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Why niching, marketing, and messaging are all important
When you’re starting a coaching business, there’s so much to do and so much to focus on. You’re getting your website up, putting your service offering together, and not to mention, finding clients!
But how do you know what to do first?
There’s a reason that you’ll hear the terms niching, marketing, and messaging… because they are all important aspects of connecting with and attracting your ideal clients!
In this post, I’ll share the difference between the terms and what to focus on when, so you build a strong foundation for your business and more easily attract those you want to serve.
The difference between niching, marketing, and messaging
Niching helps you hone in on who you can best serve — and who can best be served by you.
Messaging helps you convey the value of your business and why someone should work with you.
Marketing helps you actually connect with the people that you can serve and gives them a path to working with you.
Niching down comes before messsaging
Once you become a business owner, you’re likely to hear the advice “Niche down.” And yet, a lot of coaches and healers are resistant to this advice.
I hear many coaches say they want to serve “everyone.” But “everyone” is not a niche you can (effectively) serve.
While it seems like casting a wide net would make it easier to find clients, that’s often not the case. It’s actually much easier to find clients and grow your business when you’ve niched down.
Even if you’re a life coach, there is a niche that you can serve. Get clear on your niche, create offerings that serve them, and grow from there.
Knowing your niche is a great place to start. And then you need to find the words and the ways to connect with your niche. This is messaging.
Messaging comes before marketing
If you’ve heard the term “messaging”, but you’re wondering what it refers to, here’s a quick definition:
Messaging in marketing represents how a brand communicates to its customers and highlights the value of its products. Messaging refers to not only the actual words and phrases used by a brand in advertising but also feelings and emotions associated with what they say.
(Yes, your words are important and so is the vibe behind what you say!)
It’s important to have effective messaging that communicates the value of your services to your those you can serve.
Effective messaging includes:
- A clear core message (aka value proposition) that communicates the value that your business provides to your ideal clients
- A solid content strategy that captures the attention of your ideal clients (Blog, social media, video, podcasts, etc.)
- Offer messaging that describes the promise of each offer you provide (in other words, sales copy that is specific to each of your packages)
Developing your key messaging can help you connect with your niche and make them aware that you exist. Because if they don’t know you exist, they won’t sign up to work with you!
Marketing comes after niching and messaging
After you know who you serve, and can communicate how you serve them, you’ll want to dive into activities that share your message with your niche.
This is marketing.
Marketing refers to activity that you engage in with the purpose and intent of finding and attracting clients.
So whether that’s posting on Instagram, running a free webinar, collaborating with another business owner, or speaking on a podcast… those are all marketing activities.
The point of marketing is to build awareness of your business, create an audience of your niche, and attract paying clients, therby increasing your income (and your impact!)
Plus, when you have a clearly defined niche and messaging that connects with that niche, your marketing is MUCH more effective!
How niching, messaging, and marketing all work together
So many times business owners jump into marketing without considering who they’re targeting or what they’re sharing.
Without these three things working in tandem, you’re missing a piece of the puzzle.
Your marketing may not resonate, your messaging may fall flat, and you might not reach the right people.
But when you follow a process to develop all three in a way that’s in alignment with you and your business, you’ll be much more effective in attracting your ideal clients.
Ready to niche, message, and market your coaching business?
All of this work is important. But doing all of this on your own isn’t easy!
That’s exactly why I developed my signature package, the Coaching Business Accelerator, to guide coaches like you through defining your niche, clarifying your message, and marketing your business in a way that’s aligned with you, so you can do more of what you love — COACH.
Working together, you’ll build the foundation for a sustainable, successful coaching business. If you’re interested in learning more, you can sign up for a free consultation with me.
