You can you be more successful with your marketing plan when you try selling your products and services to someone instead of everyone. Think of one person, one family, or one business — your ideal client – a potential satisfied customer.  Think about who your business serves best and who you would love to serve. This is your niche market.

It isn’t “discerning homeowners who need home repairs,” and it isn’t even “aging Baby Boomers who own their homes and are transitioning from ‘do-it-yourself’ to just ‘do-it for-me.”  It might be “65 year old woman decision makes, recently retired, who own their home valued above $200 thousand and plan to stay in it for at least five years ”

You will get the best results from your marketing plan if you narrow your ideal client right down to a description something like: “Susan, a  65 year old married  homeowner in Salem, Oregon, with two years of college, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends and loves her home but worries about keeping it up.”

Can you picture Susan, sitting at her computer researching reliable handyman or yard maintenance services?  With her husband Bill just a little reluctant to admit that he doesn’t really want to get on the roof to fix the shingle that blew off this past winter and her miniature poodle asking to go for a walk?

Now that you know who you are talking to, you can begin to focus on Susan.  You’ll be able to tell her a more meaningful story about what you do.  You will stay focused, think more clearly and work on a personal level to help her solve the problems she is worried about. This is effective niche marketing at its best.

It sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? But get laser specific about your imaginary ideal satisfied customer and you stand out from the crowd. It’s also what leads you to becoming the perfect solution to your ideal customer’s problems. When you make the effort to drill down to  one person, family or business with specific needs and wants, you are in the perfect position to create just what is needed. It lets you focus clearly on your brand promise, what you do best, who needs what you have and how you can deliver it most efficiently.

Once your brand promise and your niche marketing resonate with each other and with that ideal satisfied client you have in mind, you’ll be ready to sell to every Susan you’ll ever meet.