Would you like to know how to use Twitter?
Do you know what Twitter is?
Do you know how to setup a Twitter account?
Do you know how to use Twitter to market your business or product?
Do you want to know what all the cool software, tricks, and tips for getting the most of Twitter?
Here is a free ebook for you called A Beginners Guide to Using and Marketing with Twitter!
- Ben
If you enjoyed this post get free updates via email or RSS here.Finding a niche can be a powerful method for succeeding in business. You have less competition and you are better able to capitalize on the leads, referrals, testimonials, and exclusive knowledge you get from working within a niche. I’ve written a book on finding your niche on the internet. The below is something I just learned that I am adding to version 2 of my book: Nichework Marketing.
There are a few methods to finding your niche. A few of the ones I cover in my book are:
I’ve recently become aware of another method for those of you that already have a business and have had a little success. That method is called LCD or Lowest Common Denominator. The idea is you look at your business and try to figure out what one thing most of your customers or most of your distributors have in common.
Are they male? Are they female? What ethnic group are they? Where do they live? What kinds of jobs do they have? How much money do they make? Where do they shop? What do they like to do?
So for example… My business appeals to realtors. My business does well in the winter when real estate typically slows down. My business also has a product that goes really well with the real estate industry. So for me a niche I might focus on might be realtors. By focusing on this niche I learn how the real estate business works. I learn what language they use when they talk to each other. I learn what software they use. I learn about how transactions work and how the broker takes a big chunk of the sale. I learn why realtors get involved in my business and now I’m better able to go talk to realtors.
So what is your lowest common denominator?
You might think it’s women… but what type of women? Middle aged? Baby Boomers? Gen X? Gen Y? What race? What kinds of jobs do they have? Are they busy? Are they moms? Are they grandmoms? Are they active? Do they participate in clubs or communities? Are they church goers?
You might be surprised at the results. When I was taught about this method of finding your niche it was in regards to a lady who had a window treatment business. It’s sort of like interior design but focused primarily on window treatments, blinds, curtains, etc. She thought her market was “anyone who needs curtains” but WHO needs curtains? Most people you talk to don’t need curtains. When she looked for her lowest common denominator she found that most of her customers were women… that makes sense right? But she also discovered most of them were nurses. She began to talk to them and find out why they wanted to purchase her service. She came up with the following:
Now she had her niche. She could target nurses and specifically could target nurses who worked the night shift. Imagine how successful her business became after that! Plus she got more and more referrals because the nurses talked to one another!
Are you beginning to see how a niche can help you?
There are some other tricks to finding your niche especially online. If you are wanting to market your business online check out my book on internet network marketing. I teach how to find your niche and build a web site to focus on that niche.
- Ben Fitts
If you enjoyed this post get free updates via email or RSS here.In my ebook Nichework Marketing I talk about finding your network marketing niche and why a niche is so important to people like Google.
Yesterday I was at a BNI (Business Networkers International) training and the director was talking about how we all need to know what our niche is. She was saying how important it is when you advertise. When you market your business your target isn’t “someone”, “anyone”, or “everyone”. That is too broad and you will have a very hard time marketing to such a broad audience.
The same thing goes in your network marketing business. Your target market is not anyone, someone, or everyone. Those are all too broad. Your target should be tightly focused. Sometimes when we’re just starting out we think that if we tightly focus on a specific group of people we limit ourselves too much. We’re afraid we won’t get enough prospects if we focus on a small group of people. However the opposite is true! If we focus on a small group of people we actually get a much better response rate so we get more prospects! Plus when you focus on a small niche you are able to build upon your success. You begin gathering testimonials and referrals. You learn the “language” of that niche. You may join one of their trade organizations. You may begin to advertise in their industry specific magazines. Are you beginning to get my picture?
It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about gathering customers or finding distributors for your business. Either one can benefit from you having a niche. Let’s say for example that you find that you sell health and wellness products and you are finding a lot of chiropractor’s that like your product and recommend them to their clients. Some of the chiropractor’s are joining your business so they can develop a second income stream. You begin to learn what issues are important to chiropractors. You begin to learn their language. You can talk to them instead of talking at them. More and more chiropractors join your business. Some of them have great testimonials about how your product has benefited their customers. Are you seeing the picture yet?
Finding your niche is how people make millions of dollars. Not everyone can be everything to everyone. By focusing on a smaller group of people you can be much more successful.
Tomorrow I’m going to talk a little bit more about finding your niche and how you can use the “Lowest Common Denominator” to find what your personal niche is. Also if you’re interested I wrote a book on how your Niche can help you succeed in marketing online, especially with Google. You can get my 44 page book on finding your niche here.
- Ben Fitts
If you enjoyed this post get free updates via email or RSS here.As I’ve been discussing recently one of the most important things you can do for your MLM enterprise in 2009 is to start with a business plan. (see the business plan category for related posts.)
I’m still working on my plan of action for 2009 but so far I’ve come up with about 30 ideas for ways to expand my business. I’m planning to break these down into 1 activity per week. I thought I’d share some of my ideas with you and each week I’ll blog about them. It will help hold me accountable and you might find this information useful.
Here are the first few action items from my 2009 business plan. (I may re-arrange the order of some of these…)
Week 1 finish business plan for 2009
Week 2 Take 1 Step that makes me uncomfortable
Week 3 Go to 1 personal development seminar
Week 4 Talk to 10 people I’d normally be afraid to approach
Week 5 Look up some old friends
Week 6 Make some new friends (join some new organizations? perhaps?)
Week 7 Send thank you cards
Week 8 Send unexpected cards to my customers/downline
Week 9 Help 1 networker from another company
Week 10 Work with the willing
Week 11 Build a new marketing web site
Week 12 Write some articles and submit them ezine directories…
Come back tomorrow and I’ll share some more ideas I have for my business plan for 2009.
If you enjoyed this post get free updates via email or RSS here.Are you comfortable in your business?
Being comfortable is dangerous. When you’re comfortable you’re probably not being aggressive enough and seeing enough growth in your business.
When you look at people in business and look at their why’s you can sometimes see a why that is strong enough to make someone get out of their comfort zone. Those are the kind of people I’m looking for.
Someone who just lost their job… that can be a powerful why. For me it was. I had just been laid off for the 3rd time and I took a $10,000 pay cut when I took a new job. That was very painful. It was so painful that when I started doing MLM I was willing to go out and do things I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I was willing to be uncomfortable. What do I mean?
Well when I was younger and had a business with my parents my dad wanted me to go out and do flyers. He wanted me to put out flyers at the mall or walmart or where ever. I was afraid too. I didn’t want to do it and I didn’t have enough incentive to so I just didn’t do it. Needless to say that was just a symptom of my overall attitude and that particular business failed, largely due to my fault.
With my MLM business I immediately went out and did flyers. You know I remembered my dad had told me that it was a good idea and now I wasn’t so uncomfortable any more. I was willing to get out of my comfort zone and go do something more aggressive.
Now days I know flyers aren’t the best way to market but I did figure out a pretty effective way of marketing flyers and even put together a free ebook on how I did it. You can download my free ebook on marketing effectively with flyers.
The point is if you’re willing to get out of your comfort zone, that’s when you’re going to grow. Your business is going to grow and you personally are going to grow. I was just speaking to one of my distributors that is not outgoing. Yet his personally situation has changed (and he got his first good sized check) and now he’s serious. He got laid off recently. So now he’s going to call some leads even though that’s not something he’d normally do. You know what? I’m going to be there for that guy cause that guy is SERIOUS. That’s exactly the kind of people I want on my team. Those willing to get outside of their comfort zone.
Do you have any stories about getting outside your comfort zone?
- Ben Fitts
