Step 2 to Marketing Success in 23 Minutes

Step 2:  Developing Your Niche Service

 

Let’s work on your niche service.  Your niche service is the uniquely characterized service you offer to your target market in which exists your ideal clients.  Think about developing your niche service and communicating that to clients who are looking for that service.

 

Matchmaker

 

The idea is to match your ideal clients (Step 1) with your niche service (Step 2), and it starts with what’s on the menu.

 

 

You’re the Chef

Restaurants are very good at developing and offering a niche service.

Think about all of the restaurants there are in your local area.  How many are there?  Do you eat at all of them?  Do you love them all?  No.  Does each restaurant serve every person in town?  No. 

Just like a fine restaurant that creates a menu unique to that establishment and attracts paying clientele who appreciate the service, your business must create a special menu that describes the services you offer in order to attract homebuyers that are ideal for your business.

 

You’re the chef.  What’s on the menu? 

 

Be careful that you don’t have too much stuff on the menu.  You want to be specific and very good at what you offer.  You want to be known as “the best place to go for a burger.”  Strike that.  Make it “the best place to go for an inspection.”

 

 

Think about Your Niche Service

Now, your target market is not your niche.  The two terms, target market and niche, are often used interchangeably by mistake.  There’s a significant difference between the two.  They are not referring to the same thing.  Your target market is the group of people you desire to serve.  Your niche is the uniquely characterized service you offer to your target market in which exists your ideal clients.

 

By developing a niche service, you gain a competitive advantage by offering services that your competition doesn’t.  Your niche is a distinctive, matchless and exceptional service.  Instead of going head-to-head with all of the home inspection businesses operating in your local market, it is a less risky strategy to have a niche, and it provides some very good opportunities in a small market.

 

 

Once you develop and define what your niche is, you’ll be able to more clearly explain what you do, and it will be easier for your prospective clients to understand what you offer.  By having a unique service, you are able to communicate a clear and easy-to-understand impression about your company and your service. The more developed your niche, the easier it is to establish your business as an authority, a perceived expert.  It’s also easier for clients and their agents to increase new referrals because they can remember exactly what you do.

 

Think about your niche.  What makes your services different from your competition?  What distinguishes yourself from your competition?  What makes you special and different from all the rest?  What sets you apart from the crowd? 

 

Maybe your niche includes:

·       Your special inspection vehicle;

·       Your high-tech tools;

·       Your big ladders;

·       Your on-site reporting;

·       Online scheduling;

·       Automated emails;

·       Your infrared camera;

·       Your training certificates;

·       Your inspection warranty;

·       Your additional services,

·       Your report uploading feature;

·       Your home maintenance book;

·       Your excitement and energy you have for the work;

·       Your friendly personality; etc.

 

Figure out what your unique characteristics of your company are, and communicate them to your prospective clients who are ideal for your business.  Tell your potential clients all the things that your competition can not say about themselves.  If your competition can say it, don’t you say it in your marketing!  What’s the point?  Communicate only those things that make you special, unique, different from all the rest.  That’s called gaining market advantage.  That’s your niche service. 

 

The worst-case scenario is to appear to be similar in style and service as everyone else – everyone having the same menu.  When that happens, when you look similar to your competition, without distinction, then the distinguishing characteristic becomes - price.  And “with all things being equal,” the inspector with the lowest price wins.  And that’s not good.  

 

My inspection company’s unique characteristics were:

·       Full-time office manager;

·       Our professional inspection vans and tall ladders;

·       On-site printing of the report, hundreds of digital pictures, and video of the actual inspection;

·       The report, summary, complimentary inspection warranty and home maintenance book - all packaged together in a 3-ring binder.

 

Those are some of the unique characteristics that my local competition could not say about themselves.  Those characteristics were unique to my inspection business.  They helped define who we were and what we offered.  And therefore, we appealed to those prospective homebuyers who:

·       Wanted their inspector to walk on the roof;

·       Wanted a ton of pictures, video of the inspection, and the report right away;

·       Wanted the complimentary 100-day inspection warranty; and, most importantly,

·       Were happy to pay the fees we charged.

 

 

Your Uniqueness

If you’re having difficulty thinking about what makes your business unique, what characteristics define who you are and what you do, then think about this.  You.  You are the number one thing that makes your inspection company completely different from your competition.  You.  There’s not another you, just like you, out there. 

 

 

Your Passion

When thinking about what makes your business different from the rest, think about your passion – the passion you have for the inspection business.  Do you enjoy doing inspections?  Are you excited everyday about your work?  If you are not passionate about what you’re doing, if your heart isn’t in it, you’re not going to devote the time and energy needed to be successful, and you’ll never be able to convince potential clients that you’re the best person to hire.

 

Once you develop and define what your niche is, you’ll be able to more clearly explain what you do, and it will be easier for your prospective clients to understand what you offer.  You will attract ideal clients just like a master fisherman standing in a shallow pool of trout.

 

 

That was Step 2 - developing your niche service.  So far we’ve learned:

·       Identifying your target market and focusing on your ideal clients (Step 1); and

·       Developing and defining your niche service – your menu (Step 2). 

 

Step 3 explores why your clients buy what you offer.  Let’s go.