Ways to Connect with a Niche Market


binocularsThe other day, I wrote about having a niche market, in order to help clients to find you. (If you’re still struggling with finding a niche, have a look at the list here, and see what you’re attracted to. Pick five areas, and then rank them. You don’t have to commit for life to this subject, think of it for now!)

So you’ve decided on your niche, what now?

Let’s say you’ve decided to focus for now on Post Natal Depression. If this is something you know something about then you’ve already got an advantage. If not, start by doing some research:

  • Check your local library, book shops, amazon etc for books on the subject: Amazon returned over 1800 hits in response to my search, some of these are available in my local library
  • Google it, for articles, websites etc that cover the subject: For example, I found that the HSE have a brochure, and the Rotunda hospital has an article on their website
  • Check out where people with PND gather to support each other: nurturepnd.org and PND.ie  offer support services in this area. Facebook has several pages devoted to the subject and My.bounty.com has a forum on the subject, to name but a few examples.

Next, you can start to link your name and service to the subject:

  1. If you can write, prepare a short article on how counselling or therapy can support women with post natal depression. If you have personal experience of this, and feel comfortable to talk about it, speak from your own experience. You can put this on your website, offer it to local papers or magazines, and circulate it to local doctors.
  2. If you use advertising, traditional or online, you can advertise that you work with PND.
  3. You can gather together a list of the resources available for women with PND and include counselling as one of them. Prepare a small brochure, and leave it in a prominent place where you work. Your clients or colleagues may know of someone who is in need of support. Again, you can circulate this to local doctors or other health professionals, eg lactation consultants, midwives etc.
  4. You could put together a brief talk, say 20-30 minutes, about the symptoms and ways of managing PND. Make it available in your local community centre, or if you are technologically minded, video yourself and put it up on you tube.
  5. You can comment on social media and blog sites, giving your contact details or link to your website. Or you can post reviews of books on the subject on Amazon, again including your contact or website details.

These are just a few ways you can begin to use the idea of having a niche market to focus your practice. With a definite subject, you can be more focussed in how you present yourself, and this will help clients to find their way to you.

You won’t want to do anything unethical, so don’t hold yourself out as an expert in area in which you have no expertise.  On the other hand everyone has to start somewhere. You don’t need to know all there is to know about the subject, in fact, this isn’t really about that, it’s about being able to connect with a segment of the population, allowing them to get to know you a bit, by saying this is something that I am interested in. By extension, you’re saying you know what troubles them and are interested in supporting them.

If you’d like to explore how having a niche market could help you to grow your practice, and attract the clients that suit you, please contact me here to make an appointment or to avail of your free 20 minute consultation.