should do next in order to expand their businesses with ease and grace and fast.

I just got a download that there are two more things I should write you.  Will do my best to do so w/ my 2 yr old in my lap now.

Since you position your blogs with the voice of sharing lessons that others can learn from, here is the key lesson:

Even though you may have a judgment beforehand of what success is supposed to look like when you embark on a new venture, the universe may deliver it to you in a completely different form.  Follow through on the course and the next step in your path will illuminate naturally for you.  I did not know what would come of the Telesummit.  I heard of others who added thousands of people to their lists and I *thought* that’s what my goal should be, even though I had no clue what I would do with a list of thousands of people.

Fortunately, my Dragon Spirit prevailed and told me that this was just one step along my path and that if I continued following the path, it would lead me to where I wanted to go.  And so it did.  While speaking with one of the speakers for the telesummit, I shared with her how I had experienced past lives.  She said she had tried to do so herself it in the past, but hadn’t been able to do so.  My Dragon Spirit (DS) told me to tell her that I was supposed to help her do this even though I’d never done this before.  Spontaneously, we began to explore our past life connection and she did experience a past life and received a message about the next evolution of her business.

After our conversation, I felt such love and light.  My DS told me that this was what I was meant to do and that I should offer Dragon Spirit guided sessions to 5 people for free.  Each session brought clarity to me and the person I was working with.  A pattern started to emerge.  On my 4th session, everything aligned perfectly.  Both parties had amazing breakthroughs and not only that, my client told me she had 6 friends who would love a session.  I felt a tremendous connection with Source Energy when she said this because two days prior, my DS had told me that I would lead monthly Dragon Spirit group “pods” and that each pod would have exactly 6 people.  I just got my first pod!

What are the top three most effective ways you’ve found to market this?

1. Identify the energy that you want to share when you are marketing as opposed to sales or marketing numbers. When you reach out with an authentic energy to uplift others, they respond.

2. Be open and vulnerable in your communications. Writing with your authentic voice is much more effective and easier to do than coming up with the “right” headline or marketing lingo.

3. Ask your inner Dragon Spirit! Meditate and then ask yourself out loud what to do next.

What are the three biggest lessons you’ve learned along the way?

1. Follow and TRUST your heart.

2. Have a personal goal in mind that is not about what you can do for others, but what you are doing for yourself. For me, I wanted to make new friends who shared similar passions and interests as me. (And I did!)

3. Only act when you are in a space of feeling good.

What’s the next level for your project? What are you most excited about that’s coming up?

During the creation of the Lotus Blossoming Telesummit, I discovered that not only could I channel my Dragon Spirit for myself, I could create a space for others to do the same and that we could do this over the phone. I’m excited that this creates a whole new way for me to be of service to others. An online “Release Your Dragon Spirit” workshop is in the works and I now offer personal Dragon Spirit guided sessions.

 

For more information on this telesummit just go to:

http://www.lotusblossoming.com

| Categories: becoming a hub, Case Studies of Inspiring Business, event promotion, Niche Marketing - Tags: , , , ,

five steps to identify your point of view – the short course

By: | Published: August 6, 2011 · 1 Comment

point of view five steps to identify your point of view the short courseI’ve been blogging a lot about point of view (which is helping me sort out my own point of view on it) and I thought it might be nice to take all of it and boil it down a bit into some simple steps on how you can really focus your own point of view.

STEP #1: Think of your deepest wounds and clarify what they are. You need a sandbox to play in – not just ‘life’ and ‘helping people who are stressed.’ What’s the journey you know most intimately? You can read more about this here.

STEP #2: Refine your point of view on that particular journey to you’ve undergone heal your wounds. What have you learned? To help you delve deeper here consider answering these questions about your story and these questions about your point of view.

STEP #3: Ask yourself where people who have undergone the same journey and who share your point of view are already congregated. Identify your hubs.

STEP #4: craft offerings that can help people on their journey (which has also been your journey) and that are aligned with, embody and express your truest point of view.

STEP #5: share your offerings through the hubs you’ve identified.

 

If you’d like get cool posts like this in your inbox every few days CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog and you’ll also get a free copy of my fancy new ebook “Marketing for Hippies” when it’s done.

| Categories: becoming a hub, Branding, marketing strategy, Niche Marketing - Tags: , , , ,

Sixteen ways to know if your niche is the root cause of your marketing woes

By: | Published: July 23, 2011 · 1 Comment

185409 10150734092110195 516700194 20429969 2540739 a Sixteen ways to know if your niche is the root cause of your marketing woes I’m working on a list of symptoms of a fuzzy niche in business.

Do you have anything to add?

1.    Your marketing strategy consists of “just getting your name out there”. Out there to whom? Anyone and everyone.

2.    You couldn’t describe a typical day or your client. You couldn’t tell me what they think about when they wake up, what their mornings are like, what kinds of things they typically do that the love or hate and what keeps them up at night when they’re trying to fall asleep.

3.    Your Unique Selling Proposition is a burned out platitude such as, “I work to truly understand my client’s needs.” There’s nothing that separates you and makes you special from everyone else who does the same kind of thing. You wish you didn’t look just like the competition. Or, perhaps worse, you can’t name many others who do what you do – you’ve never done much research on potential joint venture partners, hubs, niche-mates or competition/collaborators. Any research you’ve done has felt fuzzy and yielded few results.

4.    You define your niche only by external, demographic factors like age, income and geography. Your target is, “People who can afford me.” or “Women, ages 45-55 in Toronto.” This only tells you about their outsides – but not about their values, their worldview, their core beliefs – all of which are vital to understand in your marketing.

5.    Your word-of-mouth strategy is based on lines like, “The highest compliment you can pay us is the referral of a friend.” What kind of friend? Anyone! Do you see how hard it is for your clients to think of someone when it’s so vague and broad?

6.    You don’t love your clients. When you think of them it’s a ‘meh’ feeling at best and a clenched stomach at worst. Too many of your current clients just aren’t a good fit for you. You say yes to a lot of clients that aren’t in your “ideal” description, or even close, just because you’re afraid you’ll be broke if you don’t. And saying yes to work that’s fuzzy or not niched confuses that client into thinking they ARE the ideal client, and confuses the ideal clients into thinking they are not.

7.    You can’t easily give five specific answers to this question, “Where do your clients already spend their time, money and attention?” or “Where can you find your perfect clients?” You have no idea how to answer the question, “Where does your niche hang out? Who do they already trust? What groups are they a part of?” or “What do they tend to search for online to solve their problems? What terms and phrases do they most use?” You can’t answer these questions because you haven’t narrowed to any groups in particular.

8.    You are having trouble crafting an irresistible offer that your clients and prospects go crazy for. Your offers seem ‘good’ but not ‘irresistible.’ When you sit down to write your marketing materials it all feels bland, stale or over-hyped.

9.    Or, you’ve run plumb out of fresh marketing ideas (despite feeling like you’ve already ‘tried everything’).

10.    You use extremely vague descriptors for your niche like, “people who are stressed”, or “people who go through transition” or “people who are fundamentally open to change.” (these are code language for ‘everyone who has ever lived’).

11.    You’re not having fun in your business. You don’t light up when you talk about what you do and the people you work with/for anymore. I can often tell the niche is off in conversations with entrepreneurs when they talk about why it will work or how much money they can make instead of how excited they are or how they want to help, when they say, “I am going to do this, so that later I can this” which is their real dream or passion, when they talks about who they are helping and it is flat or the excitement feels pushed,
when they talk about some other idea or group and lights up in a way they didn’t sharing what they do do.

12.    You can’t articulate what you do in 10 words at the least and 30 seconds at the very most.

13.    You can’t really articulate what it is you do for your clients. You mumble, ‘well . . . I do a lot of things for them . . .’ but there’s no clearly definable result that you offer them (because there’s no clearly definable group of people you’re offering it to).

14.    When you describe what you do people can’t even think of a single person who could use it. You rarely ever hear anyone saying, ‘oh! he should talk to larry!’ or ‘wow. i need that!’. Instead you get people yawning, getting glassy eyed or clearly only asking you questions out of polite interest. When you say what you do, I should immediately get a picture of the ideal kind of client in my mind and instantly know if I (or anyone I know) fit into that group or not.

15.    Your current target market just doesn’t ‘feel right’ to you. There are emotional ‘red flags’ coming up that you can’t place. You can convince yourself it’s a good niche intellectually but deep down something feels ‘off’. Maybe you picked a target market because you thought you had to. Maybe you picked the one you thought you should pick or the one your marketing coach suggested. Maybe you picked lawyers as a target market because you were once a lawyer – and you can relate to lawyers . . . but there’s no spark in it for you.

16.    Bottom Line: You don’t have enough clients. You’re putting in a lot of market effort and getting very little reward. You blew your marketing budget on advertising that did nothing for you.

*

Anything you’d add?

| Categories: Niche Marketing - Tags:

the butterfly circus

By: | Published: July 1, 2011 · 10 Comments

butterfly circus 201x300 the butterfly circusFinding our niche is harder than it seems.

I’ve been having thoughts about why – but I’ll share those down the road.

Today I want to share something special with you.

The other day a friend of mine sent me a link to a short film called The Butterfly Circus (you can watch it below) that was so deeply inspiring.

And it’s right on point for this theme of how your deepest wound is often your truest niche. The movie features Nick Vujicic who you might have seen in a youtube video he did that became extremely popular.

I think part of why it’s hard to see how our niche could come from our wound is that we are still trapped in our wound and seeing from it, instead of looking at it. And sometimes it takes a lot of love from a lot of people and wisdom from those who’ve gone before us to not only see our wounds for what they are – but to help us understand the gifts buried inside of them.

Go watch this movie right now. I think you’re going to love it.

*

http://thebutterflycircus.com/short-film/

 

If you’d like get cool posts like this in your inbox every few days CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog and you’ll also get a free copy of my fancy new ebook “Marketing for Hippies” when it’s done.

 

| Categories: Niche Marketing - Tags: ,

you deepest wound is your truest niche

By: | Published: May 11, 2011 · 18 Comments

jeffrey and suzanne1 300x243 you deepest wound is your truest nicheHonest question: are you struggling with your niche?

Most entrepreneurs are (and 90% of them don’t realize it).And even the ones who realize it often end up being so deeply frustrated by it for years and years.

If you’re in this boat, I want to recommend you check out these free videos by my friends Jeffrey and Suzanne (pictured right). The videos (which I mentioned in yesterdays blog post) are coming out this weekend.

And they’re all based around this provocative thought.

 

Your deepest wound is your truest niche.


Read that again. It might just be the most important idea I know of in niching.

A lot of the conversation about target markets and niches can get pretty . . . dry, hollow, abstract, cynical and ‘tactical’. It can be incredibly uninspired.

And it’s easy to see how it happens.

People go to a marketing workshop and they hear that they need to choose a niche. And so they think about the kinds of clients they like or the past jobs they’ve had and they decide that ‘yes! i’ll be a coach for lawyers’ but . . . they don’t really give a shit.

It’s kind of an arbitrary choice.

But the best niches aren’t arbitrary – they’re deeply authentic.

So where do these deeply authentic and resonant niches come from? How can you find a niche that’s so good it makes your toes curl with goodness? A niche that’s so authentic you never feel like a fraud? A niche so good that marketing doesn’t even feel like marketing anymore.  Where do you look to find this kind of niche?

 

You look to your wounds.


132167 10150368968760195 516700194 16979695 148645 o 300x218 you deepest wound is your truest nicheYou look to those really hard things you’ve gone through.

You look to where you’ve been ‘pulled under’ (like the surfer pictured here) and come out the other side knowing how to ride those particular waves.

You look to your own history and the significant events in your life.

If you were told to shut up when you were young and have spent the rest of your life finding your voice – then you could be the perfect guide to help others find their voice.

Conversely, if you were made to speak when you didn’t want to, you might be the perfect person to help people set boundaries, enjoy their solitude and create restful spaces for themselves.

blaire finnie you deepest wound is your truest nicheOr consider this example from Blaire Finnie (pictured right) from Victoria who attended my workshop in Vancouver yesterday.

“You know how highly functional adults and teens between the ages 15 and 35 with diagnosed mental illnesses struggle with their identity, their relationships, and an overwhelming confusion about their prescription medication(s)?

Well, I support people who live as their mental illness to transition into living with and eventually without their diagnosis and, in some cases, without their medication.

For example, I have been diagnosed with OCD, clinical depression, and twice with life-long bipolar disorder. I took antidepressants and anti psychotics, and was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward twice. Needless to say, I was living with extreme suffering, fear, and rage. I believed deeply that I was broken for ever.

Over a period of about three years, having done all kings of self-study and research, I found ways to overcome these challenges, and to move from blame, fear, and a fundamental lack of trust in myself and my experience of life through to acceptance, self compassion and self-love, and ultimately toward innate trust within myself and in my experience of life. One critical part of this process was to commit, unwaveringly, to a lifestyle primarily focused on spirituality.

Now, I have a strong and healthy sense of my identity, as well as a nourished and active body. I have beautiful, dynamic, and loving relationships with my family, a partner, and many friends, and I don’t even need to worry about prescription medications or psychiatrists because I no longer take any drugs of any kind, including pharmaceutical and recreational drugs.

I offer educational and inspirational seminars and lectures to schools, businesses, support groups, and families. I offer one on one coaching and guidance, as well as hands on healing and bodywork in individual sessions. In my work, I emphasize rest, proper nutrition and supplementation, regular exercise, and the creation routine in your lifestyle. My aim is to help you to realize who and what you are, and who and what you are not. I offer help and support for you to move beyond your belief that you are permanently and fundamentally mentally ill.”

Is there any doubt that he carries an immense and authentic credibility around helping people who are deeply mentally distressed? Is there any doubt that he will have a profound empathy?

Or what about my client who practices as a shaman. Sure, shamanism can help a lot of people – but who can he best help? Well, this man got involved in biker gangs for years. It took him four years to get out of it without being killed. But here’s a fellow who engaged in a very toxic and intense form of masculinity and is now one of the most beautiful embodiments of healthy masculinity I know. Do you think he might just have something to say to other men about embodiment a more authentic and life affirming form of manhood? I do.

A few weeks ago, I led a little workshop at Hollow Reed here in Winnipeg. I was here leading a workshop last October and was completely charmed by the place and the people running it.

We had an intimate little group of seven people who were all just the cat’s pajamas.

A highlight of the evening for me was when we were talking about this whole question of niche.

Because it was a small group we could go around and have everyone share what niche they wanted to fiddle with. One woman – a spiritual counselor – shared that she felt kind of stuck.

winnipeg workshop 300x225 you deepest wound is your truest niche“I love to work with the entire family to help them resolve things. Get everyone together. But, I feel like a bit of a fraud because I wasn’t able to do that with my family. I’ve done all I can but they’re not wanting to fix things.”

I could feel where she was coming from. How can you promise to take someone on a journey you were unable to complete yourself. If you’ve ever tried to position yourself in that way – it’s really stressful.

“Well . . . maybe,” I offered. “Your best niche is to work with people who’ve been unable to heal the difficulties in their family and are now left with trying to heal themselves and deal with the realities of that. And maybe you might even end up working with the whole family down the road . . . but why not start with those people? That’s a path you’ve absolutely walked down yourself.”

Her eyes widened, “I could do that and feel so authentic about that . . .”

Or what about my dear friend and colleague Alex Baisley. He spent nine years as an underwater welder in the Atlantic Ocean when they two things he hated most in the world were being cold and being alone. Then he spent six years as a reiki practitioner and that left him miserable too. He realized he was a gypsy stuck in an office. And now he travels about North America and helps people to create wonderful, unconventional, quirky and sustainable lifestyles. He’s been through the pain so many of his clients face of having so many ideas and talents and not knowing how to weave them together.

Or what about me? I spent years learning and doing ‘hard sales’ and cold calling and learning NLP and sales techniques. I did so many things that felt gross.It changed me. It affected me. I became more ‘slick’ in my personal interactions. My hippie friends distanced themselves. It hurt. And now? . . . I’m allergic to inauthentic marketing. I just can’t stand it. But I can smell it a mile away.

I could go on and on.

You want a niche? Look to your wounds. You might be surprised with what you find there.

Some of the core reasons why your wound can be the best source of your niche:

  • you’ll have a deep empathy for what your clients are going through (because you’ve been through it) and that means they’ll melt in your presence, they’ll feel safe, open up and want to work with you.
  • you know the terrain of the problem they’re experiencing intimately (because you had that very same problem) and that means you’ll know how to word your sales letters and that, when you speak about it people will really feel you.
  • you know the terrain of the journey that they’re about to go through (because you did the same journey) and that means you’ll be an excellent guide for others.
  • you’ll save time on market research (because your whole life was market research) which means you’ll be able to shave months or years off of the growth cycle of your business. You’ll intuitively know what others spend a fortune to find out.
  • you’ll see through their bullshit (because you were full of the same bullshit when you were in their shoes) and that means you’ll be able to help them make progress faster
  • your offers will be better (because you’ll know just what you would have loved to get and be offered when you were struggling) and that means you’ll make a lot more money with a lot less effort
  • you’ll have a better sense of the hubs and potential partners (because you know where else you went to for solutions when you were in pain) and that means you’ll make even more money with even less effort.
  • You might not just find that it’s a wound you have healed (or are healing) – but that it’s the wound in the world that you are here to help heal. You might find that instead of feeling like an isolated entrepreneur trying to make a buck – suddenly you’re a part of a larger movement for change in the world. Suddenly, all of the injustice you’ve endured has woven you into a larger movement for justice, all the pain you’ve experienced becomes the well of relief you are able to offer to others.

 

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| Categories: Niche Marketing - Tags: , , ,