Discover Your Coaching Niche

Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

I decided my blog needed a make-over, so I’ve spent the last day or so updating a number of things.  The first aspect you may notice is the new theme, courtesy of that wonderful package Artisteer.  I’ve also updated the Twitter Widget, which seemed to have stopped working, and changed a lot of things behind the scenes.

Well, that’s a start, now I shall see about creating some more videos for you to see on the subject of coaching marketing!

More soon…

Here’s a test to see whether this post from my iPhone will work.

It’s been a long time, but I have finally upgraded my Wordpress implementation.

Now to work through the lengthy list of checking images, videos and audios!

Then we’ll move to giving it a bit of a facelift with a new theme!

As a curtain raiser to my presentation at the Eurocoach Conference in September, I’m running a Video Masterclass.

I’ll be covering your most burning questions about using one of the most dynamic technologies around today.

Why has video become so important?  Why is every internet marketer worth his salt using it?

You can find out on Tuesday 18th August at 7pm BST (2pm EST, 11am PST).

Just go here: http://www.AskAlunAboutVideo.com

Hope to see you there!

I’m conducting a quick survey to see what you most want to know about Twitter.  Both the poll and its current results are displayed below.

I wanted to let you know as soon as I heard.

I’m presenting at Dan Bradbury’s “Top Gun” SuperConference on 24th-26th April in London.

I’ll be talking on how to use social media to build your business.  And I’ll be focusing on how you can use Twitter more effectively.

It’s not just me, clearly.  There are a whole wealth of presenters that you can learn key internet marketing strategies from.

And for the first time there are two tracks – one for advanced internet marketers and one for beginners.

Dan’s allowed me to offer you some significant earlybird discounts.  These are worth checking out – and these prices are only available until Wednesday 23rd March.

So just click on this link to see what it’s all about.

http://www.dansuperconference.com

Note that I would suggest going for the Gold membership price – look, if you find you don’t like the Gold membership you can always cancel.

And remember, you get to bring a friend – so if you do, you’re effectively halving the amount you pay.

I’d love to meet you there.

Alun Richards

Sign in to your Ezine Articles account – http://www.ezinearticles.com and go to Create a Widget, which is under the Author Tools drop-down menu.

Select your choice of Widget Content from the tab of the same name, and click on Widget Theme, where you can change the colour, width, height and number of articles.

To fit my Kubrick theme, I needed a width of 195 and I selected the light blue theme.  You can also customise your theme’s colours by using the Custom Theme tab.

Then just click on the link to get your html code for your website.

If you’re using Wordpress, add a new Text widget in the Design/Widgets menu.  Paste in the html code, save, and your EzineArticles widget should appear!

If you, like me, use Wordpress, there’s a nice little widget that fits (just) into the standard Kubrick sidebar.  You can see an example on the right there.

It’s an official Twitter-produced piece of code, and works via Flash.

I had (in fact, still have) the Wordpress TwitterTools plugin, but after a while I found all the short Twitter messages cluttering up my blog was a pain.

But this widget is rather good, as it keeps all your Tweets in a sidebar widget.  So people can read them if they want, scroll down for more, or ignore them if they don’t.

You can get the code here: http://twitter.com/widgets .  Or just click on the link in my widget on the right there.

The same site allows you to create specific widgets for Facebook, MySpace, Blogger and Typepad, or even a normal webpage. 

If you’re using Wordpress, like me, you click on “Other“.  Then follow the menu, ensuring you actually click on “Flash Widget” and then click again on “Interactive Widget“.

Once you copy the code, you’ll need to use the Wordpress Widget editor on your Wordpress blog (easy to use) that’s under the “Design” menu, and paste the code into a “Text” widget that you need to add.  And I had to reduce the width parameters in the code to make it fit (196 pixels in my case).

But it works very well, I think.  Have a look at my recent Tweets over on the right.

You want to know if your chosen coaching niche is viable?

Here are a few of the key indicators:

a) Are they a homogenous group (same type of issues, concerns, problems, outlook etc)

b) Are they reachable – do you know where exactly to go both online and offline to reach them?

c) Is there enough activity in the niche – (money being spent, newsletters, magazines, press coverage, books, seminars, trade shows etc)

d) Are they hungry - do they have a VERY small number of key problems that they really want help with – and do you know what these are?

Remember, to coach them, you do not have to be the world expert in their problems, at least initially! But if you pick your niche wisely, you’ll soon see patterns emerging about their needs, wants, desires and problems.

And the more you interact with them, the clearer these will become. You’ll get to the point where you can predict what their issues will be before you meet them. That’s when you gain a lot of credibility.

Then when you’re able to resolve their problems – or show them how to, you are REALLY adding value.

The key thing initlally is can you get to them – get in front of them – in person and online easily?

If you can, great. If not, or if it will take a great deal of research work just to find them, I’d select a narrower subset of your market, at least to start with.

Alun supplies products and services to coaches to help them with their marketing.  To discover the coaching niche that’s right for you, go to http://www.nichecourse.co.uk for your free course on nicheing.

niche, coaching niche

In our last post, we looked at two common myths about nicheing that are widely held amongst coaches.  We continue the discussion in this post.

Myth 3.  If I’m niched, my income will go down, as I appeal to less people. 

Look at Dentist Coach Chris Barrow, if you believe this.  When he specialised in coaching Dentists, his income went up in significant hikes.  Chris enjoys a 7-figure coaching income and reports that he has 12 weeks holidays a year.

I’ve just got hold of the 2009 Annual Sherpa Coaching Survey.  Here’s a comparison with annual incomes of undifferentiated, un-niched life coaches and coaches with a niche, in this case Executive Coaches.

Life Coaches’ Income

In 2008-9, life coaches with less than 3 years, 3-5 years and more than five year’s experience, earned $ 28,200, $ 35,230 and $ 77,000 respectively.

Executive Coaches’ Income

In 2008-9, executive coaches with less than 3 years, 3-5 years and more than five year’s experience, earned $ 64,000, $ 88,300 and  $ 134,800 respectively.

Which income would you prefer?  So now would you like a niche?

So Why Should Coaches Niche?

It’s profitable, as we can see.  It makes your marketing effort easier, as you get known more quickly in a narrow market.  And the trouble is, if you don’t have a niche, you’re trying to appeal to everyone.  In trying to appeal to everyone, you’ll risk appealing to no-one. 

In the current economic climate, unless you’re appealing specifically to a narrow target market, supplying exactly what your prospects want, you’re less likely to get the business.

niche, coaching niche, discover your coaching niche