How To Target A Specific Niche
This is how you package web design when targeting a niche market.
When you buy a deck you don't just want the wood and nails. You want a fun, outside place to hang out with your family and friends. You want the experience, not just the materials.
The same is true, but even to a higher degree when it comes to modern web design. You'll be able to make your clients happier (and earn more money) by delivering an outcome rather than just a service.
Thinking of the outcome can be tricky, especially if you've been in the service mindset for a while. It's hard to shift gears. So here are a few practical examples of what clients really want and how to package your web design and online marketing skills to deliver results.
The Obvious Results
There are three big and obvious results almost all clients are looking for.
- More clients
- More money
- More time
Anything you can do to boost any of those three metrics will certainly pique the interest of your clients.
Too Broad To Be True
The problem most web designers face when trying to win clients with results is their claim is too broad – too generic – too cliche – and clients don't believe it. Anybody can SAY they can get you more clients or grow your business, but few people actually succeed at fulfilling the promise.
The truth is, statements like “Let's grow your business” really are too broad to be true even if you're awesome at marketing. You have to scope the statement down to make sure you're attracting the type of client you're confident you can help.
What if a holistic nutritionist calls you? Do you know how to help them get clients? Do you know how to market their business on Facebook without getting their ads denied?
What if a business contacts you that sells CBD products for athletes? Do you know how to connect to their audience? Can you find a payment gateway that will work for their business?
What if a non-profit reaches out to you because they want to raise money to clean plastic out of the oceans? Do you know how to help them reach their audience, raise money, build a community, accept donations, get Google grants for ads, etc?
People Search For Specifics
You might be able to do so some of these things, but nobody can specialize in everything. The point is, it is much more helpful and valuable to go deep rather than broad. I've never seen anyone go too narrow when defining their target market. Here's a guy who specializes in cleaning iMax movie theater screens and makes $4,000 for one night of work.
Think about yourself. If you wanted to remodel your kitchen would you search for a general contractor or a kithch remodeling company? If you wanted a tennis court in your back yard, would you Google “paving company” or “tennis court installation.”
This is why you get more leads by picking a niche. It feels unintuitive that you'd get more leads by narrowing your market, but it's 100% true.
It's The Thought That Counts
Telling people you'll help them “grow their business” is like giving someone a gift card for their birthday. In addition to being hard to believe (as discussed above) it's also not really what people want. It's just a stepping stone. People don't value stepping stones as highly as they value the actual outcome they want.
Why do people give gift cards? Because they don't know what the person actually wants. The better you know your friend the less likely you are to give them a gift card, right?
Would you give your significant-other cash for their birthday?
If you want the client to value what you're giving them, you need to get to know them so you can give them what they want.
Niche-Specific Outcomes
Suppose you're niche is lawn care. Just like everybody, lawn care businesses want clients but what type of clients and how do you get them?
Lawn care businesses care about their clients being close together geographically so they don't have to spend all day driving all over town. They get paid to drive mowers, not their trucks.
Ideally, they have clients that offer repeat business and ongoing work.
Their clients are very similar to the clients of other businesses like power washing, deck and fence building, outdoor kitchents and patios, etc.
We could go on. The point is we are going deep in a way that allows us to understand what we need to do to serve and support lawn care businesses.
We've already uncovered three things about lawn care businesses:
- Dense route
- Repeat business
- Target audience
What Can You Do?
Now that we know what lawn care people want and need, can you put together a combination of your skills that will deliver those results?
As a quick example, suppose you did the following three thing:
Flyers
Design and produce a flyer that can be hung on a door knob. The lawn care person can go door to door in the neighborhoods they want to serve and hang their door hanging flyers.
Website
Put a QR code on the flyer that links back to a landing page on their website designed specifically for the targeted neighborhood. The landing page collects email addresses in exchange for something cool – like a discount or a free overseeding at the end of the summer. This encourages both new leads and repeat business.
Referral Network
You could also look up other related businesses like power washers, patio builders, fencing companies, deck builders, etc. and create a referral system where people earn a commission for referring customers to your lawn care client. In other words, use your branding, design, and web development skills to uncover good partners and make it easy for them to refer customers.
This is obviously a quick example with just three components. But it illustrates the point of developing a system specifically designed to develop a dense route of repeat customers.
Give It A Name
Name your system something so people understand you've got a well defined solution in place. We could call the system something like:
Dense Route Build Out
For family owned lawn care businesses
You'll have much more success getting leads for your Dense Route Build Out system as opposed to just selling websites to anybody.
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